After a 6-year hiatus, Suicide Girls is bringing back the most popular Burlesque Tour in US history and it stops by the Varsity Theater this Friday. What could be better than seeing stripteases and performances poking fun at Star Trek, Avengers, Game of Thrones, The Big Lebowski, Pulp Fiction, Planet of The Apes and The Rocky Horror Picture Show? Here is the info: http://varsitytheater.org/events/inked-magazine-presents-suicidegirls-blackheart-burlesque-tour/
It's that time of year again. Friends and family fly back to Minnesota from all over the planet for Thanksgiving and the night before they just want to hang out, and drink a few beers. To celebrate this tradition of getting inebriated the night before a day of suffering through Aunt Betty's stories for the 100th time, Famous Dave's in Uptown hosts Drinksgiving.
Headlined by the White Iron Band, this pre-Thanksgiving party has become a staple for many of us here at MN Underground. What more can you ask for on the eve of overeating and family feuding? Throw in three great local bands, copious amounts of booze and stir...
Things get kicked off with Jimmi and The Band of Souls...A dirty mix of Blues, Roots and R&B and a mix of both covers and original tunes get things started off just as you'd expect.
Also gracing the stage of Famous Dave's Calhoun BBQ & Blues Club is Horseshoes and Hand Grenades. Invading from the "other side of the river" in Steven's Point, WI, these guys bring a ton of game, even if they are Sconnies ;). Blending a twangy mix of bluegrass and old-timey folk music, they are a perfect fit for the evening's festivities.
Closing out the show, for as many years as I can remember, the White Iron Band deliver a rowdy rockus brand of "outlaw country" that makes me proud to call myself a Minnesotan. Always entertaining and unmistakably local, these guys love to party just as hard as anyone in the building. So, grab a Grainbelt Premium and get your ass out on the dancefloor. Drinksgiving is upon us...
Doors at 8:00, all ages show (cough), and it's only $8.... See you there.
Derek Vincent Smith, better known by his stage name, PrettyLights, took the Twin Cities (Minneapolis-St. Paul) by storm last weekend selling out his Saturday show at
The Myth in Maplewood, Minnesota - a St. Paul suburb - during his one night stop on the Analog Future
Tour. SIMshows, a staple EDM promoter in the Twin Cities, brought this huge
name to town just a week after selling out the Aokify America Tour at EPIC
Nightclub in Minneapolis. That was a crazy night in its own right, check out
our coverage the Aokify America Tour HERE. But for now, back to Pretty Lights. I had never been to The Myth
before, but everything I had heard about it was positive – other than the heavy
handed security at the entrance – so I was pretty excited all around. There is
a Days Inn less than a block from the venue that some of our friends booked a
room at because of its proximity and low cost. DO NOT BOOK A ROOM IN THAT GOD FORSAKEN HOTEL! Trust me,
spend the extra money, stay at a Holiday Inn or something. It’s worth it. After
partying a bit in the hotel room from hell, we decided to make the short walk
over to the show. The 3,200 person capacity venue looks like an industrial warehouse
of sorts from the outside - it’s a stand-alone structure in what appears to be
a fairly commercial area. The will-call line took forever for us to make our
way through so we ended up missing Paul Basic, which was a total bummer; yet, walking
into the venue during Blood Diamonds was pretty sweet in its own right.
Below: The Crowd Gets Fogged From Above
Pretty Lights took command of the stage around 11pm accompanied by his full band: Adam Deitch of Break Science on Drums; Brian Coogan of New Orleans All-Stars on Keyboard; Borahm Lee of Break Science on Keyboard; Scott Flynn of John Brown’s Body on trombone; and Eric Bloom of Lettuce on Trumpet. Having seen Pretty Lights twice previously, I was beyond excited to see this all-star lineup of musicians accompany this musical madman on stage.
