At the In Lieu show at Cloudland Theater in south Minneapolis on Saturday night, one attendee walked around the crowd handing out rebel loon stickers. The show, an album release party for Minneapolis rock band Battery Eyes, was also a fundraiser for MIRAC, a volunteer organization that fights for legal rights for immigrants. This is reality of seeing a concert in Minneapolis at this moment in time. People gather to have a good time, but a good time that can hopefully do some good to help our neighbors under siege. 

I mentioned in my Top 20 Albums of 2025 post that In Lieu is my current favorite local band, despite having not seen them live yet. I'm happy that I was able to rectify that this weekend, and catch a few other new-to-me-bands at a newer venue I had yet to visit. The full lineup was Battery Eyes, In Lieu, Unstable Shapes, and Laura Larson, but female-fronted punk band In Lieu was the primary draw for me. I was certainly not disappointed. They blasted through their 2025 album Bully, delivering all 19 minutes with both precision and fury. Lead singer Nikki Post belts out belligerent, gravelly vocals in the vein of Babes In Toyland or Made Out of Babies, and her voice was every bit as powerful live as it is on the record. While their songs are short and punchy and filled with frenetic energy, they were far removed from the sloppy energy you often get from this kind of band. In Lieu is a shockingly tight live band. I've seen technical metal bands play with far less precision. 

Headliner Battery Eyes also put on a solid show, and Unstable Shapes exemplified that chaotic "this could go off the rails at any minute" energy. Laura Larson's experimental electronic pop didn't connect with anyone in my crew, but she seemed to have a lot of fans in the audience. Every band did. I lost count of the number of times I saw someone unexpectedly run into someone he or she knew. If you performed a massive game of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon, I would guess every single person in the crowd would have "friends of friends" connections to every other person. That's the type of place Minneapolis has always been, and in the face of adversity, those bonds are only growing stronger. At every show around the city, people are seeing friends and recognizing kindred spirits amongst those they don't yet know. And, at the center of it all, is music. 

Stay strong. They will not win.