Minnesota Yacht Club (Day 3) at Harriet Island, July 19, 2026

Sunday, July 19

Skipper Stage
1:30-2:15 Heart to Gold
3:00-4:00 Die Spitz
5:00-6:00 Semisonic
7:00-8:00 Cage the Elephant
9:00-10:30 The Strokes

Crow’s Nest Stage
1:00-1:30 Common People
2:15-3:00 Couch
4:00-5:00 Dope Lemon
6:00-7:00 Passion Pit
8:00-9:00 Atmosphere

The Strokes Setlist

1. Evening Sun
2. The Adults Are Talking
3. Reptilia
4. Ize of the World
5. Someday
6. Juicebox
7. Automatic Stop
8. Last Nite
9. Take It or Leave It
10. What Ever Happened?
11. Bad Decisions
12. Ode to the Mets
13. Hard to Explain
14. Going Shopping
15. You Only Live Once

Atmosphere Setlist

1. Locusts
2. The Loser Wins
3. Kanye West / Get Fly
4. GodLovesUgly
5. F**k You Lucy / Pour Me Another
6. Puppets
7. Really
8. Sean
9. Sunshine
10. Yesterday
11. The Best Day
12. God’s Bathroom Floor
13. Scapegoat
14. Hell
15. Okay
16. Trying to Find a Balance

Cage the Elephant Setlist

1. Broken Boy
2. Cry Baby
3. Spiderhead
4. Cold Cold Cold
5. Ready to Let Go
6. Beaches In Tennessee
7. Social Cues
8. Mess Around
9. Trouble
10. Ain’t No Rest for the Wicked
11. Telescope
12. House of Glass
13. Shake Me Down
14. Cigarette Daydreams
15. Come a Little Closer

Passion Pit Setlist

1. The Reeling
2. Make Light
3. Where the Sky Hangs
4. Moth’s Wings
5. Everything’s Stephanie
6. Take a Walk
7. (Unknown)
8. I’ll Be Alright
9. Carried Away
10. Little Secrets
11. Sleepyhead

Semisonic Setlist

1. F.N.T.
2. Singing in My Sleep
3. Chemistry
4. Secret Smile
5. Never You Mind
6. If You Say So
7. This Will Be My Year
8. You’re Not Alone
9. The Rope
10. Don’t Give Up Yet
11. Across the Great Divide
12. Closing Time

Die Spitz Setlist

1. Monkey Song
2. I hate when GIRLS die
3. American Porn
4. Down On It
5. Pop Punk Anthem (Sorry for the Delay)
6. Grip
7. My Hot Piss
8. Voir Dire
9. Groping Dogs Gushing Blood
10. RIDING WITH MY GIRLS
11. Hair of Dog
12. Throw Yourself to the Sword

The third and last day of the Minnesota Yacht Club at Harriet Island had arrived  at last, and although air quality was moving the wrong direction, it looked to hold off just enough for the festival to wrap things up.

1:00 PM – Common People got the final day gong. It’s our first time catching the band from Southern, CA, comprised of Nicky Winegardner on vocals and guitar, Sam Belzer and Asher Thomson on guitar, Konrad Ulich on bass and Cormac Cadden on drums.  They are new to the scene, but caught the attention of Cage The Elephant’s Brad Shultz who helped produce their debut EP Games as well as bringing them on tour as an opening act in 2025.  

Currently they are touring with Young The Giant as well as doing the outdoor musical festival circuit like Bonnaroo.  Kicking off the last day of the Minnesota Yacht Club, Winegardner shouted into the mic “Come on!”  And off Common People went with Thank You, Rain and a brand new song Blue Eyes.  Winegardner said it was their first time playing in Minnesota before finishing up their quick half-hour set with Coldplay’s God Put a Smile on Your Face. 

