Alan Sparhawk, with or without Low, and Trampled by Turtles have generously shared many stages over the years. Through opening for each other and collaborating onstage, these two bright emblems of northern Minnesota music have mutually tipped their hats for decades. When they hit Pachyderm Studios together in 2024 to record Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles, this bond grew even tighter.

While the record is a collection of songs that began with Sparhawk — including some of his unfinished work with wife and bandmate Mimi Parker, who died in 2022 — the end product sounds like the Duluth artists plotting a course side by side. On Thursday evening, in front of a sold-out crowd at the Fitzgerald Theater in St. Paul, Sparhawk played the entire show in lockstep with the six Trampled members: guitarist Dave Simonett, Dave Carroll on banjo, bassist Tim Saxhaug, mandolinist Erik Berry, fiddle player Ryan Young, and cellist Eamonn Mclain.

To open the night, Nona Invie performed an intimate solo set at a keyboard. Stories came in between songs, including a lengthy comedy of errors involving an overzealous cat leading up to a magical rendition of Vince Guaraldi’s A Charlie Brown Christmas classic “Christmas Time Is Here.” The songs by Invie — who put out the intricate album, Self-soothing, earlier this year — brought warmth into the Fitzgerald as an expectant crowd entered from the cold and found their seats.

Early on, the headliners made it clear this was not going to be a co-headlining show featuring Trampled by Turtles’ bluegrass-Americana material. The songs were either from Sparhawk’s growing solo catalog or his work with Parker in Low. In front of a screen displaying images from nature and powerful colored LEDs, a group of Duluth-tied artists who revel in defying popular musical conventions for speed, instrumentation, and subject matter let loose together.

Standing in a crescent moon-shaped line, the seven musicians played all nine songs from Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles. Young’s fiddle emitted a tortured wail on “Screaming Song,” and Trampled’s harmonies filled the spaces beyond Sparhawk’s pleas on “Don’t Take Your Light.” The band’s steady rhythm buoyed a frontman turn for "Get Still.” It was the only song that had Sparhawk dancing and employing the digitally altered singing voice from his 2024 solo album, White Roses, My God.

Sparhawk brought up daughter Hollis, a musician credited on several Low releases and member of Duluth-based Willem Dafoe Fan Club, to sing their duet “Not Broken” to complete the Alan Sparhawk with Trampled by Turtles section of the night. She stuck around to sing her mother Mimi Parker’s part for Low’s holiday gem “Just Like Christmas,” which showed just how uncannily similar their voices are, in tone and emotional inflection. I doubt there was a dry eye in the house after that. The hilariously spooky “Santa’s Coming Over” followed, and everyone onstage leaned into some mood-lifting melodrama.

Sparhawk then introduced a new song, “No More Darkness,” an earnest wish for compassion in an increasingly hostile world. It segued the evening into a mini-set of Low classics, all augmented by the acoustic powers of Trampled by Turtles. Simonett shared lead vocal duties on “When I Go Deaf.” Featured on 2005’s The Great Destroyer, it was the song Trampled by Turtles and Sparhawk performed together at the Armory just a couple of weeks after Parker’s death. Then Sparhawk took the lead for “Holy Ghost,” a devotional song Parker sings on Low’s 2013 album, The Invisible Way. The already powerful line “I feel the hands, but I don’t see anyone,” had a different weight than before.

The encore, “Days Like These” — from Low’s final studio album, HEY WHAT — had Trampled by Turtles stringed ensemble replacing the song’s electronic production. The song’s huge initial impact and fervent descent were redirected, but still undeniable. In that moment, Sparhawk and Trampled by Turtles gave everything they had left. It put a bow on a night featuring one foot in the past and the other stepping bravely into the future.

Alan Sparhawk & Trampled by Turtles

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Nona Invie

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Setlist

Stranger

Heaven

Screaming Song

Get Still

Don’t Take Your Light

Too High

Torn & in Ashes

Princess Road Surgery

Not Broken

Just Like Christmas (Low)

Santa’s Coming Over (Low)

No More Darkness

Silver Rider (Low)

When I Go Deaf (Low)

Holy Ghost (Low)

Encore

Days Like These (Low)