Three acts have announced shows at the new Mystic Lake Amphitheater in Shakopee: Dave Matthews Band on June 23, the Black Crowes and Whiskey Myers on July 28 and Ne-Yo and Akon on Aug. 5.

Tickets will go on sale through Ticketmaster for DMB at 10 a.m. Feb. 20, Black Crowes and Whiskey Myers at 10 a.m. Feb. 6 and Ne-Yo and Akon at 10 a.m. Friday.

Singer/guitarist/South Africa native Dave Matthews formed his band in Virginia in 1991 and hand-picked players from the local jazz scene. The group went on to sign with RCA Records and release a series of hit singles, including “What Would You Say,” “Crash into Me,” “Crush” and “The Space Between.”

But the group’s biggest success has come on the road, where their improv-heavy shows are now a coming-of-age tradition. At No. 4, the Dave Matthews Band is the highest-ranked American headliner on Pollstar’s list of the “25 Most Popular Touring Artists of The Millennium” and has sold more than 25 million tickets over the group’s history.

Black Crowes and Whiskey Myers

Brothers Chris and Rich Robinson formed the Black Crowes while in high school. Their 1990 debut album “Shake Your Money Maker” topped five million in sales and included the hits “Hard to Handle” and “She Talks to Angels.”

They continued to have success in the ’90s before going on hiatus in 2002. They’ve since reunited twice with a variety of backing musicians.

Whiskey Myers is a country rock band that formed in 2007 and count Lynyrd Skynyrd, Hank Williams Jr. and Waylon Jennings as key influences. They’ve self-released seven albums, including 2019’s self-titled effort, which hit No. 1 on the country chart.

Ne-Yo and Akon

Arkansas native Shaffer Smith adopted the stage name Ne-Yo early in his career when he was a member of the group Envy. After Envy broke up in 2000, Ne-Yo signed a short-lived deal with Columbia Records, which dropped him before he could release his debut album.

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Ne-Yo went on to find success as a songwriter and after penning Mario’s 2004 hit single “Let Me Love You,” he landed another solo deal. He went on to release a series of Top 10 smashes, including “So Sick,” “Sexy Love,” “Because of You,” “Closer” and “Miss Independent.”

While he was born in St. Louis, Akon — whose proper name is 12 words long — spent much of his early youth in his father’s native Senegal, where he learned several instruments including the guitar and drums. While still in high school he became part of the Refugee Camp, the extended musical family of the Fugees.

A producer who is also a frequent guest artist on songs like Gwen Stefani’s “The Sweet Escape” and David Guetta’s “Sexy Bitch,” Akon’s biggest solo hits include “Lonely,” “Smack That,” “I Wanna Love You,” “Don’t Matter” and “Sorry, Blame It on Me.”

Two months ago, Minneapolis’ Orpheum Theatre hosted a touring production of the longest-running show in Broadway history, “The Phantom of the Opera,” and it proved an eye-opening surprise. The theatrical warhorse had new life breathed into it by a London staging that leaned upon the 1986 original for inspiration, and the opening-night performance I attended was brilliantly executed, full of passion and energy.

Now, the second-longest-running show in Broadway history has set down stakes at the Orpheum, but, alas, this version of “Chicago” feels far from fresh. Employing the same basic set, direction and choreography as the 1996 revival that’s been running ever since, it’s a remarkably ponderous and perfunctory production that lacks spunk, spirit or sexiness. Despite some fine channeling of the 1920s musical aesthetic from the onstage 10-piece band, it’s a staging that trudges where it would better bounce.

The cast of the North American touring production of “Chicago,” John Kander and Fred Ebb’s musical about women murderers of the 1920s and the way that the press covered their cases. The show runs through Feb. 1, 2026, at the Orpheum Theater in Minneapolis. (Courtesy of Jeremy Daniel)

“Chicago” is rooted in a 1920s play inspired by a couple of murder trials its author covered as a reporter. Five decades on, the composer/librettist team of John Kander and Fred Ebb joined with writer-director-choreographer Bob Fosse to create a “vaudeville” from its story, employing several styles from the early days of jazz to tell the tale of two murderers, Roxie Hart and Velma Kelly. Although both are guilty of their crimes, they and a crafty attorney seek to spin juries and the press in their favor while reveling in their newfound celebrity.

