Icehouse's Upcoming Shows

6PM Doors | 8PM Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

18+

$12 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$20 Doors (+fees/taxes)

Event Information

Taking a note from acclaimed poet and author, Danez Smith, this event has two titles: (When Black Folx) Play, or Play, celebrates the extemporaneous and improvisational aspects of Black music, or play, and invites attendees to sit in the play space with the artists, following the music wherever it may go. We’ve invited some of the most innovative creators in the Twin Cities to demonstrate song construction, musical deconstruction, and jazz with you all—Kashimana Ahua, Davu Seru & deVon Gray, alongside DJ Kenna! Oh, and you aren’t off the hook! We will have a few materials in the space for you to create as well. Let’s have some fun together. Tickets are available at TruArtSpeaks.org.

The Urgent Emergent Performance Art Series powered by TruArtSpeaks (Urgent Art Series) is a year-long residency at Icehouse in Minneapolis, MN, taking place monthly, every third Saturday,* in celebration of TruArtSpeaks' 20th year anniversary and - more importantly - all of the artists who make our work and community what it is.

Founded in 2006, by Tish Jones, the arts & culture organization based in Saint Paul has a long history of providing platforms for artists to share timely and innovative work— this series is no different. The Urgent Art Series will invite new and true collaborators to share work that speaks to both the nightly theme and the series' invitation: urgent and emergent performance art. Known for being bold in their creative work, TruArtSpeaks has curated a year of creative expression that will move the crowd, the needle, and change forward through creative cultural expression.

The Urgent Art Series is sponsored, in part, by Minnesota Public Radio.

Artist Information

DJ Kenna

Kenna-Camara Cottman is Black, non-binary, a parent, a child and a community member in Mni Sota Makoce. Kenna may be known for her work with Voice of Culture, as a dancer, choreographer and educator, but it could also be noted that Kenna is also a practitioner of all the elements of Hip Hop, a community radio host and DJ, a certified Yoga teacher, and an improvisational vocalist. Kenna is an abolitionist non-violent transmitter and receiver and also in the practice of creating and experiencing Black space for cultural arts and liberation. Current projects include self study and reclamation through the Body Prayers cycle. Kenna is the child of Ancestors Beverly and Bill Cottman, community parents & artists each in their own rights. Kenna is the mother of Yonci Peaceful, a well known and respected artist, writer, DJ, activist and musician; and Ebrima Baye, an accomplished soccer player, golfer, enthusiastic gamer and proficient drummer.

www.voiceofculture.org for more information on Kenna's forward facing projects.

Davu Seru

For the past 20+ years drummer Davu Seru has worked with numerous improvising musicians and

composers throughout the United States and France including Milo Fine, George Cartwright, Nirmala Rajasekar, Douglas R. Ewart, Michelle Kinney, Dean Magraw, deVon R. Gray, Paul Metzger, Evan Parker, Didier Petit, Babatunde Lea, Nathan Hanson, Mankwe Ndosi, Rafael Toral, Donald Washington, Guillame Seguron, Tony Hymas, David Boykin, Catherine Delaunay, and Nicole Mitchell Gantt. He’s curated numerous concert series and has received composer awards from the McKnight and Jerome Foundations and commissions from Walker Art Center and Zeitgeist Ensemble. Davu is a member of the Association for the Advancement of Creative Musicians (AACM).

Kashimana

Kashimana (she/they) is a mother, musician, singer, songwriter, composer, producer, guitarist, and performing teaching artist with a rich soulful blues voice that soars through their original compositions. Mixing Pop, Soul, R&B and more, Kashimana’s distinctive voice pulls you in and connects you to frequencies that encourage connection and transformation. The name Kashimana means 'that's their heart' and you can hear their heart beating in the compelling sound of Kashimana’s music. Kashimana often draws inspiration from their experiences growing up in Nigeria, Kenya, traveling through Africa, Europe and finally settling in the United States. Kashimana weaves stories of becoming a mother, asking what prosperity would sound like for everyone and sharing the truth of what is going on in our communities locally and internationally. Kashimana has performed in and around Minnesota for the last 20 years. You can find them performing in local venues from Icehouse to the local library, conferences to elementary schools. Kashimana is also the founder of the Mamas Ignite Collective, A BIPOC collective that curates and creates spaces for Mamas to thrive in their creativity through collaboration, learning and art making.

