LadyFest GR, Keb’ Mo’, Here Come the Mummies, Dan Navarro and more: The live music weekend in photos

Starting with funk from the grave at The Intersection, spring got sprung in fine fashion with riveting blues, gypsy music, rootsy acoustic strains, energetic hip-hop, pub-styled classical music and more in photos shared at Spins on Music.

 

Gotta hand it to those Mummies: They know how to bring a crowd to life.

With a hefty throng of 500-plus buzzing with anticipation inside The Intersection on Thursday night, Here Come the Mummies’ lively “drum line” of mummified musicians weaved through the back of the showroom toward the stage, drawing cheers and high-fives from fans embracing their campy, funky, polished rock attack.

And once they hit the stage, it was literally a non-stop affair as the horn-infused ensemble of anonymous Nashville musicians tore through song after song, romping across the stage and generally funking things up. As the band accurately declared from the stage, “There’s a party goin’ on.”

Rumor is, every member of this band (using funny aliases such as K.W. Tut and Mummy Cass) has at least one Grammy Award to his or her credit, and The Intersection’s Michael Landon tells me that the audience has grown every time this unusual band returns to Grand Rapids. Gimmick, sure. Fun stuff, absolutely. (Check out a video and more photos of the show below.)

The Mummies’ retro-funk from beyond the grave kicked off a busy weekend of live music in the Grand Rapids area: The Weatherheads at Rockford Brewing, Lighthouse Commission at the Tip Top Deluxe, a host of hip-hop, pop and rock acts at the two-day LadyFest GR at The Pyramid Scheme, Graham Parsons & The Go Rounds (plus two other Double Phelix-related bands) playing the Inside the Mitten series at Muskegon’s Watermark 920, singer-songwriter Dan Navarro, described by Michigan folk singer Ruth Bloomquist on Facebook as “a force of nature,” playing Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up, and bluesman Keb’ Mo’ returning to The Intersection for a nearly two-hour, three-encore solo affair in a rare seated show at the venue while Detroit’s Electric Six electrified the front lounge Stache.

Oh, and for something completely different: the Skogen Hungarian Gypsy Band, with An Dro’s Carolyn Koebel sitting in on percussion, churning out the most unusual rhythms with an Eastern European milieu at One Trick Pony on Saturday night.

Things didn’t stop there: Sunday night saw Classical Revolution pack the house with an enthusiastic audience at SpeakEZ Lounge with its return to Grand Rapids, bringing chamber music into a tavern setting, while just down the road at HopCat, guitarist Jimmie Stagger once again hosted a who’s who lineup of impressive singers and players for his Sunday night blues jam.

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