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Day two of the Iowa City Jazz Festival wrapped up with another bevy of live music entertainment and beautiful weather to boot. Lets get to it, shall we? First up, we have Grammy Award-nominated trombonist Roswell Rudd and his Trombone Tribe, the day’s main stage headliners.
Safe to say, Iowa City has plenty of love for singer/songwriter Daphne Willis. The 22-year-old Chicagoan brought a throng of fans to Gabe’s over the weekend, playing alongside Megan McCormick, Megan Burtt, Amanda Miller and Alan Sweet. Check out the video inside to see Daphne in action.
How about that jazz, hepcats? You’ve hopefully made it downtown to get your fill of live music and vittles at the 2010 Iowa City Jazz Festival, but if you’ve been missing out, fret not! We’ve plenty of video highlights from Friday’s festivities to share, including clips of the U.S. Army blues–straight out of Washington D.C.–and the Bob Washut Dream Band.
With Jennie Vicious on lead vocals and Richey Vicious carrying the harmony, Toronto’s The Vicious Guns tout a vocally-focused brand of electronic rock that’s as smart as it is catchy. The two visited Gabe’s Saturday, putting on a lively performance after Chicago’s Boutros had finished their opening set.
Whatever kind of music you are into, there is a festival for you this weekend. In Des Moines, it’s time for 80/35. Daytrotter is bringing a spectacular “Barn on the 4th of July” show to Maquoketa, and for the 20th year, the Iowa City Jazz Fest is here.
The mysterious duo known as Boutros called Gabe’s their home Saturday night, performing a full set before letting The Vicious Guns take the stage. With beats slightly reminiscent of France’s Justice with a bass guitar to boot, there’s plenty of reason to give these two from Chicago a quick listen.
A short but sweet set of photos of High Spirits, Chapstik, Big Box performing at The Blue Moose Tap House.
The Prids and Soft Tags, both hailing from the Pacific Northwest, gave us plenty of reason to get out of the heat and into The Yacht Club with back-to-back high energy sets of indie rock. The students may have shipped out for the summer months, but that hasn’t kept Iowa City from rocking with bells on, and we have the video to prove it.
Like many adults, I often close my eyes very hard, squeeze’em shut for a long time, cover my ears and scream until I am convinced on a core level that I am entitled to a trip to the swimming pool.
The nice thing is, here in campus town it hardly takes any time at all. With so many people operating on the academic calendar, the school’s-out-for-summer attitude is gloriously contagious, and yes I will take seconds.
Portland’s System and Station and the more local rock group Modern Day Satire–based in Des Moines–came by Gabe’s this weekend to play us some music. The show was a nice cherry on top of an otherwise action-packed Iowa City weekend, of which the Iowa City Pride Parade and Festival was the centerpiece, and we have plenty of video for you to sink your teeth into.
The 2010 Iowa Pride Parade & Festival couldn’t have asked for better weather, and I think the turn-out was pretty good, comfortably filling the Ped Mall from Washington Street to the fountain. Check out audio, video and photos from the day’s festivities inside.
This week on Little Village Live we were joined by Des Moines’ Thankful Dirt, a semi-local duo featuring Molly Matthews on vocals and Darren Matthews on acoustic guitar. Check out video from the show or grab the mp3 for the full hour-long program.
Little Village is a free, independent and community-supported news, arts and culture publication based in Iowa City and covering communities throughout Eastern and Central Iowa. Little Village's free print magazine is distributed to over 900 pickup locations around the state, and paywall-free online stories are published daily.
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