Contact us
Back to All Posts

The Badger State beckons all comers — Come Together Right Now — as the Biggest Bar Night Of The Year and before bellies up with bands, and you can’t do that right now in the Twin Cities. So we are a Beacon, in more ways than one, and read on to see what that means.

For the for-now-still-open bar scene in western Wisconsin that is taking the place of the Minnesota shutdown, it is go south then go north to hit all the happenings as we approach another huge holiday.
And if you have been living in a cave, (more on that later), you need to know that basically all on-site bar business in the Twin Cities is now off-limits, which means that people will be streaming to St. Croix County like has not been seen until before the drinking age was made uniform, (again more later).
And the mask-or-die principle has re-engaged a fire storm on social media in the St. Croix Valley, state versus state. As one commentator said: “They are going to be celebrating while people (here) lay dying.”
With that said, here is the way you at least for the moment — as Wisconsin tends to follow what Minnesota does — can still musically Beat It. “Fight the hoards (not likely anymore), sing (maybe) and cry (over lost concert time) …” And you listeners of KQ know that this song has been played over and over under a new format (again in a later post).
But for now, the Biggest Bar Night Of The Year, and the entry weekend that will lead up to it starting on Saturday as places tend to meld toward the weekend day that is closest to the actual holiday, is still in place in the Badger State.
But we will go in reverse order in hitting home with the party scene. When is the last time a deejay was on board for a full six hours — short of possibly New Years. That will be the case at T-Buckets near Somerset from 8 p.m. to 2 a.m. on Thanksgiving Eve with DJ Jeff. And if you need more, there is an accompanying pajama party. Makes me think about an album cover on display at Ziggy’s in Hudson showing Lita Ford spilling out of her corset. Lingerie might be fair game (and this is a day of big game) if its warm. And as far as Lita, loved karaoke singing to the duet with Ozzy to that Close My Eyes Forever song. And maybe at T-Buckets …
And across the way at Shuggy’s in Hammond, there will be bands both that night and the Saturday before .. Maybe can even catch what has become the house band, Fog Pilot.
Go now down south and its Ziggy’s again, with the veritable Twin Cities cover band Uncle Chunk — can’t play there right now and did they see this coming? — on Thanksgiving Eve (for the uninitiated, that’s Wednesday night). Their web site shows the Hudson-based band Buck Tucker on a video, which is perfect for right before hunting. And the weekend before it is Skitzophonic, with a singer that looks just like alt-punk, and the return after only a short wait of Wisconsin’s own Apollo’s Beacon, with this time getting the spelling right, (not two pp’s, as that would be an app). But the Smilin’ Moose, no bands for now, as the figureheads are from Minnesota.
Now I gotta rag on a few people, who have been not so kind to HudsonWiNightlife … sniff, sniff. As you go north as village people, check out the signs of the times. You can find the ultimate deer hunter widow dart tourney and also a classic band, which will have a couple bucks knocked off if you bring a banana — that is so old school, if you remember past Dibbo’s days before the millennium turned, There Will Be Fighting In The Streets, With Our Children At Our Feet, (Minnesotans sometimes bring them with). And if you go to Kwik Trip and get their 40-or-so day-old bananas for a buck, you and your limo driver and guests (Mister Take Us To The Show), can get the discount and even more than a Nickelback total.
Why coy with where and when? Its a song and dance as old as the first publishing efforts, by cave man Unk on the wall, As Another Brick In The Wall, hold out and maybe he’ll give you a short shout-out for free. That said, can you simply say not good business but cheap (did I say that, sorry Leigh. You’re no Lita). But I will name Village Liquor and their just now available as we speak, a French wine that could be your next Beau. That starts its name and it ends with Nouvena … The sign hawks it as of the 19th.

Late breaking. The Willow River Saloon in Burkhardt still has been having bands (plural) each weekend, and they steer toward southern rock. So on Saturday Night Live the band Kinfolk takes the stage … I’m assuming you can’t miss the Sweet Home Alabama tie-in, Taking Me Home To See My Kin, as this is a travel to see the family holiday.

Want more holiday stuff? Food tips will follow before next Thursday, and will get you more dough, which could even be used for bread!

Share the Post:

