There’s no shortage of colorful oddness, passion and down-home charm in the roundup of recent concerts across West Michigan, from The Orbit Room to Bell’s Brewery to Seven Steps Up.
World Music-Hued Folk: Erin Zindle led The Ragbirds at The Pyramid Scheme. (Photo/Anna Sink)
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No one does heavy metal quite like Gwar, the Virginia dudes with gargantuan, grotesque costumes and thrash-meets-shock rock approach.
They helped liven up the mid-week considerably with a wild Wednesday show at The Orbit Room, getting a hefty boost from Battlecross and Grand Rapids’ own high-energy Murder Party.
PHOTO GALLERY: Gwar, Battlecross, Murder Party
Photos by Anthony Norkus
And nobody does bluegrass quite like the Yonder Mountain String Band, and they fired up The Intersection in Grand Rapids the same night, with electronic rock’s AOK and hip hop’s Lady Ace Boogie making their SpeakEZ Lounge debut at the other end of downtown as part of the Local Spins Wednesdays series.
The following night, singer-songwriter Martin Sexton returned to Grand Rapids, delivering his blue-eyed soul for an Intersection crowd.
Rock’s Honor By August returned to Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up on Friday for a special acoustic show, followed on Saturday by Daniel Champagne and on Sunday by Willie Nile.
Music to Benefit Music: Jim Lauderdale at The Pinnacle Center on Saturday. (Photo/Anna Sink)
Also on Saturday, Ann Arbor’s The Ragbirds and Grand Rapids’ Afro Zuma turned The Pyramid Scheme in Grand Rapids into a party filled with world music and unique folk textures.
In Hudsonville the same night, award-winning Nashville singer-songwriter Jim Lauderdale, meanwhile, helped boost the annual Music to Benefit Music fund-raising event at The Pinnacle Center in Hudsonville, entertaining about 300 people with his musical stories as part of a benefit supporting area music education programs.
Speaking of bluegrass (see Yonder Mountain String Band above), there was the bluegrass of The Infamous Stringdusters, who brought their singular strains to Bell’s Brewery in Kalamazoo on Friday, the same night that a big crowd across the street cheered Branden Mann & The Reprimand at The Old Dog Tavern.
And for coverage of Grand Rapids’ Lamp Light Music Festival which took place in three Eastown homes, check out the Local Spins photo gallery, video and story.
LOCAL SPINS PHOTO GALLERY: Nov. 4-8
Click on photo to enlarge gallery
AOK, Lady Ace Boogie photos by Tori Thomas
Martin Sexton photos by Eric Stoike
Honor by August, Daniel Champagne, Willie Nile photos courtesy of Seven Steps Up
Ragbirds, Jim Lauderdale photos by Anna Sink
Infamous Stringdusters, Branden Mann photos by Derek Ketchum
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