Greetings Earthdogs, Hellrats and Rivetheads -
I'm heading up to Minneapolis in late July for three nights and want to pick your brains as to where I might go that is truly metal. Dirty bars to large concert halls. T-shirt shops to CD stores. What is metal in Minneapolis? I'll be staying at the Graves Hotel near the Target Center. Any suggestions would be appreciated. Thank you! m/
Clubs:
If you are staying at the Graves Hotel, you will not be far from First Avenue (
http://www.first-avenue.com/). They get some metal shows. Not as much anymore. Mostly indie/alternative nowdays. The Triple Rock Social Club (
www.triplerocksocialclub.com) is a punk rock club that hosts some metal shows. It is a light rail train ride away from the hotel.
You normally have to go to St Paul for underground metal. The Lab changed it's name to Station 4 (
www.station-4.com) about 6 years ago. It used to be just a dirty metal club. It basically still is, they just book a bigger variety of musical styles nowdays. You could also try The Rock Nightclub (
www.therocknightclub.com) in the Northeastern suburbs. It books metal, but usually radio friendly metal. They have also recently branched into gagsta rap & country.
uke:
Other than that, you could check what shows are at the arenas or what 80's hair bands pop up in the suburban bars. The Xcel Arena in St Paul is preferred for arena shows. The Target Center sound sucks horribly if you are not on the floor.
CD stores:
For CD stores, there are a few that have decent metal selections.
Cheapo Records (
http://www.cheapodiscs.com/mn.htm) has 3 locations. They all carry new & used CDs. The have a fairly decent metal section. Some of the new prices are a little high.
Discland (
http://www.disclandonline.com) is in a southern suburb of Minneapolis. It has a pretty decent selection of new & used CDs. The metal section has grown. They still have trouble deciding if an artist is metal or rock. You sometimes need to check both spots.
There are a few CD Warehouse/Media Exchange stores left in the suburbs. I haven't been to one in a long time.
