Things to do in Dayton | Restaurants, Theatre, Music and More
Griffin House is a Springfield native whose 2004 release, Lost and Found put him in the national spotlight when it was featured on CBS Sunday Morning. House is returning to the Miami Valley this weekend for a show at Canal Street Tavern on Saturday, June 25th. Tickets are $10 at the door, and the show starts around 9:30pm.
Here’s a video House’s 2007 Flying Upside Down album.
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Downtown’s Summer Music Series kicks off with the 29th annual Michelob Women in Jazz Festival on June 26. The event will feature eight hours of soulful music, including performances by Teresa Hunt, Beverly Jackson with Audrey Whitaker, Elizabeth Hayes, April Aloisio, Patricia Berg, Sandra Rutledge, Linda Dachtyl and Brenda Flowers.
The festival, held at Dave Hall Plaza on Fourth St. between Jefferson and Main Streets is free. Guests are encouraged to bring lawn chairs or blankets and relax on the greenspace while they listen to the best female artists in the region. Food and merchandise vendors will also be present.
“We want crowds,” says headlining act Teresa Hunt from Atlanta. “Set up tents and bring your kids to hear both contemporary and traditional jazz all day.”
Hunt, a Dayton native, will be performing at the festival for the first time in five or six years. There’s one thing she’s most looking forward to about being in her hometown again.
“I’m excited to see my grandson, David,” she says. “He’s three and I’m hoping to have him front and center.”
The Michelob Women in Jazz Festival will be held from 1-9 p.m. No alcoholic beverages may be brought in (though beer will be sold at the festival), and no glass containers or pets are allowed.
The festival is presented by the City of Dayton Department of Recreation and Youth Services. The series is sponsored by Heidelberg Distributing Co., the Downtown Dayton Partnership, WROU, Martin Romie Talent, and the Crowne Plaza Dayton Hotel. For more information, call 333-8400.
The Fair Shakes
Saturday night South Park Tavern will be rocking with two great local bands, each with a stellar lineup. The Fair Shakes are fronted by Nick Kizirnis and features John Dubuc, Deni Wilson and Jim Macpherson. Their sound channels the fun, classic garage rock sounds of bands like The Replacements and the Ramones. Get a taste of what you’ll see on Saturday night from the band’s YouTube offerings.
If the Fair Shakes don’t get you on your feet, C. Wright’s Parlour Tricks will. The band features Marc Betts, Brian Hoeflich, Tim Flanagan, and occasionally Josh Gonazalez, Steve ‘Henhouse’ Hensley, Joe Prescott. Their guitar-driven instrumentals combine good old fashioned rock and roll with a bit of boogie and lots of showmanship that will make you want to move.
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Saturday’s show begins around 9pm and costs $5. Like most every show at South Park Tavern, it’s all ages.
Ah, Monday the 13th….day of…..looking forward to great music this weekend.
The weekend kicks off with a great lineup at Blind Bob’s. Cincinnati’s Great Young Hunters will join three great local bands onstage: Ape the Ghost, which features members of Sleepybird, We Were Animals, which features members of Ed Vs. Radio, and Oh Condor, the new name for 8-bit Revival. In honor of their re-naming and this weekend’s show, our music video 8-bit Revival performing at Blind Bob’s last spring courtesy of The Music Seen. Full details about this weekend’s show are available at the Dayton MostMetro Events Calendar. Don’t forget to post your events there as well!
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Although she has performed live shows in cities such as Los Angeles and Las Vegas, Alicia Grodecki says her favorite city to play is her hometown – Dayton.
Lucky for her, with two upcoming shows – First Friday @ 5 on June 3 and a slot at Canal Street Tavern June 18 – her band, Vanity Theft, will get to perform in the city she says is a great place for music.
This week, I talked to Grodecki about Vanity Theft’s new album, touring and the unbelievable experience she had in the recording studio.
“People call us a more badass version of The Killers, except girls,” she says of the band’s sound. “[When asked to describe it] I usually tell people to go listen to it.”
“Get What You Came For,” the latest from Vanity Theft, is a hybrid of dance and pop, with a little electronic feel and attitude. The songs cover a variety of topics ranging from relationships to growing up to just having a good time.
