ArtPrize continues to heat up, but there are real sparks in West Michigan’s live music assault: an “immersive” EDM tour, heavy metal roof-rattlers, a hip-hop fest, a Broadway hit. And win tickets to see Five Finger Death Punch.
Domestic Problems
Art Van/WOOD TV8 Concert Series
5 p.m. Tuesday-Friday
Free
Rosa Parks Circle, downtown Grand Rapids
It’s here: The 10th month, the month of beer and Halloween, National Squirrel Awareness Month, Auto Battery Safety Month, National Sausage Month. Oh, and it starts with an ArtPrize finale.
The two-week Art Van/WOOD TV Concert Series wraps on Friday – coinciding with the climax to the ArtPrize competition – with a special, three-hour performance by beloved Grand Rapids rock band Domestic Problems, part of the “Live Finale Watch Party,” so I’m sure Andy Holtgreive and crew have a bunch of groovy stuff planned for their set. Prior to that, Chris Hansen and the Hark Up Horns Big Band (plus Josh Rose, Lucas Wilson, Cole Hansen and Michelle Chenard) perform for the series on Tuesday, Robin Connell and Steve Talaga delivering jazz on Wednesday, and Cabildo and Grand Rapids Youth Symphony Orchestra on Thursday.
Suffice to say, the music is shaping up to be as hot as the weather. (By the way, in another ArtPrize wrap-up party, singer-songwriter Kelsey Rottiers plays at 8 p.m. Friday at Opensource Studio, 235 S. Division Ave.)
The Jersey Boys
“Jersey Boys”
7:30 p.m. Tuesday-Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday, 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday
$37-$104
DeVos Performance Hall, Grand Rapids
This Tony Award-winning musical that documents the rise of pop singer Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons makes a West Michigan stop, with several Grand Rapids performances sponsored by Broadway Grand Rapids.
And if you didn’t know this, New Jersey’s The Four Seasons have sold an estimated 100 million records worldwide, boast more than 30 Top 40 singles (“Sherry,” “Big Girls Don’t Cry,” Walk Like a Man,” “Rag Doll,” etc.) and were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1990. Translation? These guys are no slouches in the popularity department. Get details about the show and tickets online at broadwaygrandrapids.com.
Official Sponsor of The Big List Concert Guide
Igor and The Red Elvises in their last appearance at a packed Tip Top.
Igor & The Red Elvises, The Moonrays
7 p.m. Wednesday
$12
Tip Top Deluxe Bar & Grill, Grand Rapids
The last time I caught Igor & The Red Elvises at the Tip Top on Grand Rapids’ West Side, which wasn’t all that long ago, you couldn’t have wedged another person into the rowdy place with a crowbar. And man, was it a happy place, with ebullient diehard fans, conga lines and a wildly entertaining stage show that only The Red Elvises can uncork: from their signature “Siberian surf rock” to funk to rockabilly to reggae to Russian folk to what-have-you, directed by musical madman Igor Yusov himself.
With two of the Tip Top’s favorite bands in the house for this mid-week show, I expect the same sort of jam-packed musical jocularity. The Tip Top follows this with Delilah DeWylde’s Rockabilly Rumble on Thursday, The Dock Ellis Band on Friday and The ChupaCobras and Nobody’s Darlin’ on Saturday. And how about this for a finish? The ever-popular Candye Kane plays the Tip Top on Sunday night ($10); details here. What a run, indeed. (And listen to Local Spins Live at 10 a.m. Wednesday on News Talk 1340 AM to win a chance for Candye Kane tickets.)
Matuto
Matuto
9:30 p.m. Thursday
Free
Founders Brewing Co., Grand Rapids
With its “Brazilian bluegrass” vibe, New York’s Matuto is being hailed as “a festival main-stage sensation” with sawing violins, rapid-fire accordion riffs and an “Applachia-gone-Afro-Brazilian sound” that had the group’s packed June CD-release show at Lincoln Center spill “out into the streets” of New York City. The band even has been recognized as “cultural ambassadors” for The Big Apple. I’m guessing the band’s festive approach will really light up the expanded Founders (before the band heads to The Livery in Benton Harbor for a Friday show).
