Though rainy weather may have made this month seem more like April than June, if this last weekend is any indication, Twin Cities summer is once again in full effect.
One of the greatest things about living in Minnesota is the summertime, a rare 3 months (give or take) of gorgeous weather and the sense that you would actually want to leave your house. To make the most of this fleeting time, a flurry of events wind up happening all at the same time, and it can get hard to figure out where to spend your leisure time.
We hope no one out there was want for something to do, because there was plenty available. From the Twin Cities Jazz Festival in Mears Park, the Stone Arch Festival of the Arts, Rock The Garden, Lookbook headlining First Avenue with an all-local lineup, to the Wants Vs. Needs 1 Year Anniversary at Club Jager, there was no way to get to everything. Here are some great places to catch recaps of the weekend.
Friday marked the birthday of one of Minneapolis’ fastest growing dance nights, Wants Vs. Needs, a free DJ party run by DJ Anton, DJ Espada and featuring design work by Adam Garcia of Burlesque of North America. The seen and be seen scene that happens on a weekly basis culminated with an epic, champagne-fueled frenzy at Club Jager on Friday; Kevin O’Meara captured the energy with his slideshow for the City Pages.
Elsewhere Downtown, First Avenue provided plenty of reason to dance as well, with a full line-up of buzzy local groups – Lookbook, Slapping Purses, Bight Club and Zoo Animal. MPLS.TV covered the event with an excellent video from Dan Huiting.
One of many outdoor events of the weekend was Saturday’s Rock The Garden, the Walker’s annual summer concert, which brought big names MGMT, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, OK Go, and the Retribution Gospel Choir to a stage near the Spoonbridge and Cherry. Here is a two minute time-lapse of the big event.
The Stone Arch Festival saw some highlights of local music, including the pop-funk stylings of Mayda, the jazz band James Buckley Trio, dark folkies Murzik, bright-eyed ukulele pop from i like you, and the raucous Americana of A Night In The Box, whose performance was captured by an audience member here.
Across the river, St. Paul brought out a good number of people for the weekend-long Jazz Festival, which featured some big names like John Scofield, Cafe Accordion, Joe Lovano, the Jack Brass Band, and John Ellis. Already being called the best in the festival’s 12 year history, here’s hoping the festival can continue on this historic path in the years to come. I was able to catch Scofield at the end on Saturday, who mixed it up with reggae, funk, blues and R’n’B inspired guitar music; Jazz Police managed to pull together some nice in-depth coverage of the whole event.
All in all, a pretty whirlwind weekend. There’s many more happening this summer, stay tuned here for some upcoming events.