Blues Traveler's John Popper

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Click above to hear sound clips courtesy Blues Traveler, Audio Archive, Adam Hudson

Last week’s shows were pretty much can’t miss. Hope you got out and attended those you wanted to. I had a great time at the Lockport Canal Concert again seeing my old friends Free Henry. I got there too late to hear Bearhunter, but talked with them at the merch booth and picked up a couple CDs. Automaton was a pleasant surprise and I hope to see more of them.

Anyway, here’s what’s on tap for this week:

Tuesday: Artpark (outdoor) George Thorogood & The Destroyers, 
                      Tom Hambridge & the Rattlesnakes
Wednesday: Gateway Harbor - Wide Right, Boogie Monsters
Wednesday: Artpark - John Browns Body, Little Mountain Band
Thursday: Lafayette Square - Robert Randolph & the Family Band
Friday: Lockport Canal Concert - Rik Emmett, Wanted by The FBI, 
            Friendly Fire
Friday: Gateway Harbor - Widow Maker (probably not the Dee Snider band!)
Saturday: Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor ($) - OAR, Citizen Cope
Saturday: Hard Rock NF - Lou Gramm, Free Henry, McCarthyism and eXit!
Sunday: Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor ($) - Slightly Stoopid, 
             Cypress Hill

Okay, it’s late and I want to get this post out before the week is over with, so I’m going to forgo all the details on the groups playing. Google is your friend and if you want to preview almost any band here, you should be able to find them online.

My favorites for the week are:

George Thorogood at Artpark. This should be a good show regardless who the opener is, but Tom Hambridge sounds really interesting.

Ike Smith’s Boogie Monsters are always a great show. If you’ve never seen them before, go. Unless you’re dead, you’ll be dancing along.

John Brown’s Body and Little Mountain Band should be a great show where one act feeds off the other to create a night to remember.

Robert Randolph & the Family Band (at Lockport last year and many, many times before at TATS) returns for their annual appearance. Despite, that I never get tired of their high-energy sacred steel sound and often listen to their CDs at home.

I’m not so crazy about Rik Emmet, but Wanted By The FBI is a great local blues band and put on a good show last year. I expect no less this time around.

Lou Gramm played the Canal Concert last year as well and I wasn’t impressed with the Geezer Rock show, but the opening bands at the Hard Rock are worth seeing. If you didn’t see Free Henry last week, or didn’t get enough of them, this is your chance. They are there with McCarthyizm, another band that played the Canal concerts previously, but always great to see again. And there is eXit! making a triple local band show.

My Pick: Too close to call. It’s a three-way tie with George Thorogood/Tom Hambridge, John Brown’s Body/Little Mountain Band and Robert Randolph Band.

But, why limit it to one show? After all, they’re free!