1:30 PM – Heart to Gold is from Minneapolis and they are described as a lethal melodic punk trio, comprised of Grant Whiteoak on vocals and guitar, Jim Kiser on bass and Blake  Kuether on drums.  We have seen them in June, 2024 in the Green Room and in December, 2022 at 7th Street Entry, and what they have is a lot of energy that transfers very quickly to their fans.

When they opened up the gates for the day, many concertgoers took a mad sprint across Harriet Island.  Some were heading for the only shade in front of the Crow’s Nest Stage, a solitary cottonwood tree.  Others were heading for the Skipper’s Stage to get a premium spot for Heart to Gold.  

“Hello Hello St. Paul,” shouted Kiser as the trio took the stage.  Then with a guttural call to prayer or maybe to arms, he let out a cry to start the show with the rousing TNT that started a mini-mosh, but it seemed to be too hot for such extra curricular activity.  Between songs Kiser amped the crowd with shouts and chants like a proper English football fan.  He even let the crowd know that it was Kuether’s birthday, which seemed like a great way to spend the day: playing in front of your hometown at one of the biggest musical festivals in the state.  Kiser also sent a personal thanks to Julian of The Strokes, who was the one most responsible for getting them on the stage.  Then on to Tiger Jaw, a song that definitely got the mosh pit churning, and Heart of Gold had rewarded those fans who had come to the main stage.

2:15 PM – Couch may have the most laid back and fun origin of band names for the weekend.  The Boston-based pop-funk band got the name Couch because they met frequently to write songs in Zach Blankstein’s basement while he was recovering from a concussion. 

Along with Blankstein on guitar, the band is comprised of Tema Siegel on lead vocals, Danny Silverston on keys, Jeffrey Pinsker-Smith on trumpet, Eric Tarlin on sax, Will Griffin on bass and Jared Gozinsky on drums.  We last caught them at First Ave in November 2025, supporting their debut LP Big Talk, writing, “As part of their first headliner tour, guitarist Zach Blankstein informed the crowd the band had instant cameras to pass around, with the added touch that if you bought a print, the proceeds went to Rosie’s Place, a women’s shelter in Boston.”

For the most part, the concerts over the weekend had gone off without a hitch.  But when I made it back over to the Crow’s Nest, certain members of Couch were standing in front of a receiver like it was a dead Buick.  Most of the instruments had to be switched from wireless to cable, which caused a ten-minute delay, but the band jumped into their set as if nothing had ever happened.  

I would say besides Michael McDonald and his Yacht Rock gravelly voice, you could find no better musicians to play under a heated, smokey sun than the members of Couch.  Immediately, they put the crowd into a swinging good mood.  And special shout out to the horn section for well-timed punctuation throughout the set, and also Siegel who had the best voice of the weekend with songs like Jessie and Slow Burn.  My favorite moment was when she took a moment to tighten one of Gozinsky’s sagging cymbals in the middle of On the Wire. Keep an eye out for this fast rising band.

3:00 PM – Die Spitz is an all-female grunge, punk rock group from Austin, TX with Ava Schrobilgen and Eleanor Livingston on guitar, Kate Halter on bass and Chloe de St. Aubin on drums.  This is our first time seeing the band, but like Futurebirds, who we caught at the Fine Line last month, Die Spitz has the fairly unique situation of having three lead vocals.

Die Spitz is pretty new to the scene, but they already have two EPs and have toured with Amyl and the Sniffers and Sleater-Kinney.  Based on some of the reviews I’ve read, Die Spitz might exceed Heart to Gold’s energy, with Spin Magazine calling them, “… one of the most righteous new live bands on the planet.”   

Prompt and ready, the members of Die Spitz were ready to go. But at 3:00 PM they sauntered off stage. Luckily, at 3:01 they came back on with only a minute delay.  Halter even did an impressive handstand before picking up her bass. But it was apparent through the first few songs that the band was having technically difficulties.  Schrobilgen and Livingston forged ahead even though Schrobilgen’s mic wasn’t turned on and Livingston’s ear piece was malfunctioning.  For fun, Livingston went into the pit with the photographers and caused a frenzy as they scattered around her to get an Instagramable shot.  But the frenzy wasn’t only in the camera pit as a giant wave of bodies began to form a mosh pit as the band charged through songs like American Porn, Grip and My Hot Piss.  Then a sea of body surfers rose from the crowd and were pushed to the front of the stage like sacrificial offerings.  This band from Austin had won over the St. Paul crowd and Die Spitz had put on a great live show.

