OneRepublic, Talib Kweli, Bryan Adams, Josh Garrels, Nick Moss: Weekend Photo Gallery

Seasoned and emerging national acts made West Michigan tour stops, but local acts basked in summer’s power, too: Bennett, Roosevelt Diggs, The Go Rounds, Jim Shaneberger, The Sailor Kicks.

 

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Weeknights take on a special sheen in summer when it comes to live music with so many community concert series showcasing local and regional talent for hefty audiences almost every night of the week.

Add to that some national tours and, voila, there’s no excuse to stay home (unless you’re sucked into the maelstrom of overdue home improvement projects).

This mid-July week was no exception:

• The Tuesday Evening Music Club series continued at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park with an uber-capacity crowd cheering up-and-coming folk act Bennett and Americana band Roosevelt Diggs on a sweet, sun-splashed evening. (Bennett, by the way, plays the Local Spins Wednesdays series at SpeakEZ Lounge on Wednesday night.)

• Several miles to the north, The Jim Shaneberger Band entertained fans at the Rogue River Blues Series series in Rockford’s Garden Club Park, with Shaneberger wandering into the crowd at one point to rip through his guitar solos.

• On Wednesday, another impressive throng turned out for the 97LAV Budweiser Summertime Blues series outside the DeltaPlex Arena with Chicago blues guitarist Nick Moss and his band delivering the goods.

• The same night, The Pyramid Scheme hosted hip-hop poet and spoken-word artist Sage Francis, with Grand Rapids’ own MC Friendly and Dante Cope also performing. That was followed on Thursday by the arrival of Brooklyn’s Talib Kweli, with performance artist, poet and publisher Jessica Care Moore opening the show.

• Also on Thursday, Death From Above 1979 and Cosmonaut rocked the evening away at The Intersection.

• Kalamazoo’s The Go Rounds delivered a night of their distinctively twangy, reverb-laden roots music at Rockford Brewing in Rockford, while The Ragbirds fired up the Lowell Showboat Sizzlin’ Summer Concerts series in Lowell and Vox Vidorra did the same for the Celadon Summer Concert Series in northeast Grand Rapids.

• On Friday, singer-songwriter Josh Garrels made a tour stop at The Intersection in Grand Rapids. Local Spins writer and photographer Ricky Olmos was there. Here is his mini-review:

Throughout the evening’s festivities – from the pre-show Q&A, to the genre-spanning set, and with the closing two-song encore – Josh Garrels emanated a relaxed and laid-back confidence during his stop-over in Grand Rapids on Friday. The set opener, “A Long Way,” saw that calm demeanor merge with a crescendo of ambient instrumentals and vocals in front of a captivated crowd of nearly 600 concertgoers at The Intersection.

With a shift in sound from Garrels’ acoustic and folk-inspired beginnings, the soulful, and vintage-tinted elements of his most recent album, “Home,” brings with it a full, backing band, and a set list unabashed about dipping into rock ’n’ roll, blues, and soul music. Show apex, and fan favorite, “The Arrow,” saw the band at full volume from the starting gate. With an instantly classic electric-guitar hook, driving drums and bass, and Garrels’ soaring falsetto leading the way into the chorus, the previously hushed and entranced room, was transformed into a rock club – a roaring crowd of heads bobbing, outstretched arms, and stomping feet.

Other show highlights included a stripped-down, acoustic song-set that included an accordion and banjo, as well as the song “Freedom,” with Garrels using hand percussion on his acoustic guitar to set the rhythmic foundation for a mostly rapped verse.

In the front lounge, aka The Stache, the same night, local band Poor Boy Romance hosted a CD-release show, with The Balsam Brothers and Ben Ray also performing.

• Just down the street, Canadian rocker Bryan Adams brought his North American tour celebrating the 30th anniversary of his multi-platinum-selling “Reckless” album to Van Andel Arena, regaling a relatively small crowd of 4,000-plus (with no one in the upper bowl and half the usual floor seats) with his arsenal of hits.

• The next night, pop-rock’s OneRepublic set up shop at Van Andel Arena for the Meijer LPGA Community Concert, with Josh Kaufman, a past winner of “The Voice,” also performing for the half full arena.

• The Sailor Kicks kicked it up a notch for their CD-release show at Founder Brewing on Saturday night, with The Mushmen and The Bootstrap Boys opening, the same evening that Brother Adams rocked their unique folk-rock outdoors at Hideout Brewing Co.

THE WEEKEND THUMBSLIDER PHOTO GALLERY: July 26, 2015

Tuesday Evening Music Club photos by Taylor Mansen
Jim Shaneberger photos by John Sinkevics
Nick Moss, MC Friendly, Dante Cope photos by Anna Sink
Sage Francis, Talib Kweli, Jessica Care Moore photos by Katy Batdorff
Death From 1979, Cosmonaut photos by Anthony Norkus
The Go Rounds photos by Anna Sink
Josh Garrels, Poor Boy Romance, Balsam Brothers, Ben Ray photos by Ricky Olmos
Bryan Adams photos by Anthony Norkus
OneRepublic photos by Eric Stoike
The Sailor Kicks, Brother Adams photos by Anna Sink

Copyright 2015, Spins on Music LLC