Midway Music & Arts Fest, Day 1 (October 2, 2026)

Lineup

• 6:30 PM – Miss Georgia Peach
• 7:30 PM – Martin Devaney
• 8:30 PM – Pop Wagner
• 9:30 PM – Nick Elstad Trio
• 10:30 PM – Red Eye Ruby

The Midway neighborhood in Saint Paul was celebrating the first ever Midway Music & Arts Fest on this first weekend in October. Though not the first area in the Twin Cities that would come up in a discussion of big arts, the neighborhood has a surprisingly large number of arts & entertainment venues and businesses. With multiple events and locations for art, dance (so much dance in the Midway!), and of course music, there were several I wanted to make sure to attend. On day one, it was a stop over at the Midway Saloon, where there were a number of locals acts helping kick off the weekend.

Music started earlier than I could get over, but I slipped in as Martin Devaney had already hit stage. We last saw Devaney at the White Squirrel Bar in August 2025. Similar to that show, this had him on stage solo with guitar and often harmonica, letting him work through his Americana rock. Nobody Writes Letters Anymore was an excellent example of Devaney’s full capabilities and the harmonica work on this was tight. Taking the opportunity to divert some crowd banter to thank the Midway Arts Fest organizers and give some love to all the upcoming artists at various venues across the neighborhood. One for the Road was a perfect late set song and closing up with Wise Blood was an appropriately dour number that played big and Martin Devaney had used his time well.

Up next was Pop Wagner, who we also recently saw at the White Squirrel Bar in June of this year. Up as a trio with vocal/guitar/fiddle, percusssion/banjo, and harmonica/mandolin/guitar, we had a tough stretch on the sound check, as they couldn’t get things locked in for a while. But we got there eventually and opening with the early (non Grateful Dead version) of The Ballad of Casey Jones, lett harmonica go wild. Otto Wood let the percussion, a version of spoons or bones, really hold the foundation as Wagner led with his biting vocal style. A switch to mandolin gave a different sound on Trail to Mexico and Wagner and band had hit their stride. A full band switch of instrumentation now had banjo, fiddle, and guitar which led to a fun bluegrass number and Daniel was the Bible story told through that bluegrass lens. Back to mandolin and bones, Pop Wagner closed out their set in style.

The Nick Elstad Trio was on and we made a bit of a sonic turn, with a southern rock sound that was solid. Hard Times was quite the opener and the trio (vocals/guitar, stand up bass/vocals, and drums) was impressive in the fullness of their sound. “A song for Elvis” led to King for a Day and Elstad’s vocals were dead on for the slightly low key vibe. This was an excellent rock sound and a late guitar instrumental in City Lights was a lot of fun. Sweet Surrender had a great opening guitar riff and the harmonies on the chorus felt like a song you had heard a hundred times before, even as it stood on its own, with a great guitar close out and The Nick Elstad Trio had made a solid impression.

The evening ended with Red Eye Ruby. We landed in a pure rock & roll sound and the quartet (vocals/guitar, guitar, bass, and drums) came in with a Janis Joplin sound and grew from there. The sequencing of the bands had been very well executed as those changes across the evening were somewhat gradual. It took a moment, but I recognized the bass player as Sam Licari, who we last saw opening for Dead Larry at Turf Club in June 2025. Lead vocals are critical for a band like this, and Red Eye Ruby had that well covered, as Ruby Blu absolutely rolled on those lyrics. Valerie was a cover that was such a good match of material and band that I think many people missed it was a cover at all. Big D**k Energy continued the retro sound and this was really a classic rock vibe. Rejection Is Divine Protection was a good satirical song, while Sin Again was a latter set standout. As Red Eye Ruby finished their set, the Midway Music & Arts Fest had put on a great first day.