For four days or so, Electric Forest was an escape from the real world. More than 25,000 jam-band and electronic music fans – the more outrageously colorful and silly the[…]
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Huey Lewis & The News, Katie Todd 7 p.m. Monday $75 ($73 Meijer Gardens members) Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park It’s so hot, chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs. Sorry,[…]
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The sun was searingly hot and the crowd was small when The Crane Wives kicked off their set Sunday afternoon on the Tripolee Stage at Electric Forest, but by the[…]
The Ottawa Tavern’s tenure as a jazz club is ending … suddenly. Just six months after making the much-celebrated conversion of the downtown watering hole into a place where live[…]
Everything is different in the dark. Way different. In daylight, Electric Forest sweats with a sun-splashed milieu that sort of celebrates Michigan’s great outdoors – concertgoers gyrating and hula-hoopers hooping[…]
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Gary Clark Jr. made it all worthwhile. Cranking out the raw blues-rock of “Bright Lights” in the brilliant sunshine at Double JJ Resort in Rothbury with undulating, brightly bedecked Electric[…]
The temperature was in the 90s at showtime, but nothing was hotter than Warren Haynes’ guitar work as Gov’t Mule made its Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park debut on[…]
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It doesn’t have the big-name headliners of Rothbury past – Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg – but this weekend’s Electric Forest at Double JJ Resort some 24 miles[…]
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Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials WLAV Budweiser Blues on the Mall Series 6:30 p.m. Wednesday Free Rosa Parks Circle, downtown Grand Rapids June’s final week builds nicely to quite[…]
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Gov’t Mule 6:30 p.m. Thursday $40 Frederik Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids Township Gov’t Mule may have started as an Allman Brothers’ side project in the mid-1990s by guitarist Warren Haynes[…]
It was a celebration worthy of John’s Day. No, I didn’t see any guys strolling around with bushy oak-leaf crowns, but I saw plenty of unusual headgear at Saturday’s Founders[…]
It’s nowhere near his biggest hit, but when Al Green sings “Tired of Being Alone,” he fuses all of the elements that have made him a Grammy-winning superstar of soul:[…]
Al Green 7 p.m. Monday The concert is sold out. Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Township I fondly recall many things about soul singer Al Green’s much-ballyhooed[…]
Vincent Hayes Project Huntington Rogue River Blues Series 7 p.m. Tuesday Free Garden Club Park, Rockford I mentioned the Carnival of Madness tour in a recent post. Well, it’s festival[…]
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The “leaks” have begun. As is Rock the Rapids’ habit, the first two of six dates of the August downtown Grand Rapids music festival were announced today: Shinedown, Papa Roach,[…]
It was a day to celebrate summer … about two weeks early. With the mercury in the upper 80s and the sun broiling West Michigan, it was also a day[…]
It makes perfect sense. That Pink Floyd visionary Roger Waters at one time studied to be an architect before pursuing his music career really paid off with the crowning achievement[…]
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Roger Waters’ “The Wall” 8 p.m. Wednesday $66.50-$214.35 Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids Let’s hope the sun keeps smiling as it did on Festival Sunday, because outdoor summer music hoopla[…]
Quirky doesn’t begin to describe the opening night of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park’s 10th summer concert series. How about abnormally wet and extra-terrestrially weird? Not only was Friday[…]
2012 Festival of the Arts Noon Friday-7 p.m. Sunday Free Throughout downtown Grand Rapids I literally ran out of gas on my way back into town on Monday, but there’s[…]
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Billed as the “youngest blues band in America,” the Homemade Jamz Blues Band will launch the 2012 edition of the LAV Budweiser Blues on the Mall series on June 13.[…]
Shannon Stephens 7 p.m. Friday Free Schuler Books & Music, Grand Rapids (28th Street) Seattle singer-songwriter Shannon Stephens plays a bluesy folk-rock with her “Fabulous Friends” that’s earned attention from[…]
Singer-songwriter Jonathan Edwards isn’t afraid to speak his mind on stage or in his songs. Starting with his Vietnam War-era hit, “Sunshine,” in the early 1970s, the singer has long[…]
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Boasting 17 of Michigan’s most dynamic bands and performers, 2012’s edition of the Tuesday Evening Music Club series at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is sure to pack the[…]
Caroline Herring 7:30 p.m. Monday Free, donations to KidsFirst One Trick Pony, Grand Rapids Grand Rapids is always looking for an excuse to party. This week, it doesn’t need one.[…]