A show like “Chicago” doesn’t survive for a half-century without accruing a devoted fan base, and there seemed to be several enthusiasts in attendance at the Orpheum Tuesday night, judging from the lusty howls of appreciation that greeted such songs as “All That Jazz,” “Cell Block Tango” and “When You’re Good to Mama.” But they did little to jump-start this touring company’s engine on this chilly January night. With rare exceptions, all the tempos seemed way too slow and the onstage energy barely palpable.

Exceptions finally arrived with the emergence of Max Cervantes as slick and cagey defense lawyer Billy Flynn. Exuding a level of charisma yet to be reached by either of the musical’s lead characters, his “All I Care About” proved a fun little Busby Berkeley knockoff that led to a smile-inducing take on the march-like “A Little Bit of Good” from easily manipulated reporter Mary Sunshine, lent lively sparkle by J. Clanton. When the peppy Charleston, “We Both Reached for the Gun,” followed, it seemed that this show was at last kicking into gear.

But no. One potential showstopper after another fell flat, every song undersold and suffering from a paucity of punch. Despite some strong dancing, the cast came off as simply tired of the material, the most egregious of missed opportunities being a version of one of the show’s signature songs — Flynn’s courtroom tutorial, “Razzle Dazzle” — being delivered at a sleepy, ballad-like pace, leeching all the fun from a number that could stand as something of a distillation of the musical’s cynical spirit.

After a slow start, Ellie Roddy proved increasingly engaging as Roxie Hart, but “Chicago” has always been a musical with a problematic anticlimax, and her best efforts couldn’t overcome that. Yet this low-wattage production fizzles out more disappointingly than most.

‘Chicago’

When: 7:30 p.m. Wednesday-Friday, 2 and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday

Where: Orpheum Theatre, 910 Hennepin Ave., Minneapolis

Tickets: $328-$40, available at hennepinarts.org

Capsule: A staging that makes “Chicago” seem old, slow and tired.

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“The ASAP Act can deliver two things New Yorkers urgently need: lower bills for households and more clean electrons on an increasingly strained power grid.”

Solar power panels at the Sherman Terrace co-op in the South Bronx. The panels were installed in 2020.

As the federal administration continues to brazenly pull the country into yet another shortsighted bid for oil dominance that enriches only the fossil fuel industry, the stakes are obvious: American energy independence and affordability are being sacrificed.

We can keep tethering ourselves to volatile geopolitics, to fossil fuel prices we’ll never control, and to an energy system built on instability and extraction—or we can choose the alternative that’s right in front of us: harnessing the sun here at home on our own rooftops. By rapidly accelerating local solar in New York, we can build power right here in our communities, beyond the reach of coups, cartels, and commodity shocks.

This legislative session offers New York a chance to do just that: pass the Accelerate Solar for Affordable Power Act (ASAP Act), S6570 and A8758. The ASAP Act would double New York’s rooftop and community solar goal, and cut red tape to lower the costs of getting community solar connected to the grid. In short, the ASAP Act can deliver two things New Yorkers urgently need: lower bills for households and more clean electrons on an increasingly strained power grid.

Why waste time and taxpayer dollars on chasing foreign oil or greenlighting new and expensive gas pipelines—like the recently approved NESE (Northeast Supply Enhancement) pipeline project in New York City, which had previously been rejected three times for projected environmental harms—when we already have a thriving industry built around the cheapest, most abundant power source on Earth: the sun.

Distributed solar, meaning rooftop systems and smaller community-scale projects, is delivering real results. So much so that New York is already on track to meet the Climate Act target of 10 gigawatts of statewide distributed solar ahead of schedule. To date, we’ve already built 7.6 gigawatts, which is enough energy to power roughly 1.3 million homes. These projects have the power—literally and economically—to directly benefit people’s daily lives. They show up as lower electricity bills, cleaner air, more resilient local grids, good-paying clean energy jobs, and real investments in local communities.

Take, for example, the rooftop solar project recently completed by GreenSpark Energy at Rochester’s Foodlink Center, a nonprofit that tackles food insecurity across the region. This 679 kilowatt solar array cuts energy costs for the organization and frees up resources to serve more local families.

