Jam in the Stream

The Headhunters, which Herbie Hancock formed in 1973, play the Dakota Tuesday night, topping Jam in the Stream’s weekly live music picks in Minnesota. Read more about The Headhunters and other live music options this week.

Read a short piece and view an extensive photo gallery (shot by Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna) from the final day of Hotel Minnesnowta, which stretched into the wee hours of Sunday morning.

Check out a photo gallery of Hotel Minnesnowta’s Friday festivities shot by Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna.

Hotel Minnesnowta got off to a rousing start Thursday night with Minneapolis’ TWINE and Duluth’s Saltydog kicking off the event, with the two bands co-mingling at Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West’s Creekside Lounge. Read a short writeup of the show and check out a photo gallery from Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna. Also, find a ticket link to the final night of the hotel fest, which closes with a late, late-night jam featuring The Johnson Brothers and Ryan David Young of Trampled by Turtles.

Jeff Franca of Thievery Corporation will perform alongside Momentary Lapse of Floyd at the three-day Hotel Minnesnowta music fest at Crowne Plaza Minneapolis West in Plymouth. The hotel fest tops Jam in the Stream’s weekly music picks. Find out what other live music is happening in Minnesota this week.

Only Every Monday, which holds its 700th show in the series tonight (Monday, Jan. 6) tops Jam in the Stream’s Minnesota live music recommendations this week. But there are many other options this week, including a particularly busy Friday night in Minneapolis.

No. 9: Circles Around The Sun’s March 24 show at Saint Paul’s Turf Club makes Jam in the Stream’s list of 12 memorable shows that stick out for him in 2024.

Jam in the Stream has a special, Year End edition of the weekly Minnesota live music pics. There’s a lot of good music options from now until the end of the year. The editor is hoping he’ll be up for a trip down to Winona on New Year’s Eve to catch one of his faves: Duluth’s Saltydog.

Check out Jam in the Stream’s photo gallery from The Big Wu’s show at First Avenue on Dec. 21, 2024.

Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna was excited to catch Etran de L’Aïr at the Turf Club back in July. The Saharan dessert blues band ripped, as expected, but so did the opener, Diles que no me maten, an experimental indie rock band from Mexico City. Read more about this show, which comes in at No. 10 on the editor’s list of 12 memorable shows in 2024.

Saltydog’s sendoff of Duluth’s Ripple Bar is No. 11 on Jam in the Stream’s list of a dozen memorable shows in 2024. Read more about what made that show special.

Karina Rykman’s Feb. 28 show at Minneapolis’ 7th Street Entry kicks off Jam in the Stream editor Javier Serna’s list of 12 memorable shows he caught in 2024. Read more about Rykman, an exciting up-and-coming bass player, and what made that show stand out.

TWINE frontman Will Effertz did know California Honeydrops’ music but didn’t know saxophonist Janos “Johnny Bones” Lustig when he approached the stage at Bunker’s last Wednesday night. “I have had that happen in instances, and when it’s a saxophone, I am like, ‘Please, be good.’ It turned out he was a badass.” Read more about the unplanned sit-in from Lustig on a night when local vocalist/guitarist Joe Dunn and sound man Gage Schmitt (on flute) were already featured.

The Big Wu’s gig at First Avenue in Minneapolis tops Jam in the Stream’s weekly Minnesota live music roundup, which is back this week after a short hiatus. Find out what other shows are happening in Minnesota.

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.

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.