Rocktober 2024 Recap
with God Johnson, Twine, Air, MJ Lenderman, Mdou Moctar, Trampled By Turtles, Jack White, Iron Maiden, Daniel Donato and more!
One of the highlights of the month was Daniel Donato’s First Ave debut.
10.2 Twine at The Cabooze
The fourth Twinesday at the Cabooze would turn out to be the last, as the band would announce the following day that the Wednesday night series would be moved to Bunker’s Music Bar and Grill, 2.5 miles down Washington Ave. It was an excellent finale to the brief Cabooze era of Twinesdays, featuring Jon Miller of Feed the Dog guesting on acoustic guitar.
Twine started at 815pm with a slow build 17 minute jam intro that led into Lovelight with Jon M singing. Also on the setlist:
Rescue
Coconut
Them Changes
TLEO
Steam - went off the rails in a fun way
10.2 Dylan Salfar Band at Bunker’s
As it was Dylan's final Wednesday, it seemed ever so prudent to make that trek to Bunker's one last time to hear the young blues guitar prodigy and his outstanding band featuring Jose James Sr on saxophone and various other wind instruments, usually two drummers and occasional surprise guests. This night they were joined by noted powerhouse singer Shannon Curfman, who has toured with Poison and Vince Neil, among others. Alex Rossi also took the stage for a couple songs.
Kevin Eubanks sat in one night a couple years ago and shredded some blues. Jellybean Johnson, drummer for The Time and also an amazing guitar player, was a frequent attendee and occasional featured guest. Countless other amazing artists also joined in over the years including Christopher ‘Kingfish’ Ingram! Dylan and his band were a reliable destination for great blues, and I’ll miss having this weekly option.
10.4 God Johnson 21st Anniversary at Hook and Ladder Theatre
Sax man Kevin Sinclair was here for this year’s show, along with other original members Tim Carrow on keys, Jimmy Rogers on bass, Royce Rock on drums, and of course Jason Fladager on guitar. It was a reunion of sorts and I was glad to see many of the folks who were regular attendees of GJ's weekly Wednesday Night Rawk Show at the Cabooze that ran from maybe 2005-2007. Those Wednesdays served as a helpful introduction to the Minneapolis scene when I moved to Minneapolis from Duluth, where I’d spent 7 years.
Setlist featured:
The Drama Comes
Squirms 2
Dear Prudence
Electric Shoes
Two Person Chair>
Cities
Cheap Sunglasses 😎
Break of Day
The Wrath
III
Squirms
The Doctor
“Two Person Chair” which is of course a Big Wu song penned by J Flad:
10.5 ‘They Call Us The Breeze’ JJ Cale Tribute at Dayblock Brewing
Fantastic show as Will brought another new configuration of the ever evolving and widening and intertwined WE Collective to take on some of JJ Cale’s tunes with Brian ‘Snowman’ Powers on sax, fresh off playing the National Anthem solo before the winning Lynx game Tuesday night. Alongside Will and Snowman were the Mahon brothers, of Duluth’s sensational and genre defying band Saltydog. Owen (on drums) and Jacob (on keys for the opening set and guitar for the JJ Cale set) added rhythm to the evening, and the ensemble accurately captured the driving, groovy nature of classics like “They Call Me The Breeze”, “Traveling Light”, “Ride Me High’, and ‘After Midnight”. Also in tonight’s band Doug Christianson on percussion, Jimmy Geisinger on bass and a sit in from Alex Gelking on guitar.
John the Revelator
Call Me The Breeze
Traveling Light
Magnolia
Call The Doctor
Cocaine
Ride Me High took a funky turn after a drums showcase with Alex G joining on guitar and Jacob hopping back on keys
After Midnight
Another fabulous Snowman solo during “Travelin’ Light”:
10.6 ‘Running In The Shadows’ Fleetwood Mac Tribute at First Avenue
Sunday was a rare and stupendous quadruple header! I started out my birthday week in just about the best fashion possible, on the guest list at First Avenue. Some friends were performing in the Fleetwood Mac tribute act Running in the Shadows, as part of the Rock and Roll Playhouse's ongoing series for kiddos on Sunday mornings. It was fun to see children dancing, breakdancing, doing the limbo, and crawling on that famous checkerboard tile floor. The kid friendly set featured the Freeze Dance and Parachute. Brad Ray encouraged parents to enroll their children in Columbia House's 12 cassettes for the price of one program, which is how he first heard the 'Mac. I thought it was my first time backstage in the Main Room, but Brianna later reminded me that we’d been there before, after a tribute to The Replacements years ago.
10.6 The Foxgloves at Backyard Party
Next up was a lovely backyard party featuring the Foxgloves! The outstanding six piece all female bluegrass/Americana band played to an attentive crowd from the bottom of a yard that was essentially shaped like a natural amphitheater. They brought their strings and harmonies to songs like “Friend of the Devil”, “Harvest Moon”, “Angel From Montgomery” and catchy and clever originals like “Mama Was A Bandit” and “Johnson City”. Thanks Damon and Susan for hosting! They started this event during the pandemic when everyone was starved for live music.
