Jam in the Stream

Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna is stoked that Orions Belte, an instrumental trio from Norway, is hitting the U.S. early next year. Find out all of the details.

Jam in the Stream write about TWINE's new weekly Wednesday residency at the Cabooze. But find out what other options there are around Minnesota this week.

King Gizzard played another insane show at Nashville's Ascend Amphitheater, covering many bases. They also had Jay Weinberg play drums on "Perihelion," in a rare sit-in, on a night fans hoped for a Billy Strings sit-in. Read about all the crazy things that happened at this wild show down south.

King Gizzard's Milwaukee show was one of the best Gizz shows Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna has witnessed. It came after three amazing shows in Nashville, Chicago and Minneapolis. Find out what made this show so good.

King Gizzard played a wild and long show in Minneapolis on Tuesday night. Read all about it at www.jaminthestream.com

King Gizzard returns to Minnesota tonight, which tops Jam in the Stream's weekly live music picks in Minnesota this week. There's also a Gizz after party at Gluek's downtown after the show. Find out what other shows are happening in Minnesota this week.

Jam in the Stream's writeup of King Gizzard's show at Thompson's Point in Portland, Maine on Aug. 20. Stu Mackenzie took a dip into the Fore River during "The Dripping Tap" closer, the band debuted "Rats in the Sky," the band played a suite of songs from "I'm in Your Mind Fuzz," and opened with a 27-minute jamtronica section.

Buckethead, Dweezil Zappa and Ghost Funk Orchestra are among artists that play the Twin Cities early this week. Read about those shows and the rest of Jam in the Stream’s live music picks in Minnesota this week.

Jam in the Stream talked with Seth Applebaum of Ghost Funk Orchestra ahead of the band’s appearance at Minneapolis’ Green Room next Tuesday. The band has been up to a lot of cool things in the past year, including a new album inspired by the Apollo Missions, touring with Grace Potter, collaborating with jam keyboardist Marco Benevento and more.

It’s another busy week on Minnesota’s live music scene, with the GZA and a backing band with a fiddler at the Dakota, Saharan desert blues pioneers Tinariwen at the Cedar. Get the details on those and more shows at Jam in the Stream’s weekly live show picks article.

MonoNeon tops Jam in the Stream’s live music picks this week in Minnesota, but find out what other shows come highly recommended.

Crumb’s show at the Varsity Theater Friday tops Jam in the Stream’s list of live music picks this week in Minnesota. Read the fully story at www.jaminthestream.com

Etran de L’Äir, known for a brand of “dessert blues,” is playing Turf Club Wednesday, the first of several live music picks this week from Jam in the Stream. Find out more about the band from Niger, and the rest of Jam in the Stream’s show recommendations.

Check out Jam in the Stream’s photo gallery of Daniel Donato’s main stage set at Blue Ox Music Festival in Eau Claire, Wis., from June 26, 2024.

Check out Jam in the Stream’s live music picks for this week in and around Minnesota.

A galley of pictures from Feed the Dog’s side stage set at Blue Ox Music Festival shot by Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna last Thursday, including video of “Space Odyssey” and a sit-in from Leftover Salmon banjoist Andy Thorn.

So many choices this week, thanks in part to Blue Ox Music Festival and all the talent that are playing there in Eau Claire, Wis. But Minneapolis has lots of great shows planned this week, including a surprise set at Gluek’s Thursday night, Micheal Cleveland at Dakota on Saturday and JT Bates Organ Trio featuring Kevin Gastonguay on the Hammond B3 organ Saturday.

“Look who just walked in the door!”
Check out Jam in the Stream’s photo gallery from The Big Wu’s Saturday show “Under the Canopy” at The Hook & Ladder Theater and Lounge in Minneapolis. The band had several sit-ins including Nicholas David and Debbie Center on keys, as well as Stanley Behrens on saxophone and harmonica. There’s also video of the encore, “MN Moon” linked in the story.

Duluth’s SaltyDog released Pepper on June 3. Jam in the Stream reviews the band’s second LP, which features solid song writing, lyrically, as the band has grown to include a pair of guitarists, a hand percussionist and a keyboardist, the latest addition to the band, Jam in the Stream’s verdict: Go buy this album, which includes songs such as “Barfly,” “Yeehaw,” and “Farmer Norm,” among others.

