The Current Fondly Remembers Live Music

• As the still-escalating COVID-19 pandemic keeps us all frustratingly sheltered in place — and away from the gift of live music, TFN — some measure of musical relief is on tap this weekend, thanks to our enterprising friends at Minnesota Public Radio’s Twin Cities’ music discovery HQ KCMP (The Current)/Minneapolis-St. Paul, who have spent hours foraging through the station’s extensive live music archives and assembled a virtual two-day respite from the world outside: On-Air Fest, which kicks off Saturday, Dec. 12 at noon with a set from Chastity Brown, followed by live sets from Best Coast, Sonny Knight, Of Monsters and Men, Nathaniel Rateliff, CHVRCHES, Arctic Monkeys, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Death Cab for Cutie, Spoon, Tori Amos, The National, Adele and wraps up at 6:30pm with Bon Iver.

Sunday’s line-up starts with IDLES, and continues with Laura Marling, Black Pumas, Bob Mould, Dessa, Billy Idol, Tegan and Sara, Charles Bradley, Courtney Barnett, Metric, The Avett Brothers and closes at  5:30pm with a spirited set from Lizzo.

RAMP chatted with Current PD Jim McGuinn, who explained how this ambitious theme weekend was pulled together, as he said, “As we were heading into the end of the year — a busy time for a station like The Current, with holiday programming, but also Top 89 Countdown and special features devoted to the Best New Artists, Albums, Locals, etc. — we were talking about how much we were missing live music this year, and thought, ‘let’s go through the archives and put a festival on the radio!'” McGuinn added, “It’s a fun way to replay performances we’ve captured over the years with artists like Adele, Bon Iver, and Billy Idol, but also a way to remember some we’ve lost in recent years like Sharon Jones and Charles Bradley, who were both good friends to The Current. In a year without live music, at least we can crank up the radio this weekend and dream.”