Earlier this year, the band piled in a van and played shows across the United States and Canada, promoting the new album.
“There are an infinite number of ‘best’ things about touring,” says Grodecki. “We see so many people and travel. The bottom line is we get to do what we love every night.”
She does admit being on the road has its downside. “It’s hard being away from home. You miss your family. Our longest van ride was 48 hours straight, but it’s always worth it when you get there.”
Vanity Theft will continue to tour during the summer, including a spot at the Summerfest music celebration in Milwaukee. Grodecki just found out the girls will be opening for Taking Back Sunday, one of their favorite bands.
“I freaked out,” she says. “It’s crazy.”
Playing alongside Taking Back Sunday is not Vanity Theft’s only brush with fame. Elton John was in the studio below them while they recorded their most recent album. The girls were not able to meet him because of his high level of security. But, Grodecki says, he cracked the door and they were permitted to sit outside the studio and listen to him sing.
Even after traveling the country, Grodecki says there is nothing like playing in Dayton. She notes the strong sense of community the city exudes. “It feels good to come home and show everybody what we’ve been doing.”
Thursday, June 2nd marks the latest in the Dayton Art Institute’s Vectren Just Jazz series. The concert will feature contemporary jazz/R&B act, Kick-N-Flava. The six member band features Mike Allamby on saxophones, Jerry Hawes on keyboards, Claude Coatie on lead guitar, J.D. Williams on bass guitar, Brian Smiley on drums and percussionist David Matthews.
“We’re a high energy band. We’re feeling it, and we let you know we’re feeling it. Our music is like a breath of fresh air coming through an old cracked window on a lovely summer day,” says the group.
The Just Jazz series will take a break in July, but resumes on August 4th. The second half of the 2011 series includes:
All performances begin at 5:30 p.m. in the Shaw Gothic Cloister at The Dayton Art Institute. Admission is free for museum members and $8 for non-members. General admission tickets may be purchased at The Dayton Art Institute the night of each performance
To me, the start of the Dayton Band Playoffs signal the start of the summer in the Dayton music scene. This year marks the 29th year for the Canal Street Tavern series of concerts that are part friendly competition and part amazing opportunity to hear and be heard by audiences and other musical acts from the area. Past winners include Magic Jackson, Shrug, Brainiac, The Method, just to name a few.
Signups for performers are now open via a downloadable form from Canal Street’s website – you can also pick one up at the club or call 927-228-2450 for more information. Round 1 of the Playoffs will begin later in June – we’ll bring you those dates and all of the standings as the Playoffs unfold here on Dayton MostMetro.com.
Here’s last year’s winners, the Connoisseurs, performing the timely Apocalypse Waltz.
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The Buffalo Killers
Tonight you can catch the Buffalo Killers live on the air on WYSO during Kaleidoscope. They’re performing at Peach’s Grill in Yellow Springs on Friday, May 27th beginning at 10pm. On tonight’s radio show, which begins at 8pm, the band will unveil some new songs from the album they’re releasing later this summer. The local release party for “3,” is scheduled for Friday, July 15th at Canal Street Tavern. The Buffalo Killers will be joined onstage by R.Ring, a collaboration between Kelley Deal and Mike Montgomery that recently did a month long residency at South Park Tavern. You can hear a preview track from “3” by clicking here.
Kaleidoscope airs every Wednesday night on 91.3FM WYSO and stream live on www.wyso.org.
I hesitate to discuss the “edginess” of all-girl bands because I find myself stumbling along the fine line of making clichéd gender comments and completely disregarding the abnormality of an all-female group in the music industry.
After listening to Vanity Theft, however, I am convinced to make an exception. Want to hear it for yourself? Check out Vanity Theft when they return to Dayton to perform at the RiverScape MetroPark Pavilion as the first band in the First Friday @ 5 concert series.
According to their website, the Dayton natives spent five years booking their own tours and propelling themselves into the Midwestern music scene. Their loyal fan base reflects their hard work; in 2009, a grassroots effort won them the local-band slot in Cincinnati’s Warped Tour lineup.
