September 2024 Recap

Harmony Park, MN State Fair, King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard, Goose, A Britpop legend, and A Celebration of Life for Steve Fine.

Jun 04, 2025

9.1 Shangri-La at Harmony Park

I’ve spent a lot of time at Harmony Park over the years. My first time was Widespread Panic in 2000, and I was back the following summer when Panic played July 4th, 2001. At Harvest Fest 2002, Willie Nelson was sick and couldn’t perform his headlining set, so Warren Haynes flew in last minute and played in Willie’s place. I have a very fond memory from 2003, when a newly formed Duluth band called Trampled by Turtles played atop Harmony’s wood bar while the Vikings game was on TV on the Sunday afternoon of Harvest Fest. It was one of those early Harmony experiences where I met Rochester based artist Chuck Hues. In the many years between I’ve attended many other festivals at Harmony, including several The Big Wu Family Reunions and a three night String Cheese Incident run at Revival Festival in 2022. Harvest Fest became Shangri-La some years back, when Wookiefoot became the driving force behind it. I was happy to check out my first “Shang”, as the kids call it, and assist my friend Chuck with his booth where they raffled off some paintings and sold some really cool Harmony Park pins. Wookiefoot, Nur-D and Mike Love were the weekend’s highlights for me.

Me and Nur-D, who as always put on a high energy show!

Chuck and some birds:

Chuck’s tree art fit right in under the oaks at Harmony Park:

The artist at work:

Mike Love:

9.2 Semisonic, The Brothers Almanac at MN State Fair

The MN State Fair, aka Minnesota’s Biggest Music Festival, is one of my absolute favorite times of the year. There are dozens of acts playing all over the fairgrounds on six different stages. 2025’s Fair will reportedly have over 100 acts playing over 900 shows, free with paid admission to the fair. That does not even count Grandstand shows, which require an additional, often expensive, ticket.

See links below for this year’s plentiful and wonderful options. I will be at Arrested Development for one of their two nights (Aug 23 and 24), as well as Los Lobos the 25th and probably many others tbd.

https://www.mnstatefair.org/free-live-music-and-shows/

https://www.mnstatefair.org/schedule/

On this Labor Day night, Allman Bros Band tribute act The Brothers Almanac played the Schell’s stage and Semisonic was at the Leinie Lodge stage. The highlight of the Semisonic set for me was Dan Wilson singing his hit song “White Horse”, that Chris Stapleton had a huge hit with. In fact, Stapleton kicked off his show at US Bank Stadium with that song in April, and at the time I had no idea it was written by Dan Wilson. Obviously, Wilson is a master songwriter, maybe one of the most successful in recent history, having also written songs with and for Adele and The Chicks, among others.

Forgive the terrible video of “White Horse”:

9.3 King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at The Armory

KGLW are completely outrageous. They are insanely prolific, having released at least thirty albuns and a handful of live releases since they got started in their native Australia in 2010. I can’t say that I am familiar with all that material but I was excited to see them for the first time based on what I had heard. This Armory show was just the third show they’d played in the Twin Cities, having performed at the 250 person capacity 7th Street Entry in 2015 and the 2600 capacity Palace in 2022. Obviously their following has increased quite a bit since then and here they were at the Armory in front of 8,000 people. Spectacular lights and boundless energy from the band and the attentive audience added to the spectacle of this astounding show.

Stu McKenzie, generally considered the creative force behind the band and all that output, sings lead and plays guitar and keyboards. I could barely keep track of all that was going on onstage, with up to three guitars blistering at a time. The keyboard players occasionally switched to guitar or harmonica. At one point, the psych rock sextuplet all gathered around a sound table of some kind where they were pressing buttons and maybe activating a theremin or something. It was madness, that’s all I know. I really enjoyed it and will definitely see them again.

“Theda”:

Geese opened, and covered the Replacements’ “Waitress In The Sky”! That was a cool nod to Minneapolis that seemingly went over most peoples’ heads. Even among music fans in Minneapolis, the Replacements are criminally underrated.

The whole show (and I believe the entire tour) was broadcast live on youtube and can be seen here:

9.6 About To Run at Dayblock Brewing

Art Hoffman’s Phish/Trey Anastasio tribute was back downtown for another night of tunes. Joined by a couple of horns, they took on the following numbers, among others:

Bathtub Gin
Shine
Plasma
Tide Turns
Llama
Ether Sunday

2001>
Don't Stop Til You Get Enough

9.8 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood

Consecutive Sunday #690 for SRB!

Lazy River

El Paso

Foolish Heart

Little Red Rooster

Just A Little Light

Greatest Story

Cassidy

Weather Report Suite

Run For the Roses

Althea

Bird Song

The Other One

Drums Space>

The Other One

9.11 Twine at The Cabooze

The Wednesday night residency at The Cabooze has been a fixture of the Minneapolis music scene since sometime in the 1990s. It has at times been held by Mango Jam, The Big Wu, Sweet Potato Project, and God Johnson. Twine became the latest band to land the coveted spot at that legendary bar that has been serving live music since 1975. Joe Dunn and a couple other guitarists sat in for part of the show.

The first Twinesday consisted of, in part,

Rescue

Cajun Moon

They Call Me The Breeze

Sissy Strut

Lou and Luna

Yes We Can Can

Ghost

Them Changes

Let's Go Get Stoned

Sand>

Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad >

Sand

Honeybee

Revival

9.12 Mossanello at Driftwood

This is Mike Corcoran of the Shotgun Ragtime Band and Jones Gang’s new project, wherein he only performs his own material. He was augmented by Ryan Stainager on rhythm guitar and someone on drums but I can’t recall who. There was talk of adding a keyboard player for next time. Mike writes some solid and catchy songs!

