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Turf Club

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1601 University Ave. W. St. Paul, MN 55104

651-647-0486

http://www.turfclub.net

3 User reviews Write A Review

Best Country Music Venue
Award Winner 2013

1601 University Ave. W. St. Paul MN 55104

Entertainment: Live Entertainment

Description

Few bars in St. Paul can boast the kind of bang-per-buck ratio as the Turf, where a twenty will get you in to see a three or four-band set -- usually featuring notable local and national indie-rock acts -- and enough drinks to last you pretty much all night. Upstairs features a classic, unpretentious '40s-vintage bar atmosphere, while the Clown Lounge downstairs hosts weekly jazz nights.

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Theme Time Turf Club

8:00 p.m. May 26

With Pocahontas County.
The Cactus Blossoms

6:00 p.m. every Mon.
DJ Couch Time's Tuesday Record Party

8:00 p.m. every Tue. until May 28
Rank Strangers, Buffalo Sleeper

8:00 p.m. May 29

Loading More Turf Club Events

Antibody Wanna Dance: A fundraiser for photographer Erik Hess

By Jeff Gage | Wed, May 08, 2013

Chances are that you've probably never heard of Erik Hess. But if you keep up at all on the local music scene, and especially if you read this blog, then you've no doubt seen his photography before. H... More »
Damien Jurado

By Rob van Alstyne | Wed, May 08, 2013

Though he releases records at a feverish pace, veteran folkie Damien Jurado creates songs that have always cast a slow-burning spell. Over the years, he's veered among jaunty folk-pop on 1999's Rehearsals for Departure, some boisterous full-band... More »
Har Mar Superstar returns to the Turf Club, 5/4/13

By Keith Harris | Mon, May 06, 2013

Har Mar Superstar Turf Club, St. Paul Saturday, May 4, 2013 Sean Tillman may not live in Minnesota anymore, but he still knows it's important to dress in layers. Tillman's sex-symbol-by-fiat alter e... More »
Phosphorescent

By Rob van Alstyne | Tue, April 09, 2013

Matthew Houck's decade-long run as Phosphorescent has seen him set his cracked twang to both tried-and-true cowboy sounds with 2009's Willie Nelson tribute album To Willie, and electronics-accented ambient-folk fare as found on 2007's Pride. This... More »
History of Hip: Industry of Death

By Jessica Armbruster | Wed, February 27, 2013

It may be morbid to consider, but times with high death tolls often bring opportunities to make a buck. This was especially true during the Civil War, which had a casualty rate that still stands as the greatest in history for U.S. countrymen. In... More »
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2013 | Best Country Music Venue

Though it's become better known as a rock club of late, the Turf Club has over the years managed to cling to its origins as a country bar where folks came to two-step back in the 1940s, a time when it operated as a post-Prohibition bar, restaurant, and entertainment venue named for its founders Kirch & Gillis. This was a time when streetcars connected the twin downtowns and University Avenue figured large as an entertainment and retail corridor, with movie theaters and dance halls like the... More »
2013 | Best Karaoke

If you were a regular at the sparsely attended Hairy Karaoke series at St. Paul's Turf Club, you were not only in on one of the city's best-kept secrets but you've also likely had an itch to get up on the venue's side stage for quite some time now. Unfortunately, with its many regular offerings, from touring bands to weekly residencies, the Turf Club has gotten a little too busy to accommodate Hairy and its handmade, record-sleeve-bound songbooks composed entirely of Laserdisc karaoke tunes.... More »
2011 | Best Celebrity Sighting

Have you heard the one about the identity thief? It goes like this: A Madonna impersonator walks into a bar, but not just any bar. Our bar, our hometown bar, our Turf Club, and all the Twin Cities forgets for a moment that she's a mere copycat, a charlatan in corsets and dead animal flesh. When Lady Gaga, fresh from her show at the Xcel early in the morning on the First of September, walked into the Turf Club, she made us forget that the storied bar and venue is about rock music--real... More »
2011 | Best Hipster Hangout

New Year's Eve at the Turf Club ended with another wildly successful Cover Band Night, featuring a variety of local acts covering their favorite bands, from the Beatles to Suicide. As bands and fans cleared out at bar close, many planned to return the next night to see another potential barnburner featuring Marijuana Deathsquads. But just hours before the doors were to open, the show was called off, and staff reporting to work found the place locked, the lights out, and a sign on the front... More »
2011 | Best Bathroom Graffiti

The graffiti adorning the walls of the women's bathroom outside the Clown Lounge on the lower level of the Turf Club is a schizophrenic menagerie reflecting the variety of eras the Turf Club has lived through. It's a mixture of weird sponge art from some bygone era (the '90s?) and more topical, contemporary additions: some painted tribal art, something about a girl band from a handful of years ago, and inspiring quotes like, "The Midwest is the epicenter for the revolution!" Add to that the... More »
2011 | Best Punk Rock Literary Series