Vanity Theft’s sound is a descendent of The Donnas’ legacy — assertive, sassy, girl rock. While the band was the only all-female outfit of the 227 selected to play in Cincinnati’s 2009 MidPoint Music Festival, they held their own and ended up filling the room. The girls haven’t relented yet — the New York Post described its live shows as being “eardrum-slobbering.” Yes, that’s a compliment.
While recording its October 2010 EP, “Anatomy,” the trio met former Disney child star Lalaine. (You might remember her from her the tween show “Lizzie McGuire.”) When the band needed a new bassist, members auditioned Lalaine and the four instantly clicked.
This February, Vanity Theft released their new album, “Get What You Came For.” The songs I sampled from the album (you can stream a few tracks here) definitely lived up to the band’s no-holds-barred reputation. With lyrics like, “Maybe I don’t want you for your mind; Can’t decide,” Vanity Theft makes it clear they are in control. And maybe, based upon its success already, that’s how it should be.
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The concerts are part of the First Friday events and will feature additional bands on August 5 and September 2. The concession will be open and beer will be sold from 5-7 p.m. The concerts will wrap up in plenty of time to head to the galleries and other arts venues taking part in the First Friday art hop. The First Friday @ 5 summer concert series is presented with additional support from Heidelberg Distributing, the Oregon District Business Association, Clear Channel Dayton Radio and Culture Works.
DMF 2011 logo by Ryan France
As summer (hopefully) approaches, many of us are already looking ahead to one of our favorite music events of the fall: Dayton Music Fest. 2011 marks the seventh of the festival, and we’re very excited to see what organizers Kyle Melton and Don Thrasher have in store after taking over the helm of the event last year. One big change this year that’s already been revealed is that the festival is moving to September 9 & 10 from the first weekend of October. So take a moment, and mark your calendars.
For the musically inclined among you, now is the time to submit to perform at this year’s festival. Visit the Dayton Music Fest website’s submission page to learn more. Submissions are open now through June 30th.
It’s no marketing scheme: Urban Nights really is one of the best nights to be downtown.
Downtown Dayton’s biggest street party returns from 5 to 10 p.m. this Friday, May 13. More than 100 venues in downtown Dayton, the Oregon Arts District and Wright-Dunbar Business Village will host special events, offer discounts and open their doors for an insider’s look. A variety of performers will entertain crowds on stages throughout downtown, and roaming performers also will liven up the event.
Below are some highlights of the May 13 Urban Nights, but there’s more going on than can ever be featured in one article ― and nearly everything is free. Click here to download a map of participating venues and a complete performance schedule, including a listing of all participating locations’ events and specials, a schedule for all the stages, and parking deals. Follow Urban Nights on Facebook for regular updates and more information.
Urban Nights gives people a chance to get artsy. Second Street will become a huge canvas when students from Stivers School for the Arts’ painting department create a paint-by-numbers style template on the street. The public then will be able to help Stivers students complete the mural, located in front of the Schuster Performing Arts Center between Main and Ludlow streets. The Paint the Street mural is sponsored by KeyBank and will be created with environmentally friendly liquid chalk that washes away with rainfall.
Juggling duo The Dropbacks will toss and catch with the crowd during Urban Nights.
Also on Second Street, visitors also can create a piece of whimsical public art using jelly beans and have their pictures taken in a free photo booth. At the popular Community Stage, located at the corner of Third and Jefferson streets, an eclectic mix of 10-minute performances will be held from 5 to 7 p.m., then anyone can take the mic for open karaoke from 7 to 10 p.m. The Dropbacks, a comedic juggling duo, will toss and catch with the crowd throughout Urban Nights locations. Other hands-on activities will be available at participating venues. For example, the Dayton Metro Library will offer arts-and-crafts activities for children and adults.
Art is the heart of Urban Nights, and all of downtown’s numerous galleries will host exhibit openings and an array of more unusual offerings, such as a 7 to 8:30 p.m. performance by the Dayton Mandolin Orchestra at the Dayton Visual Arts Center. Some Urban Nights newbies are the Dayton Art Institute, which will offer a mixed bag of activities ranging from guided tours of its current exhibition to eye makeovers; Real Art Design Group, featuring jousting with shopping carts as part of “Urban Knights at Urban Nights;” and Atta Girl Art and Gardens Complex, where artists will open their studios for the public to have a look-see. At K12 Gallery for Young People’s new TEJAS studio, art by Rebecca Sargent will be featured.
