July 2025 Recap
Taste of MN, Ian Alexy, Turnpike Troubadours, Phish, White Denim, Twine and more!
Turnpike Troubadours at The Edge Amphitheatre 7.11:
7.4 Tramps Like Us at 331 Club
Helmed by Kiss The TIger guitarist Michael Tyler Anderson, this Bruce Springsteen tribute had at least a half dozen people on stage for a fairly accurate representation of The legendary E Street Band, instrument wise. The sax player, of course, had no chance of recreating the power and passion of the late, great Clarence Clemons but he did ok. The band was loose and having fun, much like Bruce in the late 70’s. Setlist included:
Spirit In The Night
Promised Land
I'm Going Down
Glory Days
No Retreat, No Surrender
Atlantic City
10th Avenue Freeze out
Cover Me
Bobbie Jean
Thunder Road
Rosalita
7.5 Taste of Minnesota with Cheap Trick and Joan Jett and the Blackhearts
The extended intro to “Surrender” was the high point of the Cheap Trick set for me. That intro led into an unexpected cover of Fats Domino’s “Ain’t That A Shame” before their biggest and perhaps most annoying number was played later in the set. They’re set also featured several of the other generic radio hits we’ve all heard many too many times. Thankfully, I didn’t really care about their set and was present half out of curiosity and half to get the lay of the land. I was happy to see Joan Jett and her band play “Cherry Bomb” from her band as a teenager, The Runaways, in addition to Bruce Springsteen’s “Light Of Day”, The Replacements’ “Androgynous”, and “Crimson and Clover” from Tommy James & the Shondells in addition to her huge hit songs “I Love Rock And Roll” and “Bad Reputation”. From the looks of it, her setlist hasn’t changed much since I saw her open for Heart at the Xcel in 2019, or even since I first saw her at Riot Fest in 2013. I suppose there are certain ‘play the hits!’ expectations for such classic rock acts as Joan Jett. What did I expect, deep cuts? No matter, she definitely still rocks and commands a crowd. Celebrity chef and co-host of the event Andrew Zimmern, who is also a Minneapolis resident, can be seen in the last two shots below, taking his own pictures of the legend. As the set ended, Transmission DJ Jake Rudh (and someone I’ve never met) gladly high fived me and exclaimed “We just saw an icon!”.
7.6 Taste of Minnesota with Nur-D and Obi Original
Nur-D played a “Benny and the Jets” x Frank Ocean’s “Thinkin’ Bout You” mashup in front of a crowd he later estimated to be 30,000 people. (Organizers reported 60,000 on Saturday and 75,000 on Sunday, leading to some people who had RSVP’d in advance and thereby had tickets to the free event not being let in at all for headliner Ludacris.
Obi Original and the Black Atlantics was my priority for this second day of Taste, so after checking out Nur-D and his lively band we hit the Jazz88 stage where their program manager Sean McPherson introduced Obi Original and the Black Atlantics. This is a high energy band performing Nigerian highlife music with lots of percussion and breezy guitar riffs. I cannot wait to see these guys play again.
Nur-D:
Obi Original:
We only caught the last bit of Luda’s set, which was presumably as banger filled as the last few moments.
7.8 Funk N Spuds at Indeed Brewing
This was part of the free "‘Off The Dock’ music series at Indeed that continues into September, held on their loading dock. The trumpet player from the excellent Purple Funk Metropolis sat in for the last few songs.
7.9 Ian Alexy at 331 Club
(Artwork for Ian’s upcoming album)
Singer songwriter Ian Alexy was the guest on KFAI’s Harold’s House Party radio program (https://kfai.org/program/houseparty/) earlier in the evening, which records at the 331 every Wednesday from 4-6pm. During his set afterward, Ian was joined by ‘Hurricane’ Harold Trembly on harmonica for the Ian penned song “Memphis In Your Head”, from Hobo Nephews of Uncle Frank, a project with his brother Teague. The studio version of that song, on the Traveling Show record, features Marco Benevento on keyboards, who was a classmate of Ian’s at Berklee College of Music.
Though Ian is a blazing electric guitar player, this set was all acoustic. He also played a great version of Depeche Mode’s “Personal Jesus”, new songs “Just You Wait” and “Taking It All Too Hard”, in addition to Springsteen, Neil, and Jimi covers. Approximate setlist follows:
Personal Jesus
Just You Wait
Dancing In The Dark
Making it Shine
Memphis In Your Head
Taking It All Too Hard
Cinnamon Girl
Anything For You
21st Century Troubadour
May This Be Love >
Voodoo Chile
7.11 Kashus Culpepper at Utepils Brewing
Another great free happy hour show from The Current! Alabama born Kashus Culpepper was on the CBS Saturday Morning program less than a month prior, which was the first I’d heard of him. His voice has a soulful twang that I really enjoyed. Though he’d been singing in church since he was a child, he only recently picked up the guitar, while serving in the Navy.
