After a very busy weekend, there still wasn’t any rest for the wicked. Things never stand still, and the start of another week meant a brand new set of great concerts around the Twin Cities. Over at my favorite haunt of St. Paul’s Turf Club, it was a night of indie rock with Cass McCombs playing in support of his most recent album, 2025’s Interior Live Oak.

Danny Arakaki was first to the stage. He’s part of the band Garcia Peoples, singing and playing guitar. His debut solo album, Tumble in the Shade from 2023 was full of supporting band members, so it was interesting to see him take the stage solo with electric guitar. A little blues, a little folk, a lot of rock undertones, Arakaki was heavy on the strum, with the guitar often nearly playing the part of a bass. Playing songs both from Garcia Peoples and his solo record, he hit pedal effects for the first time for the long instrumental section of the third song, with a reverb heavy sound and created some looped layers that were great. A blues folk song had Arakaki with the broadest range in his vocals, before quickly transitioning to the next number, which had some complicated guitars between verses, and further having the one instrument play the part of bass and lead guitar. A switch of guitars (though another Fender), had a long instrumental intro and a bit more retro rock sound. If it isn’t clear, Arakaki was not much of a talker and kept things focused on the music. A final number and Danny Arakaki abruptly wrapped up a solid opening set and was quickly off the stage.

Cass McCombs (advertised with a “+band”) was next. McCombs was in a number of bands but has been flying solo for nearly twenty five years, with the first of his baker’s dozen albums A released back in 2003. The quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) started with the chiller vibes of Priestess, which gave our lefty bassist some fun moments right away. McCombs also hit a pretty wide range on his singing and the vibe was relaxing and inviting. Miss Mabee was a straight up banger of a rock song and a killer guitar solo to boot. McCombs had a presence that seemed a little aloof at first blush, but actually pulled the audience in quickly. Similar to our opener, McCombs was not big on talking, but quickly moved through tunings to keep on with the music. A Girl Named Dogie was the most laid back sound of the early going, but was belied by a tenseness in both lyrics and music and when the guitar solo was finally unleashed, it packed a real punch. A switch to acoustic guitar also got us band introductions and a snapped entrance from the drummer for Home at Last. I don’t think I am doing McCombs justice, and I highly recommend you check out Interior Live Oak (nearly the entire front half of the set was from this album).

A special request of Lola Montez Danced the Spider Dance (“we’ve never played this”) got cut short (“it’s ten minutes long!”) and moved straight to the guitar solo and was a hilarious moment connecting band and audience. Peace was another blistering rock number, with great back up vocals from the bassist. McCombs switched to keyboards, creating a different sound right at the mid point of the set. The progression across instruments was cleverly done and created some distinct phases of the evening. Back to guitar for Big Wheel, this was HIGH energy and had the crowd roaring along. (Side note: both lead guitarist and bassist sometimes used a pick and sometimes not. Where the pick ended up in between, in a curled up finger or hanging between lips became an interesting three card Monte to watch.) I’m Not Ashamed let McCombs hit with the opening lyric of “feral child” contra to the sweeter sounding music. Sleeping Volcanoes was the end of the main set and let McCombs have the first guitar solo at the end of the song. Back for the encore, County Line was the most Americana number of the evening and showed further range of Cass McCombs and the band and had McCombs most emphatic guitar solo. Finishing up on Sacred Heart, Cass McCombs had delivered the goods and headed back to merch for a very happy audience.