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'70s tribute bands start Friday, but '80s R&B and modern sounds in music also on bill
By Malcolm X Abram
Beacon Journal
Published on Thursday, May 22, 2008
Hello, all you Northeast Ohioans. Have you considered coming to downtown Akron for something other than a restaurant?
It's not particularly dangerous, and yes, there are other things to do besides visiting Canal Park, the Civic Theatre or one of the many eateries before going right back home.
City officials are serious about convincing everyone that the downtown area of the ''AK-Rowdy'' is a cool place to hang out and spend some time and, more important, some money.
Lock 3 Park was created to be a people magnet. And it's been serving its purpose. Attendance has been growing and last year it broke all previous attendance records and welcomed its 100,000th visitor.
In previous years, park officials have brought in veteran national acts (such as Eddie Money, Dickey Betts) and one hip up and coming indie blues rock band (the Black Keys), plus the usual spate of tribute bands for the park's summer concert series.
For the 2008 season, there are still plenty of tribute bands making up the bulk of the schedule, but organizers have done a good job of finding interesting national acts that should draw folks downtown, so this season should be a good one.
Let's get this out of the way first: Yes, Peter Noone will be back again this summer on Aug. 30. Does he have an apartment in town yet? It seems he finds his way here every year.
Arlo Guthrie is also back (Aug. 9) with Abe and Krishna Guthrie, who I'm assuming are related to him. And another classic rocker, Dave Mason, is also coming this year (July 26), so classic rock fans should be happy.
The entire schedule is up at the Lock 3 Web site (http://www.lock3live.com/), but let's take a look at some of the potential highlights of this year's Lock 3 Live schedule, beginning with the obligatory tribute band opening on Friday.
Mr. Speed
and Nightmare
I've seen Mr. Speed and they are actually pretty good. Ersatz Gene Simmons is a bit shorter and more squat than ''Real'' Gene Simmons, but they have the costumes, the pyro, the songs, the moves, the solos and even Paul Stanley's thick Queens accent.
Kiss Army members hoping Gene and Paul will bring their Kiss Alive/35 World Tour back to the States will satiate their Kiss jones with this reasonable facsimile.
Also on the bill is Nightmare, a tribute to Alice Cooper.
Old school soul
On June 28, the SOS Band, One Way featuring Al Hudson and Rumplestiltskin will be on stage.
To quote the vernacular ''Awwww, sookie sookie now!'' this ought to be fun, particularly for R&B fans over 30.
I won't get back on my R&B band soapbox (this week) but here are a couple of R&B bands with a string of hits and many, many years of performing under their collective middle-aged belts.
The SOS Band is best known for its 1980 perennial R&B dance floor hit Take Your Time (Do It Right (You're singing it right now, ain't ya?), but the group also has a few hits from its years working with Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis that include Just Be Good to Me and Just the Way You Like It.
One Way featuring Al Hudson is an R&B/dance band from the '80s that had only one real hit, Cutie Pie. That song gave us a classic hip-bumping, much sampled bass line. One Way had a few other tunes in You Can Do It and the band's Alicia Myers sang another classic, I Want to Thank You.
Local party band Rumplestiltskin is the opener.
July 4 weekend
It's the Rib, White and Blue Food Festival (I don't name 'em folks) and the July 4 lineup features the good-time sounds of Cajun and New Orleans music with Zydeco Kings and jam-flavored Cajun band Mo' Mojo.
Headliners and New Orleans legend the Dirty Dozen Brass Band's most recent album was a cover of Marvin Gaye's What's Goin' On done in DDBB style featuring radically different arrangements with vocals from folks such as Public Enemy's Chuck D, R&B singer Bettye LaVette and Ivan Neville. The group has always mixed traditional N.O. brass band music with hip and modernized sounds and choice covers.
This should be a very entertaining show.
On July 5, R&B and jazz take the forefront with Detroit's Rare Blend, Horns and Things and Kevin Eubanks, who will take some time off from pretending to laugh at Jay Leno's monologues to remind folks that he was a talented guitarist long before he was one of Leno's joke butts.
Ledisi, Ronny
Jordan Trio
On Aug. 2, Ledisi and the Ronny Jordan Trio will be in town.
Ledisi is a smooth-as-silk, sophisticated soul singer/songwriter whose 2007 album, Lost & Found, (her third overall and first on a major label) raised her profile but didn't get the national attention it deserved.
Musically, her early independent albums had a bit more contemporary jazz flavor, which she retains in her melodies, but Lost & Found is firmly in the adult contemporary R&B market with 18 slow and midtempo grooves and her big, malleable alto.
Jazz guitarist Jordan gained some prominence in the '90s during the acid jazz movement and appeared on Guru's popular 1993 album Jazzmatazz Vol. 1. He's released several albums as a solo artist that mix hip-hop grooves with jazz in interesting if not always successful ways, but has recently been playing standard smooth jazz.
Jeremy Fisher
and Great Big Sea
I don't know much about either of these artists who will play on Aug. 16 other than they are both Canadian, but since they are neither tribute bands nor classic rockers it at least shows that the L3L organizers are attempting to attract younger listeners.
Canadian popster Fisher is best known for the popular YouTube video of his tune Cigarette, and his debut stateside album Goodbye Blue sounds a lot like young Paul Simon with acoustic-driven tunes and smart lyrics.
Great Big Sea mixes Celtic rock with sea shanties and Newfoundland folk songs with hard rockin' acoustic instruments.
Akron hip-hop showcase
The details on this Sept. 6 event aren't etched in stone, but it's being organized by ''Don Juan'' and ''Ish'' of Keepers of the Art Inc., who host the Hip Hop Flavas show at 10 p.m. Saturdays on WAPS (91.3-FM). These two remember the days when hip-hop could be a force for good, so there should be very few misogynistic, product placement and gangsta cliches. Since they love the old school, I'm hoping they'll wrangle a few hip-hop legends for the show.
Malcolm X Abram can be reached at mabram@thebeaconjournal.com or 330-996-3758.
Hello, all you Northeast Ohioans. Have you considered coming to downtown Akron for something other than a restaurant?
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