In terms of audience drawing power, this year's Rock the Garden features the biggest name ever to top the lineup. Here's a look at that band and what else to expect Saturday.
Forecast for RTG 2011
Get to know the acts playing Saturday's big show at the Walker.
June 16, 2011 at 6:46PM
My Morning Jacket (8:30 p.m.): Even with their latest album, "Circuital," being as experimental and outlandish as its largely dismissed predecessor, "Evil Urges," these space-trucking Kentucky rockers continue to rise in popularity. They're playing amphitheaters in most other cities. The reason is simple: They're one of rock's best live bands. Frontman Jim James can send chills through the crowd with his piercing voice and stage-tumbling energy, and the guitar jams he leads are so electrifying, most crowds forget they're essentially watching a jam band in action.
Neko Case (6:45 p.m.): She missed the 2008 RTG when her band the New Pornographers played, but Case is more impressive on her own anyway, singing her twangy jilted-lover tunes with operatic vengeance. Two years have passed since her Grammy-nominated album "Middle Cyclone," so her set could be a fresh mix of old and new.
Booker T. Jones (5:15 p.m.): With Booker T. & the MGs, the Memphis organist helmed the landmark 1962 instrumental jam "Green Onions" and went on to back Otis Redding and Wilson Pickett as the Stax Records house band. He has two new albums on Anti- Records, one crafted with the Drive-by Truckers and the other with the Roots.
Tapes 'n Tapes (4:15 p.m.): These revered local mainstays spent the spring touring behind what some argue is their best album yet, "Outside" -- a debate that could likely be settled by the time their set ends Saturday.
Six degrees of MMJ My Morning Jacket and especially singer Jim James like to play around with other musicians. We could see a little proof of that Saturday. James sings one of the tracks on Booker T. Jones' new album "Road From Memphis," a playful R&B gem called "Progress." Meanwhile, Neko Case will be MMJ's opening act for much of the summer, and she seems to get an invitation to be a guest singer from just about everyone whose path she crosses. We'll see.
Josh Grier's favorite 'Outside' concert Since his band's new record is titled "Outside," we couldn't resist asking the Tapes 'n Tapes frontman for his favorite all-time outdoor music experience:
"Leeds Festival in the U.K. in 2002. A friend and I camped out for three days. It rained almost the whole time, we had only enough money to afford one "mad-cow" infested burger a day, and there were riots (which culminated in somebody lighting all of the porta-potties on fire). But, I got to see Guns n' Roses, White Stripes, the Strokes, Pulp, Foo Fighters, the Breeders, Guided By Voices, Andrew WK, ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead, Weezer and a ton of other bands. It was epic."
Chris Riemenschneider • 612-673-4658 • Follow him on Twitter: @ChrisRstrib
