New Live Dates

A host of new live dates have been scheduled for the summer. Check it out:


The Plug It Up! Benefit at Billy's will be July 11. There are a ton of great bands who are going to be there, like:
SuperDre
La Famiglia
Juleus
AB & Coconut Brown
Gray Theory
Nathan Kalish and the Wildfire
Cain Marko
The Fainting Generals
Head


Pretty good, right? I mean, how can you not go? Plus it benefits the restoration of marine life in the Gulf coast affected by the oil spill. Glad to see that local artists are taking action to help out and raise funds. Come join and help out by rocking out. 


Next up, is the Frederik Meijer Gardens Show August 17 with the Fainting Generals. Thanks to Ralston Bowles and the Tuesday Night Music Club for helping to put this on.


Finally, September 11 will be the Bars of Gold album release party at Founders. This is a Friction Records release, and the mighty Ghost Heart will also be performing at this show. 


There are whispers of a larger show coming in September, but that's not for me to confirm or deny at this point. Should be fun if it comes together, though! 

Local First Festival, Grand Rapids, June 12

Set List:

Make It In The City
Love's Alright
Love Still Wild
Alone with Him
Going to see Michelle
Kitty Hijinks
When You Were Mine
The One That Got Away
Nobody's Baby
My Machine
All You've Got
Didn't Take Long
Venango County
All Again

Fun afternoon for your humble narrator, as the whole family was able to attend the show. Lil got to go to Festival last week, but she missed Miss Sapphire something fierce. Good thing they were able to catch up today. 

Really, really great festival put on by Local First. Amazing vendors like Founders, Sandmann's, Marge's Donut Den, GRPD Pizza, among others, plus how can you ever go wrong with AB! and Chance Jones back-to-back? Do you know what? You can't, and that's just science, man. 

Tight set list, great audio, and some new and rare gems made for a great afternoon in the sun. It might have been played in the interim, but I haven't heard When You Were Mine since December, and this was the first time I've heard Didn't Take Long with Miss Sapphire. My wife Heather had goosebumps from her backing vocals on that one. She even showed them to me. They were on her arm. 

Enjoy the cell phone pics. Looked like there were 4-5 pros there taking shots. I imagine some will pop up on Facebook. If so, I'll update this post with them. 

Celadon Performance Scratched

For those who were hoping to attend the acoustic performance at Celadon tomorrow, Chance will not be appearing. No hard feelings or worries, or anything like that. Just too much going on.

Please go see Karissa play, though! It should be a great night of music for all involved.

Fox17 Morning Show, Grand Rapids, June 9

Set List:

Hoping You'd Be Here

Bol on maracas, Chance on the acoustic. Shot live at Founders to hype the Local First Festival on Saturday.

Perhaps later today there'll be a video online for us to embed here.

UPDATE: Embed below. Thanks to Kerry at Fox17 for the link.

 

Up next: Celadon

Just got word that there is a solo acoustic show on Thursday night 7:30 at Celadon. Methinks Beth Forrest has no reason to miss this.

Wealthy Elementary, East Grand Rapids, June 7

Set list:

Natalie
Venango County
All Again

Thanks to Juliet for the picture. Note the visitor's badge on the jacket. 

Does this count as a show? Sure. I was there to tag the set list, and there was a captive audience of 70 or so 10 year olds. Yeah, we'll count it.

Chance came in to Wealthy Elementary this afternoon shortly after 1 pm and answered a few questions from my class of 4th graders. We have a student named Natalie, so of course we were treated to an acoustic version of it. It sounded great, and the kids loved it.

At 1:30 we headed down to the library to meet up with the other 2 fourth grade classes, and Chance continued to answer questions from the students and staff. Intermingled between the Q and A were acoustic performances of Venango County and All Again. Both were raucous sing-alongs. All Again being especially cute as the kids were trying through-out the song to find a place to jump in and sing "All Again." The dam broke at the end of the song, and heads swayed and arms were linked. But the spirit of the song rang true; I'm sure we'll do it all again next year.

After the performance wrapped up we were treated to what must definitely be the most disorganized stage presentation of Coraline ever. An emergency 24-hour intermission was declared, and the Chance Jones autograph session began as the kids headed out to recess.

I'd like to thank Josh for taking time out of his day off (on a beautiful Monday afternoon no less!) to come and be with my students. They certainly enjoyed it, and I already have ideas on how to make it great for next year.

Festival, Grand Rapids, June 4

Set list:

The One That Got Away
Crosstown
Carolina Breeze
Didn't Take Long
All You've Got
Kitty Hijinks
All Again

Nice night under the tent at Festival, as the rain held off. A new (old) crowd checked out the band, and a few regulars were seen in the vicinity. The evening also brought the second live appearance of Didn't Take Long, one of the new tracks that was demoed out in Portland. Miss Sapphire was tempting fate in Arizona, so the boys were off to fend for themselves. Looks like the full band will reassemble next Saturday for the Local First Festival, following the always great A.B. & Coconut Brown.