Rich Mattson and the Northstars have just released their 6th album Out There to glowing reviews from fans and radio stations up and down the state of Minnesota and beyond. The group formed in 2014 after Mattson disbanded his national touring group Ol’ Yeller and settled into his new home in Northern MN where he runs Sparta Sound recording studio. He and his partner in music and love, Germaine Gemberling, have recorded and released 10 full-length albums in their 13 years together. The latest, with the Northstars, was pieced together during the pandemic lockdowns and the group has come back stronger and more passionate than ever, ready to take on the world, sometimes performing as a 6 piece supergroup. No show is wasted, every time they get together is special.   

 

Canadian rock legend Dave Rave has not performed in Minneapolis since January of 2020 and has been greatly missed for his high energy, chaotic rock and roll shows with his Minnesota band The Governors. Typically arriving biannually in January and June, “Raver” has recorded and released 6 albums of “tough pop” with Minnesota music luminaries Craig Teiken, Terry Isakson, Rich Mattson, Chad Mittag, Tom Cook, and a plethora of others. When not writing and recording here in the Gopher State, Dave resides in Hamilton, Ontario where he fronts the popular rock group Teenage Headalong with several other projects – The Shakers and Dave Rave & The Second Responders among them.

 

13 Howell is an original four-piece rock band from Minneapolis-St. Paul. Formed in the winter of 2018 by Deidre Caron (RuDeGiRL, Spy Vacation), Neil Johnston (Tim Malloys), Scott Schwister (Tim Malloys, Goodbye Sun) and Chris Gerrard (Spy Vacation), 13 Howell borrows sometimes shamelessly, sometimes subconsciously from a wide variety of genres and random influences, making music which is often loud, intense and psychedelic, and occasionally soft and sweet or just ridiculous; songs of honey, bathtub spiders, warring hares and the cold surface of the moon. Tonight they will promote the release of their new album Thomasson Bomb, also recorded at Sparta Sound.