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This week it’s all about Ed,
Ed Sheeran brings his Mathematics Tour to Arrowhead Stadium, that won’t be as big a spectacle as Taylor Swift’s recent shows, but still something to see.
Now that it’s slightly cooled, outdoor shows can be better enjoyed, but GrindersKC has been selling out quick, so don’t sleep on any show there. We’re a sucker for 80s retro shows, so are partial to the Culture Club / HoJo/ Berlin show at Starlight and there are several good Country shows upcoming too.
Note the cancellations below and postponement for Orville Peck, due to mental health and exhaustion, so we hope for the best and that a new date will appear, soon.
Let’s take look at the Kansas City/ Lawrence KS metro musical happenings from August 4th to 13th.
FRIDAY AUGUST 4
Ween, Grinders KC, SOLD OUT
Though it’s been a while since any new music, eclectic Pennsylvania alt band Ween have mapped out a 14-show US tour, marking their first national headlining run since Gene, Dean, and band reunited in 2016. Expect your irreverently named favorites on the setlist and the show comes just after another outdoor show the night before, at the fabled Red Rocks, so KC is lucky to see them outside in a much smaller venue.
Sam Hunt, Brett Young, Lily Rose, Azura Amph, $35-$125
The multi-Platinum-selling country star is out on his Summer On the Outskirts Tour with special guests Brett Young and Lily Rose. Hunt has an impressive 13 billion+ streams with hits including “23,” “Hard to Forget,” “Take Your Time,” “House Party,” and “Body Like A Back Road.”
Joining Hunt is (also) multi-Platinum-selling country artist Brett Young. The “In Case You Didn’t Know” singer is known for his honest lyrics and West Coast-meets-Southern sound, dubbed “Caliville”.
Arrive early for country-meets-R&B Georgia-native rising star Lily Rose, who we really enjoyed at last year’s Country Stampede Festival in Topeka.
SATURDAY AUGUST 5
Ed Sheeran, w/ Khalid, Cat Burns, GEHA Field at Arrowhead Stadium, $49-$149
It's all about the Math! UK singer-songwriter Ed Sheeran is bringing his “Mathematics” tour to the massive Arrowhead Stadium, which is his first stateside swing in almost five years (his 2018 “Divide Tour” became the most-attended and highest-grossing tour of all time). The North American “+ – = ÷ x Tour” (“Mathematics”) tour will find Sheeran playing major stadiums and started in Dallas in early May, to end with a Sept. 23 gig at SoFi Stadium in LA. Expect solo and full band sets, and maybe a cover or two.
He's come a long way since we saw him open up for Snow Patrol in Minneapolis, selling his yet-to-be-released first album at the merch booth himself, after his set. Following that, we saw him in the backyard of a lakeside bar in the Minneapolis suburbs; so the jump to stadiums in a few short years, is impressive indeed.
Opener Khalid has his third full-length, Everything is Changing expected anytime, delayed since 2021 for pandemic and other reasons, with single from the record, "New Normal" already released. London born Liberian singer Cat Burns, who broke through with with 2020's "Go", wll get the evening started.
SUNDAY AUGUST 6
MONDAY AUGUST 7
TUESDAY AUGUST 8
Boy George and Culture Club w Howard Jones, Berlin, Starlight, $20-$499.
All 80's icons, they've joined forces for The Letting It Go Show, a 25-city run following a run of sold-out Culture Club shows in Las Vegas. During the early ’80s, the group racked up seven straight Top Ten hits in the U.K. and six Top Ten singles in the U.S. and were in constant rotation on MTV.
Culture Club would finally reunite in 2014 for a tour with reunion album, Life, finally released in 2018, their first in nearly 20 years. Expect all the hits to sing along to every word to, and more!
2023 marks the 40-year anniversary of the release of Howard Jones’ “New Song,” the hit that kicked off his career. Howard Jones’ most recent album is DIALOGUE, the last of a trilogy which was released in September of last year. The electronic pioneer has numerous hits including “New Song,” “What Is Love?”, “Things Can Only Get Better,” “No One Is To Blame,” and “Like To Get To Know You Well" and has a multi-disc compilation set coming out this Fall. We saw him in 2017 headlining the entertaining Retro Futura Tour.