In New York City, Solar One is working with nonprofit and industry partners – including Green City Force, Solar Uptown Now Services, PowerMarket and Accord Power– to build solar on 142 NYCHA buildings in Brooklyn and Queens. In addition to producing seven megawatts of community solar that will generate bill discounts for thousands of low- and moderate-income neighbors, project partners are training NYCHA residents in solar installation, and providing STEM internships to high school students, pairing installations with resident engagement and workforce development. These projects grow local renewable energy for low-income New Yorkers while advancing energy justice where it matters most: in people’s homes and communities.

These projects also bring clean energy jobs to our state. NYSERDA’s recent Clean Energy Industry Report shows that New York’s solar and storage industry currently supports 18,688 jobs. The ASAP Act would create another 15,000 jobs, adding to a growing ecosystem of good-paying clean energy jobs across the state.

But political headwinds are making it harder to get more projects like these online. The federal government recently gutted our country’s longstanding clean energy program (the Investment Tax Credit), increasing costs of projects by at least 30 percent. While at the state level, expensive, outdated, and time-intensive processes to connect new projects to the grid are forcing companies to take their business, jobs, and investment elsewhere.

The ASAP Act will change that: it doubles the state goal, creating a mandate for state agencies and the Public Service Commission to invest in local renewables, and enacts common-sense “interconnection” reforms to lower grid connection costs and maximize existing infrastructure while reducing costly upgrades.

A recent study spells out the benefits in no uncertain terms. Scaling up distributed solar and storage to the levels envisioned in the ASAP Act would save New Yorkers roughly $1 billion a year in energy costs. That translates to real money: about $87 a year for the average upstate ratepayer and $46 a year downstate—and the savings reach everyone, whether they directly participate in solar or not.

As the affordability and climate crises collide, we have no time to lose. New York lawmakers have the chance this year to unlock gigawatts of local clean energy and deliver real bill relief by passing a law that adds nothing to our state budget. With the ASAP Act, we can choose a healthier, more resilient, more affordable future that puts clean energy—not volatile fossil fuels—in the hands, and on the rooftops, of New Yorkers.

Kate Selden works at Solar One, an environmental nonprofit whose mission is to design and deliver innovative education, workforce training, and technical assistance that fosters sustainability and resiliency in diverse urban environments.  

The post Opinion: For Affordable Clean Energy at Home, New York Needs Solar ASAP appeared first on City Limits.

A sculpture designed by Team USA for the World Snow Sculpting Championship in downtown Stillwater has been removed by officials citing changes made by the sculptors in response to recent federal immigrant enforcement.

The original design, as submitted to competition officials, featured a sphere of outstretched hands. It was called “A Call to Arms.”

But the team of sculptors, which includes St. Paul artist Dusty Thune and teammates Dan Belcher and Josh Jakubowski, decided during the festival in Lowell Park to add peace signs and hand gestures using American Sign Language. Among the messages spelled out in ASL: “ICE out,” “love,” “unity” and “resist.”

“Unfortunately, Team USA did not comply with the rules of the competition,” Robin Anthony-Evenson, president of the Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce & Foundation, said Wednesday, adding that event organizers had received “several phone calls and complaints” about the sculpture.

The World Snow Sculpting Championship rules state that “teams must adhere to their original submitted sketch” and “sculptures must respect cultural and social values, avoid offensive, controversial, political, or inappropriate themes,” Anthony-Evenson said.

The hand gestures used in the sculpture “did not align with these pre-established rules and policy,” she said.

‘Events have a hand’

Thune, a veteran snow sculptor and the team’s captain, said his team, called House of Thune, “hadn’t necessarily planned on inserting any messages into the sculpture, other than hand signs for peace, love, unity and resistance, which would have been continued into the snow on the ground behind the sphere as if it were rolling toward the St. Croix River and leaving messages in its wake.”

Thune said the decision to alter the design of “A Call to Arms” came on Jan. 14, the first day of the competition. Renee Macklin Good, 37, was shot and killed by a U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement agent in Minneapolis on Jan. 7.

