Palmer's Bar organizes benefit shows as music scene reacts to Nudieland shooting

For once, a cancellation was a good thing in the Twin Cities music scene.

Palmer's Bar will host a hastily arranged benefit on Wednesday night for the victims of last Friday's shooting at the DIY music space Nudieland in Minneapolis. Christy Costello, a well-known local musician who is also the bar's talent booker, put the show together on one day's notice after another band canceled.

Tramps Like Us — a Springsteen tribute group featuring members of Kiss the Tiger and other bands — will top off a lineup that also includes the Slow Death, New Years Steve, Chris Maddock, Active Measures, Glass Eyed Brother and Costello herself. The show starts at 7 p.m. with Michael Grey DJ-ing, and with a pay-what-you-can donation policy at the door.

Also, Saturday's larger-scale show on the patio at Palmer's Bar with Dosh and Derecho has been turned into another benefit for Nudieland victims, a decision led by the musicians. Derecho is the new psychedelic funk band featuring Low's Alan Sparhawk with fellow Duluth music stalwart Al Church. All the ticket sales from that all-star gig ($15 advance, with doors at 6 p.m.) also will go to a victims fund.

All the bands in Wednesday's impromptu show have a connection in one way or another to the Nudieland scene, said Costello, who was an acquaintance of the man killed in Friday's shooting, August Golden of the band Scrounger. Six others also were injured in the tragedy, which is still under investigation.

However, Costello said the effort isn't just being done out of friendships.

"Our scene here thrives on house shows like [at Nudieland]," she said. "Those are the kind of spaces where everyone starts out, especially the younger bands. They're so important to the scene."

Other players in the scene were quick to respond to the tragedy. First Avenue shared a link to a GoFundMe page for victims Saturday on social media, with a message that read, "Our hearts are with the music community in Minneapolis today. Hold each other close."

All the Pretty Horses bandleader Venus DeMars — a hero to the local LGBTQ community and Twin Cities rock vet — wrote a moving tribute on Facebook after the shooting at Nudieland, where the house parties were frequented by and supportive of the trans/queer community.

"I am so terribly disturbed by what seems to be never ending hateful rhetoric directed towards my community," DeMars wrote. "I so deeply feel the depression my queer, punk, trans community feels today. I feel the loss, the fear, and the despair. My dear, dear Minneapolis queer, punk, trans community. I also want to say, we WILL survive this."

Stay tuned for news of other benefits and chances to help victims of the shooting from within the Twin Cities music scene.