Grand Rapids' Vertigo Music was jam-packed for Record Store Day.
If the turnout Saturday at just two of West Michigan’s most popular independent record shops is any indication, Record Store Day had things spinning toward its biggest success story yet.
Lines and crowds were the norm at Vertigo Music on S. Division Avenue in Grand Rapids and at the Corner Record Shop on Chicago Avenue SW in Grandville, with live music, CD and vinyl specials and other attractions keeping the rustic stores buzzing with happy shoppers.
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Corner Record Shop owner Steve Williamson and Vertigo Music head honcho Herm Baker were all smiles, reporting heavy traffic and long lines all day long.
Corner Record Shop opened up a huge back room to host bands all afternoon, with Nathan Kalish & the Wildfire, The Boss Mustangs, The Real Lazy Genius and Dave Hardin playing sets (with The Boss Mustangs possibly pinning the decibel meter with their raucous set). Radio announcer Kevin Matthews was on hand to conduct an online podcast with some of the musicians as well as yours truly.
Meanwhile, Vertigo regaled shoppers with music by Pistolbrides, City Center (featuring Fred Thomas), Cabildo, Corrosive Kids, Weird Signals, Shores and DJs Crooked Leg Craig, Snax and Spyder Murphy.
You can see some of the hustle and bustle and fab musical performances in the video below, along with a post-Record Store Day performance by the American Heartbreakers, who revved up a full house at Westwood at the Crossing with a terrific Tom Petty tribute show on Saturday night. Some of the proceeds from that show, by the way, went to support the Fallen Warrior Memorial Fund. For more information about that, go to its website.
Email: jsinkevics@gmail.com
And I forgot: There’s also the Chilly Blues Fest in Grand Haven on Saturday evening.
The last time I was in The Corner Record Shop, they had a reissue of a rare old rnb 45 for an awful lot of money (high for the original even).
I explained that he was selling a reissue and not the original, which was implied, and was told, “I know that, but a lot of my customers don’t know the difference.”
I’ll never shop there again.