4:00 PM – Dope Lemon was up and I have to say that this is my favorite name of the weekend.  What does Dope Lemon even mean?  I know it is a musical side project of Angus Stone from Sydney, Australia.  He plays Americana with his sister under Angus & Julia Stone, but Dope Lemon is described as laidback coastal chill.  It’s definitely a smooth musical landscape that may require expensive champagne, but Stone seems to undercut this ultra-chic style by wearing granny sunglasses and referencing Wes Anderson movies in his music videos like “Kimosabé”.

As I waited for Dope Lemon to take the stage, I noticed that even in the middle of the day, there was a hot spotlight on stage pointed directly at a tiny totem pole on a guitar amp.  I wondered the purpose.  Then I remembered this is a band that has put giant costume heads of cartoon characters on real people in its music videos.  Thankfully, without any delay or technical difficulties, the band, dressed in black and wearing cowboy hats, moseyed on stage.  Then Stone soon followed dressed sharply in a pinstripe black suit, but I was disappointed there was no granny chain hanging from his designer sunglasses.  

Befitting to the dress code, the band’s first couple of songs were in the vein of the High Desert Plains of the American Southwest.  Then Stone said the next song was about a beautiful person, John Belushi, as the costume heads of female volunteers came on stage to dance along to the music.  Stone then sang an old song Marinade before bringing a new set of volunteers with the same costume heads back on stage for Hey You. At this point the lady standing next to me was confused.  She was easily in her sixties, wearing a Mt. Joy concert T and sporting a walking cane.  She turned to those behind her because she couldn’t understand why a bunch of young women were dancing with costume cartoon heads.  I guess coastal chill can still be fun.  

5:00 PM – Semisonic came together in Minneapolis in the early 1990’s and their pop rock / power pop is instantly recognizable from their #1 hit single Closing Time. The band came together after Dan Wilson (vocals/guitar/keys) and John Munson (bass/vocals) had their previous band Trip Shakespeare dissolve in 1992. Along with drummer Jacob Slichter, they made a near decade run before mostly taking fifteen years off doing other projects. Re-formed in 2017, they released their fourth album Little Bit of Sun in 2023. We last saw them opening for Barenaked Ladies at the Starlight Theatre in Kansas City in June 2023. Out as a quintet (the trio, plus Andy Thompson on guitar/keys and musical glue guy Ken Chastain on percussion/vocals and more) and those catchy rock hooks were nearly instantaneous. The home town crowd was primed and the reception was boisterous. Triple harmonies were fun and led to some good bass work from Munson. Chemistry had all five in the band singing (in the end, I appreciated the additional two musicians) and again, these were catchy pop rock numbers. Never You Mind had a great keyboard intro and Wilson was back in his upper range and falsetto and Chastain’s tambourine added to the cacophony of that one’s big end. A “it’s good to be home” and Munson took lead for If You Say So. A guest singer (Siri Undlin from Humbird) was on stage for the next several songs, and though it took a minute to adjust her mic volume, it was another nice add. A switch of guitar gave us the first break in a hot minute and Wilson told the story of Don’t Give Up Yet, a song initially for Munson’s health, but finished it during the ICE surge in Minneapolis. Coming to the end, everyone knew what was coming, and sure enough, Closing Time was underway and the crowd was pumped and singing full throated. Semisonic had brought everything that new comers and long-time fans could have hoped for.

