Founders Brewing Co.’s seventh annual street party lived up to the hype with Charley Bradley & His Extraordinaires stealing the show with a fiery, retro-soul set, followed by the ultra-funk of Lettuce.
Brian Haik, guitarist for Grand Rapids’ soul ensemble Skankadank, staked out his spot for Charley Bradley & His Extraordinaires early at Founders Fest on Saturday, camping out in the first row in front of one stage while EDM’s Break Science pumped up fans on Stage Two.
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Indeed, he wasn’t the only musician anxious to get a close-up view of the dynamic 65-year-old R&B singer who’s become a soul phenom in recent years after spending more than a decade performing as a James Brown impersonator.
A host of local musicians, along with members of New York’s The Budos Band — which had pumped up fans earlier in the day on the same stage with Afro-beat, funk and soul strains — watched gleefully to the side of the stage as Brooklyn’s Bradley unleashed his stylized, spine-tinglingly passionate, retro-driven rhythm and blues, confirming his standing as the most buzz-worthy artist of this year’s Founders Fest and current billing as “His Majesty” of soul.
With a cracker-jack eight-piece band behind him, Bradley feels his music as deeply as anyone who’s ever graced a stage and fans respond in kind. Founders employees also shared that Bradley was as gracious and kind as could be backstage prior to his stunning set, which even included a change of flashy attire midway through the performance.
(Check out some video snippets of his performance below.)
It was just one of the highlights of the seventh annual Founders Fest, which jammed streets with beer-quaffing revelers on Saturday around Founders Brewing on Grandville Avenue SW in downtown Grand Rapids.
An estimated 6,000-plus attendees soaked up the “celebration of beer and music” under gray skies along with thousands more across the country: Festival performances by eight bands — Bradley, Lettuce, The Budos Band, Break Science, The Giving Tree Band, Fauxgrass, Valentiger and The FBC All-Stars — were streamed through alldayipa.com to 13 locations across the United States at venues which also featured Founders beer for the day.
The near-continuous entertainment on two stages ranged from Founders employees in The FBC All-Stars covering the likes of Loverboy and KISS to the “new age outlaw” Americana prowess of Illinois’ The Giving Tree Band to the funky, psychedelic, horn-driven fun of The Budos Band.
Sure, the less stalwart among those festival-goers fled when raindrops began to fall near the end of Bradley’s set (which featured rousing tracks from his album, “Victim of Love”), but others stuck through some brief sprinkles to embrace Lettuce’s super-funk deep into the evening.
FOUNDERS FEST PHOTO GALLERY (Click on photo to enlarge):
Photos by Anthony Norkus, Tori Thomas and Anna Sink
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2014, Spins on Music