Football was in the air, but so was music across West Michigan, with performances at outdoor festivals as well as at the usual watering holes, plus the kickoff to Hope College’s concert series. (Photo gallery, videos)
Wondrous Knickerbocker House: Youth Lagoon brought its experimental dream-pop to the Hope College Concert Series on Friday. (Photo/Anthony Norkus Photography)
I don’t want to scare anybody, but there’s less than one week of summer left.
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The season’s first fall festival — the Fallasburg Fall Festival — may have jumped the seasonal gun a bit this weekend considering it’s technically still summer, but the temperatures certainly seemed autumn-like at times.
Drew Nelson: He thinks his fans are awesome.
That didn’t keep folks from embracing live music in the great outdoors and the great indoors as you can tell from the Local Spins Weekend Photo Gallery.
It all started with Thursday night’s return to One Trick Pony by Grand Rapids singer-songwriter Drew Nelson and guitarist Jack Leaver, as well as the second straight concert at Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up by the renowned Jonathan Edwards (with Anne Heaton playing the listening room on Saturday).
The weekend continued in rollicking fashion with Youth Lagoon making a tour stop at Holland’s Knickerbocker Theatre in the kickoff to this season’s Hope College Concert Series, with Grand Rapids’ own indie-folk band Antrim Dells opening the show. As photographer Anthony Norkus put it, Youth Lagoon’s set was “very eerie and beautiful” with colorful stage lighting that “was a perfect backdrop for the dreamy music.” In one particularly powerful moment, while playing the hit, “Dropla,” Trevor Powers came out from behind his keyboards and “pointed at people in the audience while repeating the ‘You’ll Never Die’ chorus.” Also, on Friday, The Chop Tops and Cash O’Riley revved up the Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill in Grand Rapids with their distinctive rockabilly assault.
Elsewhere, a host of local and regional bands rocked stages at the 40th Eastown Street Fair in Grand Rapids — including The Veloras, Chemical Edge and the ever-entertaining PotatoeBabies — while the aforementioned Fallasburg festival outside Lowell attracted thousands of people (and backed up traffic on those country roads) with its impressive arts and crafts booths and bands such as Hawks & Owls, The Jukejoint Handmedowns, Steam Powered Bluegrass and plenty of others.
And check out this week’s official photo gallery sponsor, The Orbit Room, then return to Local Spins for Monday’s Big List Concert Guide for a chance to win tickets to Monday’s Citizen Cope concert.
Official Sponsor of the Local Spins Weekend Photo Gallery
THE LOCAL SPINS WEEKEND PHOTO GALLERY (9/15/13)
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
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