Berlin became first known with1982's provocative single “Sex (I’m A…)” and its follow up songs “The Metro” and “No More Words” also charting high, but it was the intimate love song from Top Gun, “Take My Breath Away” that took the band to another level, winning both the Golden Globe and Academy Award for “Best Original Song” in 1986. Terri Nunn still fronts the band, and we last saw them live opening for the JD Fortune-fronted INXS.
Orville Peck, Uptown, POSTPONED
WEDNESDAY AUGUST 9
THURSDAY AUGUST 10
Tommy Prine, Aug 10, Knuckleheads, $15
With a very famous last name, the singer-songwriter is out in support of his debut album This Far South, produced by Ruston Kelly and Gena Johnson (via Thirty Tigers) playing the US as well as the UK and Ireland on this tour.
Prine grew up in Nashville surrounded by music, art, and writing—it’s certainly no secret that he learned to play guitar by watching his late father, John Prine, picking his own beloved tunes—but summers spent in his mother’s homeland of Ireland lent their own inspiration, and help craft the songs he's created in his own voice. Expect a set of his originals, and not a tribute set of his father's covers.
UPDATE- Catch him that afternoon for a free performance/signing, 4:30pm at Vinyl Renaissance in OPKS!
Blues Traveler / Big Head Todd and the Monsters, Grinders KC, SOLD OUT
Each of these co-headliners can easily sell out a show and guess what, together, it sold out quickly!
Blues Traveler have announced a co-headlining tour with Big Head Todd and The Monsters, which began after BT's July 4 stand at Red Rocks. We've seen each band separately and with different themes (like Big Head's Chicago Blues tribute in 2018) and always come away entertained and amazed at the musicianship.
Blues Traveler singer John Popper has been fighting some road sickness, but also has a John and Jono side project album out this Fall, and longtime Colorado band Big Head Todd and the Monsters celebrated their long history in the state, with a 2020 live album recorded at Red Rocks.
Ben Folds, Uptown Theater, SOLD OUT
After selling out Liberty Hall in Lawrence last year, he's back in the area, doing the same thing in KC. The pianist's first studio album in eight years, What Matters Most came out in June (via New West Records) and the tour is named after the new record. Don't expect to hear all the hits though and just a couple Ben Folds Five favorites.
“There’s a lifetime of craft and experience all focused into this one record,” he explained. “Sonically, lyrically, emotionally, I don’t think it’s an album I could have made at any other point in my career. I come from the vinyl era, and this perhaps more than any record I’ve made is a true album,” Folds says of the record. “There’s a very specific sequence and arc to each side, all building up to this almost surreal positive finale, and that structure was really important to me. More than anything, I wanted to make an album that was generous, that was useful. I want you to finish this record with something you didn’t have when you started.”
Justin Moore, KCLive!,$25
It's another Hot Country Night downtown! - Multi-platinum country artist Justin Moore is bringing his 2023 tour and playing all his hits, plus cuts from his newest album, “Stray Dog.” Moore has 10 No. 1 hits, dating back to his first chart-topper “Small Town USA” in 2009. Other top hits include “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away” and “The Ones That Didn’t Make It Back Home.”
Moore was named New Artist of the Year at the 2014 Academy of Country Music Awards. He won a pair of Inspirational Country Music Awards in 2011 for “If Heaven Wasn’t So Far Away.”
Mudvayne with Coal Chamber, Gwar, Nonpoint and more, Azura Amphitheater. $29.50-$425
Rock the (Wyan)Dotte! --The Psychotherapy Sessions Tour is Mudvayne's first headlining trek since 2009 and it will also mark Coal Chamber's first live performances in eight years. "An Event. On the Horizon. Over 25 years in the making, Brave travelers…You, and the alien seed - MuDvAyNe. A journey begun. Reaching Zenith. Now for the Eschatology," comments Mudvayne drummer Matt McDonough.
Previously, they made waves last year when they embarked on the "Freaks On Parade" tour co-headlined with Rob Zombie, this tour, however, marks Mudvayne's first headlining in almost 15 years. Bring your poncho for the always entertaining Gwar, and Nonpoint promises to hit it hard.
