Summer Concert Series

    This summer, Baltimore and surrounding areas have offered an array of concert choices, featuring artists and bands to delight nearly anyone's music tastes. From local cultural festivals and weekly concert series at such spots as Belvedere Square, hometown bands and ensembles have had their fifteen minutes of fame. Of course Towson's Recher Theatre, too, consistently books names both well-known and not known at all, and offers an eclectic batch of artists in its small, and incredibly personal, performance space. But for those looking for bigger regionally or nationally-recognized names, there have also been performances delivered by some of the biggest names in the music industry.
     Merriweather Post Pavilion has hosted Jack Johnson, G. Love & Special Sauce, and Keane, and has put together several weekend concert series, including yesterdays "Summer Spirit Festival," which featured appearances by Common, B.o.B., and The Roots. The "Vans Warped Tour" featured other popular names, including Reel Big Fish. In upcoming weeks, OAR, MGMT, Third Eye Blind, and Vampire Weekend will grace Merriweather's stage. Other upcoming concert weekends include MPP's "Rock the Bells" extravaganza, for which organizers have booked the Wu-Tang Clan, Wiz Khalifa, and Snoop Dog, and the HFStival, featuring Third Eye Blind, Everclear, and Billy Idol, among others. Of course, Merriweather's crowning jewel this season is the second annual Virgin FreeFest, once VirginFest, hosted at Pimlico. This year's FreeFest promises to be quite the fest indeed, as Baltimore welcomes  MIA, LCD Soundsystem, TI, Ludacris, Matt & Kim, and up-and-coming group Sleigh Bells (signed to MIA's record label), among others. Surely this is no Bonnaroo, but for a relatively small Maryland concert destination, this summer of 2010 line-up is quite impressive.
     Pier Six Pavilion, located between Baltimore's Inner Harbor and its increasingly chic Harbor East neighborhood, has hosted more big names, including the Willie Nelson, The Beach Boys, Counting Crows, Matisyahu, Sublime, and recently, The Goo Goo Dolls. Pier Six has also jumped on the concert festival bandwagon, and will soon host MIXFEST, which brings Train to the harbor, and welcomes throwback favorites the Backstreet Boys and Hanson. Cheap Trick, of "I Want You to Want Me" fame, and Trey Songz, of "Say Ah" fame, will help round out the Pavilion's summer series. Toward the end of the pier's season, the notoriously cynical, yet refreshingly witty Garrison Keillor, whose columns are featured weekly in The Baltimore Sun, will deliver the best from his NPR series, "Prairie Home Companion," before rock n' roll legends Crosby, Stills, and Nash arrive just days later.
     Pearl Jam, the Kings of Leon, Tom Petty, Jimmy Buffett, and Brad Paisley have appeared, or will appear, at Jiffy Lube Live this summer, balanced out, perhaps by Rihanna and Ke$ha's upcoming performance, while OK Go and The-B52s have rocked lobster, and rocked out, at Ram's Head Live. In just days, the Black Eyed Peas are
going to make Tuesday night a good night at 1st Mariner Arena.
     Of course, Washington DC has hosted top name artists, including country/pop sensation Taylor Swift (Merriweather hosted her in June of 2009), but Washington DC does not really count. It's its own entity. If I were to follow this rule of thumb, I would probably not be able to include the next few performances in my discussion of "local" concerts, but I am lowering my ethnocentric standards a little. Hersheypark Stadium hosted, in my opinion, the two best concerts of the summer (disclaimer: I am extremely biased): Dave Matthews, succeeded by John Mayer a month later.

     I think, however, it is fair to say that from Tom Petty to Jimmy Buffett, and from Matt & Kim to Wu-Tang Clan, Jack Johnson, and Counting Crows, Baltimore offered something for nearly everyone-- people from all walks of life, people of all ages and all musical tastes. Each destination provided a pleasingly diverse and multifarious summer lineup, and I can only imagine that as these venues increase in notoriety and popularity, the consistency of big, crowd-pleasing bookings will only increase. Things are looking good for the music scene, local and not, big and small, in Charm City.


(Photo licenses:  All rights reserved by 110Penned,  All rights reserved by Slightly Stoopid, author's photography).