Separated by nine miles, Tuesday’s two outdoor concerts in the Grand Rapids area boasted different vibes, lots of stars and the same enthusiastic crowd support amid stellar summer weather. And rapper T-Pain hit The Intersection.
Take a Bow: It was an evening of inspiring, collaborative firsts at Meijer Gardens on Tuesday. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
It was an evening of firsts and lasts.
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Almost Home: Craig Morgan made himself comfortable in front of a big crowd at Fifth Third Ballpark. (Photo/Eric Stoike)
At Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, it was the last Tuesday Evening Music Club concert of the summer, a primo showcase of regional musical talent on a gorgeous summer evening that also boasted a number of “firsts”: the first time the talented young Traverse City duo The Accidentals had ever played the outdoor amphitheater, the first time that Grand Rapids singer-songwriter Ralston Bowles had ever played a couple of compelling new tunes in public, the first time that Grand Rapids hip hop star Rick Chyme had ever performed “frap” (Bowles’ newly invented term for folk intertwined with rap) with the acoustically inclined Accidentals.
More than 1,000 people attended the family-oriented affair that closed out the locally focused summer series, an event which also brought an all-star band to the stage with Bowles: pedal-steel guitarist Drew Howard, drummer Steve Aldrich, standup bassist Mark Lavengood and fiddler Jeffrey Niemeier.
Several miles away, at Fifth Third Ballpark in Comstock Park, it was the first night of the three-show Summer Concert Series featuring country stars Craig Morgan, Chase Rice and Shelby Ann-Marie Miller, and West Michigan fans were out in full force: Upwards of 7,000 cowboy boots- and hat-sporting concertgoers packed the stadium usually reserved for the West Michigan Whitecaps.
Katie Larson of The Accidentals. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
Suffice to say, Morgan hit a homerun from the outset, even if he messed up the lyrics to the opening song, “International Harvester,” before re-winding it to the approving cheers of a forgiving, happy audience, which naturally celebrated everything the singer trotted out, including hits such as “Little Bit of Life.”
Both concerts took advantage of a stellar late-summer evening that straddled the line between jeans and shorts, with music that inspired young and old to dance and sway with glee. (And rapper T-Pain was in town, too, revving up a crowd of about 500 at The Intersection.)
Bowles, who launched the Tuesday Evening Music Club series more than a decade ago with West Michigan bands such as Grasshoppah and The Willeys, may have put it best when he talked about spotlighting Michigan’s prodigious musical talent in a place like Meijer Gardens:
“I’m really excited that there are opportunities like this to be able to showcase some of this talent and there are people like yourselves who will spend an evening listening to music rather than just talking over it. I want to thank you so much for that from the bottom of my heart.”
Check out the photo gallery from both shows by photographers Anthony Norkus and Eric Stoike, with some video highlights of the Tuesday Evening Music Club concert below.
CRAIG MORGAN, RALSTON BOWLES & FRIENDS: THE LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY
Craig Morgan, Chase Rice photos by Eric Stoike
Ralston Bowles & Friends, The Accidentals, Rick Chyme, T-Pain photos by Anthony Norkus
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Copyright 2014, Spins on Music
