American roots heavyweight Old Crow Medicine Show is slated to visit The State Theatre in Kalamazoo on Sunday, June 1, 2014. Tickets go on sale Friday, but fans can pre-order tickets beginning at 10 a.m. on Wednesday.
The series kicks off on June 1 with Grammy-award-winning/legendary guitarist Santana. Other highlights of this series include Cake (June 12), John Legend (June 18), O.A.R. and Phillip Phillips (June 23), Ray LaMontagne with Jenny Lewis (July 23), Conor Oberst with Dawes (July 31), The Beach Boys (Sept. 4), Sheryl Crow (Sept. 7) and more.
Grand Rapids-based neoclassical hard rock band (think Trans Siberian Orchestra, but with more teeth) Aria Flame will be going international with their unique brand of music this fall. The band recently confirmed their spot on the Metal Female Voices Festival that is slated for Oct. 17-19 in Belgium.
Oh, West Michigan. You’re so conservative and proper. Except the times when you’re not, which are becoming more and more frequent. West Michigan cities like Holland and Grand Haven may seem conservative on the outside, but they’ve got their vices.
In a place like Grand Rapids — a smallish-to-medium-sized city taking a real solid crack at becoming a creative hub — the plight of a creator finding the right avenue to do their thing seems to be a pretty common yarn.
I still remember when I bought my first vinyl. I was at a show at the old Strutt in Kalamazoo (RIP), and the album came with a free CD, so I figured what the hell? Little did I know that dropping the needle onto the record's grooves would prove to be my first step on the road to becoming obsessed with vinyl. Sure, I realize streaming from Spotify may be the easy route, but purchasing vinyl has far more benefits.
All across the country, millions of people are addicted, but this kind of addiction doesn’t come as a pill or a powder. It comes in the form of a controller in your hand and a huge flat screen TV in your face. I’m talking video games, those interactive pieces of entertainment that have been a haven for social outcasts, nerds, geeks and 12 year olds to all meet and insult each other online.
When it comes to vices, strips clubs might top the list with their dark atmosphere and what-happens-here-stays-here mantra. Here are places in West Michigan where you can indulge your vice.
Let’s face it, most of us just can’t help but indulge in our spoiled side. Why not spend all day at a spa or cook your skin for a few hours to get the perfect tan, because you deserve it.
Shops and lounges where you can sit down and enjoy some cigars or hookah.
Shoe hoarding is a serious condition. One that calls for more shoes.
As a bartender it’s obviously pretty difficult to make any money if you’re surrounded by sober people. We understand, and it really is our job, to make sure that people get responsibly “turnt up,” as the kids say.
It's pretty exciting to wake up on a day when your assignment is to amass as many vices in the day as possible. I mean, it’s not often that one gets to ask their friends and strangers if they know where to score various illicit drugs and dirty love with a legitimate excuse. The only rule I’ve given myself is that pot must come from a drug dealer and not a dispensary.
With the advent of more complex beers, we enter an age of more alcoholic beers. Beers so strong that you’ll be just as likely to wake up cradling your twin mug beer-chugging hat that you thought would be great to drink from as you would the body pillow that’s normally there. These beers weren’t made to destroy you, but have too many and they will.
