Charlotte Symphony Orchestra pays tribute to the red, white, and blue with Celebrate America! at South Park's Symphony Park on July 4th. The patriotic program will also include an opening set by Lake Norman area beach music band, Lakeside Drive - and really, what's more American than beach music?
Although Lakeside Drive gigs each weekend from Cornelius to Belmont to Monroe, the Symphony Park show marks its first inside the city limits, reports sax player Jason Barker (pictured above with band).
At its heart a horn-driven beach music sextet whose singles have charted on multiple beach music charts, Lakeside Drive is also a working band that plays a mix of popular oldies, rock, R&B, soul, and disco - everything from "Stagger Lee" to "Rolling in the Deep." It'll be interesting to see what makes it into their 45-minute set during the symphony gig.
The group also writes original music. Its debut album should be out around the end of summer. You can read more about the group online here and stream music here.
Tickets for Celebrate America! are $10 for adults. Children under 18 are admitted free. Lakeside Drive takes the stage at 7 p.m.
5 p.m. Friday through 2 p.m. Sunday, May 17-19. Misty Meadows
Farm, 455 Providence Rd. S. at Ennis Rd. $15-$50. www.drumstrong.org
Toubab Krewe and Sam Bush headline Friday and Saturday,
respectively, at this family-friendly weekend festival. The focus is a
24-hour drum circle where teams drum tirelessly to raise funds to fight cancer.
Other acts include The Broadcast, Of Good Nature, Jeff Sipe Trio, Kevin
“KalimbaMan” Spears, and Rich Redmond.
The Hush Sound
7 p.m. Saturday, May 18. Amos’, 1423 S. Tryon St. $18-$20.www.ticketfly.com
After a five year hiatus the band returns with its signature
male/female vocals and bouncy intelligent pop. The two new songs it premiered
through Soundcloud suggest new material will be as hummable and hooked-filled
as ever. With Hockey, River City Extension, Genevieve Schatz from Company of
Thieves, and Lucas Carpenter.
This annual eclectic underground music festival stretches across
two neighborhoods with performances from around 70 acts including Sundials,
Secret Hospital, Franz Nicolay (the Hold Steady), Hectorina, It Looks Sad, and
Mineral Girls Friday and Torchrunner, Whatever Brains, Wymym’s Prysyn, Joint D≠, Rogue Nations, and Pullman Strike Saturday. Michael Tracy & Friends
Music Matinee
Bluesy Charlotte-based rock guitarist and vocalist Tracy heads up
this seven band local bill featuring the Joe Davis Band, FiftyWatt Freight
Train, Analog Daze, Jake Haldenwang, Gary Ramsey, and StellaRising. BBQ will
also be served at this family-friendly event.
The Jazz Room
6 p.m. Tuesday, May 21, Stage
Door Theater, 5th and College Streets. $10. 704-372-1000.
The second installment of this monthly after work jazz series,
which sold out its debut in April, features Columbia-based trumpeter Mark Rapp
performing the timeless works of the legendary Miles Davis.
This
33-year-old Bostonian writes and sings like a soul artist decades his senior.
With warm, live production, flattering horn and guitar work and songs that
thematically cross generations, he could be America's male equivalent to
Amy Winehouse.
Fronted by sassy female vocalist Porsche Cameron and led by
saxophonist/keyboardist Walker, this Milwaukee combo conjures the decadent
party vibe of carefree `70s Motown, funk and soul with a rippling blues edge.
Brother Dege
7 p.m. Thursday, May 23, US National Whitewater Center, 5000
Whitewater Center Parkway. Free.www.usnwc.org
This eccentric Southern songwriter plays mean, twangy slide and
a resonator guitar that's sound is at once gritty and metallic and sings
with equal parts soul and world-weariness. His music was recently featured in
“Django Unchained.”
