Road to Rocktober 2025, Part II

Continuing with our Road to Rocktober series, which will spotlight some upcoming October dates. We’re already seeing the crazy amount of shows in the last few weeks of September, and that momentum will carry over to October.

Read more Rocktober and Minneapolis Music Guide.

Oct 2, 2025 Thursday

South Philadelphia’s Low Cut Connie returns to First Avenue, this October 2, 2025. The piano-driven Adam Weiner puts on an amazing show – don’t miss this one. If the date doesn’t work out for you, their first-ever Connie Live is available now on Contender Records.

The band is known for their high-energy live shows, as seen in Oct 2015, when we said said, “South Philadelphia-based Low Cut Connie (aka Adam Weiner) closed out the night. Weiner told us on stage that he was a school teacher until the age of 31, when he started his band. He never thought that one day he would be playing his songs around the world. Most of Low Cut Connie’s fanbase was because they’ve seen the band play live, as we mentioned when we first saw him play at Rock the Garden in 16 Jun 2018: “Low Cut Connie blew us away.”

Maybe with this upcoming Rocktober date, it’ll be a different story, playing inside an air conditioned room of First Avenue. We’ll see!

Dutch indie darling Judy Blank to open. Blank’s album Big Mood is out August 22 on Rounder Records.

Also, local musician Monica LaPlante is on the bill. We last saw LaPlante in Jan 2025, and said, “Laplante mentioned there will be a new album coming out, but that they are currently in the trenches with it. You could see the excitement on her face as she talked about the creative process, discussing that the overarching theme of the album is still working its way to the top. There’s an energy that Laplante has as she talked about the band and the music, and it carries through in the on stage performance as well.”

Tour Dates

Oct 4, 2025 Saturday

first-avenue.com

American rock band Garbage (led by Scottish singer/actress Shirley Manson) will be headlining First Avenue on October 4, 2025, in support of their new album Let All That We Imagine Be the Light.

To be perfectly honest, we were looking forward to seeing the group at Minnesota Yacht Club Music Festival in July 2025, but was somewhat disappointed in the show. Possibly because Shirley Manson was dressed in a plastic dress and it was so hot, she admitted she was not in tip-top shape: “Manson shared how she suddenly was way too hot, being in the plastic outfit she had (“I don’t know what I was f’ing thinking”), but thankfully Garbage only had a little time left. The weather was also starting to cool down, so hopefully Manson was starting to feel a little less overheated. In any case, Garbage finished their set strong and left the stage to thankful fans.”

Maybe with this upcoming Rocktober date, it’ll be a different story, playing inside an air-conditioned room of First Avenue. We’ll see!

Starcrawler to open.
I don’t think we’ll ever forget how amazing this band is when we saw them in Oct 2019: “
Visually and performance-wise, this is probably our favorite show of Rocktober. Everything from de Wilde strangling herself with the mic cords, to Cash’s guitar playing on the Turf Club’s bar (see photo!), to that faithful cover of the Ramones’ “Pet Semetary” song was done amazingly well.”

The Los Angeles previously toured with Boris, and now with Garbage. I hate to say it, but I feel like Starcrawler’s performance may actually outshine Garbage, just based on seeing the two bands played before.

Tour Dates

elbow

elbow’s North American tour kicks off September 26, and will head over to First Avenue, in Minneapolis, on October 7, 2025. This is the first time the band has returned to the US shores since 2020. The band’s Audio Vertigo Echo elbow EP5 is out now.

Tour Dates