Memorable moments of Rock the Garden 2011
My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James leaped, bounded, bounced, twirled, gyrated, shimmied, slid and made a whole lot of other flashy moves during the closing set of Saturday's ninth installment of the ever-sold-out music bash outside Walker Art Center. James' physical expressions weren't just for show, though. His band matched his every movement musically.
My Morning Jacket was about 85 percent the reason it became one of the best Rock the Gardens of late, but there were other grounds for declaring it a good year -- despite rain spilling down for the first half of the concert. Among the other memorable moments:
• Booker T. Jones's a-ha moment. The Hall of Fame organist pumped out "Green Onions" only three songs into his set, as if to tell the mostly under-40 audience, "You know me even if you don't know me." It worked. Fans continued listening as he and his young band rolled out the funky tracks off his new album, plus a few other Booker T & the MGs classics.
• Neko Case's delay-button moments. The redheaded alt-country queen dropped an F-bomb and another vulgarity between songs. She apparently didn't get the memo that the show was being broadcast live on The Current. Alas, that's about the closest Case came to awakening fans from the slumber she instilled upon them. An unquestionably golden singer, she stuck to too many midtempo, downcast songs that were as gray as the weather. Vulgarities or no, she simply talked too much.
• Tapes 'n Tapes revisited "The Loon." In the opening slot, the kinetic chop-rock quartet weaved between each of its three albums but landed often on its breakthrough 2006 debut. The hometown crowd loved it, and so did anyone who remembered that frontman Josh Grier wrote those songs just across the street while living near Loring Park.
- Chris Riemenschneider
City wants to revoke Karma's liquor license
Two weeks after declaring Karma nightclub a "public nuisance," Minneapolis officials say they will seek "nonrenewal" of Karma's liquor license.
City officials said the Warehouse District club has had 165 police calls since January 2010, and cited violent incidents in or around the club, including assaults against police officers and robberies. In an April incident, a Karma patron stabbed another patron with a broken glass inside the club.
Karma has been at the center of Minneapolis' attempts to control the raucous downtown scene at bar-close. The city said it recently has beefed up police presence outside Karma at closing time, often dedicating 12 patrol officers and several horse-mounted officers to ensure the "safety of patrons and passersby."