10.6 Air Play Moon Safari at State Theatre
Air at the State Theatre was instantly a highlight of my year as the French duo played their landmark 1998 debut album Moon Safari! Wow, that was special to see. The lights looked great in that beautiful, spacious theater and they had a unique stage up, such that the band looked to be within a super sized painting or window frame.
“Sexy Boy”:
10.6 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
It was still Sunday night and there was time to catch Shotgun Ragtime Band at the Driftwood in South Minneapolis, so Ryan and I completed the quadruple header just a few miles south of where the day's events began. A lively crowd and stellar music awaited at the Drifty as always for Grateful Sunday #694! Art Hoffman was on hand and played keyboards for a bit. He’d been part of the Fleetwood Mac tribute earlier in the day also.
10.11 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Backyard Party
A lovely way to celebrate the birthdays of Ben P and Bob Weir, and another fun show from SRB. They were again joined by Art Hoffman on keys. Jazz was also present on keys on the other side so the band was eight people strong!
10.12 MJ Lenderman and the Wind at First Avenue
As it was my birthday, I was on the guest list for the second time that week at my favorite rock and roll venue!
10.13 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
Somehow I didn’t take any pictures on this evening but I did get some setlist notes. I particularly appreciated the Jerry Garcia song “The Wheel” on the day after my birthday, with its reminder that “Every time that wheel go round, bound to cover just a little more ground”
It’s one of my favorite songs, written by the brilliant Robert Hunter:
The wheel is turning and you can't slow down
You can't let go and you can't hold on
You can't go back and you can't stand still
If the thunder don't get you then the lightning will
Won't you try just a little bit harder
Couldn't you try just a little bit more
Won't you try just a little bit harder
Couldn't you try just a little bit more
Round, round, Robin run around
Gotta get back where you belong
Little bit harder, just a little bit more
Little bit further than you gone before
Small wheel turning by the fire and rod
Big wheel turning by the grace of God
Every time that wheel turn round
Bound to cover just a little more ground
The night’s setlist went a little something like this:
Stuck Inside Of Mobile
Dark Hollow
Cumberland
II
Samson and Delilah
I Need A Miracle
Bird Song>
Deep Elem Blues>
Bird Song>
Drums Space
The Wheel
NFA>
Hey Pocky Way>
The Other One
10.14 Mdou Moctar at First Avenue
I’d never heard of this guy whatsoever but I read something comparing the Nigerian artist to Jimi Hendrix and that was sufficient for me to buy the ticket and take the ride. HIs guitar playing was dazzling and at times hypnotic. Moctar was backed up by another guitar, drums and bass for a straightforward rock band sound but with unique desert blues style.
10.16 Twine at Bunker’s
The first of hopefully a great many Twinesdays at Bunker’s was underway and there was a lot of buzz surrounding the event. Jon Miller was back to add acoustic guitar to the mix, and Alex Gelking made an appearance as well. A great kickoff!
Sand w Drums interlude
Rescue
Them Changes
Midnight Rider
Honeybee
Lou and Luna
Breakdown>
One Nation
CC Rider
Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad
10.18 Mossenello at Driftwood
10.20 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
Again, no photos or videos!
II
Help on the Way>
Slipknot>
Franklin's Tower
Dark Star>
Row Jimmy>
Dark Star>
Crazy Fingers>
Drums>
Stella Blue
Touch of Grey
E
Shakedown Street
10.22 Iron Maiden at Xcel Energy Center
What a spectacular show! I mean literally, what a spectacle. I went into this show with no expectations and not knowing a single Iron Maiden song. By the end of the show, I was transformed. I was baptized by the spirit of Spinal Tap, I mean Iron Maiden. The drama, the 20 foot or so tall Eddie mascot/machine who strode around the stage here and there, the screaming guitars, the dramatic vocals, pyrotechnics, this show had it all!
Here’s singer engaging in a gun battle with Eddie onstage, starting at about the one minute mark:
10.23 Jack White at First Avenue
A truly epic night with the one and only Jack White at First Avenue!!
Really special show on a number of levels. He is an absolute force of nature and one of the most inventive guitar players of our time. It was an astonishing Rocktober Surprise that was announced only Monday morning, and a Rocktober Miracle that I was able to secure tickets for Brianna (who saw the White Stripes there in 2002) and I yesterday, just hours before the show. He did a number of cuts from his brand new record, No Name, as well as a few from his solo releases, and from the Raconteurs and the White Stripes. Not often do you hear a crowd singing along to a guitar riff, but there are few songs that are international anthems like Seven Nation Army.