Related Posts

  • Full metal jacket? Hey, I wasn’t exactly to the point of going Rob Halford. But tastes aside, there must be some reason why after 26 years I was shunned, like going Bob Daisley by Ozzy at his reunion? OK, I know, my style may not have fit with the packed crowd. And the last couple of times for this, I tried to do too much with ad-libbing. So yeah, I get that this time around, I was the somewhat unusual choice to be the one left off the set list, with singers clamoring to get up there. But seriously, just being analytical of strengths and weaknesses as a singer here, no hard feelings. I’m not Dio. (Or Traveling Wilburys, an inside joke.)
It was clear to me at the most recent Jeff Loven music show in Hudson, for Memorial Day weekend, that there has been a changing of the guard. The sword has been passed. New blood, like Yungblud, has been brought in. And, I must say, loyalty — amongst the devotees who travel frequently and all across the two-state area to virtually all of Jeff’s shows — has been rewarded. They are the royalty, in what just makes good business sense that I can appreciate. In a significant but not unprecedented altering of course, I was not one of those asked...
Read More
  • Songs by Napalm Death? A fire swept down my very street today, where the babies were burned. (But alas, a new A/C unit is on its way up the freeway.) The Stones did not leave these themes unturned, either, or should I say unrolled. Oh wait, this all was my cooker of an apartment, and we are not talking the kitchen. But all these matters will become more pressing, a pressure point, as the new normal especially in southern climes is temp well into the triple digits. It is these people, the third world, and their heat stroke not mine, that most concern me. (Another example of hellfire temps just added. Sin after Sin.)
Trial by fire. My broiling heart in my efficiency flat still beats a bit, in concern over those boiling over in worse apartments in a Chicago tenancy, or on an ocean island instantly-burn-your-feet beach or dessert, or forced to endure ice baths just to keep cool — or simply be offered no way to maintain an ice-dripping body other than also read a non-cookbook at the library, or select not a big steak you can’t afford but a 73/27 burger from a freezer and slap it on your forehead. Just not too hard. All these things are ones where you especially today either burn or...
Read More
  • I had a dream … And out of it (re)sprouted an ancient spring fertility rite to save the world, or at least my apartment building, or at least my second story window, from a giant lizard peering in, out at T-Rex days of yore. This ritual requires copious amounts of consumption and goes from there to hobbits and lords who are not yet a-leaping, for reasons to be retold in this fanciful, twisted tale (of fiction?) Just watch the use of Why! The letter, that is. And try to catch on to the inside jokes. (Psst. Another tale inside. Or two.)
This is a truly awfuI, twisted tale of villains and heroes, powerful ale if used carefully, giant beasties and smaller hobbyts, but also renewal and redemption. I will ascrybe to an ancient rytual, back to when the tyme gyant lyzyrds peered into second story wyndows of apartment byldings and no amount of walls could keep them out of such urban non-placated places, save this practice that annually, about this tyme of three-day holiday, would save humanity for another year.  So in this spryng fertility ryte, go consume copious quantities of hunhy grhym cr’krz and jinjer biyr, deprived of its alcohol as worshippers need to be sober-headed...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– A full list of the trios of triumph. The power of threes. A full dozen of these triads, oh make that 13 as we linger, that you will see listed as shopping promptings in three long blocks of store windows of downtown Hudson. Three’s company? Get it? Third time’s the charm. And this is a truism, the words, some of them three letters, chosen to depict their offerings show the diversity of, dare I say it, a Super WalMart.
Here goes the ultimate list of lingo, even if it languishes, in no particular long order, as we go at length into the different kinds of businesses you will find in this locale, starting the list and at its last, two of the many art galleries in our downtown: — Feminist power, love and generosity, and to double your fun, framing, art tchotchkes and earrings, all at the biggest little art and collectables gallery you will see mid-block. — Community, commerce and tourism, touted at the Hudson Area Chamber of Commerce and Tourism Bureau, in a blatant suck up to...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– To skate or not to skate? Not on most Hudson streets and sidewalks, you don’t. Even though most users I’ve encountered have been courteous and safe — saying ‘on right’ as they go by on a fairly busy sidewalk, and not just barely edging past you — the city council in essance banned the usage last fall. I think this goes too far in what amounts to dare I say it, big brother-type stringency. I prefer a more ‘urban’ style ambiance, with a Twin Cities type of bustle. (For what of that is to be found, come Friday, ‘jump’ inside. That post now updated, for more weekend options.) I now start with a joke.
As far as, for starters, the old announcement, “passing on the right,” this was said to me just now by a beautifully tanked woman in a bikini, owning the downtown sidewalk. She was slightly gasping and moaning as she almost carressed my side going by. I ABSOLUTELY REFUSE to read anything into that … Spring has past sprung, we’ve finally had some really hotter weather, and a young man’s heart turns to thoughts of … e-cycling and skateboarders going past. In the last couple of weeks, you can see them again all around our sidewalks and byways, busy and not...
Read More
  • And musings moreover —– Shoes and shirt are welcome, to be purchased along with other keepsakes at a new shop or worn in. At least soon while dining at new downtown Hudson eating opps. You don’t need an app, read on, as doors are flipped open … There are still other options and opportunities, after the Wild opted out as flipping goalies, with Filip, only worked for so long. (Not so big shoes to fill. Just flip-flops. See below and under The Headliner for posts on such sports bar shenanigans.) So for now, in a new post, we Rally In The Valley, with eight bands.
A door on the side of a downtown conglomerate of stores, the front not back door, has a sign telling delivery drivers to deposit items in back — but the sign is flipped upside down since the tape slipped. A blipped language I don’t speak. But that’s not the only thing that’s flipped in the downtown. Lots of stores are either open as we speak, or will be soon. We’re talking still in May, maybe, and mostly earlier than later. While we wait with baited breath for the full opening of Max’s Social House. And a pub or another hub...
Read More
Scroll to Top