Thomas Sticha at White Squirrel Bar (July 7, 2026)
Thomas Sticha’s monthly residency was packed at the White Squirrel Bar in Saint Paul for his folk country sound. With special guest Sophie Hiroko’s grunge revival, it was quite the evening.
07/09 318 Cafe – Excelsior, MN
07/18 Milk and Honey Ciders – St. Joseph, MN
07/24 Aster Cafe – Minneapolis, MN
The monthly residencies at the White Squirrel Bar are pretty tremendous, and while I’ve previously mentioned how I think it gives the artists a chance to try a bunch of different things, I hadn’t really thought about the audience perspective. If you like a musician, this really becomes a chance to see them go slightly out of their comfort zone, maybe a chance to hear a brand new song, all while getting the core of the music you like. And so, while the 6-8 pm show can be busy, given the time of day, it isn’t usually crowded. But on this first Tuesday of the month, the residency with country & folk artist Thomas Sticha was packed, and even as I found a spot to camp out at, the people kept coming in. It was quite the impressive showing given how recent Sticha has come into the scene and the relatively little music available so far. We caught his set at Grand Old Day last month and I was excited to get a longer listen to his music.
Sticha came to the mic and mentioned he always has a guest each month and quickly handed things off to Sophie Hiroko, who took over playing her brand of grungy rock. We’ve seen Hiroko several times here in 2026, most recently with Durry as part of the MNUFC Kickoff Concert at First Avenue in February. On stage solo on guitar, with occasional amplified music and vocals controlled by a harmony pedal, Hiroko perfectly filled the space, and that second song Annastasia had a great rocking vibe. The number sucker punch was musically and vocally caustic in the best way, and I was enjoying the strong contrast this had to the upcoming headliner. As with previous concerts, these songs were brief, hard hits and divorce kept that vibe going strong. We got a stronger set of backing music for ashes, which felt necessary for that one to truly fly. After a tuning (“this is the section where I drop to D!”), things got even crunchier and that reverb heavy guitar was laid thick. Hiroko got to open up a bit more vocally on paper doll, then hit a pure grunge 90’s guitar opening on rot, taking things up a notch in volume and urgency and that late guitar thrash solo was spot on. As Sophie Hiroko finished up, it had been a truly rousing set.
Thomas Sticha and the band (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums/vocals) got moving quickly and started with a darkly Americana number in Lonesome Rose. Sticha had an inviting drawl in his lower tenor singing and the guitar from Dan Lowinger was haunting. (Side note: We like to joke about musicians who are popping up everywhere, and guitarist Dan Lowinger has suddenly shot up those charts, having been at Cole Diamond just last week, and with The Midnight Movers in late May.) And on cue, Lowinger had a solid solo on the fan requested Wishin Well, with some solid backing vocals from the drummer. Sticha also displayed a great sense of humor, poking fun at himself and making things feel like we were chilling in a friend’s (very large) living room. Upper Lower Class was a live debut of a very recenrly written number and was a kind ode to a certain type of modern American. We got a bit of bluegrass with the cheating song, Don’t Cheat in Our Hometown. Sticha discussed he’s been writing a lot of songs lately and compared it to fishing, and it led to a segment called “short songs for a reason”. The first one, in honor of the city Blaine, had the lyric “if you told me this was hell, I’d say ok”, and was such a shot and goal the crowd had equal parts cheer and groan. Sticha’s humor was off the charts in The Thing I Need, which also had some rich musical bits on the chorus, with all the backing members getting to go off. Pete was the brilliant song that Dave referenced in the Grand Old Day show, and it was as brutal as you could expect. We had a bluesy Americana cover of a Colter Wall song in Honky Tonk Nighthawk. Sticha and the band were headed towards the end, and the added Open Road was a cute number. Mississippi Down was back to that dark Americana sound and was a highlight of the set. Ending on Bozeman, Thomas Sticha and band mates had proven why this monthly residency is so popular and he’ll continue to be on our radar in the future.
