Bellwether CD Release Show at The Turf Club on 11/13/04

By: David de Young
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If you were looking for evidence that the Twin Cities music scene continued to thrive during the weeks that First Avenue was closed you needed look no further than the Turf Club Friday or Saturday night. Friday featured a packed show that started with loop-master Martin Dosh playing in media res as concert goers thronged around his one man band in the center of the Turf Club floor. Revolver Modele rocked the house in the second spot, and Kid ...

Luna at Abbey Pub on 11/12/04

By: Brian Marx
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Britta Phillips of Luna performs at the Abbey Pub, Chicago, Illinois - Photo by Brian Marx (click for full size) Ideally you shouldn’t pay more than $15 for a full-length CD. If you do, you are either comfortably rich, mentally challenged, or desperately in love with a band. When I paid $16.99 for Luna Live (2001) a few year...

Pixies w/the Datsuns at Roy Wilkins Auditorium on 11/11/04

By: David de Young
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The Drive 105 kickoff party at Station 4 would have been a good place to go if you were ticket-less prior to show time. The alternative rock station gave away 20 free tickets to maybe only 3 dozen people who entered the drawing, so your chances were pretty good. Unlike the Fine Line show in April for which people were selling their first born just to sniff a real ticket, people were outside Roy Wilkins even after the opening...

Robyn Hitchcock at Schuba's on 11/6/04

By: David de Young
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Robyn Hitchcock - Photo from his website Am I crazy? Don’t answer that. After seeing Robyn Hitchcock’s two Minneapolis club shows (The Cedar and the Kitty Kat Club), I headed to Chicago Saturday to see him again at Schuba’s Tavern (3159 N. Southport.) Actually, it was all a happy coincidence as I already plann...

Paul Westerberg and the Painkillers at Pantages Theatre on 11/5/04

By: Karla Ludzack
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It’s not as acoustically sound as The Guthrie (where Westerberg played several solo shows that same year), but The Pantages Theatre which re-opened in 2002 after a complete renovation, did provide a great backdrop for Paul Westerberg's first show with a full band since 1996. When I arrived at the venue Friday night, the scalpers were out in full force, which may explain why that show had sold out so quickly. Shortly af...

Robyn Hitchcock at Cedar Cultural Center on 11/3/04

By: David de Young
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This is supposed to be a Robyn Hitchcock review. Forgive me if it’s interrupted with other realities. Given the events of the past two days (i.e. First Avenue closing and Bush winning the election), that cannot be helped. The Jonathan Richman, Robyn Hitchcock and Jesse Denatale show was the first national show to be re-located from the ill-fated First Avenue which shut its doors at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday. When I arrived at the Cedar Cultura...

Drive By Truckers with Centro-Matic at The Metro on 10/30/04

By: David de Young
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Mike Cooley of Drive By Truckers at First Avenue Wednesday, October 27th, 2004 - Photo by Karla Ludzack (click for larger version) Wednesday night I arrived at the ill-fated First Avenue in Minneapolis to the show headlined by Alabama’s Drive By Truckers just in time to miss the final song by middle band Centro-Matic. I had ...

Drive By Truckers with Centro-Matic at First Avenue on 10/27/04

By: Karla Ludzack
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Two of the South's best bands, Drive by Truckers and Centro-Matic, came to Minneapolis on October 27th. If you didn't get the opportunity to see them, you missed a hell of a show. Runner and the Thermodynamics from Boston opened the evening. Overall, I wasn’t impressed. Their brightest moment was when they closed with The James Gang's Seems To Me. Centro-Matic was next. Their sound is built up in layers so it often take time to sink in, unless they play something that l...

Wilco at Orpheum Theatre on 10/26/04

By: Karla Ludzack
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Jeff Tweedy performs with Wilco on Tuesday night at the Orpheum - Photo by Karla Ludzack (click for full size version.) From the opening bars of Poor Places on Tuesday, I knew I was in for a much different Wilco show from the one I experienced the previous night. I can unequivocally say that the second of Wilco's two-night stand i...

Wilco at Orpheum Theatre on 10/25/04

By: David de Young
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Wilco - Publicity photo by Danny Clinch This review is dedicated to the guy who flipped off the audience during the first song of Wilco’s set at the Orpheum in Minneapolis. It pissed off Jeff Tweedy enough that he commented on it later in the show in one of the longer audience chat-up bits, saying that he had really been offended ...