6:00 PM – Passion Pit is an indie electropop band from Cambridge, MA that in many ways is the stage moniker for keyboardist, vocalist and creator Michael Angelakos. Started in 2007, Passion Pit has four studio albums, with 2017’s Tremendous Sea of Love the most recent. We have seen multiple times, most recently at The Truman in June 2026 in Kansas City, and John details a pretty arduous but rewarding evening for Angelakos on that evening. That synth style keyboard and higher vocals carried across the entire venue and that dance music feel of The Reeling led into a long instrumental section with riffed keys runs and thumping drums. A quick thanks and they were moving into the second number Make Light, which had a tremendously spacey sounding theme that slowly built to a pretty fast pace with guitar and drums particularly supporting Angelakos’ extremely high singing. We were also over fifteen minutes in and just hitting song number three, in a departure of form for most of the bands this weekend. We had a nearly radio friendly number that was very catchy and induced a bit of dancing (or least bopping along in place). Those long keyboard build ups should have been annoying, but really felt like the transition and mood setter and Passion Pit would rise and fall, always with the vocals falling in over the top. Again, the Minnesota Yacht Club had done a really nice job of mixing genres and types of bands (though, as Dave noted yesterday, a bit more gender diversity would have been nice). There was a section of music that you could simultaneously dance hard to or go into a bit of a zen mode and let it carry you along. That broke hard towards the first with perhaps the loudest number of the set. In fact, the latter third was rollicking and Passion Pit had sequenced things to end on a high note.

7:00 PM – Cage the Elephant is a band originally from Bowling Green, Kentucky whose genre is…diverse. They get labeled as everything from psych rock to post punk to garage rock. Best to say they are an alternative rock band and have you dig into their music yourself. With Shultz brothers Matt (vocals) and Brad (guitar), along with Nick Bockrath (lead guitar), Matthan Minster (keyboards/guitar), Daniel Tichenor (bass), and Jared Champion (drums), the sextet has regularly released music since their platinum self titled debut in 2008 to the more recent Grammy nominated Neon Pill in 2024. We saw them twice in rapid succession in support of that album, both in Minneapolis in August and in KC in September 2024. They came out blazing, quite literally with pyrotechnics, and the high flying rock was on. Frontman Shultz was everywhere at all times and the swagger was thankfully offset with a bit of goofiness. This was coming right at you and pounding keys in combo with the sung/shouted vocals on Spiderhead was top shelf. And lest you think only M. Shultz was having the fun, rest easy dear reader. The three front guitars were all cable free, so traveling was the order of the day. An initial thanks to the crowd turned to what seemed an actual heartfelt statement of gratitude, before saying “man, let’s get back into the music”. Cold Cold Cold was something most of the audience would have happily traded for, but Cage the Elephant had things set to broil. A brand new song (“the third time we’ve played it”), had Beaches in Tennessee that was dark and rumbly and had Shultz out in the audience and a bit of crowd surf. This was pure fun and the crowd reaction was intense. Mess Around was a big favorite and a slashing guitar solo only amped up the crowd’s yelled singing. Segueing to Trouble didn’t seem like it should be allowed (and just at the halfway point!), but that’s the intensity we had hit. It was simply banger after banger and even the grouchiest music critic would agree this was a definitional festival set. Speaking of his recent fatherhood, we got the silliest of impressions of the little man’s dance moves before dedicating Telescope to him. Shake Me Down was so very much, and that pause after the first chorus let the crowd bellow. Closing on Come a Little Closer, Cage the Elephant had given a monster set worthy of a headlining slot, packing an amazing amount of energy and songs into their hour.

