New West Michigan releases by The Hawktones, The Concussions, Bronk Bros., Roosevelt Diggs, Chain of Lakes, Roger MacNaughton, Eric Kehoe and more. Officially, three weeks of summer remain. Plenty of[…]
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West Michigan concert guide: Wynton Marsalis, Soul of the City, Ralston & Peter Mulvey, Labor Fest
West Michigan concert hoopla continues in earnest as Labor Day approaches with Grand Rapids’ Soul of the City, Wynton Marsalis, Ralston and more. Ralston & Friends, Peter Mulvey: Tuesday Evening[…]
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Rockford Barnstormer: A barnload of riveting West Michigan music for a worthy cause (video)
The first Rockford Barnstormer showcased bands Potato Moon, Hannah Rose, Nicholas James & The Bandwagon and many more, family fun and a good cause: aiding area refugees. It may[…]
Miranda Lambert delivers star power, throngs to Rock the Rapids opener
Country star Miranda Lambert draws a huge and enthusiastic opening-night crowd for downtown Grand Rapids’ Rock the Rapids festival. On Monday, the “Fastest Girl in Town” helped make Rock[…]
Mid-Life Crisis proves “Life’s Too Short” at rousing Grand Rapids video shoot
Veteran Grand Rapids rock band Mid-Life Crisis takes over One Trick Pony on Sunday to conduct a music video shoot for original song being entered in ArtPrize. Sitting through a[…]
Bonnie Raitt brings the musical magic to Meijer Gardens yet again
Bonnie Raitt delivers a near-perfect bluesy performance on a near-perfect night at Meijer Gardens in Grand Rapids. The instant Bonnie Raitt takes the stage pretty much anywhere, something magical[…]
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals evade rain, uncork thunderous show at Meijer Gardens
Grace Potter & the Nocturnals deliver one of Meijer Gardens’ best concerts of the season on Thursday after rain passes through. (Photos, video) In the end, Grace Potter &[…]
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Michigan-bred Deadstring Brothers on the comeback trail
Deadstring Brothers’ Kurt Marschke tells Spins on Music about shelving solo act and going full-bore with a full band again. The group hits Grand Rapids Thursday. The Deadstring Brothers,[…]
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West Michigan concert guide: Grace Potter, Bonnie Raitt, GRandJazzFest, City Lights, Hoxeyville
A bracing week of West Michigan concerts: Grand Rapids’ City Lights Music Festival, Grace Potter & the Nocturnals, Bonnie Raitt, GRandJazzFest and Hoxeyville top the Spins on Music list. Grace[…]
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Cowpie Music Festival pumps up fans with Michigan-bred bands
Expanded Cowpie fest on Shagbark Farm south of Grand Rapids survived rainy opening night; thrives Saturday with fine mix of Michigan bands. Video, photos From Mudpie to Cowpie … just[…]
Album reviews · Commentary · Upcoming shows
Album reviews: West Michigan’s best Local Spins of summer
Summer roundup of West Michigan CD releases, Part II: Vertical Bridge, Potato Moon, Delilah DeWylde, Detour, Dave Hardin, Suitcase Just like today’s rain, the deluge of new regional music continues.[…]
Young guitar phenom from Grandville gets ‘Comfortably Numb’ (video)
Michigan guitar prodigy Joe “LittleEdge” Heemstra, 13, shows off his instrumental prowess yet again in YouTube video, playing classic Pink Floyd solo LittleEdge has BigTime talent. Just take a look[…]
West Michigan’s best Local Spins: Reviews of regional albums
Summer roundup of West Michigan CD releases: REVUE music sampler, Karisa Wilson, Igby Iris, The Outer Vibe, Lucas Wilson, The Go Rounds, Lindsay Lou. As Peter Gabriel once sang (in[…]
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The Head and The Heart puts body and soul into Meijer Gardens concert
Seattle indie-folk/rock band The Head and The Heart revved up an exuberant, young crowd on Thursday. (Review, photos, video) For 19-year-old John Vouaux of Bay City, driving clear across the[…]
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Snakes, alligator, contortionist, Boyz II Men part of 2012 Rock the Rapids
Rock the Rapids in late August will bring six days of concerts and some unusual street entertainment to downtown Grand Rapids. Alice Cooper, one of Rock the Rapids’ 2011 headliners,[…]
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West Michigan concert guide: Kansas, The Head & The Heart, Matisyahu
West Michigan’s concert guide for July 30-Aug.5 includes the Coast Guard Festival. Elsewhere in the state, there’s Coldplay, Sugarland, Chicago, Matt Giraud. David Thom Band 9:30 p.m. Monday Free The[…]
Lyle Lovett downsizes, gets intimate at Meijer Gardens concert
Lyle Lovett gives subdued performance in Grand Rapids with smaller Acoustic Group; remains the ever-gracious Texan despite unexpected 27-minute delay. Outdoor amphitheater as listening room. Make that, GIGANTIC listening room.[…]