Cancer survivor and bluegrass veteran Sam Bush and Asheville Afro-jam quintet Toubab Krewe will headline drumSTRONG this weekend. The three day music festival, which benefits cancer awareness and research, takes place at Misty Meadows Farm in Weddington Friday, Saturday and Sunday.
Toubab Krewe with special guest Kevin "Kalimbaman" Spears headlines opening night of the seventh annual drumSTRONG. Friday kicks off at 6:30 p.m. with S.L.O. Stop Light Observations followed by Raleigh roots singer Jeanne Jolly, Djesben with Nathan Graham, and the Mid-East Magic Dance Ensemble bellydancers.
Saturday's lineup includes local reggae rockers Of Good Nature, Moses Jones, Spears, DEP3, buzzing Asheville band The Broadcast, jazz saxophonist Ryan Saranich with Alex Bailey, and local jam outfit Bubonik Funk. The Jeff Sipe Trio and Bush headline.
Saturday also marks the 2 p.m. kick-off of the 24 hour drum circle, which extends into Sunday morning and afternoon. The drum circle is the heart of the event and circles back to the festival's beginnings. The fundraiser was created in 2007 by the Swimmer family whose son was diagnosed with cancer in 2004. The family founded DrumsForCures, which produces drumSTRONG with the idea of literally beating cancer through the positive energy and focus created through music. Simultaneous drumSTRONG events now take place as far away as Bangladore, India and The Ukraine.
Sunday's live music includes a breakfast jam with Kalimbaman, Virginia Schenk, Corey Wells, Jim Brock, and Rick Blackwell followed by the SuperSpontaneousCombustjam with Sipe, Red Richmond, and others.
The kid-friendly festival includes a Kidz Parade Sunday, a maypole dance. hoopin', face painting, puppets, and percussion instruction as well as a YogaThon and bellydancing. There's also plenty of healthy living information on hand.
Tickets range from $15 for volunteers and team members to $30 for individuals and $50 for families with kids under 12. You can purchase those by registering online here. Find out more at www.drumstrong.org.
Recent setlists indicate that Pixies' frontman Black Francis (aka Frank Black) will give fans a smattering of Pixies' tracks during his solo show at Visulite Saturday with opener and sometime collaborator Reid Paley. If fans don't get a comprehensive, career-spanning set like this one from Boston in April, Charlotte punky garage band Black Market will be paying tribute to Francis' seminal late `80s alternative rock band at The Milestone Saturday as well. You can check out its version of "Tame" here.
Boston is Francis' hometown, so Charlotte's show will likely be briefer. Sets in Chapel Hill and Asheville in February were anywhere from 23 to 28 songs long - not too shabby - and spanned the man legally known as Charles Thompson IV's fabled career.
Honestly I could sit there all night listening to him play all five Pixies' records from start to finish, but there is incredible work under the Frank Black and Black Francis monikers as well. He also hasn't played a solo show here in ages - maybe since Tremont during the Cult of Ray Tour in 1996 (I just came across my ticket stub).
Black Market says its a coincidence its show, which is part of a benefit for next weekend's Treasure Fest III in Plaza-Midwood, was booked the very same night. It's likely you can catch both sets given how late things usually roll at the West Side hot spot.
Tonight's Reckless Kelly show scheduled for NoDa's Neighborhood Theatre has been moved to The Double Door Inn. This marks the fourth time the reopening of the renovated Neighborhood Theatre has been pushed back in the last week and a half. The Mickey Hart Band's concert Wednesday was moved to Halton Arena at CPCC following Foals and Paul Thorn moving to Visulite last week.
The Double Door is quite a bit smaller than the Neighborhood Theatre, so tickets are limited. Advance tickets can be purchased at www.carolinatix.org.
The next show scheduled for Neighborhood Theatre is local band the New Familiars on May 25 giving the new operators two weeks to put the finishing touches on the venue. Plus New Familiars make a fitting act to open the theater. The group has a long history playing the venue. Keep checking www.neighborhoodtheatre.com for updates.
