All right, I’m wrapping up my most memorable shows from 2025 here in one last post.
I saw a lot of incredible music this past year, hundreds of shows, so it wasn’t easy narrowing down the list to a dozen or so that I found the most memorable. There were many that didn’t make the list that were also quite special.
A reminder, I didn’t rank these — they are simply arranged chronologically. Check out parts I and II here and here.
Here we go with the final three (or four):
Daniel Donato and Cosmic Country returned to First Avenue for the second October in a row.
No. 3: Daniel Donato’s Cosmic Country, First Avenue, Oct. 30
Daniel Donato and Cosmic Country are a special force of improvisation.
They’re a band I really can’t catch enough — and in 2025, the Cosmic Country experience was one of the best values in live music.
This band does take a lot of influence from country and its sub-genre of Honky-tonk — but first and foremost they are a psychedelic and improvisational band.
I caught them three times, and, for sure, the band’s two-night run at The Caverns in Tennessee back in April was special.
Every time I see this band, I feel like their jams are getting to uncharted territory — and the First Avenue show was no different. Maybe it was that I’m a member of First Avenue and secured a table and had a couple of really good friends with me. That didn’t hurt — I was also with several great friends down in Tennessee — or maybe it’s just recency bias.
I dunno. But I do know this — I hope to catch Cosmic Country more than three times in 2026.
Check out a photo gallery from the show here.
Charlie Hunter Trio played at Icehouse on Nov. 9.
No. 2: Charlie Hunter Trio, Icehouse, Minneapolis, Nov. 9
Charlie Hunter is another artist I never get to see enough.
He is one of the most interesting improvisational guitarists you will ever hear and see — and his use of hybrid guitars — with both standard guitar and bass strings running through two different amps — will blow you mind.
Hunter is a legend, and a noted session guitarist. Hopefully, I get to see him again in 2026 in this trio format or with the band Garage A Trois, featuring Hunter along with saxophonist Skerik and drummer Stanton Moore.
I’ll mention that feeling I had early in this show where I was besides myself attempting to comprehend all I was hearing. Read more about that (and view photos from that show) here.
TWINE plays three sets every Wednesday at Bunkers — and has a knack for taking at least one jam deep every set.
No. 1: TWINE, Bunkers, Minneapolis, Dec. 3
TWINE, the Minneapolis improvisational rock band that currently holds down the Wednesday night residency at Bunkers, makes me think about the difference between recency bias and the feeling we get seeing jam bands over and over — the notion we may get that they keep getting better and better over time.
As the photographer for TWINE’s residency, I ended up seeing TWINE 51 times in 2025. That’s more than I’ve seen any one band in a given year — and I wouldn’t give a single one of those shows back.
This Dec. 3 show was a high-water mark of a show. The band wielded the inherent powers of improvisational music like magicians, and repeatedly went back to that well.
Maybe there is some recency bias at play here — their show just before this, the day before Thanksgiving, was also a banger. They also closed out their New Year’s Eve set in Duluth with a pair of their Saltydog friends sitting in on one of the most evil jams I’ve ever heard them pull off, right out of “Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald” teases. This jam was so evil that I was scared for my life. Another show worth noting was the private party they played back in June with an “Alice in Wonderland” theme.
But I think the band’s Dec. 3 show at Bunkers was one of their best — and every show I saw them play was great. These guys continue to improve each week and take their jams to new places. It doesn’t hurt that they have an experienced, world-class saxophonist in Brian “Snowman” Powers in their lineup or that everybody in the band, including their youngest and leader Will Effertz, have all accumulated years of playing experience at this point.
If you are ever getting that itch for some improvisational rock, just head down to Bunkers on a Wednesday.
The Big Wu has been playing First Avenue since 1997.
The 13th Donut: The Big Wu, First Avenue, Minneapolis Dec. 14
I have long eluded to the possibility of a 13th show, and decided that there would be one after this show, also at First Avenue. I was originally going to include their Minnesota Zoo show, but this one was much longer and satisfying, while the Zoo show was limited by the venue to a pair of 45-minute sets.
Of course, there is probably some bias in that The Big Wu and Mark Joseph have been extremely kind and supportive of my project here — and they are the only band that has granted me all-access at this storied venue.
But seriously, these guys take this show at this particular venue so seriously, as they should.
It’s why they have been performing here since 1997, and why First Ave has given them a December spot three years in a row now.
This show was chock full of great covers, none of which hit harder than David Bowie’s “Starman,” which was played for First Ave’s beloved stage manager Conrad Sverkerson, who recently passed.
But they didn’t neglect their incredible catalog of originals — some of the best songs that were ever penned by a jam band — songs such as “Minnesota Moon,” and “Kangaroo.”
It has long been said that “The Wu Loves You.”
They showed it on this night. Check out a full photo gallery and more show notes here.