The ilk of Bon Iver is hard to find in influence or in person, but can be seen locally on stage on Saturday, after the man of consistently high-register vocals and his band themselves played five songs for highest office hopeful Harris two days earlier, and there were even more speakers than musical numbers.
(More coverage of that rally follows in a post soon, as HudsonWiNightlife was in the second row in front of Bon Iver over in Eau Claire.)
This gig and another act, over at The Phipps Center for the Arts, caught the ear of a volunteer worker. So go register. Vote for music.
Hey also in this roundup, school whether it be for music or general studies, starts up soon. Youth is served on Friday evening, as Urban Olive and Vine in downtown Hudson serves up its trademark food while you listen to high school student Elly Rowan emulate like minded we assume Cyndy Lauper. the Beatles, Coldplay and more. Though young, she is a longtime student of fellow frequent Olive-ites Andy and Kathryn Karg at 2gether Productions, and Elly enjoys gigging all over the east metro area. Catch her before she’s back at school, still playing but with her basketball courts competing for stage time. Urban Olive and Vine often brings in such student talent.
Then on Saturday night at Juniors Tap House in River Falls, is houseboats, namely Matthew Mitchell, a native there, who is sonically between Bon Iver, (which is fresh off playing the Kamala Harris rally in Eau Claire where he is a native, and even my non-musical mom in Milwaukee had been gaga gigging from afar), The Cure (I love singing Love Song), and Bruce Springsteen (a very different version than what you’ll get from the very hard-picking of local country stalwart Tim Sigler.) How so? Matthew’s biggest influences are the very intimate songwriting and understated, stripped-down style of artists like Joni Mitchell (no relation) and Nick Drake. With thoughtful and relatable original songs.
Earlier on Friday, at the Phipps Center for the Arts, is not necessarily Motown but the down-south and downhome musical stylings of a man named Mo, according to a Thursday vol at the Dem headquarters across the block, who said she might take in the show because it’s said to be even better than most typical such fare.
And then there is the more original than yet another Friday fish fry. For Aug. 22, you can reserve a space for Hudson Tap and it’s hosting with Brickhouse Pizza of a five-course meal that assures more than a dozen total toppings along with drink pairings, and earlier for Aug. 15, a bourbon and cigars event at Bennett’s Chop and Railhouse that brings the best brands of heaven and hell for your indulgence.
You can follow up this rotating Friday fare with a Saturday evening, truck and tractor pull event at the Hammond Heartland Days, following up with much more torque and horsepower on a much more stripped-down tractor tour at the St. Croix County Fair three weekends earlier, across county highways and dirt roads.