Cheap Trick, Joanne Shaw Taylor, Teddy Swims (Photos)

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From decades-old classics to music by emerging stars, West Michigan’s week of live music boasted some intriguing tour stops beyond just Billy Strings. Browse the photo galleries at Local Spins.

‘Dream Police’ and Much More: Cheap Trick on stage Saturday. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

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While Michigan-bred bluegrass hero Billy Strings was revving up thousands of fans at homecoming shows this week at Kalamazoo’s Wings Event Center and Saginaw’s Dow Event Center — picking his way impressively through “Slow Train” to “Meet Me at the Creek” to “Away from the Mire” — superstars in other genres were doing the same for their diehard fans elsewhere.

Take iconic rock band Cheap Trick, which delivered its hit-laden display for a sold-out State Theatre in Kalamazoo on Saturday night.

Joanne Shaw Taylor (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

Founding members Rick Nielsen, Robin Zander and Tom Petersson kicked it all off with 1979’s “Dream Police” before winding through hits such as “California Man,” “Oh, Candy,” “I Want You to Want Me” and “Surrender” — along with new songs such as “Light Up the Fire” — then closing the night appropriately with “Goodnight.

State Theatre also hosted a rising superstar on the blues-rock scene earlier in the week, with Joanne Shaw Taylor bringing the U.S. tour behind her new album, “Nobody’s Fool,” to West Michigan on Wednesday. (Read the Local Spins interview with Taylor here.)

Wednesday also saw genre-bending singer-songwriter Teddy Swims lighting things up at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, followed on Thursday (at Elevation) by Ohio metalcore band Attack Attack!, along with Across the White Water Tower, Conquer Divide and Outline in Color.

View images from all of the shows below and read a review (with photos) of Billy Strings’ Thursday show in Kalamazoo online here. And here’s Billy String’s set list from the Friday night show.

PHOTO GALLERY: Cheap Trick, Miles Nielsen at Kalamazoo State Theatre (Saturday)
Photos by Derek Ketchum