Kashimana is a 2025 McKnight Composer with the American Composers Forum, 2021 Jerome Hill Artist Fellow, a 2019 ACF In Common Composer in Residence, a 2019 Cedar Commissioned Artist, a presenter at Northern Spark Festival 2018 and 2019, 2020 MN Opera MNiatures CoCreator and Artists Respond: People, Place, Prosperity Recipient.

deVon Russell Gray

deVon Russell Gray is a divinely guided multi-media social justice activist and pantheistic audial alchemist whose work redefines the role of music in activism and cultural transformation. At the core of his practice is a foundational commitment to approaching every new project with humility and openness—embodying a “beginner’s mind” that seeks continual death and rebirth to expand his artistic horizons. Gray harnesses the power of sound to confront urgent social issues such as policing, personal autonomy, and the systemic injustices faced by Black and Brown communities. Echoing the words of scholar and composer George E. Lewis, who reflects on the emergence of a “new type of composer” rooted in intercultural dialogue, Gray embodies this evolution through his own transformative journey. After years of Eurocentric training and scholarship, Gray has intentionally dislocated from traditional frameworks, navigating a space centered in decoloniality and Afrofuturism. His work challenges existing paradigms, forging innovative cultural pathways that resonate deeply with contemporary social justice struggles and artistic liberation.

3pm Doors

5pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

18+

$20 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$27 Doors (+fees/taxes)

Eliza Wheaton graces the stage with an elegant tribute to the timeless Astrud and João Gilberto, the mother and father of bossa nova. Singing classics such as “The Girl from Ipanema,” “Água de Beber,” and “Corcovado,” Eliza transports audiences to a small room in Rio de Janeiro with its window open as the rhythms of Brazil and the ocean drift softly inside. This memorable performance celebrates not only the birth and revolution of bossa nova, but also the feeling of saudade—that uniquely Brazilian sense of longing. It invites listeners to slow down, lean in, and experience the romance, restraint, and quiet emotion that define the genre.

6pm Doors

8pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

21+

$13 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$20 Doors (+fees/taxes)

Self-Evident is releasing their 2007 self-titled album for the first time on vinyl! This 2026 release has been remixed, and remastered for vinyl by Carl Amburn, with the artwork reimagined by Johna Reuvers. This show will also serve as a tour kickoff for Self-Evident and Congratulations (Japan) Midwest Tour.

6pm Doors

8pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

21+

$20 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$27 Door (+fees/taxes)

Sera Cahoone has been a fixture on the Seattle music scene since relocating to the Pacific Northwest in 1998. She played drums with slowcore legends Carissa’s Wierd until they split in 2003. Cahoone joined her CW alums in Band of Horses, playing on their certified Gold 2006 album Everything All the Time.

In the 8 years following her album release of “From Where I Started”, Sera Cahoone experienced profound loss. She channeled the heartbreak into writing songs, playing shows, and developing her skills as a producer and drummer, producing three records for friends like Dean Johnson and Margo Cilker.

Her new record I’ve Missed You All These Years coming out August 28 via Sub Pop, captures the sound of ecstatic collaboration between exceptionally talented friends. It’s a record about finding comfort in community; about rediscovering yourself by connecting with the people you love.

I’ve Missed You All These Years is triumphant, a celebration of life rooted in the knowledge of its fleeting nature. The product of a lifetime spent performing and producing music, the album traverses blues, folk, pop, and country, evoking Loretta Lynn in one song and Lucinda Williams in the next. It’s a testament to the strength that creativity and community brings, a portrait of an artist who knows herself completely.

Lily Blue Bio:

From DIY spaces to iconic Minneapolis venues, Lily Blue has brought warm sentimental tones to her home music scene. Her wistful lyrics dance atop indie rock instrumentation evoking a melancholic whimsy that ‘bitter sweet’ doesn’t seem to fully convey. The energy of her music is well showcased in her first ever released single titled ‘August,’ a track that blends the beauty of a moment and the grief of the ephemeral into the delicate balance that is Lily Blue.

6pm Doors

8pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

21+

$15 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$22 Doors (+fees/taxes)

papa mbye writes experimental pop songs threading flourishes of electronic, R&B, soul, and more. Born in The Gambia, raised in North Minneapolis, and a relative newcomer to making music after starting as a visual artist, he’s taken strides in his sound in a short time. With his new self-produced EP, JAKAARLO, he brings his voice into focus, exercising restraint in arrangements while pushing his craft forward. Songs burst with color, texture, and hooks.

JAKAARLO is a meditation on closeness. Not just the kind shared between lovers, but the elusive kind that drifts between memory, distance, and desire. The title, which translates from Wolof as “to be close to”, is borrowed from a song by the late Senegalese musician N'dongo Lo appearing on his 2005 album Adouna. With JAKAARLO, mbye channels that sense of appreciation for the entirety of love, the real and the raw, the fleeting and finite, the spaces between people, tense, messy, and beautiful. Joined by a cast of collaborators, mbye wields layers of instrumentation and voice into vibrant, future-facing material that declares his arrival as both a visionary producer and performer.

