The second day of Grand Rapids’ mammoth heavy metal fest was just part of a robust week of live music across West Michigan — revisited in action-packed photos at Local Spins.

Main Stage Metal: Halestorm at Upheaval on Saturday. (Photo/Anthony Norkus)
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Heat, mugginess, storms and plenty of live music.
West Michigan experienced all of the above during a mid-July week that featured sold-out shows, concerts in the rain, performances moved indoors and a jam-packed heavy metal festival that quite literally rocked Grand Rapids over two sweaty days.
Day 2 of the Upheaval Festival at GR’s Belknap Park boasted record crowds moshing and saluting the likes of international acts Falling in Reverse, Halestorm, Flyleaf and more, as well as Michigan bands such as Katharsys Theory, Deadlight Holiday, City Awake and Assume Nothing playing the new Loud & Local Stage.

Heavy Hair-Tossing: Suicide Silence at Upheaval. (Photo/Chelsea Whitaker)
Browse the second-day Upheaval galleries below, with complete coverage in words, photos and video of Day 1 here: Upheaval Fest belts it out at Belknap Park on opening day of metal-mania.
Earlier in the week, guitar phenom Tommy Emmanuel played to fans in the rain at Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park the same night that Tank & The Bangas got moved indoors to Midtown from Studio Park for the season’s first “Listening Lawn” concert.
Kalamazoo’s hectic week included Tommy Prine and Jordan Smart hitting up the Back Room at Bell’s Brewery on a Tuesday, followed by Kanin Wren’s Taylor Swift Experience playing to a sold-out crowd on Thursday and Ripe, Coyote Island and The Hacky Turtles revving up the Beer Garden on Friday.

Kanin Wren (Photo/Derek Ketchum)
On Thursday, outside Old Dog Tavern, it was the commemoration of a musical gathering that had its origins during the socially distanced COVID pandemic, when a group of great friends started hanging out in a backyard around a campfire playing songs and singing. Calling themselves COA, or as Old Dog billed it, “Kalamazoo’s Favorites,” the group featured the likes of Darcy Wilkin, Carrie McFerrin, Brian Koenigsknecht, Chad Wedeven, The Kettle Belles and more — treating the crowd to a night of music that came off as a backyard barbecue at Old Dog.
The next night, Jake Kershaw and his band took their “State on the Street” performance indoors due to the rain, getting passionately bluesy inside Kalamazoo State Theatre.
That same evening in Grand Haven, Roosevelt Diggs delivered its compelling Americana strains for the Free Fridays Summer Concert Series at Lynne Sherwood Waterfront Stadium.
Browse all of the photo galleries here.
UPHEAVAL FESTIVAL DAY 2
Photos by Anthony Norkus
Photos by Chelsea Whitaker
PHOTO GALLERY: Tommy Prine, Jordan Smart at Bell’s Brewery Back Room
Photos by Derek Ketchum