Minnesota Yacht Club (Day 1) at Harriet Island, July 17, 2026

Schedule: Friday, July 17

Skipper Stage
1:30-2:15 Prize Horse
3:00-4:00 Marcy Playground
5:00-6:00 Dashboard Confessional
7:00-8:00 The Black Keys
9:00-10:30 The Lumineers

Crow’s Nest Stage
1:00-1:30 Pat Kennedy
2:15-3:00 Night Moves
4:00-5:00 Shakey Graves
6:00-7:00 The Fray
8:00-9:00 Mt Joy

The Lumineers Setlist

1. Same Old Song
2. Flowers in Your Hair
3. Angela
4. A.M. RADIO
5. A**h**e
6. Gale Song
7. Ho Hey
8. Dead Sea
9. BRIGHTSIDE
10. Sleep on the Floor
11. Gloria
12. WHERE WE ARE
13. Leader of the Landslide
    
    with snippet of the Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want”
14. Slow It Down
15. Ophelia
16. Cleopatra
17. Stubborn Love

Mt. Joy Setlist

1. Lemon Tree
2. Sheep
3. Jenny Jenkins
4. Let Loose
   
   with “I Know You Rider” by Grateful Dead snippet
5. I’m Your Wreck
6. Dirty Love
7. Highway Queen
8. Julia
   
   with “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots” by The Flaming Lips and “Crazy” by Gnarls Barkely snippets
9. Bathroom Light
10. Astrovan
11. Silver Lining

The Black Keys Setlist

1. I Got Mine
2. Gold on the Ceiling
3. Fever
4. Next Girl
5. Lo/Hi
6. Everlasting Light
7. Howlin’ for You
8. Where There’s Smoke, There’s Fire (Willie Griffin cover)
9. Wild Child
10. Tighten Up
11. Weight of Love
12. She’s Long Gone
13. Lonely Boy

The Fray Setlist

1. She Is
2. All at Once
3. Syndicate
4. Look After You
5. Over My Head (Cable Car)
6. Never Say Never
7. Heartbeat
8. How to Save a Life

Dashboard Confessional Setlist

1. The Best Deceptions
2. State of American Heartache
3. The Sharp Hint of New Tears
4. The Good Fight
5. Don’t Wait
6. Saints and Sailors
7. Turpentine Chaser
8. Stolen
9. Again I Go Unnoticed
10. No More Bad Days
11. Vindicated
12. Screaming Infidelities
13. Hands Down

Shakey Graves Setlist

1. Nobody’s Fool
2. Roll the Bones
3. On My Own
4. Pansy Waltz
5. When the Love is New
6. Don’t Change a Thing
7. Family and Genus
8. Ready or Not
9. Excuses
10. Evergreen
11. Tomorrow
12. Dearly Departed

Marcy Playground Setlist

1. Poppies
2. Pigeon Farm
3. Rock and Roll Heroes
4. Special
5. Devil Woman
6. Saint Joe on the School Bus
7. Rebel Sodville
8. Good Times
9. Punk Rock Superstar
10. Wave Motion Gun
11. Sherry Fraser
12. Bye Bye
13. Deadly Handsome Man
14. Sex and Candy
15. Star Baby

Night Moves Setlist

1. Trying to Steal a Smile
2. Denise, Dont Wanna See You Cry
3. Border on Border
4. Carl Sagan
5. Daytona
6. Fallacy Actually
7. Colored Emotions
8. Ring My Bell
9. Mexico
10. Only to Live in Your Memories

Pat Kennedy Setlist

1. Table 42
2. Call You Anytime
3. Babylon
4. Born to Run (Bruce Springsteen cover)
5. Long Live the Tide
6. Eve

It was an absolute scorcher in downtown Saint Paul, with temperatures in the mid to upper 90’s and hardly a cloud in the sky as the third annual Minnesota Yacht Club was about to get going on Harriet Island. That this was a huge step up from the previous day’s same awful temperatures but also with a “it’s wildly dangerous, what are you even doing outside?” air quality rating from northern wildfires barely felt like any kind of solace. But still, the show, or festival, must go on, and so it did.

