Joe Bonamassa at Cabooze on 12/2/06

By: Joe Lang
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Joe Bonamassa is the fiercest touring electric guitar player under 30 on the face of the planet, bar none.  No, he doesn’t have the good looks or pop sensibility that some of his “contemporaries” have, like Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Johnny Lang or John Mayer, he just has chops ‘till next Tuesday and a napalm tone that soothes and sears as he streaks up and down his guitar neck with some of the ballsiest playing you ever heard.  The real fuckin’ deal. &nbs...

Tim O'Reagan with The Owls at 400 Bar on 12/2/06

By: Charlie Vaughan
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“Please don’t ask… take my love and make it last.” A sweet whisper came from behind me. I slowly turned to face a pale woman of about thirty-five. Her open face drifted to the floor, pulling long brown hair into the folds of a plaid scarf. She was wearing a slim wool coat and smartly cut jeans. Her foot was tapping lightly on the tiled floor. We were standing in the checkout lane at the grocery store. There was a small g...

DeVotchKa with My Brightest Diamond at First Avenue on 11/30/06

By: Mary Rea
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A crowning moment for Denver’s darling, DeVotchKa, came with this summer’s soundtrack for “Little Miss Sunshine” – a collaboration which has taken their ethno folk indie rock to a wider and more diverse audience. Thursday night’s main room show at First Avenue found the crowd primed and ready for the band to outdo their July performance at the Varsity [read Billy Grave’s review of their previous show here] and they did not disappoint. Warming up...

The Black Keys Deliver a Fiery Blast to the Lower Chakra at First Avenue on 11/29/06

By: Lynn Zecca
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The Black Keys played to a sold-out crowd of rabid, sweat-soaked fans at First Avenue Wednesday night, and the duo rocked with enough power behind the pathos to set the coldest Minnesota night on fire. It was a perfect storm of Patrick Carney’s violent rhythms and Dan Auerbach’s shamanistic chord-work and emotionally charged vocals. They ripped through a tight, hour-long set that included half of this year’s brilliant Magic Potion. The rest was equal parts Rubber Factory and...

HowWasTheShow Does Homegrown at Drive 105 on 11/26/06

By: Andrea Swensson
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Here at HowWasTheShow, we spend a lot of time canvassing local bars and clubs in search of promising up-and-coming local acts.  Until now, we have equated the idea of a live show with a concert seen and heard in person; but as many a local scenester will tell you, there are other ways to get your live local music fix.  Some don’t even involve leaving the house.  Minnesota is home to a slew of great local radio programs, and on Sunday night this homebody ...

+/- at 7th Street Entry on 11/24/06

By: Pat O'Brien
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After a spare, loose set from local hot properties Duplomacy (see my review of last week’s show here), it was do or die time for NYC's +/-, a band that I had been back and forth about over the past few months. On record, some of it had been a little too emo for its (and my) own good, but in a live setting it took on a slightly more mature tone; there seemed to be much less whining than I had previously remembered. Instead, the music res...

Roster McCabe at Fine Line Music Café on 11/21/06

By: Mike Minehart
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When you follow a band for as long as I have, you have a pretty good idea of what to expect from them on any given night. Roster McCabe was one of the very first bands that got me into the Twin Cities local music scene, and to date I've attended more shows from them (22) than any other band. But not even a year's worth of gigs from these guys could have prepared me for what I was lucky enough to witness at the Fine Line Tuesday night. Though...

I Ate Like a Pig, Drank Like a Fish & Ran For My Life...Lunch with STNNNG at 7th Street Entry on 11/18/06

By: Charlie Vaughan
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There was a long shivering line of fans peeling back from the entrance to the 7th Street Entry. It was a cold, granite colored afternoon with a sharp wind sweeping between the towering glass buildings of downtown Minneapolis, and I was bearing down on First Avenue like a wayward cannonball. One by one, the head of the line was slowly being swallowed by the squat black-bricked building through its nondescript doorway. I tucked my ears deeper into my coat collar and barreled toward the end o...

Duplomacy with Deep Pool, Luke's Angels and Mandrew at Hexagon Bar on 11/17/06

By: Pat O'Brien
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Sounding like they shot a crooked arrow through a few of the better indie bands from the last twenty years or so (fIREHOSE, Sebadoh, a bit of Superchunk with a small dose of ‘70s “classic rock” sensibility), Mandrew slowly built their set into a what could have easily been the soundtrack to a sunny Minnesota summer afternoon spent in your buddy’s backyard drinking beer and trading stories you both had heard a million times before. The music was comfortable, broken-i...

The Bill Mike Band with Little Man at Lee's Liquor Lounge on 11/17/06

By: David Rachac
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After being blown away seeing Bill Mike play solo acoustic at the MMA booth at the Wild River Festival in September, I bought the Bill Mike Band’s CD Better News and was equally stunned.  The album contained eight fresh-sounding, guitar-driven hybrid-pop songs that evoked a menagerie of early ‘90s alternative rock styles with none of the overwrought posturing that normally accompanies them. And seeing this power trio play at Lee’s just added to my admiration of them ...