May 2024 Recap - Part Two
With Trey Anastasio Band, Art-A-Whirl, Billy Strings, LCD Soundsystem, and more!
Following an eventful week in New Orleans, I was back in Minneapolis and ready to rock (after taking a few days off).
5.8 Demitri and Friends at Gluek’s
Demitri was also in New Orleans over the preceding week for the festivities, and I ran into him one evening at the Howlin’ Wolf. Back at Gluek’s downtown, his monthslong Thursday night residency featuring various Twin Cities all-stars resumed with Keyes Williams on keys, Joe Barron on Bass, and John Hanson on drums.
Setlist went something like this:
Sissy Strut
Althea
Don't Let Go
A Simple Twist of Fate
Lay Down Sally >
Mountain Jam
II
Superstition KW
In Other Words KW
That's What Love Will Make You Do DR
Hey Pocky Way DR
Friend of the Devil DR
Shakedown Street DR >
I Walk On Guilded Splinters DR >
Shakedown Street DR
A bit of the jam from Rick James’ “Mary Jane”:
5.10 Trey Anastasio Band at Palace Theatre
I’m not sure how many times I’ve seen TAB, maybe a dozen or so. I know I have seen Trey Anastasio’s other band, Phish, 78 times, including the 8 shows I saw in three different states in 2024. I believe Delaware was state number 15 or 16. In any case, I am unlikely to miss a Trey show if he is in the tri-state area. Over in Ye Olde Saint Paul, the Palace is a majestic theatre built in 1916 and reopened as a music venue in 2016 after being renovated by the city.
Classic TAB consists of Dezron Douglas on bass, Ray Paczkowski on keyboards and Russ Lawton on drums. Lawton and Paczkowski have played with Trey for many years and also play as a duo in Soule Monde. Dezron Douglas is relatively new to the band but was locked in from start to finish, contributing driving and funky bass lines throughout the evening.
This was Trey's first time playing the Palace, and his first stop in the Twin Cities since a solo show at the State Theater in Minneapolis in 2019.
The show opened with pandemic era tune “I Never Needed You Like This Before”, which debuted on The Tonight Show in 2020 with The Roots as a backup band.
Many Phish songs followed, including a fun “Undermined”, “Heavy Things'“, “Llama”, “Twist”, “Shade”, ”Sand” and “Strange Design” (solo acoustic as the first song of the encore).
They also played “About To Run” from Trey's Ghosts of the Forest project, and the debut of “Long Long Time”. It was wonderful to see my favorite musician play one of my favorite places in town three weeks and a day after catching the opening night of Phish's epic run at Sphere!
“About To Run”:
”Sand”:
5.12 Shotgun Ragtime Band at The Driftwood
It was Brian’s week on guitar and another fun night at the Drifty!
Set II went like this:
Man Smart Woman Smarter
Estimated Prophet>
Eyes of the World
Uncle John's Band>
Drums >
Space>
Stella Blue
Good Lovin'
5.17 Demitri and Friends at Gluek’s
Another all-star lineup with John Kozak on guitar, Jon Sullivan on vox, Steve Murray on bass, Terry Van De Walker (Big Wu) on drums, and Nate Ecklund on keys, who was the original keyboardist for the Big Wu. Kevin Fowke also played part of the night. It was a big night downtown as the Timberwolves were hosting a playoff game across the street. (We crushed the Nuggets!)
Werewolves of London
Will It Go Round In Circles JK
China Cat>
Rider
Hey Pocky Way w birthday solo from Steve Murray on bass
That's What Love Will Make You Do
TLEO NE
Feelin Alright JS
Eyes TV
Loving Cup DR
Feel Like A Stranger NE
Take The World By Storm DR
Prince Caspian DR>
West LA Fadeaway JK
Get Outta My Life Woman
Friend of the Devil
A moment of Jon Sullivan joining for “Feeling Alright”:
“Get Outta My Life Woman”:
“Spanish Moon”:
5.17 Art-A-Whirl with Lighter Co, Shoeless Revolution and Twine
Art-A-Whirl is a reliably enjoyable time, and easily one of the best weekends of live music every year. Music (and many other forms of art of course) is happening in at least a dozen different places throughout NE aka Nordeast Minneapolis. On my agenda for the first evening of the three day affair were Liughter Co at Indeed Brewing, where many of the biggest acts are playing, Shoeless Revolution at BauHaus Brew Lab’s Liquid Zoo, and Twine at Shaw’s on University. Shaw’s is a cool little bar that takes music seriously.
Lighter Co at Indeed:
After asking the crowd whether they should play “Freebird” or “Purple Rain” and landing on the latter, the band was bathed in purple lights for their finale of “Purple Rain” as it rained outside the large tent.
