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School is in full swing, and the record-breaking high temps are finally in the rear-view mirror for the season. More crisp nights make outdoor shows more ideal, and plenty of bands are touring before things get too much colder, so the next couple months can often be the time to see some of the best touring acts of the year. Best thoughts going out to Caamp.
Let’s take look at the Kansas City / Lawrence KS metro musical happenings from September 7th-13th.
THURSDAY SEPTEMBER 7
Cyrano de Bergerac, KC Rep (Spencer Theatre), Through Sept 24, $35-$79
Opening their 60th Anniversary season with a bang (and Asian-featured cast/director!), the classic love triangle tale of a genius with language, Cyrano secretly loves the radiant Roxane, but she loves the beautiful-but-inarticulate Christian. Convinced of his own ugliness, Cyrano offers to act as go-between, setting in motion a poignant and hilarious love triangle in which each character is torn between the lure of physical attraction and the seductive power of words.
Written by Edmond Rostand and freely adapted by Martin Crimp, direction is provided by Associate Artistic Director Nelson T. Eusebio III, and runs 2hr 15min, with an intermission. The production features smoke, haze, and strobe lights, simulations of war with swords, prop guns, and sounds of war with strong language. For ages 14 and up.
Here Come the Mummies, Uptown, POSTPONED TO NOV. 12
FRIDAY SEPTEMBER 8
"Ann Hampton Callaway and Liz Callaway - Broadway the Calla-way!" Pennway Place at Studio Dan Meiners, $100+ 
The Tony-nominated Callaway Sisters are bringing Broadway to Kansas City for HMCKC’s Evening of Note: 38 Below – raising the roof with their acclaimed New York City 54 Below Cabaret show, Broadway the Calla-way! Liz and Ann Hampton Callaway. truly become one singular sensation for a rousing NYC night of harmony, humor and the soaring sounds of the greatest songs of Broadway! With showstoppers from West Side Story, Chicago, Funny Girl, Cats, Carousel, Wicked and more great Broadway shows, you’re bound to enjoy The Big Apple from The Heartland!
Lemonade Social Fest, Sept 8, 9, $10-$20/day
Back for its fourth local music fest at Lemonade Park, it started in 2020 to help provide a safe way to uplift the KC music scene during the pandemic, and local record label The Record Machine is keeping the mission going. The fest opens at 7pm Friday with pop-rock trio LYXE, tropical pop band Surf Wax, as well as duo Static Phantoms and Dress Warm.
Saturday starting at 3:30pm will have eight acts in all, with psych-soul group Black Light Animals, local rapper Steddy P, and Mr. Golden Sun as a part of the lineup. Local rapper-producer Paris Williams, Lawrence singer-songwriter Paul Jesse, Flora, Ben Gipson, and Miki P & the Swallowtails are also slated to perform.
Cracker w/Bootstrap Boys, Sarah Shook Sept 8 and 9 (4pm), Knuckleheads, $25. 
On the 30th anniversary of their acclaimed album, "Kerosene Hat,", alt-rock, Americana post punk legends Cracker takes over three stages on two nights. Friday’s schedule is: 7:00 -7:45 PM David Lowery / 8:00-8:45 PM Bootstrap Boys / 9:00 -10:45 Cracker while Saturday’s earlier start means: 4:00-4:45 PM Hickman Solo Set / 5:00-6:00 PM Sarah Shook and the Disarmers / 6:15-8:00 PM Cracker
Co-founders David Lowery and Johnny Hickman have been at it for over a quarter of a century – releasing ten studio albums, multiple gold records, several hit songs [“Low,” “Teen Angst (What The World Needs Now),” “Euro-Trash Girl” and “Get Off This”], and a worldwide fan base. Cracker‘s tenth studio effort, the double-album entitled Berkeley To Bakersfield, finds this American band traversing two different sides of the California landscape – the northern Bay area and further down-state in Bakersfield.
As Lowery explains, “On the Berkeley disc the band is the original lineup – Davey Faragher, Michael Urbano, Johnny and myself. This is the first time this lineup has recorded together in almost 20 years.” We caught Lowery solo and in conversation earlier this year.
SATURDAY SEPTEMBER 9
Janelle Monae, The Midland, $41.50-$91.50
Named after her most recent LP, The Age of Pleasure Tour just started last week in Seattle and the leg will wrap mid-next month in Inglewood, CA. The Age of Pleasure is Monáe’s follow-up to her 2018 LP, Dirty Computer, released in June via Atlantic Records. The 14-song record includes “Float” (which features Seun Kuti and Egypt 80), and “Lipstick Lover.” And even though, she moved to Atlanta a long time ago, we still consider the Kansas City, KS-born innovative artist, one of our own.
