The week in live music leading up to Halloween covered funk, jazz, bluegrass, R&B, hip hop and folk. That eclectic mix was captured in images at Local Spins.
Fiery Funk: Lettuce revved up The Intersection early this week. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Halloween may be the focus of most of late October’s musical revelry — especially with the haunted holiday falling on a Saturday — but West Michigan boasted an eclectic array of concerts in the week leading up to Saturday’s celebration:
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• Boston’s Lettuce got the week started with a Tuesday night funk affair at The Intersection for a crowd that wasn’t as huge as some might have expected but was crazy enthusiastic nonetheless.
•; Grand Rapids’ Blue Water Ramblers staged a jam-packed CD-release show at SpeakEZ Lounge on Wednesday, with special guest Molly Bouwsma Schultz (Vox Vidorra) adding zip to the performance on songs such as gospel’s “Wade in the Water.”
• Grand Rapids hip hop artist Lady Ace Boogie fired up her “Feel Good Music” — with help from DJ Dean Martian and rapper J. Rob — during a Local Spins Live at River City Studios session on Wednesday, with the full podcast, video and more photos to come at Local Spins.
• Award-winning jazz singer Dianne Reeves regaled fans in Grand Rapids’ Royce Auditorium on Thursday, as part of St. Cecilia Music Center’s Great Artist Gala.
• Flint R&B/soul/hip hop artist Tunde Olaniran made a stop at Local Spins on WYCE Friday morning to perform a couple of songs on the air, then tore up The Pyramid Scheme for a show that also featured Grand Rapids’ AOK, Detroit’s Gosh Pith and Vinyl Fetish. Local Spins contributor Jonathan Beatty provided this account:
Friday night’s Tunde Olaniran show saw a packed room of people in various costumes dancing and singing along with the Flint native. Olaniran’s set was filled with plenty of treats with two backing dancers adding another visual element to the set. A surprise cover of Drake’s “Hotline Bling” with guest vocalist Ultramark of Stepdad got the crowd worked up. Another fun moment came when Tunde tossed out Taco Bell gift cards during the chorus of his song “Diamonds” boasting the line, “Nothing in my pocket but a $5 bill, guess I’ll go to Taco Bell and buy a combo meal.” Tunde is an artist with that “IT” factor and it was fully on display the entirety of the set. See him perform now as it may not be long before he isn’t a local commodity anymore.
• Billy Strings & Don Julin brought their bluegrass wizardry to the stage at Bell’s Brewing in Kalamazoo on Friday night, with Kalamazoo’s Who Hit John? opening the show.
• Country’s Old Dominion and Grand Rapids’ own Union Guns pumped up another exuberant throng of fans at The Intersection for a mid-week concert.
• Meanwhile, Ohio’s Skulx — a collaboration between members of Foxy Shazam and Cadaver Dogs — delivered a high-energy, rollicking rock affair at The Pyramid Scheme on Thursday, with Apostles and Knives Are Quiet.
Return to Local Spins on Sunday for a special Halloween edition of the Weekend Photo Gallery.
LOCAL SPINS WEEKEND PHOTO GALLERY (10/31/15)
Lettuce, Blue Water Ramblers, Lady Ace Boogie photos by Anna Sink
Dianne Reeves photos by Tori Thomas
Tunde Olaniran photos by Anna Sink and Katy Batdorff
Billy Strings & Don Julin photos by Derek Ketchum
Old Dominion, Union Guns photos by Eric Stoike
Skulx, Apostles, Knives are Quiet photos by Anthony Norkus
Official Sponsor of the Local Spins Weekend Photo Gallery
Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC
Glad to see DeSoto got mentioned on the Skulx show at the Pyramid Scheme