There is something about literary readings that can feel a bit awkward and not that much fun. But Riot Act Reading Series takes the stick out of poetry's butt by infusing punk rock energy into the lit--two fine arts that work great together, with the presence of alcohol smoothing the way. Since 2006, Paul D. Dickinson, formerly of the legendary punk rock/art venue Speedboat Gallery, has been captain of this ship, along with his lovely co-host, Laura Brandenburg, both experts at keeping... More »
2011 | Best Concert of the Past 12 Months (Local)

How long is 78 hours, really? It's the length of a four-day, three-night vacation. It's the ultimate all-nighter, longer than anyone should ever stay awake in one stretch. And it's enough time to rally more than 100 musicians behind one lofty, maniacal goal; enough time to form dozens upon dozens of one-off bands, all in the name of the marathon. When Mark Mallman set out to perform his longest continuous song yet, all the usual questions came up: Will he be able to stay awake? Are there... More »
2010 | BEST JAZZ CLUB

Jazz has been in a state of quiet crisis ever since first-wave boomers started rejecting the '60s and '70s tendency toward innovation in favor of fare they could easily talk over. Hence the problem at some metro jazz clubs: No matter how storied or formidable the talent at the area's most esteemed institutions, too many patrons are likely to treat the music as a backdrop for conversation. But the Turf Club's Monday night Jazz Implosion, hosted for over half a decade by local/international... More »
2008 | BEST ROCK CLUB

St. Paul's Midway neighborhood can be a desolate place. There's something defeating about those chain stores and DMV outposts gazing imperiously on Snelling and University from their bituminous moats. But nestled here in this wasted economic hub is St. Paul's crown jewel of live music, glowering in the rough like a guerrilla sniper. With a capacity of over 250, inviting booths pushed far enough back from the stage to accommodate a crush of crazed concert-goers, and a staff of world-wise... More »
2006 | BEST ROCK CLUB

This time last year, hipsters were all aflutter about the impending doom of this much loved venue. The Turf Club had changed hands--bought by a guy who ran Irish pubs, no less!--and the Clown Lounge had been stripped of all its disquieting Barnum and Bailey flair. But as with the rebirth of First Avenue not long before, the Turf Club came back better than ever. Walls were knocked down, relieving the narrow venue with a little extra breathing room. And breathing room was needed, as... More »
2004 | BEST CONCERT VENUE

Go ahead. Show us a musician who doesn't like strutting under the glimmer of Christmas lights or sucking up a beer beneath the velvet paintings in the Clown Lounge downstairs. Show us a fan who hasn't shown up early for Raleigh's Tacos (Tuesdays and Fridays), or crowded into the photo booth, or leaned over the bar to chat with ever-affable bartender Dave Weigardt. We'll show you a loser whose zeal for live music probably ended with the last lyre concert on Mount Olympus. Both Brooklyn... More »
2004 | BEST JUKEBOX

The jukebox at the Turf Club is one of the most underutilized musical treasures in the Twin Cities. There's a simple, obvious reason for this: Most people go to the Turf Club to hear live music. Consequently, the jukebox stays dormant during the bar's busiest hours. The old skells and pool players who populate the Turf in the pre-dusk hours aren't really ones to toss away dollar bills to hear some Thin Lizzy. Like the other first-rate jukeboxes in town (C.C. Club, Grumpy's, Triple Rock... More »
2002 | BEST ROCK CLUB

You know that a musician-frequented club is a good one. On any given night down in the Turf Club's Clown Lounge, one can find drummer JT Bates cracking a beer, Exercise's Preston Olson cracking a joke, or any number of riled-up local drummers looking as if they might want to crack some heads. In fact, you can gain so much from just people-watching in this place that you almost forget there's music to be heard. Yet drag yourself away from the bar and toward the stage, and you'll find some of... More »

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henry.travis28 | Minneapolis, MN | 26 Reviews

4
| Fri, August 27, 2010

All I got to say is the Clown Lounge. If your scared of clowns stay up stairs.
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HeatherK | Minneapolis, MN | 88 Reviews

4
| Tue, March 17, 2009

This place is cool for a show. They have a colorful atmosphere with a photobooth and a second bar downstairs in what used to be called the clown lounge due to its attire. Now its more like a up north cabin.
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emilyutne | Minneapolis, MN | 17 Reviews

4
| Tue, January 20, 2009

Best place to see First Communion Afterparty, you never know when they will get up on stage and sing with the Von Bondies Check out the Clown Lounge if the music sucks upstairs!