The Kitchen Dwellers are one of the most exciting bands touring on the jamgrass scene right now, a psychedelic mix bluegrass, folk and rock. Guitarist Max Davies gave answered some questions from Jam in the Stream. The Dwellers, along with Sicard Hollow, are touring the east coast and Midwest, with stops in Pawtucket, R.I.,(tonight, April 27), Brooklyn (April 28), Washington, D.C. (April 29), Buffalo, N.Y. (April 30), Ferndale, Mich. (May 2), Indianapolis (May 3), Kalamazoo, Mich., (May 4), Chicago (May 5), and Milwaukee (May 6).

Jam in the Stream weighs in not on the Goose show itself, per say, that rolled through Minnesota Sunday but the polarizing aspect that three up-and-coming bands have sparked the past few years. It’s OK to like, or not like, any or all of them. But it would be better if we all just remembered to be kind to one another.

Minneapolis jamgrass quartet Buffalo Galaxy heads out to Colorado this week for four shows. The band has more shows booked in May, festival appearances booked in June and is working on an album. A single, including music video, is on track to be released in the next month.

This week, a pair of artists announced pop-up shows independently of each other. String Cheese Incident is doing a free show at Chicago radio station 93xrt (details on acquiring tickets included in story) April 28. Also, Adam Greuel and the Space Burritos announced a pop-up show Linneman’s Riverwest Inn on Saturday, April 15.

Phish fans in Los Angeles early for the Hollywood Bowl run – and anyone into psychedelic rock – should head over to the El Rey Theatre on April 20 to catch Los Bitchos. The London-based quartet opened for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard on their tour of Europe last month and won over many new fans.

Phish announced it would be webcasting its entire 8-show spring run, starting with Friday’s show at Climate Pledge Arena in Seattle. A discounted HD pass for the entire run is $200. UPDATED: Instructions for getting the extra 25 percent discount for LivePhish+ subscribers.

Drummer Mark Levy, of Circles Around The Sun, sat down with Jam in the Stream before the band’s March 15 show at the Turf Club in St. Paul. He discussed a range topics, including the way the body and mind react to listening to extended instrumentals, the way he has approached the role of beat keeper, and Billy String surprise sit in at a late-nite after party in February.

Victor Wooten, who played two sets April 4 at the Dakota Jazz Club, couldn’t get enough of playing with his brothers. The four men made their way over to Bunkers after their two Dakota shows and let out some energy, joined by Sonny T.

Check out Jam in the Stream’s first album review. It’s London-based Mcbaise’s debut 2014 album Seabass, which is somewhat of a postcard to the South of France, where the musician/illustrator grew up. Periodically, Jam in the Stream will review albums new and old from a variety of genres, from fusion jazz to psychedelic rock. Mcbaise, while known by some, comes up with some of the coolest songs too many people have never heard. Also, look out for an interview with Mcbaise later this month.

The Bob Pat Band celebrated the birthday of Bob Pat with a free show at 56 Brewing in Northeast Minneapolis Saturday April 1. The band kept the jams coming for two sets as the 56 Brewing concert hall filled in, many of Bob Pat’s friend showing up for the occasion.

Lotus postponed their April tour of the western U.S. and announced four shows to benefit the family of percussionist Chuck Morris. Morris, along with his 20-year-old son, Charley, disappeared March 16 on a kayaking trip on Beaver Lake (with a surface area of 44 square miles) in the Arkansas Ozarks.

Chuck Morris was only prioritizing his family and the need to connect with the natural world when tragedy found him. That’s what makes it so hard to process.

Serra Petale of Los Bitchos gave an interview to Jam in the Stream before opening up for King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard at the Sentrum Scene in Oslo, Norway March 8. Petale, a long-time fan of King Gizz, talked about the experience opening up for the Australian psych rock band, her own band’s roots in cumbia and how Los Bitchos wound up having an all-female core.

The Krasno/Moore Project, with guitarist Eric Krasno and drummer Stanton Moore, is touring the U.S. right now. They cut an album covering female greats from Aretha Franklin to Billie Eilish.

They have dates still in Chicago, Denver, Seattle, Portland, San Francisco and Los Angeles.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard sensed the Prague crowd wanted it hot and heavy and they delivered a banger of a show, easing up with some funk, blues and soul late in the two-hour set. The three levels of the Lucerna Velky Sal, a theater used for high school prom and ballroom dancing competitions, were piping hot; a blast of hot air billowed out of the venue’s front door for at least 45 minutes after the show.