Vote for your fave Activated Spaces window display during Urban Nights.
Art also happens in unusual places during Urban Nights. Activated Spaces has worked with local artists to display their work in previously vacant storefronts throughout downtown, and the public can vote for a People’s Choice award during Urban Nights. Practice Yoga will host live music by BJSR, the Dayton International Peace Museum will host an opening reception for an exhibit of Chinese brush painting, and artists will take over the Southern Belle’s second floor, where local crafters will sell their handmade wares. And the Blue Sky Project is hosting an exhibition of Mequitta Ahuja’s works on paper in the lobby of the KeyBank Tower and an exhibit of photography by Sa Schloff, as well as work by Blue Sky participants, in the former Roly Poly space on Courthouse Square. Several downtown housing options will be open for tours, and many of them will feature artists’ work, too.
Downtown retailers also get into the Urban Nights spirit. At Derailed: A Hair Salon, co-owner Austin Burkhart will try to break his record for giving free Mohawks, and Omega Music will host live music throughout the night. Pantorium Cleaners will host a party with special entertainment, and Valeria’s Beauty Center and Day Spa will offer special discounts to celebrate the launch of its new retail store, Bonito.
Scan this QR code with your smart phone to start the SCANvenger Hunt.
A fun way to get around Urban Nights is by playing Comtactics’ SCANvenger Hunt. Smart phone users are encouraged to visit participating businesses and search for two-dimensional QR codes. Players scan the codes, answer a trivia question about that business and are entered into drawings for giveaways.
A weekend-long event also will open during Urban Nights. The Dayton Circus Creative Collective will host its sixth annual multimedia arts event, Sideshow VI, at Garden Station, 509 E. Fourth St., and in the nearby Yellow Cab building, 700 E. Fourth St. This two-block arts experience will feature work by more than 32 artists and performances by 25 musical groups.
Urban Nights guests also will get a sneak peek of another weekend-long event, the FilmDayton Festival, held downtown May 20-22. Multidisciplinary artist and Springfield native Rod Hatfield has mixed a montage of silent films starring Lillian Gish, also a Springfield native. The Show will provide a live soundtrack to the projection on the east side of the Convention Center, which can be viewed from the Jefferson and Fifth street area.
In addition to the arts, cycling has become an important part of Urban Nights. The Life Enrichment Center will roll out its new Yellow Bike program, a free bike sharing program downtown, during Urban Nights. The center is providing brightly painted yellow bikes available free of charge for anyone to ride between downtown destinations. People simply grab a yellow bike, ride it to their
Urban Bikes @ Urban Nights meets at 5:30 p.m. in front of Fifth Third Field for a ride through the action.
destination and park it in a bike rack for the next person to use. The center also is asking for donations of helmets in all sizes, which can be dropped off at Courthouse Square. In addition, Urban Bikes @ Urban Nights returns: Cyclists should bring their own bike and meet at Don Crawford Plaza in front of Fifth Third Field at 5:30 p.m. for this ride through the Urban Nights action.
The best way to see as much as possible during Urban Nights is to walk, and many of the destinations are just a short distance from each other. Greater Dayton RTA also will provide free event trolleys to help visitors get around.
Urban Nights takes place rain or shine. The event is presented by the Downtown Dayton Partnership, Culture Works, Montgomery County and the City of Dayton, with additional support from WDTN-TV2, DP&L, Greater Dayton RTA, Budweiser Select, the Downtown Priority Board, Sinclair Community College, Clear Channel and Mix 107.7-FM, KeyBank, and the Ohio Arts Council.
Call 937-224-1518 or visit www.downtowndayton.org for more information.
