Running down the rest of Rock the Garden's 2019 lineup

Courtney Barnett returns to the Walker's garden party alongside punk legends X and locals Bad Bad Hats and Heart Bones.

June 21, 2019 at 5:32PM
Courtney Barnett performed during Rock the Garden at the Walker Art Center in Minneapolis, Minn., on Saturday June 20, 2015. Rock the Garden features 10 bands between Saturday and Sunday along with food and drink tents. ] RACHEL WOOLF á rachel.woolf@startribune.com ORG XMIT: MIN1506210118550125
Courtney Barnett is back after performing at Rock the Garden in 2015. (The Minnesota Star Tribune)

Because she's touring as the National's opening act, Courtney Barnett (7 p.m.) earned an exception to the unofficial no-repeat rule at Rock the Garden. No complaints, especially since the Aussie rocker has grown more intense and lyrically tantalizing since her 2015 appearance. "She's just one of the strongest young songwriters working right now, and an incredible guitarist, too," the National's Bryce Dessner raved to us.

She and New Zealand pop/punk quartet the Beths (4:35 p.m. on the smaller garden stage) will make for a fine trifecta of hard-blasting guitar-rock along with Los Angeles punk legends X (5:15), who've been sturdier and rowdier in concert over the past decade than most bands a third their age.

St. Paul's high-flying soulful rapper Dem Atlas kicks off the main-stage schedule (2:30), followed by Heart Bones (3:45), the flirty, "Dirty Dancing"-channeling electronic-pop duo with Sean "Har Mar Superstar" Tillmann and Sabrina Ellis of the wild Austin, Texas, band A Giant Dog.

Bluesy, gospel-injected South Carolinian singer/songwriter Adia Victoria could be a welcome twist after the Beths (6:20) on the garden stage, where angsty but playful local wordsmith Kerry Alexander and her buoyant band Bad Bad Hats earned the final slot (8:45) after touring heavily this past year behind their album "Lightning Round."

CHRIS RIEMENSCHNEIDER

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