Recap and photos: Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit's 'A Concert for Minnesota' at the Armory
by Luke Taylor and Darin Kamnetz
March 06, 2026
“Something cool happens every time I come to town,” Jason Isbell told the audience at the Armory in Minneapolis on Thursday night. The landmark venue was packed with music fans for an evening with Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit, where indeed, many cool things happened.
Billed as “A Concert for Minnesota,” which was also livestreamed on The Current, Isbell and band treated the audience to a generous setlist that spanned Isbell’s 10-album catalog, stretching back even to include “Outfit,” a song Isbell had originally written for Drive-By Truckers in 2003.
The set also included full-band renditions of three songs from Isbell’s most recent release, 2025’s solo, acoustic album Foxes in the Snow, creating fascinating new textures for the songs. “Bury Me,” the first track on Foxes in the Snow, appeared early in the set list Thursday night, with Isbell on acoustic guitar, Chad Gamble and Will Johnson on percussion, Derry deBorja on accordion, Anna Butterss on upright bass, and Sadler Vaden on mandolin. With full instrumentation, “Bury Me” veered from the plaintive mood heard on the album in favor of a more lilting, even jaunty rendition, stirring many audience members to dance and sway along. “Crimson and Clay,” meanwhile, seemed to carry more powerful, heavy emotion with the 400 Unit leaning into its sound. And “Eileen” was elevated by the 400 Unit’s vocal harmonies.
After playing “Eileen,” Isbell shared that song’s Minnesota roots. “I wrote that song right here in town in a hotel room a couple years ago,” he recounted. “It was too cold to go outside — too cold for me to go outside, y'all don't seem to mind it.
“I was in a hotel room with a bunch of pictures of Prince on the wall,” Isbell continued. “It was good to be in a place where so much great music had been made, and it motivated me, and it inspired me.”
It wasn’t the only Minnesota anecdote Isbell imparted on Thursday. Earlier in the set, after playing “Outfit,” Isbell recalled how his first visit to Minneapolis came while he was touring with Drive-By Truckers. They had played the now-defunct 400 Bar, and Isbell described how much he enjoyed exploring the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood, where he got to expand his palate. “Mostly I remember having Somali food,” Isbell said. “It was the first time I'd ever eaten anything that wasn't from Alabama or Mexico or Italy, and I was astounded. I haven't forgotten about that. That was a big deal for me, a 22-year-old kid from Alabama.
“It opened my eyes to so many things, and I saw so many beautiful neighborhoods here in town,” Isbell added. “I think that makes Minneapolis one of the best cities in America, really.”
At the Armory, people from Minnesota shared reciprocal feelings for Isbell. Peter Brehm of Eden Prairie described being introduced to Isbell’s Southeastern album by a coworker. “It turned out to be the best album I ever heard,” Brehm said, “and I started buying it for everybody,” including his son, Harrison, who accompanied his father to the concert on Thursday, marking the fourth time the two had seen Isbell perform.
Eric Olson from Alexandria discovered Isbell’s music while listening to The Current during the depths of COVID, citing songs from Isbell’s 2020 album Reunions. “You can relate to his music from any background,” Olson explained. “It’s very personal, it’s a story, it could be anybody.”
And Anna Cushing of Woodbury said she and her husband have seen Isbell more than 15 times, not only in Minnesota but also in New Orleans and at Red Rocks in Colorado. Cushing has favorite songs from all of Isbell’s albums, but a cut from the Reunions album is particularly significant. “That album came out when I was pregnant with our first child,” Cushing said, “and she would always dance along in my belly when we played ‘Dreamsicle,’ and so we played that song on repeat, and it has a special memory for us.”
Thursday’s “A Concert for Minnesota” wasn’t just a geographic moniker. A limited-edition poster created by Chicago-based illustrator and designer Ryan Duggan — depicting a squadron of loons flying over downtown Minneapolis — was sold at the Armory with all proceeds from those sales going to the Immigrant Law Center of Minnesota. (Before the show, fans were seen entering the Armory with empty cardboard tubes specifically for transporting posters home.) In addition, a percentage of the proceeds from the show were also donated.
Onstage, Jason Isbell and the 400 Unit poured their whole selves into the songs. From “Hope the High Road” to “Chaos and Clothes” to “Vestavia Hills,” Isbell’s lyrics paint pictures and evoke empathy. Some carry a more overt message, such as the toll racism takes on a father and daughter in “Cast Iron Skillet.” Isbell wrote “Dress Blues” for the late Corporal Matthey Conley, a solider from Isbell’s hometown of Green Hill, Alabama, who was killed in the Iraq War. “I'll be glad when we don't need those anti-war songs anymore,” Isbell remarked.
Other songs, like “Alabama Pines” (“After all these years, after playing it this many times, I still don't hate it,” Isbell quipped) and “Relatively Easy” got the audience singing along so spiritedly, their voices resounded off the Armory’s cavernous ceiling.
Fans also got to hear Isbell and Vaden rock out on guitars. Isbell treated the audience to a heavily blues-inflected-rock instrumental bridge in “Decoration Day.” Later, Vaden laid down a searing, extended outro on “King of Oklahoma.” And the whole band kicked into high gear on the unapologetic rocker “Super 8” off Southeastern. Interestingly, Thursday’s show didn’t include any selections from Isbell’s 2015 album, Something More Than Free, but that only seems to underscore just how deep a discography Isbell can now draw from.
Throughout Thursday’s show, in response to each opening riff, a different collection of voices called out “Yeah!” or various fists pumped the air, suggesting everyone in attendance at the Armory in Minneapolis got to hear a favorite song. And that, to paraphrase Jason Isbell, is a very cool thing to have happen.
Set List
Hope the High Road
Outfit
Flying Over Water
Cigarettes and Wine
Bury Me
Volunteer
Crimson and Clay
Dreamsicle
Songs That She Sang In The Shower
Alabama Pines
Relatively Easy
Dress Blues
Streetlights
Decoration Day
Chaos and Clothes
Eileen
Super 8
Vestavia Hills
Cast Iron Skillet
King of Oklahoma
Cover Me Up
Encore:
If We Were Vampires
Can’t You Hear Me Knocking (Rolling Stones cover)
