Minnesota State Fair 2023: The Chicks, Brandi Carlile and Duran Duran on tap to play the Grandstand

Ross Raihala, Pioneer Press
·10 min read
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This year’s Minnesota State Fair Grandstand offers the most star-studded lineup in recent memory, with four shows already sold out or close to it: The Chicks, Keith Urban, Brandi Carlile and the Jonas Brothers.

With that wattage comes some steep prices, with top seats going for $159 (the Black Keys), $197 (the Chicks, Duran Duran), $199 (Brandi Carlile) and $207 (the Jonas Brothers).

Tickets are available through Etix, by phone at 800-514-3849 and in person at the State Fairgrounds Ticket Office. All concerts start at 7 p.m. unless otherwise noted.

Here’s a look at what’s on tap.

The Black Keys with the Velveteers

Aug. 24: Garage rock duo the Black Keys will perform their first Twin Cities concert in four years. Guitarist/vocalist Dan Auerbach and drummer Patrick Carney met as kids in Akron, Ohio, and began making music together as teens. They released their debut album, “The Big Come Up” in 2002 and spent the next few years building a following on the club circuit and, later, on alt-rock radio. The pair’s sixth album, 2010’s “Brothers,” broke them into the mainstream, selling two million copies, earning three Grammy awards and scoring a pair of huge radio hits with “Tighten Up” and “Howlin’ for You.” The follow-up, “El Camino,” also went double platinum on the back of the singles “Lonely Boy” and “Gold on the Ceiling.” More recently, Auerbach and Carney returned to their stripped-down roots with an album of country blues songs, “Delta Kream,” that they recorded over two afternoons and released in 2021. They issued their eleventh record, “Dropout Boogie,” in May 2022. $159-$69.

The Chicks with Wild Rivers

Aug. 25: Sisters Martie and Emily Erwin founded the group initially known as the Dixie Chicks in 1989 and spent the next five years playing the bluegrass circuit. After releasing a trio of independent albums, the band signed to Sony Music in 1995 with new vocalist Natalie Maines. With a new, contemporary sound, the Chicks dominated country radio with 11 Top 10 singles, including “I Can Love You Better,” “Cowboy Take Me Away” and “Goodbye Earl.” Shortly before the 2003 invasion of Iraq, Maines told a London audience, “We do not want this war, this violence, and we’re ashamed that (George W. Bush) is from Texas.” The comment earned a swift, negative response from conservatives and, while Maines publicly apologized, the band lost many fans and country radio support. In 2006, the Chicks addressed the controversy with their album “Taking the Long Way” and its Grammy-winning lead single “Not Ready to Make Nice,” co-written by Minnesota’s Dan Wilson. The trio returned to action in 2016 with a world tour that included two sold-out nights at the Grandstand. In 2020, they announced they were dropping the word “Dixie” from their moniker, saying they had picked “that stupid name” as teenagers, and had wanted to change it for years. Soon after, the Chicks released their first album in 14 years, “Gaslighter.” $197-$77.

Keith Urban with Lindsay Ell

Aug. 26: Keith Urban has been a consistent presence on the country charts since his first hit, 1999’s “It’s a Love Thing.” He has landed at No. 1 with more than 20 singles, including “Somebody Like You,” “Days Go By,” “Better Life,” “You Look Good in My Shirt,” “Without You,” “Long Hot Summer” and “Blue Ain’t Your Color.” In 2020, Urban released his 11th album and seventh chart-topper, “The Speed of Now Part 1.” It spun off the singles “We Were,” “God Whispered Your Name” and the Pink duet “One Too Many,” which also landed on the charts in Canada, Australia, England and the Netherlands. In the time since, he has issued a series of one-off singles, including the hits “Wild Hearts” and “Brown Eyes Baby.” $87-$52.

Boyz II Men and Chaka Khan with Nunnabove

Aug. 27: Boyz II Men stood as one of the biggest groups of the ’90s. They broke out in 1991 with the singles “Motownphilly” and “It’s So Hard to Say Goodbye to Yesterday.” They scored a worldwide hit with 1992’s “End of the Road,” which held the No. 1 spot on the Billboard charts for a record 13 weeks. They then topped that with “I’ll Make Love to You” (14 weeks) and their Mariah Carey duet “One Sweet Day” (16 weeks). Chicago native Chaka Khan rose to fame in the ’70s as the lead singer of the funk band Rufus. The group’s hits include “Tell Me Something Good,” “You Got the Love,” “Once You Get Started” and “Sweet Thing.” She kicked off her solo career with 1978’s “I’m Every Woman” and landed her biggest hit with 1984’s “I Feel for You.” Prince wrote the song, which features Melle Mel of Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five and Stevie Wonder on harmonica. In 1998, she worked with Prince on her album “Come 2 My House” and later toured with him. In 2016, Khan joined Wonder in headlining a Prince tribute concert at Xcel Energy Center. $51-$34.

Happy Together Tour

Aug. 28: This retro package tour was a first-Monday-night-of-the-Fair tradition for much of the ’10s with other nostalgia acts like the Beach Boys and the Spinners taking that spot in recent years. The tour touts its artists as achieving “an undeniable 61 Billboard Top 40 smashes.” The lineup includes the Turtles (“You Showed Me,” “Happy Together”), Little Anthony (“Tears on My Pillow,” “Goin’ Out of My Head”), Gary Puckett and the Union Gap (“Young Girl,” “Over You”), the Vogues (“Five O’Clock World,” “You’re the One”), the Classics IV (“Spooky,” “Stormy”) and the Cowsills (“Hair,” “Indian Lake”). $33.