“Upon digging into the snow block, we found the snow pack to be so poorly packed and full of debris that the outstretched arms we were carving kept crumbling and falling off,” he said. “We made the choice to focus on bigger hands and shorter arms to try and salvage our piece. Sometimes the medium (snow) decides the way a piece is going to be created. Sometimes external events also have a hand in shaping what a piece will become.”

After learning of the changes, event organizers modified the sculpture on Jan. 19 by removing some of the hand signs, Anthony-Evenson said.

On Monday, the entire sculpture was removed from Lowell Park, she said.

“In hindsight, we should have taken it down right away, but we were trying to be nice and manage the situation without having to do that,” Anthony-Evenson said. “We learned there were more hidden messages in the sculpture than first thought. That is why we decided to take the whole thing down. This event is about bringing people together, not dividing them.”

Anthony-Evenson, who knows ASL, said the hands spelled out “ICE out” by using the sign for “ice” and the “resistance fist.”

“It was very creatively done, and it was not very easy to read,” she said. “You had to look at it very carefully to notice it, but clearly it was noticed. We appreciated the positive messaging that we did see like ‘love’ and ‘peace,’ but at the end of the day, the sculpture was modified from the submitted design. The submitted design had open fingers.”

Was not a winner

The 16 sculptures created by teams from 16 different countries remained in Lowell Park open to the public after the competition, so organizers decided to remove “A Call to Arms,” Anthony-Evenson said. The removal was “procedural in nature, unrelated to judging outcomes, and did not involve penalties or sanctions against the artists,” she said.

Team USA did not place in the competition, which was won by a team from Canada, she added.

Team Fjordwitches of Quebec, Canada, pose with their winning entry, “The Inosculation of Souls.” (Courtesy of Peachiie Marketing)

“The whole point of the World Snow Celebration is to unify the world and bring the world to Stillwater and have a family event without any controversy one way or the other,” Anthony-Evenson said. “That’s really what we are trying to do.”

The Greater Stillwater Chamber of Commerce & Foundation “recognizes that conversations about artistic expression and free speech matter deeply to many people,” she said. “We respect the importance of open expression and creative exploration, while also carrying responsibility for maintaining a public event that is welcoming and appropriate for the broad community it serves.”

The organization that sponsored Team USA’s sculpture was Bayport American Legion Hesley Jensen Post 491 in Bayport. The Pioneer Press reached out to the post for comment Wednesday afternoon.

‘Unnecessary and divisive’

In a letter to Thune dated Jan. 20, Anthony-Evenson, Stillwater Mayor Ted Kozlowski and World Snow Celebration Co-Chair Sara Jespersen expressed their “deep disappointment” regarding the team’s actions.

“As you were made aware, the rules governing this international competition are explicit: political symbols, statements, or messaging of any kind are strictly prohibited,” they wrote. “Despite this clear policy, inappropriate content was incorporated into your sculpture. This was not an oversight. It was a conscious decision, and it was a selfish one.”

The letter went on to say Team USA’s actions negatively impacted event organizers, required financial resources to address and damaged the partnership with a nonprofit sponsor.

“At a time when unity and mutual respect are more important than ever, introducing this type of messaging into this forum was unnecessary and divisive,” the letter said.

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Thune, a special-education teacher for St. Paul Public Schools, has competed in four of the five World Snow Sculpting Championship competitions in Stillwater; House of Thune won the world title in 2023. Last year, Thune served as a celebrity judge for the competition and created the sponsorship walls and snow slide.

This year, Thune asked students and staff at the high school where he works “to give me their messages to convey in the piece,” he said. “It had to include their voices or it wouldn’t be as meaningful. I believe we followed the spirit of our piece: to stand up and to speak out. We stand behind our work.

“It seems that ‘A Call to Arms’ did exactly what its description suggested: it opened an avenue for our voices to be heard, as well as for the voices of those that can no longer speak out to be remembered.”

‘Call to Arms’ sculpture description

From the World Snow Sculpting Championship website (worldsnowcelebration.com):

“In a world where division is growing, we all have an equal responsibility to do our part to stay united. A Call to Arms is a figurative expression urging people to take action, often in response to a crisis or conflict. It is a rallying cry to engage in a particular cause. It is going to take each and every one of us to keep our democracy healthy and viable for future generations. Everyone needs to lend a ‘hand’ to keep our society moving forward.”