Mustard Plug, Josh Rose, Nicholas James Thomasma, Pulaski Days, BridgeFest: Weekend Photo Gallery (Oct. 1-5)

It started with Girls With Guitars and Tweedy and, despite the rain, just kept rolling with some early October festivals and Gunnar at the ‘Section, captured in images at Local Spins.

 

The circumstances were troubling, dire even.

With rain and cold weather forcing the first-ever BridgeFest at the Ionia County Fairgrounds indoors, and an electrical outage that delayed Saturday’s starting time, Joel Gordon and organizers of the two-day fundraiser to restore the destroyed Whites Bridge had reason to fret: With room for a couple thousand people inside the fairgrounds’ sprawling exhibition building, only a few handfuls of fans turned out Saturday afternoon.

But you certainly couldn’t tell by chatting with bands or watching their upbeat performances on stage. Garbed for the chilly conditions, a top-drawer, diverse lineup of Michigan bands — Vertical Bridge, Papa Jaxson, Fauxgrass, Mystic Dub, Dragon Wagon, hi-ker, The Outer Vibe and Joe Hertler & The Rainbow Seekers (following Friday night’s performances by Ralston Bowles, Mystic Dub, hi-ker and The Verve Pipe) — charged up an elaborate stage, complete with high-tech lighting, stage fog and mammoth sound system.

The musicians’ mood was surprisingly cheery and enthusiastic, recognizing that first-year festivals in new surroundings — at the mercy of the weather — often struggle. And some expressed confidence that organizers would learn from the experience and build toward a more successful BridgeFest in 2015.

On the flip side, it’s tough to imagine that Saturday’s CD-release shows by a pair of West Michigan singer-songwriters could have fared any better:

• With a large and attentive crowd on hand, Josh Rose’s album-release concert at Grand Rapids’ Wealthy Theatre was everything fans of earnest, acoustically oriented musical artists would ever want to see and hear. The intimate venue proved the perfect setting for Rose’s story-telling and the poetic lyrics gracing his new album, “Old Laminate,” with the “flannel boys”: guitarist Michael Crittenden, bassist Seth York, keyboard player John Neil and harmony vocalist Kyle Rasche. “I want all of my songs to be organic,” Rose said at the beginning of his second set. That rootsy, acoustic, positive approach clearly found an appreciative audience amid the subdued, pindrop-quiet milieu.

• Starting off with a stripped-down set spotlighting his new solo EP, “Long Story Short,” Grand Rapids’ Nicholas James Thomasma, accompanied by violinist Clouds, showed off his impressive voice as he launched his CD-release show at Founders Brewing. But things ramped up considerably energy- and tempo-wise when his band, The Bandwagon, joined him for the rest of evening, leaving the solid crowd swaying and dancing to the seven-piece group’s country-hued folk-rock. (Thomasma had played earlier in the week at Rockford Brewing.)

And there was more:

• Gunnar and The Grizzly Boys once again lit up a happy, fist-pumping country crowd at The Intersection, which has become the band’s home base.

• Speaking of home bases, Mustard Plug returned to The Pyramid Scheme with its audience-pleasing, party-up ska, with the always-entertaining PotatoeBabies led by the charismatically goofy Rev Charles Preston Smith really electrifying the crowd. Heavier Than Air Flying Machines and Three Cents Short also performed.

• The annual Pulaski Days celebration filled Polish Halls on the West and East sides of Grand Rapids with dancers and drinkers listening to the polka strains of bands such as the Stan Mroz Orchestra at Little Hall and classic rock acts including Thundering Hearts playing Diamond Hall and The Decades playing American Legion Post 459.

• Tweedy, aka Wilco’s Jeff Tweedy and his son, Spencer, delivered a critically praised concert at Calvin College; read the review and check out a full photo gallery in this Local Spins post.

• Ohio’s Twenty One Pilots get a bit theatrical during their sold-out Orbit Room show, part of the band’s Quiet is Violent world tour, with Misterwives also on the bill.

• Northern Michigan’s Girls With Guitars made their Rockford Brewing debut on Wednesday in impressive fashion, with The Accidentals, Miriam Pico, E Minor, Blake Elliott and Missy Zenker showing off terrific harmonies and strong songwriting.

• Jim Spalink, known for his work with Celtic music’s An Dro, performed a special show as “The Bard” on a wire strung harp, delivering Irish poetry, history and humor as part of the Grand River Folk Arts Society’s series at the Wealthy Theatre annex on Saturday.

THE LOCAL SPINS WEEKEND PHOTO GALLERY: Oct. 5
Click on photo to enlarge gallery; disable pop-up blocker if images won’t load

Mustard Plug, PotatoeBabies HTAFM, 3 Cents Short, Josh Rose photos by Anthony Norkus
Nicholas James & The Bandwagon photos by Anna Sink
Gunnar & The Grizzly Boys photos by Eric Stoike
BridgeFest photos by John Sinkevics
Pulaski Days photos by Anna Sink
Tweedy photos by Anthony Norkus
Twenty One Pilots, Misterwives photos by Tori Thomas
Girls With Guitars photos by John Sinkevics
Jim Spalink photos by Kristine Carpenter

JOSH ROSE CD-RELEASE SHOW

BRIDGEFEST 2014

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