By the way, Founders takes a different world music-splashed tack for its $5 Saturday show: Chicago’s Deal’s Gone Bad will pound out audience-please ska, reggae and rock for the troops, with SOL and Blind Staggers also on the bill. Details about both shows online here.
Real Friends
Real Friends, Mixtapes, Forever Came Calling,
Pentimento, It’s a Secret
7 p.m. Friday
$12 advance, $14 day of show
The Pyramid Scheme, Grand Rapids
Chicago pop-punk band Real Friends implores in the title to its latest album, “Put Yourself Back Together.” Well, they’ve put together a headlining fall tour with Mixtapes, Forever Came Calling and Pentimento that kicks off right here in Grand Rapids at The Pyramid Scheme, which should make this an energetic and emo-tional rock show for a ton of young fans. And for a tad extra, through realfriends.frontgatetickets.com, fans get early admission, a free poster and a special acoustic set based entirely on requests.
Dante Cope
The Desire to Inspire Music Festival
3 p.m. Saturday
$10
The Armory, 429 W. Main St., Ionia
This all-ages event in Ionia focuses primarily on West Michigan hip-hop artists, with some other acts – EDM, acoustic rock – in the mix as well: Rick Chyme, Izzhe’, King Crabapple, Duhjuanyay, Punksuhate, Filmloom, Dante Cope, The Buddy System, L.A.B, Spark5, AdamGarcia and ChipVicious. It was created “with the purpose to inspire and motivate” by Crwnmeking Entertainment and Aggressive Promotions.
As a warm-up of sorts, the talented Cope also informs Local Spins that The SEVENth will release a single, “Party and Dance,” on Friday at 9 p.m. at Billy’s Lounge in Eastown, with special guest performances “from your favorite artists and DJs” (including T.U.D.); admission is $5.
Frank Turner
Frank Turner & The Sleeping Souls,
The Smith Street Band, Koo Koo Kanga Roo
7:30 p.m. Saturday
$10 (Limited number of $5 tickets at Mitten Brewing)
The Intersection, Grand Rapids
There are plenty of indie-rock, alt-rock, folk and punk singer-songwriters who consider England’s Frank Turner as a real hero, a real force and a real influence, especially when it comes to his work after leaving the post-hardcore band Million Dead.
He continues to tour with his Sleeping Souls band in support of his latest studio album, “Tape Deck Heart,” which Alternative Press called “a beautiful, vital representation of the journey the singer/songwriter has spent in the past seven years as a solo artist.” You can get a sample of that at his official website.
Bassnectar
Bassnectar, Koan Sound, Andreilien
8 p.m. Saturday
$32.50 advance, $37.50 day of show
The DeltaPlex, Walker
California DJ and electronic dance music hero Bassnectar, aka Lorin Ashton, has a bevy of ways to describe his fan-interactive music: “an open-sourced musical project that is as diverse as it is heavy, as raw as it is meticulous, and as fierce as it is imaginary,” “freestyle amorphous music,” combining “sound and force with weight while spanning the spectrum of sonic style, covering every genre imaginable, and smashing it all into a collision of wobbling, perverted basslines,” “omnitempo maximalism.”
However it’s termed, his “loyal bass-freaks” turn out in huge numbers at shows to embrace his dubstep, glitch, breakbeat wizardry and more, in this case on his “Immersive Music Tour” in support of a new five-track EP, “Take You Down” (which he calls “something deep and lush and euphoric”). And for those wondering about what goes into this live “genre” – which has seen Bassnectar grow in popularity to jump from venues the size of The Intersection to that of The DeltaPlex – Ashton also does a great job of explaining how it’s not just about pushing buttons on his website right here. Get more ticket information at the DeltaPlex site.
Official Sponsor of The Big List Concert Guide
Pat McGee
Pat McGee Band, Keaton Simons
8 p.m. Saturday
$32 advance, $36 day of show
Seven Steps Up, Spring Lake
There’s a reason why Pat McGee is returning for his fourth concert at Spring Lake’s Seven Steps Up: He fills the house, pumps up the crowd and loves the place. The ever-vibrant listening room brings the northern Virginia rock/folk/Americana artist back along with his band and opener Keaton Simons, a rock/pop/blues artist from Los Angeles.
