I live in St. Paul, MN, and one of the wonderful things about this area (the entire Twin Cities), is that we have a LOT of things that would appeal to tourists, but we’re not as much a tourist town as Chicago or New York, or San Francisco. We have many of the benefits of the big city without all of the hassles. And perhaps my favorite thing about the city is it’s culture, particularly it’s music scene.
First Avenue (the club where a good share of Purple Rain was filmed) is in Minneapolis, and it’s across the street from an entertainment complex called Block E that has a Gameworks, a movie theater, a Hard Rock Cafe, a Piano Bar and a couple restaurants (so it’s a bit more “touristy” than you might like). On the other corner (there are 3 corners where First Avenue intersects 7th street) is the Target Center which hosts a lot of concerts and serves as the home of the Timberwolves basketball team. But deeper in the heart of Minneapolis and to a lesser degree, St. Paul…there are many smaller clubs that are home to various concerts almost every night of the week…the 400 Bar attracts big and small names, Lees Liquor Lounge is kind of a swing bar (Brian Setzer of Stray Cats fame lives here now and frequents that bar). Then there’s the Uptown area (also immortalized by Prince) which has a number of great shops and restaurants as well as a Famous Dave’s which has a stage and live music most weekends. By my house in St. Paul is a bar called the Half Time Rec which is just a hole in the wall Irish pub, but it is so renowned and authentic that people come from around the world to go there…incredibly loud and crowded…a typical Saturday night it’s hard to move in the place, so don’t even bother going there on St. Patty’s Day.
Your best bet should you come here would be to pick up a copy of the free weekly alternative newspaper The City Pages, look at the ads for the various shows going on in town and hit one of the smaller, lesser known clubs that has someone you’d like to hear playing. On any given night there are probably 30 or 40 shows going on somewhere in town, and in Minneapolis in particular, many of the clubs have a similar setup..small, abour 4,000 people can fit, they have an upstairs with railings to lean over and a downstairs open floor, the balcony is shaped like a squared off letter U.
And I would also HIGHLY recommend going to Red’s Savoy Pizza on 7th street in St. Paul. You’ll get the best pizza you ever ate and they have a full bar. No music though.