After wheeling out some older mainstay acts for its birthday bashes last January, 89.3 the Current will turn to some extra-adventurous and buzzworthy newcomers for its 15th celebration next month at First Avenue.
Southern bands Black Pumas and Seratones – from Austin, Texas, and Shreveport, La., respectively – will brave the Minnesota winter weather for a Jan. 18 lineup also featuring wild-eyed, young Twin Cities acts the Bad Man and 26 Bats! and rejuvenated Minneapolis hip-hop vet Mally.
Tickets go on sale right away Thursday at 10 a.m. to Minnesota Public Radio members, and then to the general public Monday at 10 a.m., all via first-avenue.com for $20 apiece.
Black Pumas wowed a packed Entry crowd in July around the time the Current put its track "Black Moon Rising" into steady rotation. Nominated opposite Lizzo for the Grammys' best new artist award, the darkly funky soul duo was formed when Grupo Fantasma guitarist/producer Adrian Quesada plucked busking singer Eric Burton off the street and into the studio. Seratones also turned in a hair-raising Entry show in September touting their second album, "Power," whose title and themes reflect gospel-rocking frontwoman AJ Haynes' work for women's reproductive rights and other feminist issues in her conservative corner of Louisiana.
This year's Current birthday party is being scaled back to one night from the usual two, as was the case last year when the Suburbs and Cloud Cult traded off as headliners.
