Kalamazoo Blues Bash, Sister Hazel & more: Photo recaps

Share the story

As summer begins to wane, live music continues to heat up stages from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo. Revisit eight shows from the past week in images at Local Spins.

Basking in the Blues: Victor Wainwright at the Kalamazoo Blues Bash. (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

SCROLL DOWN FOR PHOTO GALLERIES

Support our coverage of
West Michigan's music scene

Saturday’s Kalamazoo Blues Bash hosted by the Kalamazoo Valley Blues Association outside Old Dog Tavern had all the elements for a sizzling day of robust live music amid Michigan’s summer splendor.

With sets by renowned, award-winning touring acts such as Victor Wainwright & The Train, Annika Chambers, Paul DesLauriers and Deuce ‘n a Quarter, along with Michigan favorites DownRiver Dan and 5-Second Rule, the day-long celebration drew an enthused crowd, not far from the Kalamazoo Latinx Festival taking place at Arcadia Creek Festival Place.

Mariachi Music: A scene from LatinX ’23 in Kalamazoo. (Photo/Cassandra Kipp)

But those events were just part of a mid-August flurry of shows by national and regional performers from Grand Rapids to Kalamazoo, including:

• Tuesday’s Afro-Celt Odyssey show at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park as part of the Tuesday Evening Music Club series, with world music virtuosos Whorled, Samuel Nalangira, Carolun Koebel and more unfurling intoxicating strains on stage;

• Kalamazoo Academy of Rock firing up fans at Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo on Wednesday, the same night that the free Beats on Bates show in downtown Kalamazoo boasted a series of engaging hip-hop artists;

• The Soul Syndicate bringing its horn-infused R&B to the stage for Byron Center’s Sounds of Summer series on Thursday, the same night that the Kalamazoo Farmers’ Market hosted the Grace Theisen Trio and The Clover Room featured Lazer LLyod and Norm Kittleson;

Sister Hazel (Photo/Derek Ketchum)

• On Friday, Florida alt-rock band Sister Hazel, along with Midnight South, brought its tour to Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo.

Browse photos from all of these shows here, and come back to Local Spins for recaps of Breakaway Music Festival’s Day 2 and Hoxeyville Music Festival.

And check out separate reviews and photo galleries of: Maren Morris at Meijer Gardens, Day 1 of Breakaway Music Festival, and The Chicks at Van Andel Arena & The Swell Season at Meijer Gardens.

PHOTO GALLERY: Whorled, Samuel Nalangira, Carolyn Koebel & Friends at Meijer Gardens
Photos by Holly Holtzclaw