This weekend’s Rock the Garden boasts one of the strongest single-day lineups of the annual festival’s history. The problem? That lineup is spread across two days.
It’s a crucial transition year for the outdoor gig, co-sponsored by 89.3 The Current and the Walker Art Center, which will host this year’s show Saturday and Sunday outside its building in downtown Minneapolis.
In recent years, Rock the Garden was essentially bulletproof, with paid members of the Current and the Walker snatching up all the tickets before they went on sale to the general public. The lineup was almost an afterthought, as the party itself was nearly enough of a draw on its own.
The choice to turn it into a two-day festival this year makes sense on the surface, as many of the costs involved in staging such an event don’t increase if organizers just leave all that temporary infrastructure in place for two days instead of one. Finding enough music to fill those days is another matter, however.
Of the 10 acts booked to play Rock the Garden, Sunday’s headliner Spoon is the only one with a large enough draw to sell out multiple nights at First Avenue. Saturday’s main event, De La Soul, played to a crowd numbering in the hundreds last summer when they opened a hip-hop nostalgia package tour at the Target Center.
As usual, it’s terrific to see local music represented at Rock the Garden, and they chose three strong solo acts this year in Lizzo and Jeremy Messersmith on Saturday and Dessa on Sunday. But some of the national acts on the bill claim fairly specific, and not necessarily intersecting, fan bases. On top of that, a group like dance-punk duo Matt and Kim may make perfect sense playing at 5 p.m. at a larger festival with multiple stages, but it’s a bit murkier when they play at 5 p.m. and they’re the only game in town.
Beyond that, Rock the Garden faces an ever-growing number of other local events battling for the same time and/or dollars. There are now free weekend block parties held in the Cities through the summer. There’s also the allure of outdoor baseball at the still-fresh Target Field, and the Twins now even book local bands to play Wednesday home games. And don’t forget about the Basilica Block Party, which in recent years has started booking acts first heard on the Current (this summer, it’s Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros).
Rhymesayers artists are likely to play Soundset on Memorial Day weekend. The Hold Steady? They’re headlining the Minnesota Zoo on July 5, not to mention opening for the eagerly anticipated Replacements gig Sept. 13. Trampled by Turtles, meanwhile, are trying to start their own annual tradition with their new Festival Palomino on Sept. 20 at Canterbury Park. The Current itself is behind a huge competitor for Rock the Garden dollars. The station’s annual “MN Music On-a-Stick” gig Aug. 30 at the Minnesota State Fair boasts a half-dozen can’t-miss acts — including Brother Ali, Bob Mould and Cloud Cult — for half the price (not counting Fair admission) of one day at Rock the Garden.
As it stands, Rock the Garden’s Sunday lineup looks like the one that will draw the larger crowd, thanks to the one-two punch of Guided by Voices and Spoon. It’ll be interesting to see if this year marks the start of Rock the Garden times two, or if organizers focus back on a single day in 2015.
Pop music critic Ross Raihala can be reached at 651-228-5553. Follow him at twitter.com/RossRaihala.