1:00 PM – Pat Kennedy opened up the Yacht Fest. The Boston based artist has made a name for himself in Massachusetts with several residencies around town and recently was selected to be in the Berklee Popular Music Institute. The debut album Table 42 was released in 2025 and has an earthy vocals with a rich rock & roll, that includes horns on top of the traditional rock & roll instrumentation. Just before the start, it was clear Kennedy had some fans, including some who came from Boston. The band was a quintet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, saxophone, and drums) and started with an instrumental that finished with the rousing saxophone, and then Pat Kennedy let loose on those husky vocals for Table 42. Big drums finished it up, and we got a quick bit of welcome. They kept moving to use their time well and Call You Anytime leaned in on that classic rock sound (including a successful high drum stick flip). Kennedy was certainly keeping the crowd that had shown up early well entertained, and these songs were written for this size of a stage. The band looked comfortable and in a short sax interlude Kennedy and his bassist had those smiles of pure joy. A moment of gratitude, “it’s our first festival” led to a cover of his hero and that sax opener for Born to Run led to a commendable version of the song and had some good theatrics by the band. Closing on the up tempo Eve, Pat Kennedy had set the mood for the day (maybe the weekend!) and we’ll hope he comes back on tour some time soon. I got the chance to talk to Kennedy later in the day, and to say the band was riding high felt like a bit of an understatement. We’ll post that full interview at a later date.

1:30 PM – Prize Horse is a Minneapolis based trio (Jake Beitel on vocals & guitar, Olivia Johnson on bass, and Jon Brenner on drums) with a penchant for a grunge revival, shoegaze sound. Their debut album, 2024’s Under Sound, has all of that fuzz while also leaning towards the quieter, introspective emo side. From the jump, that sludgy grunge tone slowed things way down, and that pulsating guitar was intense. Head banging was the order of the set and the bassist certainly had that memo. Beitel’s vocals rode as another layer of the music rather than cutting against it. Great guitar and bass thrash had the band in hyperkinetic mode, crashing around the stage. It was full pedal board treatment as Prize Horse worked through various effects. Keeping to their vibe, there was relatively little chatter from the band and they kept pushing forward. As you would hope, Johnson’s bass and Brenner’s drums gave that sludgy foundation for these songs. Musically, this was akin to bands like Title Fight. Noting they have a new album coming out in the fall, Prize Horse several of the new ones. A closing interlude with a bit more scratch and grittiness was perfectly on brand, and it was a pretty excellent example of their work. (Side note: Those lighting effects throughout the set felt a little wasted in the very bright sunlight, but they were appropriate for the music.) Prize Horse wrapped up largely as they had begun and that consistency made for a solid set.

2:15 PM – Night Moves is another Minneapolis based band that has a lengthy history. First coming together in 2010, their self-described “country-soul-psych-rock catalogue” includes four albums, most recently 2025’s Double Life, where those descriptors, particularly the 70’s influenced soul psych rock, really come through. We last saw the band at a sold out show in December 2019 where they were headlining at Turf Club and where we called them “easily a top 5 Minnesota band at the moment”. Centered by vocalist and songwriter John Pelant, the quartet (vocals/guitar, bass, guitar, and drums) started with Prelant on keyboards and that guitar in wah-wah mode and those vocals were soaring with just a hint of reverb. The switch to guitar let the band open the throttle a bit more and had the crowd bouncing along. Triple harmonies were solid and continued to increase the complexity of the music and had Prelant nearly strutting on the interlude. They were moving across their best known songs and an early number got a sizable crowd reaction, which must have been gratifying for the band. (The pair in front of me were singing along in multiple songs.) Back to keys allowed the remaining guitar to shine and his supporting lead vocals made for a good contrast. Continuing to hit their strongest songs had the bass player rocking hard on a latter number. The band had done a great job of sequencing and when we finally hit the long psych rock section, it felt earned. As they closed, Night Moves had shown why they had the faithful following.

3:00 PM – Marcy Playground isn’t a Minneapolis band, but it’s all on a technicality, as two of the three members are from Minneapolis. They formed in New York, but are named after Marcy Open School in Minneapolis, where lead singer John Wozniak went. The band has four studio albums, none more famous than their 1997 self-titled debut, which went platinum. That lead single, Sex and Candy spent fifteen weeks at #1 on the Modern Rock Tracks, a pretty tremendous achievement. We saw them in October 2024 as the special guest for Everclear at First Avenue, noting that they had finally made it to the venerable venue after 30 years as a band. After simply saying, “it’s hot out here”, the trio (Wozniak on vocals & guitar, Dylan Keefe on bass, and Solomon Lavie on drums) came out with a bright alt rock sound and Wozniak sounded great on his vocals. This was pure fun and the falsetto in the middle of the second number was a good example of the playfulness. They weren’t trying to do too much but they also weren’t mailing in at all, and Rock and Roll Heroes was top shelf alt rock. A great bass intro from Keefe (clad in a First Avenue t-shirt) had the band doing what it did best: fast and occasionally hard hitting alt rock songs. A call out to their Minnesota connections ended with how “proud we are to be from this place”. The professionalism was superb and Marcy Playground was super compelling as a live act. Punk Rock Superstar was funny and effective, with Keefe providing back up vocals. Amusing Marcy trivia: the lyrics “it’s a pussycat’s life” is there because the song was intended for the Josie and the Pussycats movie, but wasn’t selected. “A failed sell out! And we can live with that…”. Getting close to the end came with the monster single and Sex and Candy had everyone singing at Wozniak’s urging. Marcy Playground nailed their set and I came away very impressed.