10.23 Twine at Bunker’s
The second Wednesday featured rt Begley guesting on guitar and:
Elizabeth Reed w Crosseyed and Painless tease
II
Ghost
Dark Timber
What You See Is What You Get
Renewal
Rescue
After Midnight
Them Changes
One of my favorite Twine originals, “Rescue” has a solid groove:
10.24 Trampled By Turtles and Avett Brothers at Xcel Energy Center
You may have heard me say that Trampled By Turtles have been one of my favorite bands since they got started in Duluth in 2003. I say that just about anytime the band’s name is mentioned. I usually follow that up by talking about how I lived in Duluth in ‘03 when the original four members, Dave Simonett, Dave Carroll, Tim Saxhaug and Eric Berry got started. I knew the guys and called them friends, and was a fan of their earlier bands - Dave S in Simple Junction, Tim in The Dukes of Hubbard, and Eric Berry’s The Castle Band, named for their weekly gig at Lakeview Castle north of Duluth. It was a fairly small music scene and it seems like everybody pretty much knew everybody. I would guess that I have seen TBT play probably more times than any other band, easily over 100 times. In the early days they’d play house party basements, Fitger’s Brewhouse, and at the brand new Pizza Luce that became a focal point of the Duluth music community. I remember fawning over the band in those days and being convinced that the band would be huge. So I was never surprised as they continued their ascent to the biggest stages and festivals in the country. I may have shed a tear when they were first on TV, on Conan O’Brien’s show, with none other than Mr. T as a fellow guest. Pretty surreal. They’re definitely the only band I’ve seen have that level of success, and I genuinely feel fortunate to have known those dudes back in the day. I still see a couple of the guys from time to time and I’m just so happy that they’ve gotten the recognition they deserve. I think they are a phenomenal band and always have been. Dave’s songwriting has always been endearing, emotional, and poignant, and the skill level of each of the guys has always left me awestruck. They play so fast that in the early days people referred to them as The Ramones of bluegrass. Eric and Dave C’s instrumentals are amazing. The addition of fiddle player Ryan Young, who’d previously been in Pert Near Sandstone, to the band was exciting and a perfect compliment to the other fast paced strings. A few years later, Eamon McClain joined and his cello really added a layer of depth and warmth to what is now a six piece. This was a tremendous show and the lights really filled up Minnesota’s biggest arena and music venue!
“Codeine”:
“Truck”:
“It’s A War”:
“New Son/Burnt Iron”:
“Alone”:
Avetts:
Highlights of their set for me were the instrumentals and the song with puppets.
10.24 WE Collective at Gluek’s
An excellent post Xcel Energy Center late night show!
Robert Palmer’s “Sneakin’ Sally Through The Alley”:
Halloween themed band photo shoot:
10.25 Drive By Truckers at Uptown Theatre
Performing their album “Southern Rock Opera” with plenty of stories about the writing of the songs and growing up in the south and facing the incongruencies of two features that go along with it - the legacy and ongoing issue of American racism and southern hospitality. Patterson Hood is a fantastic songwriter and gets to the heart of these matters on this record.
“Keep On Rockin’ In The Free World”:
10.27 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood
with
Cumberland Blues
Big Boss Man
Big Railroad Blues
Passenger
Box Of Rain
II
China Cat Sunflower>
I Know You Rider
Iko Iko
Eyes
Drums Space
The Other One>
Wharf Rat
Brokedown Palace
Werewolves of London
10.30 Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country at First Ave
DDCC put on an amazing Halloween eve show for their first visit to First Avenue! Really fun night and equally fun crew. Happy birthday, Amy!
Things definitely got cosmic in the second set, so much so that I thought the whole place might start levitating and or float away! Donato is an absolute wizard on the guitar and such a joyful dude. Sugarlegg is always fantastic on the keys, those two play off each other beautifully. Great to see DDCC in the Main Room after a gig at the Amsterdam exactly a year ago. Before that they played at the Turf Club and did an opening set for Greensky Bluegrass at the Palace. He was definitely a highlight of Blue Ox this summer as well!
Brianna (Keith Richards) and I were lucky to catch him in his home town of Nashville in December of 2022 as well, at the Brooklyn Bowl.
Some of the crew:
10.31 Bearly Dead at Hook and Ladder Theater
I closed out what was essentially the most insane Rocktober imaginable with Boston’s Bearly Dead, a five piece ensemble that was augmented by our own Mark Joseph, who apparently charmed and impressed the band while on a jaunt out east a few years back.
An uptempo “The Harder They Come” and a spirited “Cassidy” were highlights, along with a well executed “Terrapin Station” in the second frame.
Classic Halloween closer “Werewolves of London” was well received and I hope these guys come through town again sometime!
Touch of Grey
Candyman
Dire Wolf
Minglewood
Friend of the Devil
Cassidy
Harder They Come uptempo
Ramble on Rose
Rhapsody in Red
Feel Like A Stranger
Terrapin
Hell in a Bucket
Midnight Moonlight 🌙 >
Dark Star>
Throwing Stones
Promontory Rider
Werewolves of London
”Rhapsody In Red”:
“Werewolves Of London”:
I was such a fan of the lead guy’s hat that I just had to request authorization to get a photo with it on!
Well I am unlikely to ever experience quite such an exciting birthday month again. Rocktober lived up to its name, with 23 shows at 12 venues featuring some legendary acts, new and old. Not too often that I make it to five shows at First Ave in one month, or that I am there at noon on Sundays, though I often refer to that venue as church. That brings me to 199 shows so far in 2024.