8:00 PM – Atmosphere is a pretty beloved Minneapolis based hip hop duo composed of rapper Slug (Sean Daley) and DJ Ant Anthony Davis). They are quite prolific with thirteen full length albums, 2025’s Jestures the most recent, and an additional ten EPs. Co-founders of the independent hip hop label Rhymesayers Entertainment, it is fair to call the guys steeped in the Midwest alt hip hop scene. We last saw them as part of a stellar rap/hip hop lineup (along with Cypress Hill and others) in August 2025. From the start, this had a lot of similar feel to that show last year with the same electronic graphics wall and visual look. Slug (sporting a full out mullet) was expressive as is his way, and I’m not sure you would need the huge screens to know that (though it obviously helped). Ant was busy on his setup, getting the music moving and the beats were solid. It’s also a good reminder of how unique Slug’s voice is and like some of the best rappers it has a lyrical flow rather than simply a staccato bark. But he still know how to hit hard when needed and when he came with the “let me see you put your hands up”, he got plenty of response. A short bit of banter and they were off again. Sequencing may be doubly important for a hip hop set, so those slight changes in pace while mostly maintaining the higher energy was well done. A horns heavy backing music from Ant had Slug in a hyper-expressive zone. I think the weather cooling down a little bit with the sun finally (mostly) off the field helped revive the crowd a bit. There seemed to be quite a bit of serious dancing in the audience near the stage (I am guessing a bit from the distance I was.) Deep bass and drum beats ruled the middle section of the set. As Atmosphere closed their set as the final Minnesotan representative, they showed why they had earned that late evening slot.

9:00 PM – The Strokes were here to cap off the Minnesota Yacht Club and the very full crowd was buzzing. The quintet made a huge initial splash and their 2001 debut album Is This It was inescapable at the time. Along with The Hives and The White Stripes, The Strokes defined an entire wave of garage rock revival and not many bands get the chance to influence music that way. Though they have had several inactive periods (including a five year hiatus at one point), all five original members are still part of the band. Their seventh and newest album, Reality Awaits, is set to be released next week. Although this was our first time reviewing the band, we have seen two of the band, Julian Casablancas (November 2014) and Albert Hammond Jr. (November 2015) in the past. For perhaps the first time all festival, we had a gap and down time that felt very unnecessary. The crowd was getting restless, and rightfully so, with the hard stop at 10:30. Ten minutes gone by, they finally hit the stage. Starting in a deep red lighting scheme, they immediately hit that lo-fi, slightly reverbed vocals from Casablancas that everyone had been waiting for. That tangle of guitars and bass was great and a reminder of how technically sound The Strokes are. Albert Hammond Jr.’s guitar solo on The Adults Are Talking was bright and so right on for the song and some crooned final vocals were a cherry on top. We got green laser lights for a song off an earlier album, and the audience was nearly chanting the lyrics of Reptilia back to the stage. Lateness had been completely forgiven, and that classic interlude was peak. It’s easy to overlook the drummer in all of these bright songs, but Fabrizio Moretti was impressive while never showing off. Someday was here at the 15 minute mark and the surprised excitement had phones flying out of pockets and bags to catch that one, and they played it precisely but also with no sense of mailing it in, which I deeply appreciated. 

A small bit of banter from Casablancas also let us hear him without the reverb, which was nice. Juicebox let Casablancas have some of his patented yelled singing and he nailed those all evening. It’s impressive that while all of these songs sound similar (you always know a Strokes song when you hear it), you can also pick out many of the individual numbers just from the first chord or two. Last Night showed why these guys hit so big in the first place and musically it’s a nearly perfect rock song. A bit of banter during a tuning had Casablancas making a series of jokes (“Bacon is good and salads are terrible? We’ll get this right someday”) before launching into Take It Or Leave It, which played fast and loud. Also, a lot like Cage the Elephant, this was a reminder of the sheer number of fantastic songs The Strokes have. Bad Decisions brought us past the halfway point and this felt a little like a steamroller of a show. The ballad Ode to the Mets was a bit of a mess lyrically in the front half, but it still held together and the close was solid. The mix across the albums was well planned and It’s Hard to Explain was a perfect pick up after the slower number. Going Shopping was a new one on the upcoming album and it’s a perfect extension of their sound. You Only Live Once was announced as the last song and was a perfect close, although it was a little shocking that it ended that early. Either way, The Strokes brought the crowd across the finish line and marked the end of another successful Minnesota Yacht Club.