The Weekend List: Eastown Street Fair, Fiesta Mexicana, Montgomery Gentry and a Tribute to the Eagles

Freshly back from NYC and I swear Grand Rapids has almost as much going on musically this weekend as The Big Apple. For proof, here's the Weekend List...

The Big Show: The 37th annual Eastown Street Fair delivers 16 of West Michigan's most inventive and compelling rock, jazz, folk and hip-hop acts on two stages as part of its daylong celebration of one of Grand Rapids' most inventive and compelling neighborhood. The festival -- with 90 arts and crafts vendors -- officially runs 9 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Saturday on Wealthy Street in Eastown. Starting at 10:30 a.m., the Wealthy Street Stage features SE Jazz Quintet, Ribbons Of Song, Graham Parson & the Go Rounds, Delilah DeWylde and the Lost Boys, The Fainting Generals, The Northern Skies, Four Finger Five and La Famiglia. The Billy's Lounge stage kicks things off at 12:30 p.m. with Gabrial James, Spencer Mulder, Poor Boys Relief, Tokyo Morose, Wonder Caverns, Kinetic Stereo Kids, Nixon and Garganta. And yes, admission is free. Here's video of La Famiglia playing the funky "Oh Lord" earlier this year at Billy's Lounge:

Other Bracing Stuff:

-- Thursday -- Country music's Montgomery Gentry, with opener Colt Ford, rolls into the Allegan County Fair at 7 p.m. Thursday. Tickets, $35, available at the fair box office or by calling 888-673-6501 or through Star Tickets. Here's the band's video for its latest single, "While You're Still Young":

-- Thursday -- The Van Singel Fine Arts Center in Byron Center hosts "Hotel California: A Salute to the Eagles" at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, featuring five music industry professionals and studio musicians who play The Eagles' biggest hits, including "Take It Easy," "Heartache Tonight" and more. Tickets, $39.50 adults or $22.50 students, available at the box office, by calling 878-6800 or online at vsfac.com. Here's the tribute band performing an Eagles medley:

-- Thursday -- Mississippi indie-crunk/ghetto-tech band Colour Revolt and Cincinnati indie art-pop group The Pomegranates play Calvin College's Ladies Literary Club, 61 Sheldon Blvd. SE, at 8 p.m. Thursday. Tickets/admission is $10.

-- Thursday -- Fresh from a performance at Celebration on the Grand, Grand Rapids' The Bangups, a punk-hued two-piece rock band with real sizzle, plays Billy's Lounge along with Chance Jones, The Fainting Generals, The Apostles, Super Dre and many more as part of the "Plug It Up 2: A Kalamazoo River Wildlife Rescue Benefit" starting at 9 p.m. Thursday. Admission to this event benefiting an environmental cause is $7 (or $5 if you bring donations of clean-up supplies). Proceeds will go to support the Circle D Wildlife Refuge in Vicksburg, which also needs sheets, towels, blankets, mineral oil, large garbage bags, rain ponchos, bottled water, nets, tarps, sunblock and original blue Dawn dish soap. Details online.

-- Friday-Sunday -- Celebrating the bicentennial of Mexican Independence Day, Fiesta Mexicana turns Calder Plaza in downtown Grand Rapids into a full-bore tribute to the heritage, culture, music and food of Mexico. The event runs noon to 10 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 5 p.m. on Sunday. Plenty of high-profile entertainment will be on hand, including Mexico's Grupo Mojado performing at 8 p.m. Saturday. Local hip-hop/R&B/cumbia band Mr. Lac y El Oso plays at 9 p.m. Friday, with Latin/rock/Afro-beat group Cabildo taking the stage 4 p.m. Sunday. Full schedule. Here's the official video for Grupo Mojado's "Piensa en Mi":

-- Friday-Sunday -- Grand Haven's Salmon Festival, as usual, features plenty of live music, along with a fish boil, environmental displays, wine-tasting, fishing contest, art fair, salmon cook-off and other activities along the waterfront and at the municipal marina. The seventh annual festival features Just Joe at 5 p.m. Friday, with the music of Soul'd Out in the beer tent at 7 p.m. Saturday. Details.

-- Saturday -- Motorcycles, rock 'n' roll and another good cause. That's the eighth annual Precious Memorial Run on Saturday, which has motorcyclists riding from Putt-Putt's, 1148 W. Fulton St., to the Bow Tie Bar at 10 Mile Road and Alpine Avenue NW, for a pig roast, 50-50 raffles and more. Enjoy the rock 'n' roll of the Otis Toe Band starting at 8 p.m. Registration, $15, runs 10:30 a.m.-noon Saturday. You don't have to ride to take part; just show up at the Bow Tie. Proceeds benefit Senior Meals on Wheels. Call 616-644-3996 or 616-459-3111 for details.

-- Saturday -- Nothing like a fine bowl of chili to chow while listening to top-notch live music. The annual LAV/Cottage Bar Chili Cook-Off takes place noon to 5:30 p.m. Saturday outside the bar at 18 LaGrave Ave. SE, with music by Jimmie Stagger and Mark Arshack.

-- Saturday-Sunday -- The Tulipanes Latino Art and Film Festival in downtown Holland offers up some great live music this weekend: Cabildo, a Grand Rapids Latin-rock outfit plays at 3:30 p.m. Saturday and Mexika at 11:15 a.m. and 4:30 p.m. Saturday, both on the Centennial Park stage. And there's more: Salsa night is at 8 p.m. Saturday in the Holland Armory Hall, 16 W. Ninth St., with Akaray performing and a dance instructor on hand. (Tickets for that event are $10 at the door.) Get a complete schedule at tulipanes.org. (Speaking of salsa, the West Michigan Hispanic Chamber of Commerce presents BailePachanga at 8 p.m. Friday at The JW Marriott, 235 Louis Campau, with Grupo Aye taking the stage at 9 p.m. Arthur Murray dancers perform at 10 p.m., with a dance contest at 11 p.m. This is also $10 at the door.)

Under-the-Radar Pick: Martin & Lamm play a CD-release concert at Centerstage Theatre in Coopersville at 7 p.m. Sunday. After playing across the nation in the '70s, the acoustic pop-rock duo which was raised in West Michigan recently reunited to record a new CD of original material, "Too Little Time." Lamm, now of Arizona, and Martin, of Grand Haven, recorded the album with Grammy Award-winning producer Billy Williams mixing the folk-pop CD. Advance tickets for the show are $16.50, available at centerstagetheatre.net. Doors open at 6:30 p.m. More details available at the band's website. Here's the duo showing off some fine harmonies while performing a cover of Simon & Garfunkel's "The Dangling Conversation":

On the Horizon: So much, it's impossible to list it all, especially with ArtPrize kicking off on Wednesday. There's Big Sandy & His Fly-Rite Boys at Billy's Lounge on Tuesday, Tokyo Police Club at The Intersection on Sept. 22 (with Midlake, Rogue Wave and Peter Wolf Crier playing Ladies Literary Club the same night), Michelle Shocked at Wealthy Theatre on Sept. 23, The B-52s at Forest Hills Fine Arts Center on Sept. 24 and Surfer Blood at Rosa Parks Circle on Sept. 25.

E-mail John Sinkevics: jsinkevics@grpress.com

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