One Direction, Pistol Annies and more: 10 reasons to get amped about Twin Cities summer concerts

Festivals, schmestivals. This spring, it seemed like all the news about summer concerts was bad: Live Nation's ambitious (and expensive) River's Edge Festival was put off for a year; so was First Avenue's would-be answer to Chicago's Pitchfork Fest. It's as if last year's abrupt cancellation of Somerset's SoundTown had made "festival" a dirty word locally. ¶ Then came tour announcements by the Rolling Stones, Paul McCartney, Jay-Z, Mumford & Sons and Black Sabbath — all without Minnesota stops. But hey, we've got Kenny Chesney for the second consecutive year at Target Field. How's that for diverse use of our publicly subsidized mega-venues? ¶ Still, as we combed the concert calendar through Labor Day, we were pleasantly surprised to find plenty of cool or at least fresh trends to get us excited for the season.