The live music weekend kicked off early in Grand Rapids and Kalamazoo, with pop, bluesy-folk, reggae, alt-country and the first rock show at SpeakEZ Lounge in more than five months. Photos.
UPDATE: Scroll down for photo galleries covering the entirety of Halloween weekend.
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It’s not all about Halloween — at least not yet — when it comes to shows that kicked off the weekend early in West Michigan.
Eclectic and bluesy New York folk-rock band The Wood Brothers boasts some impressive roots: Bassist Chris Wood is co-founder of the much-admired jazz fusion group Medeski Martin & Wood which has turned heads on the jam-band scene.
On Thursday, The Wood Brothers pumped up the Acoustic Cafe series at St. Cecilia Music Center in Grand Rapids, on the same night that another East Coast artist captivated a different set of fans several blocks away.
For 24-year-old pop singer-songwriter Chelsea Cutler, Thursday’s stop on her “When I Close My Eyes Tour” attracted a “very engaged and excited” near-capacity crowd at The Intersection in Grand Rapids, according to photographer Eric Stoike.
Elsewhere in Grand Rapids on the same evening, SpeakEZ Lounge hosted its first Local Spins show in more than five months when The Honeytones graced the venue’s cozy stage. (Stayed tuned for more about the 2023 resumption of the Local Spins series at SpeakEZ.)
Meanwhile in Kalamazoo, Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe in Kalamazoo packed the house with the reggae- and funk-propelled music of Cleveland’s Tropidelic on Wednesday, following that on Thursday with Wayfaring (as part of the Connecting Chords Music Festival) and a sold-out show Friday with alternative country/punk band Lucero.
Scroll down for images from all of these shows.
PHOTO GALLERY: The Wood Brothers at St. Cecilia Music Center
Photos by Jamie Geysbeek
PHOTO GALLERY: Chelsea Cutler, Arden Jones, Ayokay at The Intersection
Photos by Eric Stoike
PHOTO GALLERY: The Honeytones at SpeakEZ Lounge
Photos by Anna Sink