The Wake

Move over, Walker. Step down, Target Center. There’s more to the Minneapolis sound and vision scene than corporate sponsorships. And we’ve got the dirt to back it up. Here’s a list of eleven local venues not to be overlooked.

The Church
Put down the hymnal, leave your Sunday best at home, and trade a sip of communal wine for a plastic cup of beer, because the only god you’ll worship in this church is the sweat-drenched musician convulsing on stage. Need to repent after the debauchery? No problem. Since Saturday night shows are guaranteed to run well into Sunday mornings, it’s practically sacrilegious not to stumble across the street and confess your sins at the functional church across the street.
724 E. 26th St.

Stevens Square Center for the Arts
Boldly claiming the “starving artists” cliché, the SSCA, an artist-run educational center and exhibition space, recently gained nonprofit status. Its current exhibit, “Art of Change,” is a collection of black and white photos gracefully capturing marginalized populations and encouraging social revolution. Images from the show, including a man sitting at a bus stop in a “Vote” t-shirt next to the word “Smart” and a desolate-looking woman plastered beneath a Minnesota voter registration application, can be viewed at www.flickr.com/photos/stevensarts.
1905 3rd Ave. S.,

The Pocketknife
“THIS IS A PUNK HOUSE OKAY!” warns the Pocketknife’s MySpace page. It also lists the Uptown venue’s influences as two cats, a dog, and feminism. So it’s no surprise that the poster for their latest concert, Liz and Smoth’s Birthday Show, is covered in cats in party hats. Below, the Pocketknife’s friends’ comments are in turns unintelligible (“uhbuhbahboo bahoooyeeag”), disturbing (“Faggot” asks: “Can we have a huge gangbang at your house?”), and utterly sincere (”I would like to participate… I play a killer triangle, and sometimes I have been known to drink too much and say silly things, and dance… I love you so very much”). We love you too.
2613 Lyndale Ave. S.,

Fallout Shelter
Since opening to the public in 2002, the Fallout Shelter has hosted an impressive array of artists and activists whose inspirations vary from cartoons to punk rock, graffiti to skateboards (in the “Creatures Build Character” and “7Ply Culture” exhibits, respectively). Raising awareness and cash for homeless youth in Florida was the goal of a 2004 benefit, while more recently a silent auction garnered cash for Hurricane Katrina relief.
2609 Stevens Ave. S.,

Art of This
A battalion of Brooklyn-based artists recently infiltrated This gallery to wage an all-out art war with pingpong balls, an arm wrestling table, and subliminal messaging. While the space’s current exhibit, Kevin Loecke’s “Total Information Awareness,” isn’t likely to leave your hands sore or ego bruised, it’s just as combative, thanks to Loecke’s drawings of disasters engaging with “the current historical moment.”
3222 Bloomington Ave.,

Cedar Cultural Center
A world of foreign sounds sits a few blocks off the West Bank campus. Just mosey past the Cedar’s forest green façade after class and brace yourself for an onslaught of Slavic soul, Balkan beat boxing, Indian slide guitarists, and a Swedish acoustic trio taking the stage Sept. 28 to open the eighth annual Nordic Roots Festival. Take the experience full circle with curry from the nearby Jewel of India and an Irish tea.
416 Cedar Ave. S,

Jack Pine Community Center
How can you not support a center “committed to being anti-racist, anti-sexist, class-conscious, and queer and gender inclusive?” Especially when it entices the likes of Clamor magazine’s culture editor to speak on “the hip hop revolution.” The center’s name is an apt metaphor for its dedication to resistance. The Jack Pine is a species of tree that thrives in wildfires’ scorching flames, conditions that render most plant life—and people—helpless.
2815 East Lake St.,

Arise!
Barnes and Nobles’ got nothing on Arise!, even though this miniscule Uptown bookstore could fit its entire collection of paperbacks and ‘zines into the mega-chain’s bathroom. Arise! does more than just hawk its wares to customers to earn a quick buck. It’s an “activist information hub,” hosting free community events like film screenings, screenprinting/stenciling workshops, and readings from authors you’d not normally find featured on Barnes and Noble’s shelves. Recurring meetings, like the Women’s Prison Book Project, where volunteers prepare packages to mail to the incarcerated, and the Icarus Project, a support group for those “with bipolar and related madness,” are held weekly.
2441 Lyndale Ave. S.,

The Belfry Center
The spawn of Daybreak, a “Midwestern Anarchist Hellraisin’” collective, and the Bat Annex Free School (hosting classes on everything from French to quilting), is the Belfry Center for Social and Cultural Activities. The Center’s mission, “to foster democracy and build community through the arts, activism, media, and education,” is fulfilled through its open art studios, potluck dinners, “craftstravanzas,” film screenings (like “Who is Bozo Texino?,” the tale of a man who scrawls chalk messages on trains in an archaic language to communicate with hobos thousands of miles apart), and a “How to Grow Mushrooms” class. Now that’s “from the ground up” activism.
3753 Bloomington Ave.,

720 Space
Even if you don’t like the band on stage, you’re apt to have fun at this art-rock collective, thanks to the three drawers of Uno cards, board games, and a Lord of the Rings chess set with gold and silver figurines of the fantastical cast. Still not satisfied? Then dance across the room to the communal fridge and express your inner poet via magnetic poetry.
720 Central Ave. Read “Space Invaders” for an in-depth profile on the 720 Space.

Turf Club
No, it’s not in Minneapolis. But St. Paul deserves a little lovin’, too—as does any bar with a basement resembling my grandparent’s log cabin in the Wisconsin woods. Especially when said basement used to be a ‘70s “Clown Lounge,” awash with statues and posters of the circus’ true freaks. Upstairs, the Turf Club’s vibe is more Uptown hipster/concert venue than Midway strip-mall, though you’ll find a grocery store, Jo-Ann Fabrics, and dollar store just across the street.
1601 University Ave.,