West Michigan's Arts & Entertainment Guide
Any true-blue punk rocker worth his or her weight in metal-studded leather cuffs has to be trembling with anticipation over this most unlikely of reunions. Oh sure, seminal West Coast punk band X has been touring again as a united force since the early 2000s, but after a series of lineup changes and its eventual disbandment in the ‘90s, many hardcore fans had given up hope of ever seeing X’s original members ruling the punk-rock realm together on the same stage.
For such a tiny band, The Black Keys sure are capable of producing a massively huge sound. And that’s exactly the thing the group’s fans love it for – the keen, sly ability to create so much with so little.
With the obvious exception of anybody and anything associated with Justin Bieber and Nickelback, all Canadians are awesome. It’s practically a law of physics. (Call it the Kindly Canuck Theory of Charming Relativity, if you must.) That’s why we’re so excited for Owen Pallett’s forthcoming Calvin College show.
Comedian Mike Birbiglia has been on the roll to end all rolls for the last several years. It all started with his critically acclaimed one-man show, Sleep Walk With Me, and cascaded right into his current touring pièce de résistance, Thank God for Jokes.
One problem our planet faces every day is a definitive lack of truly great jazz keyboardists. Is this dearth of instrument-specific talent a greater threat to the survival of humanity than, say, the clean water shortage? Well, probably not, but still, it’s nice to look at accomplished members of our society to gauge just how far we’ve come as a species. And that’s where Chick Corea comes in.
Now, here’s a combination as peculiar as salt and pepper on top of chocolate ice cream: jazz, metal and world music fusion. But one particular ingredient serves to spice up this delectable array of oddly paired musical genres, and that’s the sweet sounds of an acoustic Spanish guitar.
We all remember back when Katy Perry was experiencing her first same-sex kiss, couldn’t wait to tell the world with a giggle, a flourish of blushing, hair twirling and that she’d actually liked it.
Amid a sea of sweaty dude bros and popping jugular veins, it’s more than a little refreshing to encounter a ballsy female fronting an aggro-rock muscle band. The front-woman in question here is Elizabeth “Lzzy” Hale, and along with her band Halestorm, she’s been spending the past decade-plus carving out some pretty badass territory for herself.
Singer Songwriter Best Bet: Crystal Bowersox
Written by Emma Kat Richardson | Friday, 25 July 2014 14:23 |As a Michigander, native or otherwise, you might be often tempted to wonder what Ohio has done for us lately. OK, sure, it has produced a handful of presidents and astronauts, but that was then, man. I’m all about the here and now. Well, rest assured, you feisty Mitten dweller, that our friendly neighbor to the immediate south has been working its oddly shaped keister off to bring us one of the most exciting singer-songwriters since Chrissie Hynde first busted out of Akron.
You might call her the country and western Jenny Lewis, if you were so inclined. Or maybe even one half of the twangy, hetero version of the Indigo Girls. Whatever artist or sub-genre you’re tempted to compare Jennifer Nettles to, don’t.
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