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West Michigan concert guide: Lyle Lovett, Mississippi Heat, Billy Currington, Jukes final weekend
Late July’s live music scene is firing on all cylinders as Spins on Music’s West Michigan concert guide shows. And the Detroit Tigers are now fired up, too. Edye Evans[…]
Johnny Winter, Annabelle Road, The Crane Wives, Hammers of Misfortune, Drew Nelson: Concerts of the Week (videos)
Annabelle Road, The Wallace Collective 7 p.m. Tuesday Free, with regular admission Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Township What say we take a different tack this week.[…]
Andrew Bird soars with instrumental innovation at Meijer Gardens concert (review)
If Fiona Apple is the queen of the avant garde stage shtick then Andrew Bird is certainly the prince of instrumental invention. Less than a week after Apple brought her[…]
Stand up, sit down, fight, fight, fight: Observing concert etiquette or anything goes (commentary)
It’s “you make a better door than a window” vs. “get up and party to show the band you care.” Right about this time every year, in the midst of[…]
Creedence Clearwater Revisited revisits hits, buoys baby boomers at Meijer Gardens
For once, a familiar classic rock act stood out from the pack. On a week when Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park is hosting daring and edgy younger acts Fiona[…]
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Creedence Clearwater Revival’s Stu Cook: Still honoring ‘the original band every night’ (Sunday music profile, video)
Creedence Clearwater Revisited 7 p.m. Wednesday $51 ($49 for Meijer Gardens members) Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Township Get ticket information here. In the late ’60s and[…]
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GRAM on the Green kicks off with An Dro; summer series features eclectic list of regional acts
GRAM on the Green will turn into GRAM in the AC tonight after all. With the temperature soaring to record-breaking triple-digit levels, Grand Rapids Art Museum officials this afternoon (July[…]
The hottest Fourth of July show ever: Donald Kinsey, Kari Lynch, Garrett Borns, The Outer Vibe fire up downtown Grand Rapids (video)
It was a Fourth of July to remember. On the hottest day of the year thus far, with the temperature reaching a searing 99 degrees, thousands flooded the banks of[…]
Electric Forest: The groovy musical weekend escape in review (videos, photos)
For four days or so, Electric Forest was an escape from the real world. More than 25,000 jam-band and electronic music fans – the more outrageously colorful and silly the[…]
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Huey Lewis, 4th of July celebration, Honor By August, Bad Veins, Brandi Carlile & a beach bash: Concert picks of the week (videos)
Huey Lewis & The News, Katie Todd 7 p.m. Monday $75 ($73 Meijer Gardens members) Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park It’s so hot, chickens are laying hard-boiled eggs. Sorry,[…]
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The Crane Wives make Electric Forest debut, and kick some serious folk-rock butt (video)
The sun was searingly hot and the crowd was small when The Crane Wives kicked off their set Sunday afternoon on the Tripolee Stage at Electric Forest, but by the[…]
Ottawa Tavern closes as downtown Grand Rapids jazz club
The Ottawa Tavern’s tenure as a jazz club is ending … suddenly. Just six months after making the much-celebrated conversion of the downtown watering hole into a place where live[…]
Electric Forest goes wild: The music festival by day and by night (photos, videos)
Everything is different in the dark. Way different. In daylight, Electric Forest sweats with a sun-splashed milieu that sort of celebrates Michigan’s great outdoors – concertgoers gyrating and hula-hoopers hooping[…]
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Electric Forest revisited: 2012’s adventure begins on sunny, steamy, Woodstock-like note (video)
Gary Clark Jr. made it all worthwhile. Cranking out the raw blues-rock of “Bright Lights” in the brilliant sunshine at Double JJ Resort in Rothbury with undulating, brightly bedecked Electric[…]
How hot was Meijer Gardens’ Gov’t Mule concert? Sizzling (photos, video)
The temperature was in the 90s at showtime, but nothing was hotter than Warren Haynes’ guitar work as Gov’t Mule made its Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park debut on[…]
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The Electric Forest music guide: Daily concert picks by Spins on Music (videos)
It doesn’t have the big-name headliners of Rothbury past – Dave Matthews Band, John Mayer, Snoop Dogg – but this weekend’s Electric Forest at Double JJ Resort some 24 miles[…]
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Electric Forest, Lil’ Ed & Blues Imperials, Gov’t Mule, Emmylou Harris, Rufus Wainwright: Concert Picks of the Week (videos)
