Rocktober: October 3, 2026

ROCKTOBER is here. Read more rocktober.wheartm.com.

Here are some shows in Minneapolis/St Paul on October 3, 2026: • Bright Eyes at First Avenue (Oct 3, 2026) • Stephen Day at Fine Line (Oct 3, 2026) • They Might Be Giants at Fitzgerald Theater (Oct 3, 2026)

October 3, 2026 Saturday
Bright Eyes
with Lullaby For The Working Class
at First Avenue
first-avenue.com

The lover I don’t want to love, Bright Eyes, is headlining First Avenue, in Minneapolis, on October 3, 2026.

We saw Bright Eyes in Mar 2025 and said, “As lights went down again, the audience may have first thought it was at a related Desaparecidos show, from the pre-taped female Spanish-speaking intro voice, but all was reassured as Conor Oberst and Bright Eyes took to the stage for their hundred-minute set to the tune of Dick Van Dyke’s “Bye Bye Birdie”-era, “Put on a Happy Face” (before it screeched to a mid-verse halt).The new album is “Five Dice, All Threes” (released last September via Dead Oceans) and the voice-related issues Oberst had happen last fall, seem well in the rearview mirror, with the Omaha native now sounding his usual and vintage best vocally. Like the openers, the initial focus was on the newer material, with the band opening with “Bells and Whistles” from the recent record and working in “Bas Jan Ader,” about a Dutch performing artist and photographer who died in 1975 at age 33, by disappearing into the ocean.”

Lullaby For The Working Class to open.

October 3, 2026 Saturday
Stephen Day
at Fine Line
first-avenue.com

Nashville-based songwriter Stephen Day will be headlining the Fine Line, in Minneapolis, on October 3, 2026.

We saw Stephen Day in Nov 2025 and wrote, “The opener was Stephen Day, who we just saw in September opening for Kaleo. Day’s mix of funk and R&B rock was a perfect match for the headliner. With the EP Gold Mine still pretty recent, Day was continuing to build new fans. That R&B sound was pervasive on Hey Lady and Day’s charm and solid vocals brought the audience in more. Some great funky keyboards from Alexander Rice on Kinda Cowgirl led to some wicked guitar licks in the middle. Playing the title track of the EP had the crowd in full clap along mode, with Day in smooth operator mode on that repeated Gold Mine lyric. Day had the audience singing and the cheers at the end of the number were pretty intense. Credit to Day for his charismatic performance. He had a natural way of getting full audience participation in a way that many more established bands struggle with. All This Space was a great example, where he had both clapping and singing from the vast majority of the audience. It also happens to be a banger of a song with Rice’s keyboards adding a key ingredient to the mix. We got a Christmas song(!), It’s Christmas All Over, but it was in the same vein and a pretty danceable funk sound. Sweet Ice Tea was a little more country influenced number, but let Day go across his vocal range. Finishing up an excellent and joyful set, Stephen Day headed to merch to greet some of those brand new fans.”

October 1, 2026 Thursday
October 2, 2026 Friday
They Might Be Giants
at First Avenue
first-avenue.com

October 3, 2026 Saturday
October 4, 2026 Sunday
They Might Be Giants
at Fitzgerald Theater
first-avenue.com

New York’s They Might Be Giants is returning to Minneapolis (and St Paul), for a four-night event of “Evening With” performances. They are all very different shows, very different setlists, and, as usual, with a great eight-piece band. Let’s start Rocktober right. TMBG’s new album The World Is To Dig (see review here) is out now.

Despite being delayed for a over a year, that was fun to see TMBG play Flood in Oct 2022: “The other thing is that they decided to play Flood, but in completely random order and out of sequence. Which is fine, as I recently played the album on shuffle mode and it had the same effect. Each song stands on its own, they’re all good. Even so-so song “Sapphire Bullets of Pure Love” had something new to offer. The band played this song backward, in real time. They would play back the video in reverse during the intermission and it sounded pretty good! Even though they jokingly said, all we would hear is “Satan Join Us”. I thought I knew the Flood album from start to finish, so it was also a nice surprise and refreshing to hear a brand-new set of lyrics for “Road Movie to Berlin”, featuring the line about “the king of liars”. It does throw you off to hear something new, and now that I’ve heard it, I wish that was the full song on the record.”

Tour Dates

Read more Minneapolis Music Guide.

If your band is coming to the Minneapolis/St Paul area, please email details to vu@weheartmusic.com with a good lead time. Thank you.

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