One of the songs he performed on CBS Saturday Morning was “Southern Man”, which features guitar whiz Marcus King on the record. Another song on his new album is a lovely duet called “Broken Wing Bird” with bluegrass/fiddle phenom Sierra Ferrell.
For this Utepils show, held on their expansive back patio, Culpepper played acoustic guitar and was accompanied by two electric guitar players, one of whom alternated to pedal steel (and is from MN, according to Jill RIley on the Current the following morning!), and the other switched to keys. The set featured “Southern Man”, a great cover of Bill Withers’ “Just The Two Of Us” and concluded with a rollicking version of Marshall Tucker Band’s “Can’t You See”. I hope we’ll be seeing Kashus Culpepper back before too long, perhaps at the Turf Club or Fine Line?!
7.11 Turnpike Troubadours and Old Crow Medicine Show at The Ledge Amphitheatre
This was my first time at this amazing place in Waite Park, MN, close to St. Cloud. It’s got a capacity of between 4000-6000 depending on seating arrangement, and was mostly full for this occasion. It is a lovely venue in the middle of two granite quarries and the land was donated to the city by a quarry owner.
Old Crow Medicine Show opened the evening with some fiery energy right off the bat. The band may be best known for the song “Wagon Wheel”, the chorus of which was written by Bob Dylan in the early 70’s. Dylan never finished writing the song, but Old Crow’s frontman and fiddle player Ketch Secor wrote verses and OCMS released the song in 2004. (Secor’s new solo record came out the same day as this show!). The set also contained bits of “Proud Mary” and “Great Balls of Fire” and Woody Guthrie’s “Union Maid” was a righteous selection. Members of Turnpike Troubadours joined Old Crow for a couple songs before the end of the set.
The Ledge earned an A- on Star Tribune’s list of 53 essential music venues (https://www.startribune.com/twin-cities-music-venues/601314159). I would agree with that assessment, easy ingress and egress and lots of space. The show was billed as rain or shine, and I’m sure glad it didn’t rain because there is very little shelter and umbrellas are not permitted. The huge boulders surrounding the concert area make for simple and geographically relevant landscaping and the gradual incline of the concrete in the convert area is enough to provide great sightlines of the large stage but you won’t end up with sore legs a la Alpine Valley. There were two reasonably sized monitors on either side of the stage as well. All in all I was very impressed with this place and look forward to going back.
Old Crow Medicine Show:
“Wagon Wheel”:
Turnpike Troubadours:
It was my first time seeing Turnpike Troubadours, and I was completely unfamiliar with their music, having won tickets to this show. I enjoy going into a show like that, with little or no expectations. Then ideally I’ll be pleasantly surprised. I appreciated the banjo and fiddle driven songs, many of which were uptempo, even approaching breakneck pace. I really liked the songs and harmonies, and couldn’t help but think of Trampled by Turtles at several points. The two bands sharing several of the same instruments but differ in that TT has electric guitar and drums and is more country. In any case I really enjoyed the show and will be listening to more of Turnpike Troubadours!
7.12 Shotgun Ragtime Band with Camile Boudain at Utepils Brewing
Camile of the New Orleans Radiators was on hand again for SRB’s 9th time playing Artepils. He sang Chuck Berry’s “Never Can Tell” somewhere in here even though it is not reflected in this here incomplete setlist:
ko Iko
That's What Love Will Make You Do
Me and My Uncle
Little Red Rooster
Ramble On Rose
Deal
New Speedway Boogie
Drums
Truckin
Bird Song
The Wheel
Gimme Some Love
Harder They Come
Good Lovin'
7.14 Saltydog at Lake Harriet Bandshell
A perfect night for some music on the lake! Excitement ensued when a duck flew onto the stage, becoming a new fan known as ‘Saltyduck’. The Duluthians drew a large crowd and put on a great show that included one of my favorite Saltydog songs, “Come Back Home”. The ‘Dogs have had a busy summer playing festivals all over the state and will next visit Minneapolis August 2nd at 56. Then they play their first show at Bunkers, opening for Mikel Wright and The Wrongs on Friday, September 6th.
The Saltyduck:
7.18 Phish at United Center
The crew and I got into Chicago around midnight Thursday, and set up camp on a blueberry farm on the outskirts of Cook County. A rented sprinter van ferried the 15 of us 45 minutes to United Center, home of the Chicago Bulls and Blackhawks. This was Phish’s second three day run at this venue, and I was glad to be back. I’ve been to enough outdoor shows in July and August that are negatively impacted by the heat or rain that I am happy to be indoors. (Preach it, Steve Miller!) Most of us didn’t go in to the city at all, except of course for the shows. Instead, we spent the days picking blueberries and guitars and waiting out the rain. We thoroughly enjoyed our unique and idyllic accommodations, along with fresh blueberry pancakes and muffins.