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How about a Rock ‘n’ Roll Draft? With the over-hyped, prime-time-powered NFL Draft under way tonight, I couldn’t help but wonder what the selection process might look like if rock[…]
If the turnout Saturday at just two of West Michigan’s most popular independent record shops is any indication, Record Store Day had things spinning toward its biggest success story yet.[…]
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Jim Avett 7:30 p.m. Monday Free admission, $10 donation suggested for In The Image SHOES program One Trick Pony, Grand Rapids If you thought last week was nuts, take a[…]
Singer and Grand Rapids native Anthony Kiedis won’t be inside his customized ’58 Airstream trailer when he rolls into Cleveland with his Red Hot Chili Peppers bandmates for Saturday’s Rock[…]
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This summer’s garden party just got a whole lot more interesting. Soul singer and hometown hero Al Green, blues legend Bonnie Raitt (with Mavis Staples), reggae icon Jimmy Cliff, jam[…]
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Today’s anti-summer weather might not scream shorts and hula hoops, but live music’s favorite time of year is on the doorstep as evidenced by this week’s Grand Rapids festival announcements.[…]
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The Fuzzrites, The Boss Mustangs 9:30 p.m. Wednesday $5 Charlie’s Bar & Grille, Grand Rapids This week’s BIG radar-jamming shows will divide fans into two distinct rock camps and ne’er[…]
From pop phenoms to jazz veterans to bluegrass jammers, it’s time for Part II of my quarterly Local Spins roundup of new album releases by local and regional artists. (If[…]
Miniature Tigers 7 p.m. Thursday (doors open at 6:30 p.m.) $10 advance, $12 day of show The Intersection, Grand Rapids Inventive Brooklyn indie-pop band Miniature Tigers brings its Modern Art[…]
For several decades, Grand Haven’s Bill Chrysler has worked with the best of ‘em, quite literally: John Mayer, Christina Aguilera, Bob Seger, Paul McCartney, Maroon 5, Tom Petty, Roxy Music[…]
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Robert Plant and Jimmy Page surely would have approved. And had they been alive to see it, I’m betting iconic bluesmen Junior Kimbrough and Son House would have left smiling,[…]
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With this week’s unseasonably tropical weather, does anybody need an even bigger tease that summer is still three months away? How about this? Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park today[…]
Davina and the Vagabonds 8 p.m. Monday Free admission, donations to Special Olympics One Trick Pony, downtown Grand Rapids Because LaughFest yuks it up in Grand Rapids starting Thursday, it’s[…]
Jazz isn’t getting the short shrift anymore. Grand Rapids now seems to embrace this genre like never before, with The Gilmore Collection’s recent conversion of downtown’s Ottawa Tavern into a[…]
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Guitarist-singer John Mayer’s announcement of a new tour and album the week of the Michigan primary – with three April stops in the Great Lakes State, including an April 12[…]
Mutemath, Canon Blue 7 p.m. Thursday $20 advance, $23 day of show The Intersection Musically speaking, Grand Rapids has really got it going on this week. Take for instance, inventive[…]
George Harrison would have turned 69 this Saturday. While it’s hard to believe that he’s already been gone from this world for more than a decade, the influential and spiritual[…]
Steve Aoki, Datsik 7 p.m. Sunday (doors open at 6 p.m.) The Orbit Room $35 When I first wrote late last year that fast-rising electro-house and electronica artist Steve Aoki[…]
Thank goodness for Adele. Her predictable-but-deserved Grammy sweep on Sunday night means the likes of circus acts Katy Perry and Lady Gaga were left on the sidelines without any hardware[…]
It’s a Grammy Award certainty. When all is said and done, Adele will rule the day,er, night. The British pop singer who’s getting as much ink about her recent throat[…]
Folk from Bon Iver. Edgy indie-rock from Death Cab for Cutie. Dance-happy pop from Foster the People. Psychedelic rock from My Morning Jacket. Experimental melancholy from Radiohead. Alternative music doesn’t[…]
Last year, John Legend and The Roots appropriately won a Grammy Award for best R&B song for “Shine,” a masterful slice of soul with an uplifting, inspiring message. I’m not[…]
The Grammy Award categorization gurus have struck again. For years, the Grammy version of folk has amounted to a curious hodge-podge of music, ranging from acoustic rock to country to[…]
Foo Fighters or Coldplay? Radiohead or The Decemberists? Who deserves rock honors? Ah, the Grammy Awards. It’s a love-hate relationship for sure. Despite the lofty industry stature of The Recording[…]
Rusted Root, The Crane Wives 6:30 p.m. Sunday The Intersection, Grand Rapids $15 advance, $18 day of show Singer and musician Michael Glabicki has ably led Pittsburgh’s Rusted Root for[…]
