The top four bands from the Junior Achievement Battle of the Bands, in mid-April, will play an encore show starting at 6 p.m. Sunday at Grandma's Sports Garden. This also is a CD release party for the recording made of the original show, created by students from McNally Smith College of Music.
Sunday's show includes: Breaking Glass, representing Lincoln High School in Esko, which won the grand prize at the Battle of the Bands; Aphamy, a pop-punk trio from Ashland (think Blink 182); The Jeans, from Northwestern; and Arts & Crafts, a bluesy jam band from Chetek.
Each band gets a 45-minute set in front of a new panel of judges, with a $1,500 recording package from Sacred Heart Studio on the line. This is a fundraiser for Junior Achievement and tickets are $5.
Live music in store at Electric Fetus
The Electric Fetus is hosting an in-store show by the Bitter Spills and art by Mary Agostine as part of the MinnEconomy program, which brings local artists into the store on the second Thursday of each month, as well as offering discounts on their products.
ADVERTISEMENT
The Bitter Spills are Rich Mattson and Baby Grant Johnson, who create original folk music, as well as covering a mix of musicians from Johnny Cash to ZZ Top. They play a free show at 4 p.m. Thursday. (Baby Grant Johnson also plays a solo show at 10 p.m. at Pizza Luce.)
Agostine creates jewelry from pieces of glass she finds on the shore of Lake Superior. Aside from drilling a hole into the glass, each piece is true to how Agostine found it. She uses Swarovski Crystal beads, sterling silver and natural earth stones, Agostine told www.electricfetus.com .
Experience Pamela Means' mad guitar skills
Boston via Milwaukee singer/songwriter and jazz musician Pamela Means will play at 7 p.m. Friday at Beaner's Central, 324 N. Central Ave. She is celebrating the release of her acoustic album "Precedent." Tickets are $5.
According to the magazine Time Out New York, Means has "mad-guitar-and-vocal-skills," and Curve Magazine said Means is "one of the fiercest guitar players and politically-rooted singer-songwriters in the music industry today."
Means has shared a stage with Ani DiFranco, the Indigo Girls, Neil Young, Joan Baez, Shawn Colvin and the Violent Femmes. (In fact, according to Means' bio, DiFranco once said of her: "You groove so deep, so deep I can't get out. And I wouldn't want to."
Other bands playing the all-ages show include the Nite Owls, Strange Loop Uneasy and Ralphed.
Father-daughter folk at Red Mug Coffeehouse
ADVERTISEMENT
The CD release for father-daughter classic folk duo Courtney Carlson and Eric O'Connell's "If Love Is What You Do" is at 8 p.m. Saturday at Red Mug Coffeehouse, 916 Hammond Ave., in Superior.
O'Connell plays acoustic guitar and writes songs as a way of reflecting on the people and events in his life. Carlson, also a visual artist, provides vocals and mandolin.
Perfect landscapes on display at the Depot
"Outopia: The Perfect Landscape," an exhibit at the Duluth Art Institute, features interpretations of landscape by regional artists Marian Coleman, Susan H. Pavlatos, Wendy Rouse, Lisa Stauffer, Michelle Wegler and Cheryl LeClair Sommer.
The opening reception is from 5-7 p.m. today at the Duluth Historic Union Depot Great Hall, 506 W. Michigan St. It's free and open to the public. The exhibit runs through July 26 and paves the way for the Smithsonian's traveling exhibition "Beyond: Visions of Planetary Landscape," which opens June 19.
The Duluth Art Institute is open from 10 a.m.-5 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 1-5 p.m. on Sunday. Beginning Memorial Day weekend, it is open every day from 9:30 a.m.-6 p.m.
Yogallery's first exhibition
The Yogallery at the Spiritual Deli, 3 W. Superior St., is hosting its first exhibition, "The Object of My Affection," mixed-media paintings by Stephanie Richards.
ADVERTISEMENT
The opening reception is from 7-8:30 p.m. on Friday and is part of the Grand Opening of the Spiritual Deli. The event is free.
The exhibit runs through June 15. Richards said her work is a reflection of a certain lifestyle, pictured in scenarios of excess.
A cappella from the Big Top at UMD
Acafellas, the a cappella group from Lake Superior Big Top Chautauqua, performs at 7 p.m. Sunday at the University of Minnesota Duluth's Weber Music Hall.
The critically acclaimed singers perform an eclectic mix of harmonies ranging from "Shenandoah," to "Can't Wait to Get to Heaven, Won't Have to Go to Church No More," to Crosby, Stills and Nash, to Queen to Bach.
Tickets are $15 for adults, $10 for students and are available only at the door. Go to www.bigtop.org for more information.
The Old Town Gospel Choir, a group from Lulea, Sweden, directed by Lennart Johnasson, will perform at 7 p.m. Friday at First Covenant Church, 2101 W. Second St.
With this performance, the choir finishes a seven-stop tour of Minnesota. The group has performed in Duluth twice in the past.
ADVERTISEMENT
The concert is free and open to the public, and free-will offerings will be taken at the door. A social hour follows in the reception hall.
