Week-in-Review Concert Photos: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Thievery Corporation, Kalamashoegazer, El Ten Eleven

This week’s colorful West Michigan roundup covered the gamut, from national tour stops by acts such as Turkuaz to rousing local shows featuring Roosevelt Diggs, Lower Leisure Class and more.

 

Farewell tours have a way of repeating themselves.

But if Southern rock stalwart Lynyrd Skynyrd really is calling it quits after its current “Last of the Street Survivors Farewell Tour,” band members gave their Grand Rapids fans at Van Andel Arena on Friday night an impressive stage/light show and a greatest-hits parade of their most popular tunes.

Browse the photo gallery by Eric Stoike from the band’s weekend stop on its ambitious U.S. tour and check out the set list from Friday’s final West Michigan concert courtesy of setlist.fm:

Workin’ for MCA, Skynyrd Nation, What’s Your Name, That Smell, Travelin’ Man, The Needle and the Spoon, Saturday Night Special, Red White & Blue (Love It or Leave), The Ballad of Curtis Loew, Tuesday’s Gone, Don’t Ask Me No Questions, Simple Man, Gimme Three Steps, Call Me the Breeze, Sweet Home Alabama. ENCORE: Free Bird

PHOTO GALLERY: Lynyrd Skynyrd, Jamey Johnson, Kenton Bryant at Van Andel Arena
Photos by Eric Stoike (On the Run Photography)

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The rest of the week rocked pretty impressively too, with Thievery Corporation bringing its eclectic electronic magic to 20 Monroe Live, the return of El Ten Eleven to The Pyramid Scheme, West Michigan’s Roosevelt Diggs delivering an energetic CD-release show at Founders Brewing Co., and the 12th Kalamashoegazer festival of shoegaze/dream pop bands pumping up Bell’s Brewery Eccentric Cafe a day after West Michigan’s Lower Leisure Class played an album-release show there. And Turkuaz and Andy Frasco & The U.N. wrapped up the weekend party with a dance-fueled affair at Elevation. The images here:

PHOTO GALLERY: Thievery Corporation, The Suffers at 20 Monroe Live
Photos by Anthony Norkus and Anna Sink

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PHOTO GALLERY: El Ten Eleven, RLYR at The Pyramid Scheme
Photos by Katy Batdorff

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PHOTO GALLERY: Roosevelt Diggs (w/ Adrian + Meredith) at Founders Brewing
Photos by Taylor Mansen

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PHOTO GALLERY: Kalamashoegazer at Bell’s Brewery
Photos by Derek Ketchum

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Lower Leisure Class’ debut record release party drew a good crowd despite icy roads that were a part of Kalamazoo’s first real snow of the season. Original songs such as “Come January” were perfectly fitting for the night as the sextet, five of whom are in their late 40s and early 50s, rocked Bell’s Back Room with a polished sound drawing on the talents of multiple songwriters and 30 years of experience playing stages across Southwest Michigan. It’s a new start for all of them, however, as the project still in its infancy, is starting to make its first footprints in the Michigan snow. Just some “old musicians” making “adult rock n’ roll,” exclaimed bassist Ron Casebeer. As the head-rocking crowd would attest, just as it is on the album (read the Local Spins review here), the band’s live sound comes across earnest and accomplished. There were a few awkward stage moments between songs, call it jitters, but these guys have been there before on prior projects and musically, they are already there on this one. Keep an eye out for ’em. ~Ryan Boldrey
PHOTO GALLERY: Lower Leisure Class, Cabildo at Bell’s Brewery
Photos by Derek Ketchum

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PHOTO GALLERY: Turkuaz, Andy Frasco & The U.N. at Elevation (The Intersection)
Photos by Anna Sink

Copyright 2018, Spins on Music LLC