Though he’s covered the outdoors for many of the last 22 years, the writer hasn’t had a column touching on the topic since 2004. With the launch of this blog in February, the option to write such a piece, however irregularly, opened back up. Here is the first such effort, though, warning, it rambles on and hits on a number of related topics including the northern lights, Lake of the Woods, and John Hartford covering John McLaughlin.

Seamus Patrick Kobayashi O’Connor has been attempting to attend and live stream every show on King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard’s 17-show tour through Europe and the U.K.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard took their 17-show tour of Europe to Oslo, Norway's Sentrum Scene, the perfect backdrop for the incredible visual element to their live shows. It turned out to be Jam in the Stream’s favorite show of the first five attended, though one show remains tonight in Prague.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard heated up a repurposed brewery on a cold, winter night in Stockholm, Sweden.

King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard hit its stride three shows into their March tour of Europe and the U.K. The band fed off the energy of a mosh-happy, metal-thirsty Dutch crowd that was rewarded with the debut of “Gila Monster.”

King Gizzard continued their European tour in Amsterdam on March 3, at circular former gas storage facility that has a beautiful second life as a concert venue. Part of the crowd at Amsterdam’s Gashouder sat down and “rowed the boat” when the band teased “Dripping Tap,” during “Mr. Beat.”

PARIS — King Gizzard and the Lizard Wizard opened their March tour of Europe with “Rattlesnake,” at the Zenith on March 2.

N.J.-based Dogs in a Pile is on tour, with Midwest, Northeast and Colorado dates scheduled, as well as an opening slot for the Disco Biscuits at the Capitol Theater in Port Chester, N.Y. Minneapolis string band Buffalo Galaxy opens for them when they hit Minneapolis March 3.

I’ll never forget the first time I saw this band play in person — a Phish after party in Chicago, following the Saturday show of Phish’s 2017 Northerly Island run. Casal had a way of stretching out an idea in such a tasteful and exploratory way, and the band used its spacey, soul-driven instrumentals to express emotions with notes instead of words.

WARNING: This post is written by a Phish nerd, taking a closer look at the band’s recently announced summer tour schedule. That includes a few words on the band’s 7-night run at Madison Square Garden, where as many as 16 shows were rumored (to one-up Harry Styles’ 15 sellouts last summer, or so that wicked rumor went).

In a co-headlined bill, singer Jon Sullivan delivered Max Graham’s vocals for Kind Country Band, keeping the memory of the late mandolinist alive, before taking the stage with his own band at the Hook & Ladder Theater in Minneapolis Feb. 10.

It’s taken me a couple of days to recover from what was the first Ice Dance Music Festival at Heidel House Hotel & Conference Center in Green Lake, Wis.

Would do again.

Up here in the cold, frozen tundra, we’re always looking for fun shit to do come late winter that doesn’t necessarily involve plane tickets south (one day, Phish Mexico, one day).

After his Saturday night show (the third and final show of a three-night run at 1st Bank Center), Billy showed up unannounced at Knew Conscious, an intimate 450-person music venue/art gallery/club to sit in with a lineup billed with guitarist Ross James (Terrapin Family Band) and banjoist Andy Thorn of Leftover Salmon and their Electric Dead Grass project featuring bass player Garrett Sayers (The Motet) and drummer Mark Levy (Circles Around the Sun). They jammed until about 4 in the morning — the stuff of my dreams.

The main goal of this page is to share the best music – old and new – I’ve come across over the last several decades, and tell the stories around the music. I’ve nourished my musical understanding by collecting wax LPs and attending live shows. I played several instruments as a kid, still dabble with several, but I’m more of a fan. A love for the jazz fusion era naturally led me to jam music, which I love as much for its range in style as the improvisation it inspires. Warning: I’m a sucker for 30-minute Phish jams, especially ones where the notes tell stories and transport listeners through space and time. I’ll review both live shows from both far and near to my Twin Cities home. There’ll be news and features about bands, musicians, and people in and around the music scene, stories about people connecting with wilderness or just being outside (something we can’t seem to get enough of these days), and links to my writing published elsewhere. Look for tour news as well as info on couch tour (aka live music streams) for several bands I’ll be following.