Rock the Garden always kicks summer into high gear, and now the Walker Art Center and 89.3 The Current have made it bigger and better. This year’s line-up of cutting-edge indie rock bands will play to crowds spread out along the Walker’s grassy hillside “amphitheater” overlooking the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden on Saturday, June 20, from 3-11 pm.
Headliners Colin Meloy and his Decemberists cohorts have carried their theatrical pop to new heights with the critically acclaimed 17-song rock opera, The Hazards of Love. Onstage, Meloy’s captivating story-songs are matched by the band’s consummate showmanship, as their devout ranks of fans can attest.
Rounding out the bill are bands who share the Decemberists’ eclecticism. Since forming Calexico in 1990, Joey Burns and John Convertino have remained restless musical adventurers, mining the themes of the American Southwest; their latest, Carried to Dust, has been hailed as a burst of experimental folk-pop.
Trafficking in what they call “Middle Eastern-psych-pop-snap-gospel,” the Brooklyn-based Yeasayer merges spirituals and synthesizers in propulsive, polyrhythmic songs; they conjure ancient traditions while looking toward an alternately bleak and bright future in songs such as “2080,” which put the band on numerous critics’ radar.
Jump-starting the Garden party are local electro-rockers Solid Gold, who are buzzing worldwide. During a recent UK tour, NME described their hit “Get Over It” as “exquisite spectral disco and a slow-burn favorite in the making.” -- www.walkerart.org
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