It’s big week in Dayton for music and entertainment. With Urban Nights, Side Show 6, and the Captain of Industry reunion show at Gilly’s to name just a few, there’s going to be a lot to do and to hear. At least one band is giving you multiple chances to check them out this week. You can catch the luchador surf rock stylings of Team Void this Wednesday night during the latest Dirty Little Secret at Wiley’s Comedy Club. If you want to learn more about Dirty Little Secrets, check out J.T. Ryder’s recent article about the series here on Dayton MostMetro.
You can also catch Team Void on Friday Night at Garden Station as part of Side Show 6. Full band lineup and details for that event are available here.
Here’s a video of one of the band’s previous Garden Station performances.
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As Urban Nights draws closer, the excitement for Side Show 6 is mounting. The two free evenings of art and music (May 13th and 14th) presented by the Dayton Circus Creative Collective have become a staple of spring in Dayton. One of the many things that makes this event great is the location; each Side Show transforms an unused space downtown into a colorful arena for art, music and community. Side Show 6 will actually take place in two locations: the former Yellow Cab building on 4th and Walnut and across the street, Garden Station, the community garden and arts space maintained by the Dayton Circus.
Visual art will include drawing, painting, photography, sculpture, fashion, mixed media and installation pieces all housed in the Yellow Cab building.
Music will mostly alternate between two stages (on in the Yellow Cab building and one at Garden Station) both nights. Here’s a tentative lineup:
Friday, May 13th
6:00 C. Wright’s Parlour Tricks (Yellow Cab)
6:45 Dan Raridan & The Calientes (Garden Station)
7:30 The Al Holbrook Band (YC)
8:15 Team Void (GS)
8:15 Todd the Fox (YC)
9:00 Sleep Fleet (YC)
9:45 Floods (GS)
10:30 The Fair Shakes (YC)
11:15 Wetnight (GS)
11:15 Tranquility Kingdom (YC)
12:00 Skratchmatic (YC)
Saturday May 14th
6:00 Jonathan Hamilton (GS)
6:45 Lurchbox (YC)
7:30 Side Show! (GS)
7:30 Two Suns (YC)
8:15 Heart of the Whore, Mandible, and California Girls (YC)
8:15 A Shade of Red (GS)
9:00 Northwest Ordinance (GS)
9:00 Emevol (YC)
9:45 The White Soots (YC)
10:30 Oxymoronatron (GS)
11:15 The Professors (YC)
12:00 Outside Residential (YC)
If you want to learn more while dancing to some great tunes, the Dayton Circus will be hosting a preview party this week as part of First Friday events at the Yellow Cab building following the free music Garden Station provided by local lucha rockers, Team Void (who will also appear at Side Show 6) and White Powder. ComeSee is both a preview and fundraiser for Side Show 6 and will feature a sneak peak of some of the visual art that will appear in the full show and music and dancing provided by DJ Jay Madewell of Fab Gear. The party gets started at 10pm and admission is $5.
Dan Raridan and the Calientes recently completed a new album, Bus, which is available for free download at their website. They’re gearing up for a fun summer of live music and are slated to perform at Garden Station on May 13th as part of Side Show 6. The band will join me on this week’s Kaleidoscope for a live set and interview. Kaleidoscope airs on 91.3FM WYSO, Wednesday nights 8-11pm.
As you feast on leftover Peeps, enjoy this week’s video from Bonneville. This young band has been going strong since 1999. Last year they released Drawing Maps, and the bands is already writing new songs for an upcoming album. You can see them live this week at Wright State University as part of a free local music showcase hosted by the campus radio station, WWSU 106.9FM.
Full details on the WWSU Local Music showcase are available at the Dayton MostMetro events calendar.
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Faze-O
In the 1970’s Dayton was a hotbed for funk. One of the great bands that’s often mentioned in the same breath as the Ohio Players, Lakeside and Slave is Faze-O. Produced by Clarence Satchell of the Ohio Players, one of the band’s most famous song is the title track from their 1977 album, Riding High. That song has gone on to be sampled by many modern hip hop artists, including Snoop Dogg and Ice Cube, but you can hear the real thing this weekend at Gilly’s.
After 30 years, Faze-O has reunited and will be performing at show at Gilly’s on Saturday night, April 23rd, beginning at 9pm. The show also features a guest appearance by Cherlyn Aikens. Tickets are available at Omega Music.
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