Then a quick nine minute walk over to BauHaus for Reid Grimm’s Shoeless Revolution:
and finally over to Twine at Shaw’s:
5.18 Art-A-Whirl Day Two with Derecho Rhythm Section, Lighter Co, and Nur-D
Derecho is one of Alan Sparhawk’s many projects, perhaps his newest. The band has a rotating cast of musicians that usually includes his son Cyrus on bass. This set featured the multi-talented Izzy Cruz on percussion and vox and another frequent collaborator from Duluth, Al Church, on drums. Sparhawk is a genius in my book and I am a big fan of all of his projects including, of course, Low, which featured his late wife, the brilliant Mimi Parker. His other projects include Retribution Gospel Choir, a thrilling, fuzzed out garage rock juggernaut, and The Black Eyed Snakes, a power blues trio.
Derecho:
“Want It Back”:
Next up at Indeed’s Whirlygig event was Carnage The Executioner:
On to Elias Metal Studio, not a music venue per se but they did have a covered stage and a great lineup of music. The first band we caught there was Minneapolis’ Purple Funk Metropolis. I love that name and this band of younger dudes who play jazzy funk. Saxophone and trumpet were featured prominently, and that sax was switched out for a flute at one point (any funk band that includes a flute is fabulous in my book!)
Up next was a rockin’ set from FenixDion, a Twin Cities trio:
Then, another round of Lighter Co! The band formerly known as Zippo Man (it had to be changed for legal purposes) played a lively “Freebird” and incited a bit of a mosh pit during their finale, a rousing rendition of “Ace Of Spades”.
A blazing “Freebird”:
Motorhead’s “Ace Of Spades”:
For the evening’s closing set, it was over to Bau Haus for high energy hip-hop from headliner NUR-D! He brings an amazing amount of showmanship and tonight had a high powered band with four horns and three backup vocalists.
5.19 Shotgun Ragtime Band at The Driftwood
Set II
Samson and Delilah
Row Jimmy
West LA Fadeaway
Playing in the Band
Drums
Space
China Doll>
Playing
NFA
After Midnight
5.21 Billy Strings at The Armory
The rise of the the phenomenon known as BMFS continued unabated since his last visit to town in 2022, when he played Surly Field (capacity 5,000). Before that it was the Palace with a capacity of 2,600. Now the Armory was sold-out at 8,000. Predictably, he next trip here will be to one of the arenas, Target Center, with a capacity of around 20,000. With a couple of Grammys to his name, he has become one of the biggest names in the jam and bluegrass business. It was another outstanding show from him and his four bandmates, showcasing more original material than ever.
5.21 WE Collective at Gluek’s
Post BMFS show there was a vivacious crowd for this show at Gluek’s just a few blocks from the Armory. Twine band members Will Effertz, Scott Yonke, and Brian ‘Snowman’ Powers were joined by sometime drummer Jon Ross, Gavin Haskin on mandolin, and Jon Miller on acoustic guitar.
Sweet sax solo from Snowman:
5.22 LCD Soundsystem at The Armory
Really fun show from LCD Soundsystem at a sold out Armory downtown! I'd never seen the band before and was thoroughly impressed. I was happy to hear classics like “I Can Change” and “Daft Punk Is Playing At My House”, and one of my favorite songs of the last couple decades, “Dance Yrself Clean”. They closed with “New York, I Love You But You're Bringing Me Down”. Was too busy getting down to take any videos.
5.22 Dylan Salfar Band at Bunker’s
It was still a relatively young night, and Wednesday night, so I opted to stroll on down Washington Ave to Bunker’s for some blues.
Dylan and his band were joined for part of this evening by Collin Johnson of Lighter Co, who you may remember from the previous weekend’s two Lighter Co shows at Art-A-Whirl. Also appearing was a guest vocalist for “I’d Rather Go Blind”:
Here’s Collin with a smooth solo on “I’d Rather Go Blind”:
Jose James Sr. on sax:
5.29 Lenz and Friends at 331 Club
JJ Lens of Pert Near Sandstone continued his last Wednesday of the month tradition, this time joined by Olivia Q of Useful Jenkins on cello, Mike Heddig on banjo and others
5.30 Demitri and Friends at Gluek’s
With Chris Castino on guitar and vocals, Nicholas David on kys and vocals, Gregg Shutte on drums, Chad Whitaker on bass and Crunch on the window.
The Wolves may have lost but it's always a winning team with Demitri at the helm across the street at Gluek’s.
Tonight’s setlist included:
Hey Pocky Way DR
Mr. Charlie ND
Ophelia CC
Shakedown Street DR
When I Paint My Masterpiece CC
Tangled Up In Blue DR
Don't Let Go DR
Dark Star
Stop That Train
Atlantic City DR
Gotta Serve Somebody ND
Golden Age DR
Eyes
Of course it was the one Thursday (5.23) that I didn’t attend Demitri’s weekly gig that Charles Barkley stopped into Gluek’s after Anthony Edwards told him “Bring ya ass” to Minnesota.
23 shows at 14 different venues, including the wold famous Tipitina’s and Howlin’ Wolf in NOLA. That number is certainly an undercount though, as I only counted each day of Jazz Fest as one show and one venue. Is spending 6 hours at a festival and seeing a dozen or so bands the same as going down the street for a set or two of tunes? Who knows. This whole thing is absurd.
Through May I’m at 85 shows on the year with much, much more excitement ahead!