It’s been a while since we attended the
Taste of Minnesota in Minneapolis (previous events had admission fees or were on a bad weekend for us). Weather was incredible on Saturday, bringing out a ton of fans, ready to eat and enjoy some free music.
This year, they had four stages, with one large stage: Great Clips Main Stage, where most people flocked to for
The Wallflowers and
Gear Daddies. Apologies to
Martina McBride, we had to exit due to
conflicting commitments.
Overall, the event was incredibly well organized and completely family friendly. Speaking of which, we’ve never seen so many kids and their parents enjoying the
Koo Koo (they must have dropped the Kanga Roo part of their name) set.
All their songs are family-friendly, including the “Rollercoaster” and “Who Farted?”. And being at the Taste of Minnesota, they perfectly ended their set with “All I Eat Is Pizza.”
These guys (Bryan & Neil) are great, we’ve always loved them ever since catching them live in
Nov 2009.
Bryan mentioned that his son was handling their merchandise, and his son was making money on tips to buy a toy.
Next up was
Belladiva, a cover band specializing in disco, pop, R&B, and rock. They are a large group, with 10 band members (including a mini horns section).
Normally these cover lover bands stick to crowd favorites, which means older hit songs… but was surprised to hear some recent covers such as Lizzo’s “About Damn Time” on their set.
The audience’s favorite was their 4 Non Blondes cover of “What's Up?”, as they sing back, “
What’s going on?”.
Their set closer was a rocking, guitar-driven Lenny Kravitz’s “Are You Gonna Go My Way?”
Gear Daddies pulled in quite the crowd. Over the 40 years (the group started in 1984) they’ve built up quite a massive fanbase, and based on hearing all the fans sing along to their songs, like “Time Heals”, they are a force to be reckon with! They did one cover on their set, Joe Jones’ “California Sun” … perfect for the sunny weather on Saturday.
Sophia Eris with friends
Makr and
Jaki Blue (which I thought I heard that she said was her sister).
It sounds like the first part of Eris’ set was purely DJing and dancing… but then she switched it up with rapping over beats from Makr. Highlight of their set was when Jaki Blue took over the vocals duties to sing “Quicksand”, a song co-written by Jaki Blue & Sophia Eris with production from Makr.
We were mostly there to see
The Wallflowers, the band led by Jakob Dylan… who is probably more famous for being the son of Bob Dylan. But let’s be honest, The Wallflowers’ hit “One Headlight” stood out on its own.
The Wallflowers setlist at Uptown Theater (17 Aug 2023)
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We caught the band last year in
Aug 2023 and wrote, “For
Jakob Dylan and
The Wallflowers, it’s been on-again / off-again for the last several years, with Dylan the only constant member, in a lineup that’s included current
Foo Fighter Rami Jaffee and former
Pearl Jam drummer
Jack Irons, among many others over the years. Between family commitments, other interests, and the ever-changing lineup, the band finally returned during the pandemic with their seventh studio album, 2021’s
Exit Wounds and a 53-date tour to support it, with a mostly new lineup (what else?) except for adept guitarist
Stanton Adcock, the lone holdover musician from previous. Regarding any concern about them being less musically committed when they opened up with the new album’s “Maybe Your Heart's Not in It No More”, the question was quickly put to rest as the band went from song to song without any pause, ramping things up with musical gusto and a well-rehearsed tightness. From songs that weren’t as well known, Dylan announced their breakthrough hit, “6
th Avenue Heartache” as one that we
all would know.”
We complained that “Three Marlenas” was not on the 2023 set… but is happy to see that he’s added the song back on his set for 2024.
During his set, Dylan scolded a photographer for taking photos with a long lens, in the crowd, well after couple songs (the general rule is you can take photos in the photo pit for the first three songs), “Very distracting.”
Over at the
JAZZ88 Stage, it started with the
Jack Brass Band… a band that formed in 1999 in the Twin Cities, but plays traditional New Orleans’ brass bands.
Jennifer Grimm, when not singing jazz tunes in cabaret and theater venues, she actually does voiceover for commercials and big corporations like Target, Toyota, Bremer Bank, and Papa Murphy’s. Her original song had placements in NBC’s Parenthood, NBC’s SingOff, SHOWTIME's House Of Lies, USA's Suits, TLC's Sarah Palin's Alaska, and CW'S Stargirl (which we did started watching Season 1 when that originally aired).
BZ3 Organ Trio (keys Brian Ziemniak, guitarist David Feily, and drummer Kevin Washington) played songs from their debut self-titled 2023 album. The BZ3 trio just played with Red Planet at the Icehouse on July 8, as part of David Feily’s programming for Mondays in July.
HEYARLO is an instrumental indie-jazz group, fronted by DeCarlo Jackson on Flugelhorn, with Megan Mahoney on Bass, Evan Slack on Guitar, Sam Rosenstone on Keys and Richard Haneman on drums. We previously mentioned that Heyarlo played with Heiruspecs in
Dec 2022.
Over at the
20 Washington Plaza Stage, this seems to be a stage for solo singer/songwriter, like a singer and their instrument of choice.
FINICK Summer Tour 2024
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FINICK was there to play some songs from her debut album
Where Could We Go? (2023). Despite her young age, she’s already put together a summer tour with an appearance at the Winnipeg Folk Festival on July 12, the Elliott Smith Tribute show at White Squirrel on Aug 5 (Smith’s birthday is August 6), and then Waterworks Building on Aug 15.
Kaatwalk is a model and singer, she’s normally plays with Marv, but for this Taste of Minnesota appearance, it’s just solo Kaat. Marv & Katt will be appearing at the upcoming great-get-together Minnesota State Fair on Aug 28-29 as well as Lakeville Art Festival on Sep 22. Please check her website for full listing.
Allison Eykholt sings “music for the heart”. She previously opened for Nate Amor in 2023. Although it’s just Eykholt solo she may have a full band called the Northwoods, featuring Jordan Hedlund (piano), Tony Johnson (bass), Grey Tison (accordion), and Mike Schiltz (drums) as credited on her five-track EP
Allison & The Northwoods.
KEVBand
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Over at the
Xcel Energy Singer / Songwriter Stage we caught Ukrainian
Yev Yelena with his full band, “KEV Band”: Tony, Eliott, Sasha and Adri. He endorsed the Ukrainian food truck… which we ended up eating a meat pie from there.
Max Rewitzer at The Maple House (19 Jul 2024)
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Max Rewitzer is a singer/songwriter from Minneapolis (formerly Maryland?), and sings indie and emo folk songs. His next appearance is at The Maple House (a renovated 1888 farmhouse) on Friday, July 19th, with Ry Edwards.
Now that we know where all the stages are located, tomorrow’s coverage (Sunday July 7) of Taste of Minnesota will be more complete.
Apologies for the poor photos and badly drawn art, we did not know the event does not allow for professional cameras without permission.
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