dana.raidt's blog

As 2011 comes to a close, METRO is taking a moment to reflect on the year that was. All this week, we’ll be featuring our favorite finds of the years – the shows that made us laugh (or cry), the music that made us swoon and the dishes that made up salivate.

We think it’s safe to say it was a good year, and that 2012 promises to bring even more good tidings. Today, we’re looking at the best music 2011 had to offer.

Best concerts of 2012 Read more »

Lori Lobenstine is the founder of the blog Female Sneaker Fiend and the author of Girls Got Kicks, a book that explores sneaker culture and its ties to the worlds of sports, hip hop and spoken word—and the concepts of sexism, identity and youth empowerment. Read more »

In our July 2011 issue, METRO interviewed the first lady of rock ‘n’ roll (and country, gospel and rockabilly), Wanda Jackson. Jackson, who opened for Adele at the Xcel Energy Center last summer, told us all about her days touring with artists like Elvis, Johnny Cash and Jerry Lee Lewis. She also waxed nostalgic about her time spent in Minnesota back in the ‘50s and ‘60s—even referring to our fair state as a “second home.” Read more »

The 12^th annual Sound Unseen festival hits the Twin Cities Oct. 12-16, bringing dozens of music-related films to the Trylon Microcinema and the Ritz Theater, including a 25^th-anniversary 35mm print screening of cult classic Sid and Nancy, jazz artist Jason Moran’s reinterpretation of Thelonious Monk’s historic 1959 Town Hall concert and a documentary about garage-rock icon Jay Reatard (who died in 2010 at the age of 29). Read more »

Editor’s note: The following story is excerpted from our METRO 100 list – described ever-so-humbly as “the best damn list ever” – which includes 62 people, places, organizations and other community features we think make the Twin Cities great.
Read more »

Before the band so much as released a single, Wild Flag was the talk of the indie-rock world. To many nostalgic fans romanticizing the members’ ‘90s heydays, the lineup was nothing short of a dream come true: Carrie Brownstein (Sleater-Kinney, Excuse 17, Portlandia), Janet Weiss (Sleater-Kinney, Quasi, Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks), Rebecca Cole (The Minders) and Mary Timony (Helium, Autoclave, Soft Power and a prolific solo career). Read more »

The world of John Waters is always weird, sometimes wonderful and often a little uncomfortable—to put it mildly. The rise of the self-proclaimed dirty old man’s 1988 film Hairspray (an account of “pleasantly plump” teenager Tracy Turnblad’s pursuit of fame—and integration—in 1960s Baltimore) to its status as a Broadway-adapted staple of mainstream theater is something of an anomaly. Read more »

Pyrotechnics. Whipped-cream cannons. Confetti explosions.

The customary arena-concert gimmicks were absent at Adele’s Wednesday night show at the Xcel Energy Center. The 23-year-old crooner—admittedly apprehensive about performing in such a large venue—took a more personal approach for the sold-out concert, originally scheduled at First Avenue, which has a capacity of 1,500. Read more »

See photos from Portugal. The Man's Lollapalooza 2011 performance here.

It was my honor to sit down and chat with Portugal. The Man’s John Gourley (vocals/guitar) and Jason Sechrist (drums) at the 20^th Anniversary Lollapalooza festival in Chicago the weekend of Aug. 6.  I was already a fan of their music, but couldn’t have been more impressed with these two down-to-earth, genuine musicians. Read more »

The Smothers Brothers Grimm is nod-and-smile funny. Read more »