The Beatnik Brothers at Veteran’s Memorial Amphitheater, Minneapolis (July 2, 2025)

It’s funny how a musical term can keep evolving. Take the “Golden Oldies.” Back when I was rolling around in the back of an Oldsmobile Cutlass, the oldies station played musical artists like Little Richard, Buddy Holly or any musical artist on the Stand By Me soundtrack. Then the decades rolled on to where songs from the 80’s may now be considered fair game. After all, can any Gen Z get this 80’s musical reference from a classic comedy show.

The music of the 80’s was not on tap when The Beatnik Brothers took the stage at Veterans’ Memorial Amphitheater, but for two hours the outdoor venue was filled with hit songs starting with “Little Sister” from Elvis Pressley. Pretty quickly the front of the stage filled with dancers, young and old, but mostly older due to the songs as well as a retirement community abutting the park.

After a couple more songs from the King and Roy Orbison’s “You Got It” lead singer, Michael Goldberg, took the opportunity to entertain the crowd with really bad dad jokes. Most do not bear repeating, but this one was pretty funny:

After Orbison’s crowd-pleaser “Pretty Woman”, the band was onto the 60’s, which included a lot of Beatles’ songs ranging from “Hard Day’s Night” to “Get Back.”

“You can never play too many Beatles’ songs,” said Goldberg. He then mentioned that he once formed a Beatles’ cover band, but only played the songs after they broke up, which led to the 70’s and Wings.

With technical difficulties behind them and a decade that most of the band grew up in, it felt like The Beatnik Brothers hit their stride with “Silly Love Song” and “Band on the Run.” Then it was “50 Ways to Leave Your Lover” and “Me and Julio Down by the Schoolyard” by Paul Simon with a dip into the 80’s with “You Can Call Me Al” which had a nice bass solo from Jason Bush.

Being an outdoor venue with bedtime for the young and medication for those a little older, people started to filter out of the venue, but yet the dancing continued as Rick Marquart on drums took the lead to sing “Peaceful Easy Feeling” by the Eagles. Then a sing-a-long to Jim Croce’s “Bad Bad Leroy Brown” followed by America’s “Horse With No Name” with a soulful guitar solo from Richard Larson as a few ladies moved along with an interpretive dance.

The sun may have been setting, but The Beatnik Brothers kept getting requests, which led to classics like Gerry Raferty’s “Right Down the Line” and Little River Band’s “Lady” before ending with Merle Haggard’s “Mama Tried.”

“Still one more,” Goldberg asked the dancers. So they played Tom Petty’s “Mary Jane’s Last Dance” (Oh hell yes), which is actually from the 90’s, which I guess isn’t too far from becoming a Golden Oldie.