Lil’ Ed & The Blues Imperials WLAV Budweiser Blues on the Mall Series 6:30 p.m. Wednesday Free Rosa Parks Circle, downtown Grand Rapids June’s final week builds nicely to quite[…]
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Spins on Music’s Sunday Profile: Warren Haynes of Gov’t Mule, getting ready to rock Meijer Gardens (video)
Gov’t Mule 6:30 p.m. Thursday $40 Frederik Meijer Gardens, Grand Rapids Township Gov’t Mule may have started as an Allman Brothers’ side project in the mid-1990s by guitarist Warren Haynes[…]
Founders Fest taps keg on massive summer street party with Soulive, UV Hippo, more; Frank Salamone tribute nearby (videos)
It was a celebration worthy of John’s Day. No, I didn’t see any guys strolling around with bushy oak-leaf crowns, but I saw plenty of unusual headgear at Saturday’s Founders[…]
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Under-the-Radar Weekend Picks: Tip Top Deluxe’s One-Year Anniversary and prog-rock’s The Crimson ProjeKct
As complicated as it may have been to renovate an old, long-dormant tavern and convert it into a keen new music venue, Ted Smith concedes that adjusting and reconstructing attitudes[…]
Al Green keeps things short, sweet and oh-so-soulful in homecoming concert at Meijer Gardens (video)
It’s nowhere near his biggest hit, but when Al Green sings “Tired of Being Alone,” he fuses all of the elements that have made him a Grammy-winning superstar of soul:[…]
Al Green, Founders Fest, Vital Information, Cheap Trick, Frank Salamone tribute and more: Concert picks of the week (videos)
Al Green 7 p.m. Monday The concert is sold out. Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park, Grand Rapids Township I fondly recall many things about soul singer Al Green’s much-ballyhooed[…]
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Rock the Rapids goes country: Miranda Lambert and Toby Keith added to Grand Rapids festival lineup
Country superstars Miranda Lambert and Toby Keith will play the six-day Rock the Rapids music festival in downtown Grand Rapids in late August. Lambert, touring behind her latest album, “Four[…]
Jimmy Cliff, Homemade Jamz, Foreigner, Steve Miller, Our Lady Peace, Pinback and more: Concert picks of the week (videos)
Vincent Hayes Project Huntington Rogue River Blues Series 7 p.m. Tuesday Free Garden Club Park, Rockford I mentioned the Carnival of Madness tour in a recent post. Well, it’s festival[…]
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Shinedown, Evanescence, Papa Roach, Halestorm bring Uproar Festival and Carnival of Madness to Rock the Rapids
The “leaks” have begun. As is Rock the Rapids’ habit, the first two of six dates of the August downtown Grand Rapids music festival were announced today: Shinedown, Papa Roach,[…]
A day to ‘follow the sun’: Video highlights of Avenue of the Arts, Local First Street Party, Rockford Start of Summer
It was a day to celebrate summer … about two weeks early. With the mercury in the upper 80s and the sun broiling West Michigan, it was also a day[…]
Roger Waters unleashes ‘The Wall’ in Grand Rapids: Brick-by-brick highlights of the ‘Mother’ of all rock concerts
It makes perfect sense. That Pink Floyd visionary Roger Waters at one time studied to be an architect before pursuing his music career really paid off with the crowning achievement[…]
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Roger Waters, Melissa Etheridge, Buttermilk Jamboree, Local First Street Party, a 1993 tribute: Concert Picks of the Week (videos)
Roger Waters’ “The Wall” 8 p.m. Wednesday $66.50-$214.35 Van Andel Arena, Grand Rapids Let’s hope the sun keeps smiling as it did on Festival Sunday, because outdoor summer music hoopla[…]
B-52s endure rain, chilly weather to heat up Meijer Gardens dance party on opening night
Quirky doesn’t begin to describe the opening night of Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park’s 10th summer concert series. How about abnormally wet and extra-terrestrially weird? Not only was Friday[…]
Royal Oak festival seeking West Michigan bands for Labor Day weekend performance slots
Grand Rapids’ Festival of the Arts will raise the curtain on summer entertainment this weekend with dozens of bands, dance groups and solo artists playing several stages over three days.[…]
The B-52s, Festival of the Arts, Ronnie Dunn, Against Me! and more: Concert picks of the week (videos)
2012 Festival of the Arts Noon Friday-7 p.m. Sunday Free Throughout downtown Grand Rapids I literally ran out of gas on my way back into town on Monday, but there’s[…]
Grand Rapids’ Jukes Bar to close in July; music club plans high-profile final show
Amid all of the new music venues and nightlife concert opportunities that Grand Rapids has spawned in recent years, there’s now some sobering news to report: Jukes Bar on Leonard[…]
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