4:00 PM – Shakey Graves is the stage name for Alejandro Rose-Garcia, an Austin, Texas native. An actor (appearances in the TV series Friday Night Lights and a cameo in Sin City: A Dame to Kill For) and a musician, although his musical career has become the main gig. He plays a southern-tinged, blues folk rock that allows him a pretty broad swath of genres. We last saw him opening for The Head and the Heart at the Armory in October 2022. He’s released five albums over a decade and a half, including the very listenable Fondness, Etc. released here in 2026. Shakey Graves came to the stage solo with guitar and a foot pedal to control the drum (using both heels!). He had the vocals set on high for Nobody’s Fool, with a little rasp and a dynamic range that was pretty great. He hit that Americana and blues nexus really well and the crowd was pumped. The charisma here was also impressive, given all that he was already doing, but he found ways to point to the crowd, get them clapping and be emotive in his body to support the songs. The band came on stage for the third song (two guitars, bass, and drums), which let Shakey Graves off the suitcase drum set up. The swell of the added musicians helped fill out the sound in that large stage and sounded great. We also got a guitar switch mid song, in a rarely seen power move. A very bluesy number had a guitarist on harmonies and the band was cooking. Playing some songs off of the new album had a more electrified folk rock sound, with a slower tempo that was very sweet. A long number with a hypnotizing, repetitive instrumental section showed off the great music here. For the last two numbers Tomorrow and Dearly Departed, we were back to the solo act, recalling those busking days and it was a very nice way for Shakey Graves to close things out.

5:00 PM – Dashboard Confessional is from Boca Raton, FL and the indie band with an emo name next took the stage.  Dashboard Confessional has been around since their debut album The Swiss Army Romance was released in 2000.  We caught them in September, 2024 at the Uptown Theater supporting their eighth studio album, All the Truth That I Can Tell, writing that their lead singer, Chris Carrabba “… definitely has one of those voices that is identifiable and connecting, like when he sings it is a personal conversation between him and the listener.”

Carraba  started off The Best Deceptions by himself but was soon joined by the band  as Armon Jay on lead guitar, Kenny Bridges on guitar and keys, Scott Schoenbeck on bass and  Chris Kamrada on drums filtered on stage.  After The Good Fight, Carrabba thanked the crowd for coming out, “… even if you are on the hillside sweating bullets.” He then admitted he was overdressed for the occasion, saying he would look silly wearing shorts.  “If you play sad songs.  You have to wear black pants.”

6:00 PM – The Fray a Denver, CO, pop rock band next took the stage.  The band has the unique situation of having their debut album, How to Save a Live, reach the rarefied air of Diamond Status by currently selling over 11 million copies.  The album was released in 2005 and we got a chance to see their How to Save a Life: The 20th Anniversary Tour at the Fillmore in Minneapolis in August, 2025. 

One thing was assured.  The enthusiasm for the band had not waned at the Fillmore or at Harriet Island.  Lead singer Joe King was joined on stage by David Welsh on lead guitar and Ben Wysocki on drums.  Also joining the trio was Kai Welch on keys and Dane Poppin on bass.  Like Carrabba, King was also wearing black pants, but a torn white tank top, and he didn’t waste any time getting to the hits like She Is and All at Once. The heat of the day required everyone to move in slow motion, but King was all over the place, encouraging the fans to sing along to Look After You and Over My Head (Cable Car), which they did word-for-word, robustly.   And like he did at the Fillmore show, he jumped into the crowd for Hurricane, moving through the sweaty masses for the whole song.  

7:00 PM – The Black Keys, a duo from Akron, OH that has put their unique spin on blue rock, was next to take the stage.  They were formed when childhood friends Dan Auerbach and Patrick Carney worked together because Auerbach had a guitar and Carney had a four-track recorder.  And it has been a successful enterprise since their 2002 debut The Big Come Up.  Two of their albums have won a Grammy for Best Rock Album: El Camino and Dropout Boogie, and they are supporting a new album, their fourteenth, Peaches!

