Category: Article

Emily Johnson has been described as “postmodern dance’s hottest new talent.” Drawing on enormous reserves of energy, precision, and creativity, the compact, pixyish Johnson can now be called a force of nature. Her newest piece, Heat and Life, centers on the emotional and atmospheric impacts of global warming. While she moves and bends, like a post-ozone sunrise, the weather onstage changes, thunder roars (the soundscape is composed by JG Everest), and emergency workers come and go. Commissioned by Walker Art Center, Johnson’s dance is co-presented with No Name Exhibitions. 2nd St. S.E. & 5th Ave. S.E., Minneapolis; 612-623-9176; www.soapfactory.org

Northrop brings a pair of powerhouse imports to its stage this month. Lyon Opera Ballet has an adventurous repertory grounded in classical roots. This time out, ballets from European choreographers William Forsythe, Russell Maliphant, and Jiri Kylian are on the bill. Two weeks later, the bold and brassy Bolshoi takes the stage with its contemporary staging of Romeo and Juliet, which premiered in Moscow last year and was quickly counted among the venerable company’s most daring and imaginative productions. 612-624-2345; www.northrop.umn.edu

William Nicholson’s play—a Tony nominee this year—chronicles the slow, excruciating unraveling of a thirty- three-year-old marriage, and the ways both spouses manipulate their only son in their retreat from each other. If nothing else, this production should make at least some of us feel we’ve got it pretty good. But seriously, when a topic is this glum, the true art comes through in dialogue and performances. Nicholson’s got an uncanny grasp of the emotional language developed by two partners over several decades. And with local luminaries Barbara Kingsley and Stephen D’Ambrose onstage, you’re bound to be in good hands. 651-291-7005; www.parksquaretheatre.org

Remember Uncle Tupelo? After their breakup in 1994, fans tended to fall into two camps: Son Volt freaks and Wilco worshipers. Son Volt was for people who liked the twang of Uncle Tupelo and Wilco was for the dirtbag in all of us that could appreciate a strong drink and a loud guitar. Let’s face it, drunken dirtbags always win in the end. Touring in support of their new album, A Ghost Is Born, Wilco is that rare outfit whose stage banter is better than most other bands’ actual songs. Maybe it’s the lack of flash combined with his self-deprecating style that has kept singer/songwriter Jeff Tweedy shamefully overlooked as a commercial success, when we think he possesses one of pop music’s sharpest ears. The 2002 documentary I Am Trying to Break Your Heart chronicled the making of their fourth album, Yankee Hotel Fox Trot. Complete with vomiting and band member firings, it was an unflinching look at a band led by music’s most awkward and soulful troubadour. Much of A Ghost Is Born was written while Tweedy was battling depression, and also struggling with a dependency on the pain killers he was popping for his migraines. Lucky for us he can still rock, even with a headache (and some time in rehab). 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis; 612-339-7007; www.hennepintheatredistrict.com

Any posthumous work is inevitably bittersweet. Smith’s struggles with drugs and depression were well known, and he always projected a breakable quality—onstage he often came off more as simply weary than rock star. It’s that very fragility that made his songs so personal and lovely. From a Basement on a Hill brings together three years’ worth of songs; Smith was working on it at the time of his death. Catch a last glimpse into a man with such a gift, who sadly was too tired of living. Available October 19

It comes as no surprise that the Libertines’ instant cool factor had much to do with the fact that their debut album was produced by the Clash’s M.I.A. Mick Jones, granting them the ultimate punk-rock seal of approval. An appropriately snotty attitude with Kinks-like melodies made the first record, Up the Bracket, hugely lovable, and topped critics’ best-of lists. The band’s future seems rather precarious, with frontmen Carl Barat and Pete Doherty playing out their contentious relationship through a number of songs on their latest eponymous recording (someone needed to carry on the tradition of Oasis’ Gallagher brothers) and certain members drugging up and dropping out. See them while they’re still so good and so not dead. 318 1st Ave. N., Minneapolis; 612-338-8100; www.finelinemusic.com

The title of Waits’ new record seems to reference his favorite themes: lost love, lost lives, and a lost mind. Think of it as an elegant soundtrack by which to warm your hands over a trash-can fire. As with any new Waits recording, expect a loose mix of broken-down hipster calliope music, dark tales, and bluesy hollerin’ that have made the man the freakishly cool icon that he is. Conspicuously absent, however, is his signature piano, replaced with turntables (courtesy of Waits’ son Casey) that provide a jerky percussion element. African and Latin rhythms mixed in with Waits’ own take on the human beat box create what we can only describe as a “hobo groove.” In his own fingerless-glove kind of way, Waits describes making records as “Capturing birds or photographing ghosts, an uncertain enterprise.” Please adopt us. Available October 5

We’re not sure where the line lies between traditional folk music and contemporary world music, but we know Rokia Traoré seems to work both sides of the equation beautifully. Whereas we’ve recently been obsessed with Nordic roots—particularly Swedish sirens paired with cold dirges of
distortion and modern big beats—we also hanker for the more homespun varieties that work better in live settings without computers and amplifiers. Traoré, a quiet and gifted singer, works in the traditional Malian mode with plenty of Western influences. But since she continues to use old-time instrumentation (guitars, lutes, marimbas), hers is the sound of dusty African streets more than sterile German sound labs, despite recent disc-dabblings with multi-tracking and chamber
quartets. 416 Cedar Ave. S., Minneapolis; 612-338-2674; www.thecedar.org

Eating lunch in your office cubicle is tantamount to committing a sin against food; everything will eventually taste beige. Maverick’s is here to save your soul, sister. While their décor isn’t much better than your cubicle, their offerings are pure inspiration when it comes to “better fast food.” Imagine slow-cooked roast beef piled high on a Kaiser roll with all the fixins of your dreams. Try the tender pulled pork or beef brisket for a change of pace. The goal of the quick and smart counter staff is to get you the most kick-ass sandwich and send you on your way. And if you can leave without one of their thick, creamy, miraculous milkshakes in hand, you might already be a lost cause. 1746 Lexington Ave., Roseville; 651-488-1788

It used to be called the Mill City coffee shop and people in the know have, for years, stopped by to while away the hours on its peaceful and lovely patio. You wouldn’t think that it could improve, but it has. Dramatically. Now Mill City is the California Building Café, with extended hours, a full bar, and a dinner menu offering all sorts of Mediterranean-style treats, such as mousaka and a notably hearty lamb stew. Just to lure you in—as if you needed any more lures—there’s a killer happy hour: half-price drinks from 5 to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday and half-price bottles of wine on Wednesdays. A patio and a white Russian. Now that’s the way to welcome fall. 2205 California St. N.E.; Minneapolis; 612-789-8262