9.14 Goose at The Armory

Goose fans were thrilled and concerned about the bat that was flying above the crowd in a panicked confusion before the show started. I predicted that the Goose Bat would be viral by setbreak, and hoped for an off the wall bat related Minneapolis song, preferably a Prince tribute of some kind. After all, the band Geese had just performed “Waitress In the Sky” a week or two prior on the same stage. “Batdance” would’ve been perfect for Goose but that was a missed opportunity.

Well everyone forgot about that poor lost bat when the band took the stage and we began to see the scope and potential of the accompanying lighting rig.

Saturday night was the fifth or sixth time I've seen Goose, and while I enjoyed each show, this was the best yet. Their new drummer has upped the ante and the band continues to be among the best out there at building to a fantastic crescendo. Their light show filled the large space of the Armory perfectly and added to the wow factor throughout.

I was happy to hear some of my favorite songs from the band, including “Rockdale'“, “Animal”, “Hungersite”, “Drive”, and the closing “Hot Tea”.

Goose often surprises fans with unexpected covers and they certainly surprised me with Echo and the Bunnymen's “The Killing Moon” in the first set. Peter Gabriel's “In Your Eyes” was also great, clocking in at just under 13 minutes in a second set that had just four songs. They really took all those tunes for a trip out into the stratosphere!

“Hot Tea”:

9.14 WE Collective at Gluek’s

Another hoppin’ afterparty at Gluek’s, with a lively crowd post Goose show. Will was joined by Demitri Rallis, Jon Ross, Scott Yonke, Art Begley, and a guy on saxophone.

9.15 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood

#691, with Annie Hicks joining in on vox and Derek Fagerwold on drums

Dark Hollow

Tangled Up In Blue

Minglewood Blues

Truckin'

He's Gone

Sisters and Brothers

Viola Lee Blues

West LA Fadeaway

I Need A Miracle

Drums/Space

Standing on the Moon

Good Lovin'

Werewolves of London

9.16 Paul Weller at First Avenue

Brianna and I celebrated 14 years of marriage with some tunes at First Ave!

Paul Weller, aka The Modfather, founding member of The Jam and The Style Council, put on a fantastic show! Bucket list item to see this wildly influential artist.

“Start”:

“That’s Entertainment”:

9.18 Twine at The Cabooze

The second Wednesday in the series included Art Begley on guitar and:

John the Revelator

Sand>First Tube>Sand

We Can Make It

Lou and Luna

Revival

Steam

Why Does Love Got To Be So Sad

Honeybee

Them Changes [Buddy Miles]

Sneakin’ Sally Through the Alley with w Two Tickets to Paradise tease

fresh Twine hats from Jason:

9.21 TC Ramblers play Women of Classic Country at Tuttle’s

The Ramblers played hits such as Patsy Cline’s “Crazy”, Loretta Lynn’s ”Don't Come a Drinkin’”, “Angel From Montgomery”, written by John Prine but Bonnie Raitt had a great version, and Hank Williams’ “Your Cheatin' Heart”, which was also sang by Loretta Lynn.

9.22 Donna The Buffalo at Parkway Theater

My good friend Bill, a 70 year old Deadhead and longtime fan of Donna The Buffalo, invited me to join him for this show (Thanks Bill!) which was my first time seeing DTB (not to be confused with DBT, TTB, TBT, ABB, or FDT). The five piece from Ithaca brought their wide ranging tunes to the intimate Parkway Theatre in South Minneapolis, exploring different facets of American music such as cajun (fiddle was prominently featured, which I always love), accordion and Hammond B3 driven Zydeco, surf, boogie-woogie and country. They had Keith Secola, a Native American singer songwriter from Minnesota, join for his original song “Frybread” (second video).

9.22 Shotgun Ragtime Band at Driftwood

Second set had some gems such as:

Lost Sailor
Saint of Circumstance
Drums and Space
Death Don’t Have No Mercy

“One More Saturday Night” with Dominic on harmonica:

9.25 Twine at The Cabooze

The third Wednesday, and we heard:

Lou and Luna
Honeybee
Rescue
Them Changes
Coconut
Liz Reed

9.26 Thievery Corporation at First Ave

Thievery Corporation are a Washington DC based duo made up of Rob Garza, who DJs as well as plays acoustic guitar and other instruments and Eric Hilton, who plays electric guitar and one of the coolest instruments on the planet, the sitar.

The pair are always augmented by sensational guest singers and a full band. This sold out show at First Avenue, which was preceded by Minneapolis appearances at the Fillmore and Varsity Theatre within the past few years was I believe only the third time I’d seen them.

“Lebanese Blonde”:

Minneapolitan Martin Dosh opened the show with some cool vibey instrumentals on keyboards, synthesizers and drums:

9.28 FineFest at Tuttles with Shotgun Ragtime Band, Lost Marbles, Fine and Friends

Love and music was in the air as the Minneapolis music community gathered to celebrate the life of the late, great Steve Fine. Steve was a wonderful guy and outstanding drummer who kept the beat for many different bands over many decades. He passed in June after a brief battle with cancer. Several of the bands Steve played in performed, starting at 4pm with Fine and Friends and concluding with the Shotgun Ragtime Band, who I got to see him perform with countless times, including at Target Field and the Xcel Energy Center as part of the Twins' and Wild's Grateful Dead nights.

Steve will be dearly missed and very fondly remembered. I'm proud to have known him and called him a friend. Love and hugs to Laura. Fare thee well and rest easy, Steve!