The band
stood on raised platforms that were outlined in high powered LED’s that changed
colors throughout the performance. Throughout the show Pretty Lights pulled
tracks from every part of his catalog and the band members played an integral
role in the composition of every live track. It was so awesome to see Pretty Lights
with live horns. The funk just sounded so much funkier, and the jams sounded so
much more alive with the help of all these musical technicians on stage with
him while they pounded tracks like: “Color of my Soul,” “Lets Get Busy,” “More
Important than Michael Jordan,” “Finally Moving,” One Day They’ll Know,” “I
Know The Truth,” “Hot Like Dimes,” and that’s not even scratching the surface
of what was played that night. At one point Derek hopped on the guitar and
played a couple of riffs which was pretty sweet if you ask me.
But what was even sweeter were the lights. Holy shit, they were incredible. Easily one of the best light shows I have ever seen. I’m not sure what they were, maybe huge Co2 cannons installed in the circle fixture on the ceiling that got the whole room fogged up and the lasers in full effect. A huge shout out to the visual engineer for he was just as an integral part to the entire performance as each of the musicians themselves. Spot on all night and crisp as hell. I would definitely not miss Pretty Lights any time soon if he is coming to a city near you, it's well worth every penny you will spend making that concert happen. Big shout out to SIMshows for bringing this amazing act to the cities on a Saturday night. Check out their event calendar for all their upcoming shows. All photos are of Pretty Lights' laser show & performance by Troy Manley.
3rdeyegirl.com
Here is the link from Prince (@3rdeyegirl): https://www.wetransfer.com/downloads/e59e7b53ed5eef555c66e1c41cafc9ac20131118102323/7c35e0
Image Via First Avenue's instagram
After attending the Tuesday night late show, I can honestly say that Dave Chappelle is as funny as ever and more than deserves the star. My wife and I were lucky enough to grab a couple of seats right in the front and were (at several points in the evening) engaged by Dave Chappelle asking about our marriage and kids which blended right into his material on his family. We even got a couple of fist bumps for still holding hands after twelve years of marriage. Definitely a memorable experience and one I will not soon forget. Thanks Dave!
Still trying to decide what to do this weekend? If you are a fan of EDM at all, you have heard the name Pretty Lights. Well, Derek Vincent Smith aka Pretty Lights, will be invading Myth night club in Maplewood Saturday night.
This show is SOLD OUT, but I found a number of tix available on Craigslist and eBay... We have ours on lock...
Minneapolis gets stop #2 on the freshly announced Arcade Fire - Reflektor tour.
March 8th at Target Center.
Tickets available through Ticketmaster HERE.
I know we have been waiting for Arcade Fire to make a stop here for quite a while...
Who else is excite to hear about this tour?
Check out this review of Dave Chappelle's Monday late show at First Avenue from the Star Tribune's Chris Riemenschneider. Dave Chappelle performed for nearly three straight hours! Could be a long night since I have tickets to tonight's late show.
Dave Chappelle goes nearly three hours in second First Ave set
Trampled By Turtles played three sold out shows at the famous night club, First Avenue, in downtown Minneapolis. The shows ran April 17,18 and 19th and from all accounts were incredible.We made it to one of the shows and was arguably the best TBT show we have ever been to. They have a limited run of picture books that document the night in spectacular fashion as well as LP or CD/DVD combo. They have multiple packages for a very reasonable price, so don't be afraid to give a little TBT for Christmas. I know I will.
Several of the MN Underground crew will be venturing out to the suburbs tomorrow night to see The Black Crowes (@TBlackCrowes). The Black Crowes have sold over 35 million albums and are known as one of rock’s best live acts. They’re currently touring the U.S. on their “Lay Down With Number 13” tour, their first tour since recently ending a two-year hiatus. The tour has been getting rave reviews and we are certainly looking forward to the show. Tickets are still available.
The Black Crowes @ Myth - St Paul, MNMichael Franti and Spearhead drop a new video for "Life is Better With You" today... Mr. Franti may be the most positive human being on the planet and his tunes just make you wanna smile. Here's a little love to end your work day... :)
Saturday night was the 28th annual Krewe of D.A.D.'s Masquerade Ball... A Tribute to Lowell George, Little Feat's long time guitarist/vocalist/song writer. The show got started early and rocked on right to 2AM.. We got there early, knowing full well that the place was going to fill up fast and that there was great music in store. The Facebook party page had sketched out a basic roadmap for the evening; 3 sets, Paul and Fred from Little Feat, the NOLA Suspects, then all of them together to end off the evening... Hold on to your shorts folks...
