Dream, Ivory and Rew at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (March 17th 2026)
Dream, Ivory Setlist Would It Kill You at All Wedding Crasher Scorpion I’m So Emo...
Matt
John Oates and the Good Road Band, Minneapolis (March 6th 2026)
John Oates Setlist Out of Touch¹ Pushin’ a Rock Enough is Enough Real Thing Going...
Casa Sors Flamenco, Barcelona Spain, 16 February 2026
Once again, I find myself with an opportunity to explore and enjoy music in a...
Nina Lili J, street corner, Montmartre Paris, 17 January 2026
Nina Lili J Setlist Ring of Fire (Johnny Cash cover) La Bohème (Charles Aznavour...
Billy Corgan and a Night of Mellon Collie and Infinite Sadness at the Lyric Opera House, Chicago (26 Nov 2025)
Billy Corgan Setlist — Act One — Mellon Collie and the Infinite Sadness Tonight, Tonight...
Belly at Parkway Theater, Minneapolis (November 12th 2025)
Belly Setlist King (Re-sequenced) Puberty Now They’ll Sleep Untitled and Unsung Red Seal My Fate...
Purity Ring and yuniVERSE at First Avenue Minneapolis (October 23rd 2025)
Purity Ring Setlist part ii many lives Obedear pink lightning soshy glacier ::in memory of...
Magnetic Fields at Union Chapel, London (October 14th and 15th 2025)
The Magnetic Fields have kept a good thing going by taking their 69 Love Songs tour international. This is, if the internet is to be believed, the 100th to 115th or so performance of 69 Love Songs in its entirety over two nights. I have now seen three of them. Pretty sure that puts me in the top five, or top two even, for number of shows seen by one person. I fancy myself a bit of an expert now. So, sit back and let me describe the show to you as someone who is practically in the band at this point.
Caroline Kingsbury and Maris at Green Room, Minneapolis (October 4th 2025)
Alright, another Twin Cities music venue under my belt as the Green Room played host to co-headliners, Caroline Kingsbury and Maris. It’s a fun, intimate venue with plenty of great sightlines. The balcony allows for great views of the stage; straight on you still fell plenty close, and from the sides you feel like you’re practically on stage. When I review shows, I tend to move about and really couldn’t find a bad spot. If you haven’t been, check it out.
Water From Your Eyes and Her New Knife at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (30 Sep 2025)
Water From Your Eyes and Her New Knife at 7th Street Entry, Minneapolis (30 Sep 2025)
Rilo Kiley tears sh*t up at the Palace Theatre in St. Paul (September 16 2025)
Holy sh**! I almost wussed out on this show, as I’m old and was still recovering from my weekend of travel to see Fazerdaze in Chicago, oh and Spoon and The Pixies were there too. I’m so glad I didn’t skip out, though, because Rilo Kiley put on one of the best shows I’ve seen in a long time.
Fazerdaze, Spoon, and the Pixies at the Salt Shed, Chicago (September 15th 2025)
The Salt Shed, a relatively new venue (2022) in Chicago, played host to the Pixies, Spoon, and Fazerdaze on a lovely September summer day. First a little bit about the venue, a mere 6 hours from the Twin Cities (depending on traffic), on Goose Island. They have done a fantastic job in making this space an exceptional place to see a show. There is both an indoor and an outdoor stage. Being the aforementioned lovely summer day, it was outside. Being right by the river drops the temperature is a bit cooler and provides a great backdrop. If you have the chance, I highly recommend taking in a show here.
Moonstone Quill at Breckenridge Hogfest (August 23, 2025)
A weekend trip to the mountains of Colorado turned into an impromptu music tour. After a lucky coincidence seeing David Devett at the Bucksnort Saloon in Sphinx Park, I had continued good fortune on the music front. A dinner at the Edwin Restaurant in Breckenridge turned into another unexpected and wonderful encounter with local music. Once again, I did not fully pay attention to the sound coming from the man playing a guitar as I got seated in an upscale restaurant in Breck. And, once again, as I got settled and was able to focus on the music, I realized that I was in the presence of a talented musician. Lucky me!
David Devitt at Bucksnort Saloon, Sphinx Park (August 21, 2025)
The Bucksnort Saloon in Sphinx Park, CO is an off-the-beaten-path legendary establishment up in the mountains off of 285 between Conifer and Bailey. Unless you were one of the 50?, 100? People who lived on Elk Creek Rd, you’d have no reason other than Bucksnort to take the ~6 miles from 285. The Bucksnort under new ownership as of 2018, couldn’t quite recover from the impact of COVID and without announcement, closed the saloon in 2022.
Deep Sea Diver at xBk Live, Des Moines (July 27, 2025)
Back in May, I had the pleasure of discovering Deep Sea Diver for myself (think how we view Columbus today vs. how Columbus viewed himself in 1492, you know, after sailing the ocean blue) when they kicked off The Current’s Happy Hour series for 2025 at Nine Mile Brewing Company in Bloomington (review here).
Samia at First Avenue, Minneapolis (Jun 6, 2025)
Samia at First Avenue, Minneapolis (Jun 6, 2025) First Ave was the venue for three local bands playing a sold-out, all-ages show to a devoted audience.
Sessanta (Primus, Puscifer, A Perfect Circle) at Xcel Energy Center (Jun 1, 2025)
Xcel Energy Center last night played host to Sessanta 2.0, the continuation of Sessanta, which was the sequel to Cinquanta – a 50th birthday celebration for Maynard James Keenan. The show featured A Perfect Circle, Primus and Puscifer all on stage at the same time rotating through (mostly) three song sets (see set list to the right) with those not actively performing just hanging out (or sometimes involved in antics), enjoying the show. It was a remarkable, well-executed approach.
Deep Sea Diver at the Current Happy Hours (May 29, 2025)
The Current kicked off its Happy Hour series for 2025 at Nine Mile Brewing Company in Bloomington. Jill Riley, morning DJ on the Current, played host and laid down some sweet tunes to an appreciative crowd from 4:00 to 6:00. The rain may have scattered folks for a bit, but it cleared in plenty of time for the crowd to reassemble in anticipation of Deep Sea Diver’s performance. How lucky are those of us that live in the Twin Cities that we get to see an artist of the caliber of Jessica Dobson in a small setting like this?
bôa at First Avenue (May 13, 2025)
bôa at First Avenue (May 13, 2025) bôa Setlist Deeply Whiplash For Jasmine Frozen A...
The Magnetic Fields at Fitzgerald Theater (May 9-10, 2025)
Five Artists, Four sets, three records (or CDs if you prefer), two nights, and one Stephin Merritt: 69 Love Songs the 25th Anniversary tour at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. What a sublime couple of evenings. The Magnetic Fields know how to put on a performance and those in attendance were treated to an amazing one. I had the pleasure of seeing them perform 69 Love Songs like this back in 2002 and was blown away by the fidelity to the sound of the album while simultaneously being its own event. The voices of Shirley Simms and Stephin Merritt were flawless. Having been to my fair share of recent shows by bands from the ‘90s and ‘00s, I was not sure what to expect of their voices 23 years later. Well, spoiler alert, they’re still flawless, and I don’t say that lightly.