The Chicago jazz pianist and
composer leads this quintet which highlights, not only playful piano, but
lyrical, sometimes wacky horns that interplay with the keys and busy
percussion in a spirited, improvisational dance.
Mother’s Finest
8 p.m. Friday,
May 10, Amos’, 1423 S. Tryon St. $18-$22. www.etix.com
This biracial
veteran Georgia funk outfit took on racial stereotypes on stage and in its music during its `70s funk hey-day
and again while shifting its focus to in-your-face rock in the `90s. It boasts
members - many still original - from both eras.
The Darkness
8 p.m. Saturday,
May 11, Amos’, 1423 S. Tryon St. $22.50-$25. www.ticketfly.com
Much like the
bands that inspired it, this British arena rock and hair metal throwback burned
out quickly after the massive hit, “I Believe in A Thing Called Love.” The group reformed
in 2011 and released the album “Hot Cakes” in 2012, which still delivers on
high octane rock and campy, inescapable pop hooks.
Black Francis
8 p.m. Saturday,
May 11, Visulite, 1615 Elizabeth Ave. $20. www.visulite.com
According to
recent set lists the Pixies frontman, who has been collaborating live and on
record with opening act Reid Paley in recent years, revisits his prolific
career with a solo set that includes solo work, covers, and material by his fabled
band.
This Nashville
rock duo does a psychedelic take on garage rock that’s big on low end and would
be at home scoring a “Dazed and Confused”-style party montage. Hunters is the
wild, dissonant, and unpredictable heir to forward thinking punk-influenced
acts - think a Bikini Kill/Sonic Youth mash-up.
The Boston-based
Charlotte native and saxophonist’s new album “Story” balances the raw energy of
a live set with fully realized jazz-anchored arrangements that play out with
subtlety and lyrical expression (despite being instrumental) like retro TV
themes or classic 1960s and 1970s movie scores.
Geoff Rickly and John Nolan
6 p.m. Thursday,
May 16, Tremont, 400 W. Tremont Ave. $10-$13. www.ticketfly.com
Consider this
solo tour from the Thursday frontman and Taking Back Sunday/Straylight Run
guitarist Nolan (who calls Charlotte home now) a Taking Back Thursday tour,
where both will play quieter, more stripped down sets than its post-punk,
emo-core bands. Don’t expect a country-folk duo though. Their sets still fall under the rock umbrella.
The Trishas
7 p.m. Thursday,
May 16, Evening Muse, 3227 N. Davidson St. $12-$14. www.eveningmuse.com
This folky,
harmonizing female quartet come highly recommended by elite Nashville and Austin
songwriters like Ray Wylie Hubbard and Raul Malo who recruited the group to
guest on their records before the band had even recorded anything of its own.
Old Crow Medicine Show
7:30 p.m. Thursday,
May 16, Ovens Auditorium, 2700 E. Independence Blvd. $42.90-$50.10. www.ticketmaster.com
The
“Wagon Wheel” band, whose career took off after Doc Watson discovered it
busking on a Boone corner and invited it to play Merlefest, paved the way for
today’s genre-blurring acoustic revival that includes Grammy winners Mumford
& Sons and chart toppers like the Lumineers.
After mud and rain brought an early end to the Carolina Rebellion festival Sunday, unpredictable weather has another headlining act seeking shelter. Tuesday's Imagine Dragons concert scheduled for Time Warner Cable Uptown Amphitheatre in downtown Charlotte will now be held at Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre.
The decision was made to move the show due to inclement weather during rehearsals over the weekend. The Las Vegas-based band kicks off its Night Visions Tour here tomorrow with Paper Route and the Envy Corps.
Tickets for the original show will be honored at Verizon and due to the larger venue, plenty of $20 general admission tickets are available. Tickets are available at www.ticketmaster.com, by calling 1-800-745-3000, and at Ticketmaster outlets.
Courtney Devores has been writing about music and entertainment in Charlotte for 16 years and has been a regular contributor to The Charlotte Observer since 2003.
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