Paul Barrere and Fred Tackett took the stage right at 9:00 and dove head first into a collection of tunes nearly any music fan would recognize. Just the two of them on stage, their guitars and microphones. That's all they needed.
Not familiar with The New Orleans Suspects... Well, let me suggest you get acquainted. These guys are some of the most storied and talented musicians in New Orleans music, and arguably rock music as a whole. "Mean" Willie Green has been the drummer for the Neville Brother's Band since the 1980's, Reggie Scanlan has played bass for The Radiators for over 30 years, Jake Eckert was the lead guitarist for the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, CR Gruver has played keys for The Meters Experience, and a laundry list of other jazz legends, and Jeff Watkins has lent his saxophone skills to James Brown for over 12 years, and worked as Joss Stone's producer for 6. These 5 guys put more funky-jazzy musical talent on stage than your brain can handle.
As if all of that wasn't enough, the third and final set of the evening was all these ridiculously talented musicians on stage together, at the same time... Playing favorites from both The Suspects and Little Feat's rosters, as well as a few artfully chosen covers, not a person in the Cabooze was sitting still. The party was rockin', and we were all sad to see it end, including the guys on stage.
A Special thanks to the Krewe of D.A.D.s for putting this show together. Further proof that the Minnesota music scene has a little bit of everything, and a little NOLA funk doesn't go unappreciated.
Watch Poliça + Marijuana Deathsquads perform live from the 9:30 Club in DC around 8:00 CST via @nprmusic. Here is the link: http://www.npr.org/event/music/243265907/poli-a-live-in-concert?sc=tw&cc=share
Dave Chappelle is coming to town for a 4 night stand at the iconic First Avenue starting Monday November 11th. There will be two shows a night and it does appear that all of the shows are sold out at this time. However, if you are willing to spend the extra cash, I'm positive that many tickets are available on all of the various ticket broker sites.
Electro Jam band Sound Tribe Sector 9 (STS9) announced their 2014 tour date as booked so far...
We get a stop at First Avenue on Feb 5th!
See all the new tour dates below!
Fan club tickets go on sale this Thursday November 7th at 10am local time exclusively at www.STS9store.com.
01.23.14 – House of Blues – San Diego, CA
01.24.14 – Hollywood Palladium – Los Angeles, CA
01.25.14 – Fox Theater – Oakland, CA
01.26.14 – Montbleu Ballroom – Tahoe, CA
01.28.14 – The Depot – Salt Lake City, UT
01.29.14 – Belly Up – Aspen, CO
01.30.14 – Belly Up – Aspen, CO
01.31.14 – Fillmore Auditorium – Denver, CO
02.01.14 – Fillmore Auditorium – Denver, CO
02.04.14 – TBD Venue – TBD, NE
02.05.14 - First Avenue – Minneapolis, MN
02.06.14 – Hoyt Sherman Place – Des Moines, IA
02.07.14 – Riverside Theatre – Milwaukee, WI
02.08.14 – Aragon Ballroom- Chicago, IL
02.09.14 – Orbit Room – Grand Rapids, MI
02.11.14 – Town Ballroom – Buffalo, NY
02.13.14 – State Theatre – Portland, ME
02.14.14 – Lupo’s – Providence, RI
02.15.14 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY
02.16.14 – Capitol Theatre – Port Chester, NY
02.19.14 – 9:30 Club – Washington, DC
02.20.14 – The Norva – Norfolk, VA
02.21.14 - Thomas Wolfe Auditorium – Asheville, NC
02.22.14 – Tennessee Theatre – Knoxville, TN
Reggie Scanlan just posted this to his Facebok page recently:
The New Orleans Suspects have been rehearsing for the last two weeks for the upcoming shows with Paul and Fred from Little Feat ... In addition to a bunch of surprise covers we have ready for you, we have got these Little Feat tunes in really good shape. I think everyone is going to love it.
*Dixie Chicken
*Spanish Moon
*Two Trains Running
*Fat Man in the Bathtub
*Willin'
*Down on the Farm
*Skin it Back
*Rocket in My Pocket
*On Your Way Down
Plus lots more from the New Orleans Songbook.....