Raja, Madrid. CANCELED
FRIDAY AUGUST 11
Boy Named Banjo, Knuckleheads, $20
The Nashville-raised five-piece is a fusion of contemporary country, Americana and folk-rock stacked on a foundation of bluegrass, comprised of Barton Davies (banjo), Ford Garrard (bass/standing bass), Sam McCullough (drums) Willard Logan (mandolin, acoustic/electric guitar) and William Reames (acoustic guitar/harmonica).
Due to the pandemic, they would become the first act that Universal Music Group Nashville signed via Zoom and released their debut EP, Circles, in summer of 2021. They’ve supported the likes of Kip Moore and Dierks Bentley, played many large festivals, and promise a release of new music sometime later this year.
Horsegirl, The Bottleneck-Lawrence, $17-$20
The Chicago female trio has been putting out music since their early high school days together and plays a fresh interpretation of post-punk rock and their 2022 debut album Versions of Modern Performance elicited some deserved buzz from the usual taste making outlets.
Guitarist Nora Cheng, bassist Penelope Lowenstein, and drummer Gigi Reece make up the trio, who we saw last year in Minneapolis, and who finished their set with a Guided by Voices cover, which is a favorite and influence of theirs.
As with previous, fellow Chicago band Lifeguard opens.
Y'allapalooza feat. Parker McCollum, Chris Lane, Travis Denning, Azura Amph, $25-$69
This year’s Q104 Festival features the Texas native who won New Male Artist of the Year at the 2022 ACM Awards and was nominated for New Artist of the Year at the 2022 CMA Awards. He wrapped last year supporting Thomas Rhett and married his girlfriend Hallie Ray last March, so these are good days.
We caught North Carolina’s Chris Lane live last year, on the final day of Topeka’s Country Stampede.
SATURDAY AUGUST 12
The Nadas, Knuckleheads, $20
The longtime (30+years!?) Midwest favorites and Iowa-based alt/Americana band (Mike and Jason Walsmith together with bassist Brian Duffey, and drummer Brandon Stone, with Perry Ross on Keys, Guitar and Percussion) have headed on the tour again, in support of their latest album, Come Along For The Ride (out last August).
With a continued loyal following based on their memorable live shows and distinctive 70s (think Stones-era “Country Honk,”) meets-90s sound, they’ve come up with their own raw, slightly twangy, alt-rock energy. Latest release is Duo Numero Uno (2020, Authentic Records) but Hooray! the new album Come Along for the Ride, is due out next Friday (day before this show!), with lead singles, “Other Side of 45”; “Come Along for the Ride” and “This Mess Is My Masterpiece” already out there in the ether.
Bully, Bottleneck-Lawrence, $25
Lucky for You is the latest release from Alicia Bognanno’s indie rock project, just out on June 2nd via Sub Pop, with lead single “Days Move Slow” and lucky for us, the band is coming to Lawrence after a run supporting Pixies and Franz Ferdinand.
Bognanno recorded the album last year between MMK Studios and her Nashville home: “With every record, I feel more and more secure in terms of doing what I want,” she says in a statement. “For this one, I wanted to be as creative as possible with these songs.” We haven’t caught them live for over seven years (!?) [2016 in Minneapolis], so seem more than overdue.
Maddie & Tae, Uptown. $20-$171
Mercury Nashville’s Maddie & Tae remain on the road with the extended dates of their All Song No Static Tour, which began late last year.
Expect hits like “Die From A Broken Heart” and “Girl In A Country Song,” fan favorites, and tracks from their Through The Madness Vol.1 and Vol.2 projects. The new single is an ode to female friendships called “Heart They Didn’t Break”.
Last included a CMT Music Award for Group/Duo Video of the Year (“Woman You Got”) and nominations for Duo of the Year from both the ACM and CMA.
Fran Cosmo (ex-Boston) Ameristar Casino, CANCELED
SUNDAY AUGUST 13
| john c ([email protected]) ♥ weheartmusic.com ♥ twitter.com |
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