For some reason everything was coming up green when I started to look for a parking spot. First, there was a guy dressed in an inflatable pickle costume heading to an Anti-ICE rally on Summit and Snelling, kittycorner from Macalester College. When I found parking at Ashland and Albert under the shade of leafy trees, it was behind a van the color of green on The Mystery Machine, as if the work was still in process. And as I headed for my destination, a young woman dressed in green was in front of me, a stuffed frog attached to her backpack, bobbling up and down.

Grand Old Day kicked off its 53rd year with over 200K people walking up and down the thirty blocks of Grand Ave to shop, to eat and to listen to some great local music on multiple stages.

“It’s a perfect day,” said the MC on the Americana Stage. “Not too hot,” she added, only to step on her message. “Kinda hot.”

Kinda hot was an understatement. It was already in the mid eighties and heading to Nine-Oh. It was not a day to parade down the avenue in a heavy wool kilt or Renaissance costume. In fact, most were dressed appropriately and already day-drinking, an elderly guy, already sipping a Foggy Geezer as the first band stepped onto the stage.

Hurricane, Schwalbe & Otto

Almost sounding like a law firm, they are a collection of seasoned blues musicians with Hurricane Harold Tremblay on harmonica and Dan Schwalbe and Doug Otto on guitar. They are local and play in other bands. But for today, they have joined forces, kicking off their set with a Jimmy Witherspoon classic “Drinking Beer” and setting the mood: ” Let’s have a party and drink up a lot of beer. Well, wine is fine but give me lots of beer.”

Love Band

Their style of music is in their name, a local cover band that hits all the romantic songs like Alanis Morissette’s “Head Over Feet” and Britney Spears “…Baby One More Time.”

The early morning crowd, gathering in front of the Live and Local Stage by Mick’s Bottle Shop, was already dancing, a pair of small terriers in a Burley bike trailer providing back-up vocals.

Bettina V. & Lenz n Frenz

Bettina V and her violin, joined forces with J Lenz from Pert Near Sandstone and a few of his Frenz. The vibe on stage felt like a pick-up game at an outdoor basketball court as they played Radiohead’s “Creep” with cheat sheets of chord changes flapping in the wind at their feet.

Marvelous

A musical project headed by Leo Dreis and I was excited for Dreis has invited Hippo Campus’ DeCarlo Jackson and his trumpet, which is no surprise considering Jackson kept popping up as a sideman last year at different summer venues like the Twin Cities Jazz Festival, The Dakota Block Party, as well as a with his own band HEYARLO at Selby Avenue Jazz Fest.

“We’ve never played before,” said Dreis to the crowd. “Kind of an experiment.”

Well it worked as the crowd gave a heavy round of applause, the roaming sound tech yelling over them for the band to play one more song.

Brandyn Lee Tulloch & Poetic Roots

No summer block party should proceed without a little reggae and Brandyn Lee Tulloch and his collective of musicians maintained the right vibe on the Nothing But Canna Stage. Directly across the stage was a collection of inflatable furniture, one gentleman easing back into his temporary barcalounger, taking advice from Tulloch on how to ease his soul.

Obi Original & The Black Atlantics

As I sought relief from the blazing sun under the canopy of Mick’s Bottle Shop, I noticed a couple sharing a drink from a glass jar, which made me think they were drinking moonshine, which is not a drink you want to start off with if you are pacing yourself throughout a hot summer day. But what did I know except the West Coast African guitar playing sounded like a pleasant breeze coming from the Atlantic Ocean.

Obi Original is a driving force in the Afro-inspired music scene in Minneapolis and has a weekly residency this June at Ice House. He must have a loyal following for everyone started dancing the second he started playing. It was a joyful experience even if one of the musicians was running late and didn’t plug in his guitar until the second or third song.

Thomas Sticha

Heading to the Grand Stage required a little downshifting, as the sounds of Thomas Sticha were more suited for a late night bar than an outdoor musical festival. Even Sticha was tripped up by the predicament as he and his band dressed all in black, wearing jeans, playing sad country songs, even saying “evening” a few times during his set.

Still, he had the best song of the day, a song inspired by a touching event when he received a birthday card from a stranger. I was thinking it was from a fan inspired by his music, but I wasn’t even close when he sang, “Happy birthday from your State Farm Agent, Pete.”

Haley E Rydell

It was another round of Americana at the Americana Stage, but at least Haley E. Rydell and her band dressed appropriately, wearing cutoff jeans.

Rydell has been on the local music scene for twenty years as a contributing artist, but released her own album, Midwestern Daughter, in 2023. She has a daughter now and hasn’t written songs lately, which is understandable. Still it was nice to see her performing, the harmonies she and band wove were the best of the day, like a sip of aged bourbon on a lazy summer afternoon.

Clover and the Bee

After running around for four hours, it was nice to grab a refreshment and remain in place as Clover and the Bee stepped onto the Americana Stage.

They are a collection of musicians who have play with other bands. Their formation started as a pickup game where Becky, Anthony and Eric would meet at Eric’s St. Paul home just to play for fun. So why not start playing for others around the Twin Cities and head into the studio later this summer to work on their first album?

The Plastic Constellations

It was again another musical U-Turn when I arrived at the Grand Stage to hear a blast of 90’s unvarnished, hardcore rock in the vein of the Pixies. But it was a local band, The Plastic Constellations, a group of friends who formed their band in 1995 not in Minneapolis or St. Paul, but Hopkins!

The band went on hiatus after a final concert at First Ave in 2008, and they have not released any new music since then. It seemed like the show was a test to see if the guys who were teens when they started still had the vinegar and bravado to electrify a crowd. And did they! For a brief moment they set back the clock and entertained their fans who were once teens, fans who brought their own young families to see what rock and roll is all about.

The Gully Boys

I stayed in one place while the final band was getting ready, Waxahatchee and The Black Keys played through the main speakers.

It felt cooler with the sun dipping behind passing clouds, the wind bringing in what felt like distant rain.

The Current’s Jill Riley took the stage to give props to a band that the radio station has been championing for ten years. And what I heard was an encapsulation of all the earlier bands.

Can-do DYI spirit
No corporate backing
Supportive local fanbase
A radio station willing to play their music

Unlike most bands formed in the Twin Cities, The Gully Boys are extending their reach. They said this was their first concert in the Twin Cities this year for they have been touring all over the United States and Europe. They seem the perfect band to book for a music festival. In fact, we missed their opening set at the inaugural Minnesota Yacht club in July, 2024. Luckily, we caught them at Grand Old Day and they started off with so much gusto, drummer Nadirah McGill almost kicked her kick drum off the platform.

McGill, Kathy Callahan on lead vocals, Natalie Klemond on bass and Mariah Mercedes on lead guitar have the perfect origin story when it comes to Twin Cities bands. They were co-workers in a local thrift store that wanted to form a band. So in 2016 they did. They said their only goal was to get one of their songs on The Current. The problem was they didn’t know how to get there. They also didn’t really know how to play their instruments. All they knew for sure was that they wanted to play 90’s inspired grunge music LOUD! And ten years later they accomplished they DID IT and were the perfect band to end a great day on Grand Ave.