Band of Heathens w Lilly Hiatt, Sept 9, Knuckleheads, $20
Returning to their Austin TX roots on ninth studio album, Simple Things, The Band of Heathens returns to a more basic approach to the rootsy, guitar-based rock with which they made their name. 
Though the members now live scattered across the country, coming back to Austin to compose and record was crucial to the making of the new record, which should be featured live, along with older favorites.
Lilly Hiatt has continued on the road following her breakout LP Trinity Lane and has since released a hanful of lo-fi singles (i.e., the almost-shoegaze “Angels Thing” and groovy “L8 Night People”) and Domestic Bliss, the self-titled debut LP from Hiatt and husband and fellow Nashville musician Coley Hinson, and the couple continue to join forces live.
SUNDAY SEPTEMBER 10
Black Country New Road, moved to The Granada-Lawrence, $22
This year, the UK rock act have released a live album and concert film recorded at London’s Bush Hall late last year. Live at Bush Hall followed Ants From Up There, which featured frontman Isaac Wood, who left the group soon after its release.
The band now performs an all-new repertoire written by remaining members Tyler Hyde (bass, vocals), May Kershaw (piano, vocals), Jockstrap’s Georgia Ellery (violin, vocals), Lewis Evans (saxophone, vocals), Luke Mark (guitar), and Charlie Wayne (drums).
NYC indie artist Daneshevskaya opens, in support of this year’s Long is the Tunnel release.
Gregory Porter, Kauffman Center, $47-$97 
The acclaimed singer-songwriter was raised in Bakersfield, CA, and began singing in small jazz clubs in San Diego and later NYC where his music career began to ascend with the release of his first two albums- 2010’s Water and 2012’s Be Good. In 2013, he released his Blue Note Records debut, Liquid Spirit which grew into a phenomenon, selling more than a million albums and earning Porter his first GRAMMY Award.
His 2016 follow-up Take Me To The Alley won Porter his second GRAMMY for Best Vocal Jazz Album and established him one of the most soulful jazz singer-songwriters of his generation. In 2017, Porter released the heartfelt tribute album Nat King Cole & Me, and in 2020, returned to his original songwriting on the uplifting All Rise.
MONDAY SEPTEMBER 11
TUESDAY SEPTEMBER 12
Joy Oladokun w Becca Mancari, Truman, $20-$40
The Arizona-born multi-genre (folk, pop, r&b, roots) artist continues out on her Living Proof Tour, (named after her fourth full-length of the same name, out now on Verve Forecast/Republic) headlining after spending some of the season opening for The Teskey Brothers and Noah Kahan. Oladokun has partnered with PLUS1, so $1 from each ticket sold will go towards supporting gun violence prevention initiatives.
Live, she plays plenty of her own, as well as works in covers from the likes of Jimmy Eat World, Phil Collins, and is getting more known for her version of Elton John's "Rocket Man".
Arrive early for rock/country singer-songwriter Becca Mancari, whose third LP Left Hand was just out on August 25 (via Captured Tracks Records). Lead single "Over And Over" definitely leans Pop though. Congas and shakers share space with guitar riffs to give the whole thing a polyrhythmic bounce, with Julien Baker lending backing vocals to the chorus.
Caamp, The Midland, CANCELED Update: Caamp (@Caamp) / X (twitter.com)
Ohio folk favorites (and on one of our favorite labels, Mom+Pop) hit the road for a summer tour, playing multi-nights in bigger cities as well as many festivals, out in support of last year's Lavender Days release. The album quickly sprung to the top of the Billboard charts with opening positions in the Top 10 on 4 different charts, including Americana, Alternative, Vinyl and Indie and Top 20 positions on 7 charts total including the Billboard Top 200.
Lavender Days features Nathaniel Rateliff and (KC resident) Waxahatchee's Katie Crutchfield on vocals and their previous full lengths - their self-titled 2016 debut, 2018's Boys and By and By in 2019, have helped their growing fan base. Live, they've been working in covers from Dr. Dog, Fleetwood Mac, and Neil Young.
UPDATE: remainder of 2023 tour dates now canceled.
WEDNESDAY SEPTEMBER 13
Jai Wolf, The Truman, $25-$60
The Bangladeshi American electronic performer/producer has a new single, “(I Dread The Day He Takes You To) Paris [feat. MYRNE, and inspired by Taylor Swift's song of the same name],” all as part of a new era he calls “Blue Babu – a new journey beginning with a demonstration in the desert, followed by an analysis of consciousness transcribed into sound,” also via Mom+Pop following his debut album, The Cure to Loneliness.
This “Blue Babu” era marks a return for Jai Wolf, starting with the recent release of his first official single in three years, “Want It All” featuring rising pop sensation Evalyn, complete with AI-created music video. Last June, he became the only Bangladeshi-American artist to sell out Red Rocks as a headliner and collaborator MYRNE as well as EVAN GIIA join him on the road.
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