Minneapolis: This Week (03/30/2025)

Read more Minneapolis Music Guide.

24 Mar 2025 Monday

Hovvdy is headlining the Turf Club on March 24, 2025, in support of their new EP
Live At Julie’s (Arts & Crafts Records), a new alternate reimaginings of songs from their acclaimed self-titled double album, Hovvdy.

Video Age to open.

Tour dates:

25 Mar 2025 Tuesday
Bob James and Dave Koz
at Parkway Theater
theparkwaytheater.com

An evening with two legendary jazz musicians, Bob James and Dave Koz, are bringing their “Just Us” tour to the Parkway Theater, in Minneapolis, on March 25, 2025.

Koz writes:

Tour Dates:

25 Mar 2025 Tuesday

Canadian singer/songwriter Martha Wainwright is celebrating of her self-titled debut album (originally released in 2005). If the name Wainwright sounds familiar, that’s because she’s the daughter of musicians Kate McGarrigle and Loudon Wainwright III and the younger sister of singer–composer Rufus Wainwright. Martha’s half-sister is Lucy Wainwright Roche… so she’s from a whole family of musicians.

Anyway the “20th Anniversary of Martha Wainwright” show will take place March 25, 2025, at the Hook and Ladder.

Brad Barr to open.

Tour Dates:

26 Mar 2025 Wednesday

Decatur, GA-based band Lunar Vacation is returning to Minneapolis on March 26, 2025. The band’s sophomore album Everything Matters, Everything’s Fire is out now on Keeled Scales.

Lunar Vacation at Fine Line (04 Mar 2022)

We saw Lunar Vacation in Mar 2022 and wrote, “Opening the show was Atlanta’s Lunar Vacation… which surprisingly was very good. We didn’t know what to expect from them, only having heard their cover of Wham’s “Last Christmas” (which we wrote about…, er, last Christmas)….
During their set, they mentioned this was their last stop of the tour… and, in fact, they “lost a band member”. They quickly recruited Minneapolis’ progressive metal band Why Not member Isaac… who spent the day learning their songs.”

Update: Mia Joy to open.

Tour dates:

26 Mar 2025 Wednesday 

Scotland’s Red Hot Chilli Pipers will be headlining the Ames Center, in Burnsville, Minnesota.

Obviously, their name was inspired by the Red Hot Chilli Peppers, but the Pipers play all sorts of covers songs, such as Queen (“We Will Rock You” and Journey (“Don’t Stop Believing”).

Go see them and find out why the band not only won Scottish Live Act of the Year twice!

Tour dates:

27 Mar 2025 Thursday

After a multi-year hiatus, long-running Portland’s experimental punk band The Taxpayers are back with
Circle Breaker, out on March 21 on Ernest Jenning Record Co.

Rob Taxpayer comments on the album, “Just as we began working on this album, our guitar player Andrew had a family member gunned down and murdered at a park near his home. The next day, the city came and cut down the cherry tree in front of his house. A week or two later, Andrew texted me a picture: the gnarled stump of the cherry tree had sprouted new growth. A new tree being born from the old. Death, Taxes… and Life.”

The Taxpayers have announced a series of midwest shows in support of Circle Breaker this spring in Minneapolis, Chicago, and Detroit, along with summer shows on the east and west coast.

The Taxpayers Tour Dates:

29 Mar 2025 Saturday

Antifolker Jeffrey Lewis & The Voltage will be in town at the Pillar Forum, to promote his new album The EVEN MORE Freewheelin’ Jeffrey Lewis (Don Giovanni Records).

Jeffrey Lewis at The Record Exchange (30 Mar 2008)

We saw Jeffrey Lewis in Mar 2008 and wrote, “The perpetrator: Jeffrey Lewis and the Jitters, or rather, the Jitter. The only remaining member of the band on tour was Helen Schreiner on keyboards and backing vocals. Jeffrey Lewis is an anti-folk singer/songwriter and comic book artist (the comic he draws is called Fuff) from New York City, touring in support of his latest, completely literally titled release, 12 Crass Songs, which is seriously twelve Crass songs, rewritten and rearranged to both be relevant today, and sound good as acoustic songs. His typical live set is a combination of songs and “movies,” where he shows storybooks that he drew, along with a song, about such topics as the history of communism, the history of writing, the existential crisis of not looking like a hippie anymore, and creeping brains and monsters with severed red hands.”

Grasping Straws to open.

Tour Dates:

29 Mar 2025 Saturday
John Grant
at Dakota Jazz Club
dakotacooks.com

In his first US tour in seven years, John Grant will be heading to the Dakota Jazz Club, on March 29, 2025, in support of his new record The Art of the Lie out now via [PIAS] Recordings.

John Grant at Cedar Cultural Center (22 Oct 2015)

We saw Grant in Oct 2015 and wrote, “In my humble opinion, John Grant is up there with other lauded artists like Bob Dylan or Patti Smith; a brilliant lyrical master who funnels dry and witty observations about love, mortality and Dairy Queen through his rich baritone and coats it with dreamy and dark chamber-pop and white-hot disco. He played these drop-dead gorgeous piano compositions (“Queen of Denmark,” “Fireflies”) and then hopped to his feet to move playfully around for funky dance numbers like “Geraldine” and “You and Him.” Sometimes he got help from the audience as during the crazy-fun set closer “Voodoo Doll” when one fan could not sit still any longer (did I mention it was a seated show?) and climbed on stage to boogie with Grant. Why didn’t I think of that?”

Tour Dates:

29 Mar 2025 Saturday

Norwegian black metal stalwarts Mayhem are currently on tour, stopping by First Avenue, in Minneapolis, on March 29th, 2025. The band is celebrating their 41st anniversary as a band.

Other bands on the bill: Mortiis, Imperial Triumphant and New Skeletal Faces .

Tour Dates:

30 Mar 2025 Sunday

Texas’ Bri Bagwell and Minnesota-bred, Nashville-based musician Austin Plaine are co-headlining at the Icehouse on March 30, 2025.

Bagwell’s new single “Ain’t That Love”, a duet with Timber Wilde, came out on Valentine’s Day (Feb 14).

Austin Plaine at Varsity Theater (19 Mar 2016)

We saw Austin Plaine in March 2016 and said, “Austin Plaine got a massive fanbase in Minneapolis, thanks to the fact that he’s actually from here. The fans were loud and often chanting something like “AP” (or “Eddy”?), clearly indicating that they were only here to show support for Plaine. Plaine, at first was grateful, but eventually got a little annoyed by the chanting and said, “Shut up, I’m trying to talk here.” The fans immediately quieted down, letting the singer introduce the band: Spencer on drums and James on guitars.”

Tour Dates: