Sparks is a musical tandem of Russell and Ron Mael, two brothers born and raised on the coast of California, who found a musical home in London. Their musical journey started quite a while ago in 1971. Since then they have recorded 28 studio albums and over 500 songs. They are currently touring to promote their latest release Mad, but they had plenty of other songs to dip into during their almost two hour concert.
So why not go back to 2000? A musical time trip might be a balm to dealing with the horrors of the present. Grandaddy, the Modesto-born band who gained traction in the late ‘90s—is happy to oblige me. Touring in support of the 25th anniversary of their 2000 album, The Sophtware Slump, frontman and songwriter Jason Lytle, a skateboarder-turned-musician, offers a nostalgia-tinged complementary American precursor to the creepy, hi-fi fears on Radiohead’s 1997 album OK Computer.
Forty-year anniversary celebrations were on the menu this weekend. In Chicago the Pogues played Riot Fest to celebrate the 40 years since the release of their seminal album Rum Sodomy & the Lash. At The Bank on the University of Minnesota campus an all-star line-up, including Willie Nelson and Bob Dylan, headlined the 40th Farm Aid Music Festival. And on Nicollet Mall in the heart of downtown Minneapolis, a jazz club reached the rare milestone and decided to throw a party.
Pulp's charming frontman disclosed all of this to us over the course of a captivating two-hour show - one that betrayed no sign of his advancing age (62 years and, now, one day). The touring version of Pulp (ten strong, with many of them switching instruments and roles throughout the night) sounded phenomenal, whether picking tracks from 1995's Different Class or 2025's More. If you haven't heard it, More has every bit of the hilarious, absurd, satirical songwriting Pulp had perfect in the 90s (when they were mentioned in the same sentences as Oasis and Blur as Britpop Bands That Might Conquer the World). The evening was full of Pulp's most popular driving, high-energy danceable pop, albeit with their signature winking cultural critiques.
Are you a WordPress Block user and would like to use some of my methods for incorporating our format in your posts? You can obviously modify it for your usage.
Rocktober! Here are some shows in Minneapolis/St Paul on October 15, 2025: • Madilyn Mei at Amsterdam Bar (Oct 15, 2025) • Craig Finn at Fine Line (Oct 15, 2025) • Joey Valence at First Avenue (Oct 15, 2025)