Indoors and out, the week of live music unfurled from Grand Rapids to Brooklyn to Kalamazoo. Plus check out links to galleries from concerts by The Decemberists, Ben Harper and Old Crow Medicine Show.
This weekend’s Faster Horses festival next to Michigan International Speedway in Brooklyn trotted out big mainstream country stars such as Jason Aldean, David Nail, Travis Tritt, Gary Allan and many more.
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At the Local Spins Wednesdays show in the intimate confines of Grand Rapids’ SpeakEZ Lounge, it was the vintage, old-school country of West Michigan’s Diff & Dudley in the band’s live performance debut, with Grand Rapids outlaw country band The Bootstrap Boys opening the show.
Both events drew robust, fervent audiences for their differing takes on country music, each with a much different vibe.
At Faster Horses on Saturday, noted photographer Jennifer Boris, the main stage boasted “huge crowds, huge energy” with fans “singing along to every song, beach balls … flying in the air and lots of girls going crazy sitting on guys’ shoulders.”
PHOTO GALLERY: Faster Horses Festival in Brooklyn (Saturday)
Photos by Jennifer Boris
Country music wasn’t the only genre to captivate audiences this week:
• Atlanta punk rock/garage rock band Black Lips regaled a capacity crowd at The Pyramid Scheme on Thursday, with Washington D.C. “crime-rock” outfit Chain & The Gang opening the raucous show, which inspired plenty of sweaty crowd-surfing and “lots of jumping and dancing around,” according to Local Spins photographer Anthony Norkus.
• Traverse City’s The Accidentals brought their uber-lively indie-folk to the Grand Rapids on Tap beer festival on Saturday, being held for the first time on Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids. The band, not surprisingly, turned heads with its energetic set of original music, dazzling covers and alternating instrumentation. (Meanwhile, Grand Rapids’ Emma Loo and Sam busked for hours on the Ottawa Avenue sidewalk just outside the entrance to GR on Tap.)
• Tell Yo Mama and Hannah Rose & The GravesTones got bluesy and soulful and funky on Friday at Billy’s Lounge in Grand Rapids.
• Kalamazoo-area residents, meanwhile, got a chance to revel in the jazz guitar prowess of Diego Figueiredo as part of the Music in the Park series on Thursday as the musician kicked off a month-long U.S. tour, followed on Friday by Kalamazoo’s Lisa Sue Trio, which had a busy night starting in Arcadia for Music Hop and ending on the outdoor stage at Old Dog Tavern.
PHOTO GALLERY: Weekend Photo Gallery (July 13-16)
Diff & Dudley photos by Anna Sink
Black Lips photos by Anthony Norkus
The Accidentals photos by Adrianna Walker and John Sinkevics
Hannah Rose & The GravesTones photos by Lauren DeLuca
Diego Figueiredo, Lisa Sue Trio photos by Derek Ketchum
The Decemberists (Monday)
La Famiglia and special guests at Tuesday Evening Music Club (Tuesday)
Ben Harper & The Innocent Criminals, with Molly & Scott from Vox Vidorra (Wednesday)
Old Crow Medicine Show (Thursday)
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