Brett Newski and the Bad Inventions at Zhora Darling (May 9, 2025)

It’s always fun to get to a venue for the first time. And one of the joys of the Twin Cities’ music scene is that you can go to a lot of shows and still have a large number of places to still discover. This is particularly true of dual-purpose sites, typically restaurants or bars that also feature live music. A number of these smaller venues play host to a variety of local or regional shows and this evening was highlighting exactly that, with Milwaukee’s own Brett Newski & the Bad Inventions playing the top spot at Minneapolis’ Zhora Darling.

Part of a group of venues that independently showed up in 2023 as part of the bounce back from the Covid pandemic, Zhora Darling is a full restaurant that has a reasonably sized side room dedicated to musical acts. It’s actually an impressively efficient set up. Coming inside from the street, there are pool tables (unsurprisingly in use), the tables for the restaurant and a bar. Back past the bar, there is the room for live music, and past that, an additional space for karaoke, which was in use. The live music room is fairly square, but creates a fairly big stage, both deep and wide. They have also done some great sound proofing, as none of the karaoke spilled in, even prior to a band taking stage.

The first opener was local band The Makeouts. We got two solo songs, with loud electric guitar and a statement, “If we start out strong, maybe people will start coming in here”. The rest of the band joined after that and the quartet (guitar, bass, and drums), filled out that very rock & roll sound. The band was all clad in black of various types, but the music was straight rock. We got a little bit of Elvis moves from the lead singer, and a very lively guitar solo to end I Don’t Mend You.

Knocked Out Heart had a slightly alt-country feel. We were told that many of the songs were off their recent album, Beware the Flowers, and as increasingly is common, is not available on Spotify or other streaming services. An “old folk tune”, Outlaw Blues, a Bob Dylan cover that was re-imagined well, allowing the vocalist the opportunity to range across various vocal styles. Announcing “another ballad”, we got Crazy Lips, an upbeat number that leaned into the guitar sound. Finishing up the set with the title track of the album, The Makeouts played perhaps their strongest song to the end.

Between sets, I spoke with Ben who told me that he would be playing keys, having recently joined scheduled second opener The Cold Casuals. Strangely, he added that he was also going to play with the headliner, and had been learning chords for songs just in the last two days. I didn’t quite understand, but also didn’t have time to ask a lot of follow up questions. It turned out to be an omen of things to come.

Brett Newski (Brett Wisniewski) is a songwriter and musician out of Wisconsin. He’s performed under several band entities, including NEWSKI, and this planned current incarnation Brett Newski & the Bad Inventions. However, Newski came up to stage prior to the second opener and performing solo. It was a street busker’s arrangement, with vocals, guitar, and tambourine on his right foot. But, as technology has allowed, he also had an impressive array of musical effects and backup vocals from his board set up. He’s a charismatic performer, and the audience continued to edge forward in the early going. The second song, Boxer, was a great example of his power as a singer, with a reverb effect perfectly played.

Newski then explained to us that he had some challenges with regular band members not being able to make this weekend’s shows. I appreciated his honest take that you can’t press on people when life is difficult for them, but it also meant that his show this evening was going to be a strange one, as he had “band members” who had been drafted in the last two days. I’m super impressed that this show went on at all, and it’s a testament to Newski’s capabilities that it hadn’t simply been cancelled. We got a request for songs, and Culkin as a solo grunge version. The song is pretty brilliant, but Newski leveled up by switching to the “bluegrass version”, showing off an ability to switch things up even within a song.

Cliche Folk Song was a perfect song to fit into the set, as he was standing there with acoustic guitar. As he was playing through, he stopped to make a great joke with Jane (drummer from The Cold Comforts) about not yawning during the song. The laughter from the audience fed a positive vibe, that brought everyone in a little closer when Newski told the audience that he is going to have his first child in August. He sang the next song, Force the World to Contend with You, written for that child and the meaningfulness was palpable. A cover of Jewel’s Save Your Soul followed, a regular in his rotation.

We got another band member finally appear, to play drums on Garage. Again, it was well timed to add the percussion layer and continue to add interest. A cover of Beck’s Devil’s Haircut, “the first song I ever heard on CD” was excellent. The rest of the Cold Casuals (sans drummer) came up to support a few songs. That full band sound (six on stage at this point), with dual vocals, made for a completely different sound yet again. The ever-progressing nature of this show was unique and ridiculously fun. Wet Pavement, “a slightly faster” (this to the band, and especially the drummer) again leaned into that dual vocals. It also seemed that our bassist was doing as much to keep the band in tune as the drummer, so everyone was pitching in, as did a keys solo. Ending the set with Jesus Freak, Newski and the improvised band had threaded a needle, creating a wonderful concert from what could have easily been disaster. Speaking with Newski, he mentioned that he really thought about canceling, but was pleased with how everything had come together.

This switch up meant that alt rock band The Cold Casuals was up last. The Minneapolis quintet was exactly in line thematically, playing a solid rock & roll sound. Mind Your Own Way was a strong start, with that dual guitars and bass leading the way, with keyboard highlights and Jane Halldorson’s great drum underpinning. Wyatt Lawson’s baritone vocals cut through all that guitar work and make for a nice contrast. A couple of covers followed, with Kill the Lights first. Lawson was having a blast with this one, getting to nearly scream his lyrics. A change of pace with All Your’n showed that The Cold Casuals could also play in the Americana space.

An older song, Cherries, was a more bluesy number and showed off some range from the band. Stumble had a great bass lick entrance (and an introduction of the band) and continued that blues rock feel. An effect on guitar was turned up full on a cover of The Zuton’s Valerie, making for a much brighter sound. Back to their originals, we got Rattle My Bones and were nearly to the end of the set. A good instrumental set up of the final song Pinch Me let the band have fun, with great wailing drums bringing things to a conclusion. An unexpected set of circumstances had affected the evening, but things had still worked out and rock & roll had successfully continued.