We last caught them at the Starlight Theatre in August, 2025, writing: “Their headlining set, clocking in just over ninety-minutes, was full of smart and simply effective drumming from Carney and riff memorable guitar work from Auerbach, with a setlist reminding everyone how many familiar songs they’ve amassed over these twenty years.”

A year later and the duo is still cooking their own brand of blues music.  Auerbach stepped on stage, wearing black pants and a non-torn black tank top that hugged his barrel chest.  Carney wore a striped collared shirt like he was ready to flip burgers at his kid’s pool party.  And like the previous bands, they didn’t waste any time getting into it with I Got Mine. Then Auerbach started off Gold on the Ceiling with a Mississippi Delta intro.  Lo/Hi had a nice ZZ Top west Texas propelling beat.  It was also nice to have the big screens to the sides of the stage to watch a closeup of Auerbach’s guitar work on Everlasting Light.  A personal favorite was Wild Child which was pure rock with a little funky soul.  These guys really know the blues landscape and they put on one heck of a show.  

8:00 PM – Mt. Joy, an Indie Americana band originally from Philadelphia, PA next took the stage. They were formed in 2016 when high school mates lead singer, Matt Quinn and lead guitar, Sam Cooper reunited in Los Angeles and decided to give it a go.  They rounded out their new musical project with Jackie Miclau on keys, Michael Byrnes on bass and Sotiris Eliopoulos on drums, and we last caught them at Fine Line opening up for The Lone Bellow in October, 2024.  

The Crow’s Nest view area held quite a few more people than the Fine Line. In fact, the venue was packed.  So I took inspiration from the band’s name and watched from the bleachers.  

Unlike the previous lead singers, Quinn dressed appropriately for the weather by looking like a friendly camp counselor with a blue shirt and green shorts.  “How’s everyone doing,” he started off.  He said that Minneapolis is one of the band’s favorite places to visit and he was glad that the smoke from the previous day cleared out . 

Then onto the music with the Lemon Tree and the sweet sounding Sheep.  Later in the set Quinn would give a personal shoutout to The Black Keys, and I thought that one of the advantages of going to these massive outdoor music festivals was being introduced to such varied musical acts in one setting.  The Black Keys are hard charging, but Mt. Joy is much more reflective with Let Loose spilling into a free love jam and Dirty Love having Quinn on mandolin and Miclau playing a beautiful piano intro.  They even played a song that was inspired by getting high in a restaurant, Julia, and an original that had snippets of The Flaming Lips’ Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots and Gnarls Barkley’s Crazy.

9:00 PM – The Lumineers is another duo who finished the evening with their infectious indie folk music.

Fun Fact: Wesley Schultz on lead vocals and guitar and Jeremiah Fraites on drums started out as a lousy cover band in NYC called Free Beer.  They couldn’t afford to live in the Big Apple so they moved west to Denver, CO to concentrate on their sound and to improve upon their name, The Lumineers.  

We are big fans, and have covered them over the years since they released their self-titled album in 2012.  Recently we saw them at the T-Mobile Center in July, 2025, writing:  “The band maintains a physically close connection with the audience and the next several songs were performed from the front edge of the stage section that jutted out into the audience.”

First of all, what a show at Harriet Island.  The Lumineers are now touring stadiums, but they still have the ability to create an intimate setting.  It was my first time seeing them as they moved from the proscenium to the thrust throughout the show.  They basically created two stages: one for the more intimate songs and the other for the big production numbers.  

Shultz stepped onto stage wearing a white suit with Billy Joel concert T.  With his long Willy Nelson braids and black baseball cap, he looked like Sonny Crockett’s west Texas cousin.  He said that he would keep his coat on in solidarity with  the fans for sticking it out throughout the heat.  Then the hits, and by the time Ho Hey came around, the guy next to me kept whacking the bill of my baseball cap as he waved his arms back and forth. So I moved to the other side of him only to have his buddy put his arm around my shoulder and sing in my ear.  It was that kind of concert and I rolled with it as Schultz toasted everyone with Asshole and took a deep, mid-song bow with Dead Sea.  For BRIGHTSIDE he moved through the crowd and took selfies.  And with Leader of the Landslide, he finally broke down and removed his coat and baseball cap.  During Slow It Down, there were flashes that didn’t come from the stage.  Then the screens displayed the ambiguous:  WEATHER IN THE AREA. The flashes were lightning, and I decided to listen to the remainder of the show while making the long trek back to my car.  I was pleasantly surprised I could still hear Stubborn Love as I reached the Wabasha Bridge and spilled out into the streets with many others during a humid night.