Welcome to June! This month’s print edition will be hitting newsstands as you read this. You can find a feature on the upcoming FuzzFest # 3 in there… But, meanwhile, let’s look ahead to this weekend.
YpsiArboroo (June 3 – June 13)
Let’s kick off summer with dual city-spanning festival! YpsiArboroo returns for its fifth year, starting tomorrow at Lampshade (206 W. Michigan Ave), with a performance from the Vagrant Symphony at 4:30pm, which features singer/songwriter Chris Anderson, the head honcho, as it were, of the whole event. More than a dozen venues and several dozen bands and artists get together out of sheer enthusiasm and camaraderie to put on this Bonnaroo-esque bonanza (Click here for the full lineup).
“It's easy to get generalized in the genre of the musical community, ya know, with the punks hanging with only punks, folkies with folkies etc,” Anderson said, taking a long look at the eccentricities of his ever-evolving music fest. “For some reason in Ypsi there is an all genre acceptance. I love it when you look at a Ypsi crowd and there are so many people of different musical scenes all-embracing one show together. Free shows fare well and if you make it free, the people will come.” That’s right, folks, free! Here’s that lineup again.
Saturday
This Saturday, you can visit the Ark to welcome Ann Arbor singer/songwriter Chris Dupont back home from what was probably his biggest tour to date. The atmospheric-Americana specialist is brimming with inspiration and gearing up to work on a follow-up to last year’s life-affirming-devastator Outliers.
Chris Dupont with Frances Luke Accord
Saturday at The Ark
316 S. Main St, Ann Arbor
$15
INFO
Also Saturday, you can take in some exquisitely esoteric takes on folk, psych, psych-folk, wall-melting, thought-provoking, reverb-splashed healthful disturbances and overall expansions of insight. I mean, it’s four bands, but it’ll be a trip.
Piner / Truman / Goldblum / Robert Voorhies
Saturday at Smarty Cats
16 N. Huron St., Ypsilanti
$5
INFO
Sunday
The annual restaurant-propping community event known as Taste of Ann Arbor is this Sunday, with a street fair celebration, sponsored by Bank of Ann Arbor’s Sonic Lunch series. Matthew Altruda, host of 107one’s Tree Town Sound will be emcee to a lineup featuring Dan Henig, Madelyn Grant, Willa Rae & The Minor Arcana, Barelon and Girls Who Care. The outdoor performances will be right out on Main St. in Ann Arbor, south of Huron St.; click here for more info.
Also Sunday… Starting at 11:15 am over at Wiard’s Apple Orchard, the UM Trauma Burn Center is facilitating a Burn Injury Awareness Walk, Picnic and Safety Education Fair. There will be lots of free activities for the whole family (as well as local music fans). Click here for all the info.
Jeff covers music for Current, posting weekly show previews and highlighting new bands in the area.
