Move on and Go Uptown, Girl

No, Billy Joel won't be in Grand Rapids this weekend. But if you're yearning for all your feel good favorites, the Chase Picnic Pops series will give you the next best thing this Friday and Saturday (July 30 and 31): Grand Rapid's Symphony presents The Music of Billy Joel, featuring the talents of Tony-nominated vocalist and star of the Broadway show "Movin' on", Michael Cavanaugh.

Cavanaugh was hand-picked by Joel to perform in the Broadway music spectacular that features his music. Backed by the Grand Rapids Symphony, favorites like "Uptown Girl", "It's still rock and roll to me", and "New York State of Mind" will get that full-band twist to them you won't hear anywhere else.

You can check out the whole array of rock n' roll anthems at the Cannonsburg Ski Arena in Kent.

Mid-Life Crisis opens the show at 7:30 p.m.

Tickets are available at the GR Symphony website event page, and are $22 for adults, $20 for students and seniors, and $8 for kids aged 2-15.

Portland to Portland (and everything in between)

Rock and Roll just got a whole new meaning.

Indie rocker Malcolm Rollick is two-wheeling it from coast to coast on an epic bike ride tour, stopping to rock out at various venues along the way. The multi-month adventure began March 7th in Portland, Oregon, and will wrap up in Portland, ME.

Carrying all of her belongings on an XtraCycle, Rollick is blogging along the way. You can check out her thoughts at www.slowkidonabike.blogspot.com.

Check out the music-maker on wheels yourself when she hits up three dates in Michigan next month:The Grand in Grand Haven on August 26, Lemonjello's in Holland on August 27, and Metrospace in Lansing on August 29.

Let your ears taste test her fresh sound that's chock full of personality and passion via the streaming mp3s on her website, www.malcomrollick.com, or her music myspace page.

Block Party Madness

It's like a mini Warped Tour, except this time it's in Grand Rapids, and it's for a good cause.
The First Annual West Michigan Musician's Block Party is kicking off on Sunday, August 2nd from 1:30 to 9:30 p.m.

A solid eight hours of musical acts on two different stages-- an indoor venue at the Cottage Bar, and an outdoor stage at La Grave Avenue-- will host over 35 musicians, all for the benefit of local music ambassador Ralston Bowles. Bowles, a singer/songwriter from the area, is currently receiving treatment for colon cancer. The funds raised from the block party will help offset his medical expenses.

Cottage Bar and One Trick Pony Grill and Taproom are sponsoring the event, which will also feature a silent auction featuring locally-produced art and hand-painted guitars, among other items.

It's the plan of music coordinator Michael Packer and One Trick Pony/Cottage Bar owners Dan & Lisa Verhil to continue the tradition of a benefit block party after this year in support of other musicians with medical or financial struggles.

“Each year, it seems that more and more local musicians are dealing with these issues and we want to give back to artists that give so much quality of life to the community," Packer said.

Admission to the block party is a $15 donation (unless your under 12, then it's free).

Musical acts in the line up include 13^th Hour, Josh Rose, Rick Beerhorst, Chance Jones, Roger McNaughton, Ric Troll, Nobody’s Darlin’, Folk Brothers, Arganik, Mid Life Crisis, Jimmie Stagger, Creolization, Drew Nelson, Troll for Trout, The Concussions, La Famiglia, Fainting Generals, Organissimo and Delilah DeWylde & the Lost Boy.

History in the Making: New Band Debut

Nicholas James, one half of the locally played folk duo Blue Feather, is striking a solo flight in the music scene with his new musical venture, the Nicholas James Band. Their debut will set the scene at Founders Brewing Company on Saturday, July 26th.

The Nicholas James band is made up of bass player and producer Greg Baxter, violinist Andrea Napierkowski, drummer Kurt Schmiege, and Mark "Huggy Bear" Lavengood on the lap steel and dobro, all helping to create a folk-oriented mingling of country, bluegrass and rock and roll.

James always knew that once he and musical partner Liz Dieleman had completed the Blue Feather album he would want to make music on his own.

"Blue Feather is two individual singer songwriters. We always maintained our separate identity and both continued to write and perform without the other," he said.

The band will be heading into the studios at Academic Audio Studios in Grand Rapids once September hits to record their first album together.

The show at Founders will also feature U.P natives The Squeaky Clean Cretins. Cover is $5, and the show starts at 9:30 for those 21 and up.

Don't delete your Myspace just yet

While I'll be the first to admit that Myspace is mostly useless these days, I wouldn't recommend trashing your profile just yet.

Van Andel Arena and DeVos Place are teaming up to help lucky listeners win concert tickets to their upcoming summer shindigs--all through Myspace and Facebook. The contests are conducted quarterly, which means every few months you've got another chance to win tix to the hottest shows to hit GR.

This quarter, up for grabs are tickets to the family-friendly Wiggles Live! Tour on August 13th, Journey's August 25th performance, and the Ringling Brothers and Barnum and Bailey's presentation of "Over the Top" on September 24th.

All you have to do to qualify to win is comment on the "Summer Ticket Giveaway" note on either Facebook or Myspace with your most memorable concert of family show moment.

Three winners will be picked from both Facebook and Myspace, and the lucky chosen ones will be announced July 20th.

Visit www.facebook.com/VanAndelArenaFanPage, www.facebook.com/DeVosPlaceFanPage, www.myspace.com/vanandelarena, and www.myspace.com/devosplacegrandrapids for more information.