The mood board for JAKAARLO spans the music of his youth (Youssou N'Dour, N'dongo Lo) and the boundless off-kilter pop of Jai Paul, alongside mbye’s friends and contemporaries: Minneapolis artists Young Dervish, vlush, KINFU, and Ryan Olson (Bon Iver, Gayngs, Poliça), who contributed on the album. papa mbye’s music rumbles, rattles, and darts between modes, welcoming high-wattage basslines, guitar riffs, and synth tones in a hyperactive, mesmeric mix. At the center is his emotive voice, capable of raspy croon and howling falsetto.

6pm Doors

7pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

18+

Purchase Tickets Through Ticketmaster Only:

https://www.ticketmaster.com/event/060064C9CD91329A

$18 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$22 Doors (+fees/taxes)

The Schizophonics-

Amps screaming. No exit in sight.

The Schizophonics kick the door in and never let it close. This San Diego–based three-piece delivers a live show that’s loud and dangerously fun—an all-gas, no-brakes blast of feedback and groove. It’s full-contact rock ’n’ roll: high voltage, high velocity, and sharpened to a blade. The band features Pat Beers on vocals and guitar, Lety Beers on drums, and Sarah Linton on bass. Together they unleash a fuzz-soaked, funk-fueled attack built on pounding rhythm and feral energy. Every song hits like a charge. Every set feels like the floor might give out. Blink and you miss something. Stand still and you get run over. Forged on the road and fueled by motion, The Schizophonics have torn through stages in fourteen countries, earning a reputation as a must-see live act that turns rooms upside down. Channeling the raw spirit of James Brown, Iggy Pop, Jimi Hendrix, Little Richard, and The Sonics, they strip rock back to its most dangerous elements—and set them loose. Behind the chaos is precision. Behind the noise are hooks that bite. The Schizophonics are currently finishing their fourth full-length album, due Summer 2026.

Fever Dog-

Formed in 2007 by a group of 6th graders in the California Desert, FEVER DOG have been electrifying audiences and earning the adulation of fans with their signature explosive sound and over the top stage show throughout the United States & Europe for years. Danny Graham (Vocals, Guitar,) Quanah Lienau

(Vocals, Guitar) Jaxon Fischer, (Vocals, Bass) & Joshua Adams (Vocals, Drums) make-up the ensemble of the group which operates on one simple credo;“ACTION!” This single word serves as their mission statement.

A creative thru-line that shoots through their dynamic recordings, performances, & personal lives which leaves a lasting effect on the public that is undeniable. Having shared the stage and tour bills with such greats as WOLFMOTHER, FATSO JETSON, ANGEL, & many, many more over their tenure in Rock & Roll,

FEVER DOG continues to push the envelope; innovating upon the time honored tradition of rock bands who are loved by fans for the quality of their work and magnetism of their persona. By giving the people what they’ve craved for so long, FEVER DOG amasses an ever growing community of true fanatics in every city they land in. These fanatics are invited to come along on the band’s soaring flight to the top; captivating the minds and hearts of all they reach along the way.

The Ugly Cowboys-

The Ugly Cowboys are a 3-piece punkabilly/queer-punk/indie-rock/numerous-other-genres band based out of Minnesota. Although ugly, they are best known for their onstage antics, clever lyrics, dynamic songwriting, and unparalleled stage presence. Their music is for the modern person who prefers their drinks strong, morals loose, and billionaires nonexistent. First time listeners are known to blush, laugh, and relate deeply to The Ugly Cowboys...just be sure to bring an umbrella (there will be sweat).

6pm Doors

8pm Showtime

Full Food and Beverage Menu Available

21+

$25 Adv (+fees/taxes)

$32 Doors (+fees/taxes)

Kontravoid's masked mystique has remained for over a decade. Ever since the release of his self-titled LP in 2012, the Canadian-born, Los Angeles-based Cameron Findlay has perfected dark pop with an oeuvre that teeters between the EBM, electro, and goth genres. His productions, such as 2019's "Too Deep" and 2021's "Faceless," dive to the most derelict corners of foggy, strobe-lit clubs—there is no choice but to dance. But there is an uncanny softness and obvious songwriting ability to compose heart-wrenching songs that are both captivating and drenched in melancholy. 2018's "Undone" has been a fan favorite since it came out on Berlin's Fleisch Records.

Onstage, Kontravoid demands the audience's attention with a powerful performance that balances his specific concoction of harsh beats with his signature bassline rhythmic patterns. He's toured alongside Boy Harsher, ADULT., Drab Majesty, and Hide, and has remixed the likes of Schwefelgelb and Kris Baha. Truly a man of the shadows, Kontravoid is an unparalleled fixture in the dark electronic arena.