Brandi Carlile with Wynonna Judd

Aug. 29: A native of rural Washington state, Carlile claims some of her strongest supporters in the Twin Cities, thanks in part to airplay from Cities 97 early in her career. Over the past 18 years, Carlile has performed locally more than two dozen times in venues ranging from the Fine Line and Varsity Theater to the Basilica Block Party and Target Center. In July 2022, she sold out St. Paul’s Xcel Energy Center. Carlile released her most recent album, “In These Silent Days,” in 2021. She wrote and recorded it during the pandemic with producers Dave Cobb and Shooter Jennings, the same team behind her previous record, “By the Way, I Forgive You.” Carlile has earned 25 Grammy nominations and nine wins. Sold out.

Yung Gravy with bbno$

Aug. 30: Born Matthew Raymond Hauri, the Rochester native began rapping in 2016 while pursuing a degree in marketing at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. The following year, his song “Mr. Clean” found an audience on SoundCloud, and later Tik Tok, and was eventually certified platinum. After self-releasing several EPs, Hauri signed a deal with Republic Records, which has issued three full-length albums, including last year’s “Marvelous.” In 2021, the Tampa Bay Lightning used his track “Gravy Train” as a post-game victory song and inscribed the title on their 2020 Stanley Cup rings. Last year, he performed pregame for the Minnesota Vikings and New England Patriots on Thanksgiving Day. He also appeared on “Jimmy Kimmel Live” and the MTV Video Music Awards preshow. His song “Betty (Get Money)” became his first single to hit the charts in several countries, landing at No. 30 in the States and the Top 50 in Australia, New Zealand, Ireland and Canada. $64-$29.

Duran Duran with Nile Rodgers and Chic

Aug. 31: Formed in Birmingham in 1978, Duran Duran found huge success in the early ’80s thanks in part to the band’s embrace of the then-new world of music videos. “Girls on Film,” “Hungry Like the Wolf,” “Rio,” “Is There Something I Should Know,” “The Reflex” and “The Wild Boys” all landed in heavy rotation on MTV. After taking a break to work on side projects, Roger Taylor announced he was retiring and Andy Taylor quit during the recording of 1986’s “Notorious.” The title track was a hit and Duran Duran went on to score further success with “All She Wants Is,” “Ordinary World,” “Come Undone” and “Too Much Information.” In 2003, the original lineup reunited for a world tour and, the following year, released their 11th album, “Astronaut.” Andy Taylor left the band for a second time in 2006, but the remaining four members have continued to record and tour. In 2021, Duran Duran issued their 15th album, “Future Past.” The group, which was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2022, were set to open their tour that August with an outdoor show at Treasure Island Resort and Casino’s amphitheater that was ultimately canceled due to a storm. $197-$77.

The Jonas Brothers with Lawrence

Sept. 1: Siblings Kevin, Joe and Nick formed the Jonas Brothers in 2005 and rose to fame two years later when they signed a deal with Disney’s Hollywood Records. After making a guest appearance on Miley Cyrus’ Disney Channel show “Hannah Montana,” they hit the road with Cyrus as her opening act. Soon after, they began headlining arenas on their own. After releasing four albums, the trio canceled what was to be their fifth record together and a planned 2013 tour, citing a “deep rift within the band” over “creative differences.” In February 2019, the Jonas Brothers announced they had reunited and released a new single, “Sucker,” which entered the Billboard charts at No. 1. The trio then hit the road for an extensive 92-date tour that earned praise from both fans and critics. Nearly every show sold out, including a September 2019 stop at Xcel Energy Center. On their current tour, the Jonases are playing songs from throughout their entire career. $207-$77.

The Current’s Music-on-a-Stick

Sept. 2: A triple bill of (semi-) local acts with stars outside First Avenue — the Hold Steady, Bob Mould and Dillinger Four — headline The Current’s annual Music-on-a-Stick concert. The Hold Steady formed in Minneapolis in 2003 from the ashes of the band Lifter Puller. They relocated to Brooklyn soon after and established themselves as critical darlings and a popular live act. A New York native, Mould formed his first band Husker Du when he was studying at St. Paul’s Macalester College. After the trio broke up in 1988, Mould relocated to a remote farm in Pine City, where he wrote “Workbook,” his debut solo album. In the decades since, Mould has worked alone and with bands, including Sugar in the ’90s and his most recent group, which features Jason Narducy on bass and drummer Jon Wurster. Minneapolis punk band Dillinger Four formed in 1994 and have released four albums and a pair of live records. Guitarist Erik Funk founded and co-owned the Minneapolis music venue Triple Rock Social Club, which opened in 1998 and closed in 2017. Dillinger Four played the venue’s final concert, which was recorded for 2020’s “The End: Live at the Death of the Triple Rock.” $37-$27.

Blippi

Sept. 4: Blippi is the creation of educator Stevin John, who was dismayed by the low-quality YouTube content he saw his young nephew viewing. Taking inspiration from Mr. Rogers, John created the character of Blippi and created a series of videos he began posting to YouTube in 2014. With his orange bow tie and glasses, Blippi caught the attention of young viewers and eventually earned billions of views online. In 2020, John sold the character to Moonbug Entertainment, which has since licensed Blippi books, dolls, bikes, clothing and games. Blippi is now available in more than 20 languages, including ASL, and can be viewed on multiple streaming services, including Netflix, Hulu, Amazon Prime and Roku. 4 p.m.; $16.

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