Get ticket information and show details at pindropconcerts.com.
Plumb
Plumb, Josh Wilson, MIKESCHAIR
6 p.m. Sunday
$15 advance, $20 day of show, $25 VIP
Central Wesleyan Church, 446 West 40th St., Holland
Contemporary Christian alt-rock singer-songwriter Plumb (aka Tiffany Arbuckle Lee) – whose music has also topped dance charts – brings her tour in support of a new album, “Need You Now,” to Holland in a benefit for Morning Star Foundation and New Day Foster Home, with fellow Christian artists Josh Wilson and MIKESCHAIR also on the bill. Get tickets online here.
Five Finger Death Punch: Get free tickets from Local Spins.
Five Finger Death Punch, Escape the Fate,
Miss May I, Gemini Syndrome
7 p.m. Sunday, doors open at 6 p.m.
$29.50 advance, $34 day of show
The Orbit Room, Grand Rapids
L.A.-bred and Las Vegas-based heavy metal band Five Finger Death Punch brings its “The Wrong Side of Heaven” tour to The Orbit Room, just two months after releasing “The Wrong Side of Heaven and the Righteous Side of Hell, Vol. 1” and about a month away from unleashing the second volume in this project. Metal-heads will be in full force, to be sure. Orbit Room honcho Ted Smith even guarantees that Five Finger Death Punch “WILL sell out.” And just as I wrote those words, the show did, indeed, sell out.
That said, fans have a rare opportunity to win tickets through Local Spins to see these heavy metal-meisters peel some of that new paint off the walls of The Orbit Room. How? The first person to email me at jsinkevics@gmail.com with the title of the opening track off of Volume 1 of the band’s “The Wrong Side of Heaven” will win a pair of tickets to Sunday’s show. Then, listen in to my Local Spins Live radio show at 10 a.m. Wednesday on News Talk 1340 AM (WJRW) because two more lucky fans will get a chance to win tickets to see FFDP. Get more information online at The Orbit Room website.
UNDER-THE-RADAR PICKS
Local Spins’ weekly selections of bubbling-below-the-surface, must-see shows you might have overlooked
We Came as Romans playing The Intersection, 7 p.m. Wednesday, $20 advance, $23 day of show – Michigan’s own melodic metalcore band We Came as Romans invades the coliseum, I mean, The Intersection with a bunch of other bands in tow on The Tracing Back Roots Tour: Silverstein, Chunk! No, Captain Chunk!, The Color Morale, Dangerkids. Doors open at 6 p.m.
River Rogues Jazz Band
The River Rogues Jazz Band CD-Release Party and Dance at Boulder Creek Country Club, 5750 Brewer Avenue NE, Belmont, 6 p.m. Friday – It shapes up as a Friday night Dixieland jazz extravaganza, as the River Rogues Jazz Band cooks up its gumbo of New Orleans-style strains to celebrate the release of the group’s self-titled, brand new CD. Dancing shoes mandatory. Details online here.
The Thirsty Perch Blues Band playing Billy’s Lounge in Eastown, 9:30 p.m. Saturday, $5 – Billy’s follows up Friday night’s SEVENth single-release party (details above) with the bracing blues of Grand Rapids’ own Thirsty Perch Blues Band.
Don Middlebrook
Flood the Dessert, Blue to Grey and The Kalki Incarnation playing Mulligan’s in Eastown, 10 p.m. Saturday, free – Flood the Dessert romps at Mulligan’s again with its prog-metal-infused rock, with a couple of up-and-coming bands in tow.
Don Middlebrook CD-release shows at 3 p.m. Saturday at Clifford Lake Inn in Stanton and 4 p.m. Sunday at Old Boys Brewhouse in Spring Lake – The Michigan-based Don Middlebrook’s latest embrace-the-beach album, “The Key West Connection” is out and about with some lyrics by the granddaughter of Ernest Hemingway, horn stabs by The Motor City Horns and cover art by Wyland.
His CD-release tour continues in earnest this weekend; get more details and order the CD online at his website.
Email John Sinkevics at jsinkevics@gmail.com.
Copyright 2013, Spins on Music
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