Minnesota Music Notes: Stories from First Avenue

Series produced by Ampers

Series image

Minnesota Music Notes celebrating noteworthy artists, people and moments that shaped the history of Minnesota's Mainroom First Avenue

Minnesota Music Notes First Avenue are produced by Ampers with support from the Minnesota Historical Society and their new exhibit First Avenue: Stories from Minnesota's Mainroom


25 Pieces

Order by: Newest First | Oldest First
Caption: courtesy of MNHS
In Minneapolis, you couldn’t think of First Ave without thinking of Prince. But by 2007 the funk-rock icon hadn’t played there two decades when the...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: courtesy of MNHS
No one could believe it. Prince was dead at 57. Fans congregated at his home in Paisley Park—and outside First Avenue. Here producer Britt Aamodt r...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Minneapolis hip-hop collective Doomtree had been hosting a popular annual Blowout at First Avenue since 2009. Britt Aamodt takes a look at the fina...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Summer 2010, the Twins had a new stadium, Target Field. And First Avenue, which had declared bankruptcy six years before, was bouncing back with a ...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
In 1996, the Fugees were touring on the biggest single of its career. The Roots were an eclectic hip-hop band finally breaking into the top twenty....

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Who knew that when a new Minneapolis indie hip-hop label formed in 1995, it would find a home at the city’s most legendary rock club? Here’s Britt ...

Bought by CI Dolphin Radio, KSRQ, and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
For many touring acts playing First Avenue/7th Street Entry, the club was embodied by a single man. Britt Aamodt takes a look behind the scenes wit...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: courtesy of MNHS
Hardcore punk group Husker Du formed in St. Paul in 1979. Within a year, the band was headlining the new side stage at Sam’s (First Avenue), the 7t...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Britt Aamodt takes a look at music club First Avenue from the perspective of the DJ, who kept the music spinning during the ’70 disco era, crowd-te...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 10, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Caption: courtesy of MNHS
When Steve McClellan first stepped through the doors of First Avenue, it was a disco club called Uncle Sam’s and he was looking for a job. Britt Aa...

Bought by KSRQ and KQAL


  • Added: Oct 15, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 2
Piece image
Laurie Lindeen’s health scare made her reassess life. What did she want to do? Start a band. Britt Aamodt has the story of Zuzu’s Petals.

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
It was 2010 and Minnesota supergroup GAYNGS was hosting a CD release party at First Ave, when Prince appeared side stage. Britt Aamodt recounts wha...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Before First Avenue was a club, it was a bus terminal. Britt Aamodt looks at the origins of the Greyhound Northland Bus Depot.

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
David Carr put it this way in his New York Times column: First Avenue Is Dead (Long Live First Avenue). Britt Aamodt looks at the bankruptcy that n...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Dan Corrigan’s first photographic assignment at First Avenue/7th Street Entry in 1981 wouldn’t be his last. Not by a long shot. Britt Aamodt’s piec...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Lucinda Williams had played First Avenue before. But this night was special. Britt Aamodt reports on the wedding of the country star with her Minne...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:37
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Chris Riemenschneider, music critic at the Star Tribune, couldn’t believe no one had written a history of First Avenue. So he wrote one. Here is Br...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Woodstock breakout Joe Cocker had just come off a U.S. tour and really needed a break. But his North American manager had different ideas. Britt Aa...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Nirvana had just come from a recording studio in Madison, Wisconsin, where the group made initial steps to record songs for a second album. Now, Ap...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3
Piece image
Mark Wojahn, artist and filmmaker, had been coming to First Avenue/Entry shows since he was in high school. But then in 1992 at a Buffalo Tom—or wa...

Bought by KSRQ, KQAL, and KMSU


  • Added: Sep 26, 2019
  • Length: 01:38
  • Purchases: 3