For those of us who call south Minneapolis home, it sure was nice to not have to drive north of 32nd Street to take in a lot of great music this past weekend. I mean a lot.

The fun started Friday night, when Peter Wolf Crier took over the Vita.mn August Music & Movies series at the Lake Harriet Bandshell. The gig was more or less the band's coming out as a trio, with the addition of Laarks guitarist Kyle Flater. It also served as a warmup to a busy fall following the Sept. 6 release of PWC's sophomore album for Jagjaguwar, "Garden of Arms" (release party Sept. 23 at the Cedar Cultural Center). The album is shaping up to be quite a doozy sonically and lyrically, but maybe the biggest new treat Friday was the band's wise choice of a summer-night cover, INXS's "Never Tear Us Apart."

Saturday's ninth annual Pizza Luce Block Party, on the corner of Lyndale Avenue and 32nd Street, proved two things about one of the original and best rocking summer block parties: 1) It's getting too big for its little side-street space; and 2) between all the savory pizza slices, constantly flowing Summit beer taps and day full of beloved local bands, we are lucky to have so much great local flavor in the Twin Cities.

Communist Daughter frontman Johnny Solomon -- who looks healthier and happier than he has in years, by the way -- seemed to be making the latter assessment at the end of his band's warmly received set in the late afternoon. A native of Liberty, Mo., Solomon said, "We didn't have anything like Pizza Luce in Missouri. So I came north." The band then seamlessly dove into "Northern Lights," which -- along with "Minnesota Girls" and a cover of the Hold Steady's "Knuckles" -- seemed to underline all the great reasons for Solomon to live here. So did having ace drummer Ian Prince behind the kit again (new guy Dan Demuth, also of Poverty Hash, will be taking over duties soon).

After Communist Daughter came orchestral psychedelic-rock troupe Me & My Arrow, a band that seems to get bigger every time I see them -- and better. On Saturday, they brought back Orion Treon for one song (now the frontman of Phantom Tails, who played earlier). Shannon Frid of Cloud Cult was there on violin, too, bringing its membership size up big enough to be its own softball team. There were no softballs thrown Saturday, though, just hard, often hair-raising garage-rock jams, including a handful of new numbers that reinforce my opinion that M&MA are the local band-to-watch of the moment. Them, and the 4onthefloor, who played about their 17th block party show of the year before Communist Daughter and showed no sign of fatigue.

I didn't get the chance to hang around for Luce headliner P.O.S., who had Mike Mictlan for his hype man and Sims for a guest, but I hear the crowd for his set got so bloated and sardine-like that it was a little scary. Heck, the place was even packed mid-afternoon. It might be time for Luce to consider reconfiguring its great party -- either enlarging the space and adding more beer and pizza stands, or adding a low $3-$5 cover that might weed out some of the hanger-ons who are there simply because it's free. Like the guy standing near me who said, "I'm only hear to people watch."

Johnny Solomon and "Rupert"

A sharp contrast to both the crushing crowd and the rampant hipsterdom at the Luce fest, Kings Wine Bar celebrated its second anniversary on Saturday with a smaller, more familial and laid-back party on its side patio Sunday featuring Curtiss A, Eliza Blue, the Mad Ripple, St. Dominic's Trio, Howler and more.

Things really got sweet and friendly mid-afternoon at Kings when Slim Dunlap got there for his supposed solo gig, which also happened to be timed to the one-time Replacements guitarist's 60th birthday. Slim's wife Chrissie arranged a surprise: His old band showed up to play the gig with him, resulting in especially sentimental versions of "Hate This Town" and "Ain't No Fair in a Rock 'n' Roll Love Affair," among others. Slim was so touched, he promised to return to Kings for his 70th and 80th birthdays. Damn right, we're going to hold him to that.