Night one started with “Harry Hood”, a bit of a confounding but welcome choice, as the song usually appears in the encore or as a set closer. In fact, this was just the 7th time since its 1985 debut that Hood has appeared in the opening slot. “Oblivion”, a new song from last year’s Evolve album., followed. This night’s version included some “Bird Song” teases from Trey, just a couple weeks before Trey Anastasio Band will be opening for Dead and Co on the third night of the 60th anniversary of the Grateful Dead in Golden Gate Park. “Bathtub Gin” had a fun little “Tequila” section, then the opening set featured what would be the biggest bustout of the weekend, Allen Toussaint’s “On Your Way Down”, which hadn’t been played since 2011 (522 shows). “Hey Stranger”, a groovy pandemic era Trey tune, was also a highlight. Second set had its moments (a wandering, 28 minute “What’s Going Through Your Mind”) but first set was the clear winner for me.
I was situated stage left, above and behind drummer Jon Fishman, who for this tour moved from his perch behind the other band members to beside bassist Mike Gordon, so that all four band members were in a row along the front of the stage. I had a rare perspective on Fishman and keyboardist Page McConnell and their rigs. Not long after the show started, I moved towards the center of the arena and joined some friends with better seats for a view of the stage and lights.
7.19 Phish at United Center
Saturday night’s show marked the 80th time I’ve seen Phish, and reaffirmed why I have traveled to 16 states to see this band. The quartet continues to add exciting new material into their repertoire (represented tonight by “Life Saving Gun” and “Pillow Jets”) and dig in to classics with extended improvisation, as they did on a blissful “Tube” (yes they did jam out “Tube”, 15 minutes!) and “Down With Disease”. Other highlights for me were the first set closing “Most Events Aren’t Planned” from Page’s side project Vida Blue, and “2001”.
"2001”:
Trey strutted around the stage for a bit before the traditional ‘guitar raising ceremony’
7.20 Phish at United Center
Never miss a Sunday show, the saying goes. That definitely applied on this evening as the third and final show of the run absolutely took the top prize. One of my favorite songs, “Reba”, made an appearance in the first set, after a bouncy “Mike’s Song” that didn’t get it’s typical “Weekapaug Groove” counterpart until the encore. A lively “Gotta Jiboo” opened the second set and was followed by a lengthy and funky “Fuego”. A somewhat rare “Fee” was played in the encore, with Trey singing the lyrics through a megaphone (as is done on the studio version) to the delight of the crowd. A fabulous conclusion to a stupendously fun weekend of music! ‘Til next time, Phish!
In the cool shade of the banana tree…
7.25 White Denim and Tagua Tagua at Turf Club
Brazilian psychedelic band Tagua Tagua opened the show and played a mesmerizing set of Latin grooves and driving guitars. They sang in their native Portuguese, and at one point James Petralli of White Denim hopped up and played flute.
I’d never seen White Denim and I enjoyed their quirky psychedelic sound and proggy keyboards.
Tagua Tagua:
White Denim:
7.26 Twine at Hook and Ladder
The band played as part of RetroFest, sponsored by local THC infused Retro Bakery.
It was a pared down four piece Twine, what you might call the core four of Will Effertz on guitar, Scott Yonke on bass, Brian ‘Snowman’ Powers on sax and John Hanson on drums.
The evening’s setlist included:
Dark Timber
Rescue
The Bug
Ride Me High
Lou and Luna
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
“Rescue”:
7.27 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
When I Paint My Masterpiece
St Stephen
Ramble On Rose 🌹
Saint of Circumstance
Mission in the Rain
II
Dark Star>
The Other One>
Truckin>
Easy Wind>
Drums>
Space>
The Other One>
Dark Star>
Midnight Moonlight
LL Rain
Mike C on “Looks Like Rain”:
7.30 Twine at Bunker’s
The band had hinted on social media that there would be a special guest for their weekly show, and speculation was rampant. The man of the hour was Sevans Henderson, the keyboard player from Red Clay Strays, who would be playing a sold out show at the 8,000 capacity Armory the following night. He added some synthy funk to Twine’s second and third sets and shined on “Take Me To The River”, when the band was augmented by guest vocals from Jon Sullivan. Setlist included:
Sneakin' Sally
Dark Timber
The Bug
Yes We Can Can
Not Fade Away
Rescue
Take Me To The River
“Take Me To The River”:
August looks promising with Billy Strings, the String Cheese Incident, MN State Fair and a couple big time shows in Chi Town!