Have it your way

Zion Rock Godchaux seemed to be the more talkative one of the two. Maybe this stems from his role as the vocalist for Boombox, an Alabama-based band specializing in the seemingly bizarre marriage of sounds from the improv-friendly jazz era and pulsating beats of early 90’s techno house music.

Or maybe it has more to do with what Zion describes as a special connection he and music-making partner Russ Randolph have when it comes to music that allowed him to articulate both of their thoughts.

“We had a natural connection, Russ and I, we tend to kind of chill in the same brain. You can sense when we first met, we were looking at the same page,” Godchaux said.

Either way, it was with one brain that this dynamic duo of fresh sounds described the audience-centered, go-with-the-flow performances they have upcoming in West Michigan this month.

Despite having a basic bass line and some vocal hooks, Godchaux describes their tracks as mere cornerstones to build off of during their live performances, meaning all bets are off and their musical numbers can vary wildly from night to night. It’s that close connection between band mates that allows Randolph, DJ/Music Producer/drummer to match whatever is organically evolving with Godchaux, who picks up the vocals and guitar for the group.

With shows they describe as a mini utopia, audience members can expect a performance tailor made just for them. The duo assesses the vibe of the audience before starting each show, customizing their performances to fit whatever they think the crowd needs, and always trying to stay in sync with their emotions.

“That’s our goal going in to it, to give people a release and so that’s kind of the underlying theme of the whole show. Some sort of release,” Godchaux added.

This improv between the two is what gives their music the subtle aftertaste of a bygone era while still maintaining the flavor of catchy, danceable, techno beats. Godchaux describes their sound as a melting pot of American music that blends everything from reggae, electronica, R&B, 80’s hip-hop, jazz, and even disco.

“We’re not aiming to sound like a certain genre. It’s more of just all the different music we’ve been into all our lives one way or another rubbed off on us,” Godchaux said.

With a new album released in the spring (“Visions of Backbeat”), Boombox is touring around the Midwest this summer, and will be making two stops in west Michigan. July 20^th they will be hitting up the Intersection in Grand Rapids, and on July 21^st they’ll head to Kalamazoo to play at Papa Pete’s. Both shows cost $10, and since the duo promises a different show every night, it might even be worth it to check out both shows.

But Godchaux isn’t one to try to convince someone to come see their show.

“We’re not trying to sell anything on stage; it’s not really about us, it’s about the audience. Our shows are a real experience. If I were going to see a show, that’s what I would want; a band that’s going to give it to me real. I don’t want a band to have some pre-arranged idea of how to blow my mind,” he said.

But with Boombox, anything can happen (and it probably will).

It's a Genre-bending Musical Contradiction

They've got a name that makes more sense once you've seen them perform live.
But lucky for you, your chance to hear Greensky Bluegrass at the Riviera Theater has come.

This Friday, listeners have the opportunity to hear the jam-band infused bluegrass musical stylings of a band that more than lives up to it's contradictory name.

Playing traditional blue grass instruments, this five-piece band from Kalamazoo mixes classic bluegrass sounds into new musical landscapes, creating fresh, genre-bending hits. With a fan base that crosses over jam-band lovers as well as the Americana community, Greensky Bluegrass is growing in popularity due to their ability to mix it up in their live shows with epic-length improvisational takes on bluegrass songs, original numbers, and their own twists on covers of The Grateful Dead or Jimmi Hendrix.

Tickets to the July 10th show are $10 and can be purchased online or by calling the Riviera box office at 269.278.8068.

The Riviera theater is located in historic Three Rivers Michigan at 50 N. Main Street.

Augustana shows diversity in Tuesday's stop at The Intersection

Reactions are generally the same when I reveal my love for the San Diego-based band Augustana. What, a 24-year-old man can’t like adult contemporary?

Pegged as a somewhat of a soft rock group, the five-piece hasn’t done a lot to break the mold on that misconception by touring with such bands as the Goo Goo Dolls, Counting Crows and Snow Patrol.

Tuesday night at the Intersection, tweaks to their catalog along with a couple old school covers showed that there is a little more to this group than the couple songs that made it on MTV’s reality television show ‘The Hills’.

If Tuesday was an indicator, Augustana seems to be moving in to more of a bluesy, straight rock-and-roll style of music. This is not a far cry from what we have seen on their two albums ‘All The Stars and Boulevards’ and ‘Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt’, but it’s definitely a step up.

Taking their original song ‘Fire’ and speeding it up, lead singer Dan Layus, had no choice but to address the crowd and let them know why a lot of the tunes they’ve come to know and love sound so different.

“Sometimes we like to play some of these a little differently, just to keep ourselves entertained,” Layus told the crowd. “But the spirit of a song stays the same and we hope you see it that way.”

The group also transformed ‘Sweet ‘n Low’, their top single off ‘Can’t Love, Can’t Hurt’, in to more of a bluesy tune, at times speaking the words of the verse, while keeping the catchy chorus intact.

Augustana also threw a cover of ‘I Just Want to Make Love to You’ (Originally by Muddy Waters, later recorded by Etta James, The Grateful Dead, Foghat and others) at the crowd for good measure. Die-hard Augustana fans weren’t left wanting anything more as all the staples of the set list were present, including their breakout song ‘Boston’ which at one point reached No. 34 on the Billboard top 100. (Note: As a fan, I wanted to hear ‘Sunday Best’, so I guess one person was left wanting more.).

It’s pretty clear at this point that Augustana just wants to rock. If anyone thought any differently, Layus set the record straight.

“I’m sick of all the emo sh**,” Layus said. “We need some straight rock ‘n roll.”