Doobie Brothers at the Grandstand

Before I forget all the details, here is a short post about the Doobie Brothers show at the Minnesota State Fair. Our original tickets were for the 2020 version of the fair that never happened, so we just held on to them. This is the second time I’ve been suckered into buying seats on the “floor” that are really much worse than being farther back in the actual grandstand structure (the other was Stevie Nicks). Fool me once…won’t get fooled again.

Of course everyone was excited to have Michael McDonald rejoin the band after a 26 year absence, so it was heartbreaking to get the notice a few hours before the show that he would not be performing. When they said openers Dirty Dozen Brass Band were also scratched, I figured it had to be a serious health issue and hoped everyone was OK. Ross Raihala at the Pioneer Press and I exchanged some private messages and he initially thought it was 50/50 health and 50/50 band fight (spoiler: it was COVID).

The show started promptly at 7:30pm and overall we were entertained. You can find the Ross review here, while the Star Tribune sent Jon Bream. Colleen and I loved that Bream caught both the Prince tribute by saxophonist Marc Russo and the ZZ Top moment by Johnston, Simmons and McFee. Reported attendance was 11,461 and here is the setlist from setlist.fm (which is also after the jump, along with a handful of very bad photos).

Doobie Brothers at the Grandstand, Tuesday, August 31, 2021