The Great Blue Heron Festival

Friday, July 5 - Sunday, July 7

If you missed out on sleep-away camp as a kid and are a confessed music lover, this weekend’s Great Blue Heron music festival might be an opportune three-day escape. Staged in Sherman, New York, the three day camp-out is an hour and a half south of Buffalo in Chautauqua County —a perfect “staycation” which offers not only over 35 musical acts across three stages, but beautiful camping grounds on 300+ acres of rural Western New York, hiking and biking trails, instrumental workshops, songwriter circles, square, swing, and zydeco dancing, drumming circles, programs for kids and teens, as well as swimming, food, and other vendors. Great Blue Heron strings together a line-up of homegrown artists—Jamestown’s folkadelic revivalists Big Leg Emma, Buffalo’s multiple award-winning vocalist-rocker Alison Pipitone—and reaches out to the Finger Lakes for the Americana, roots rock sounds of Donna the Buffalo (pictured), Kevin Kinsella and Mosaic Foundation’s reggae soul, and Rochester natives the Campbell Brothers who will showcase their unique “sacred steel” genre—a glorious pairing of gospel and electric steel guitar. The festival, however, extends past New York State to the Tiger Maple String Band for traditional, Appalachian mountain sounds, south to Orlando’s Hindu Cowboys for some down home honky-tonk, and East to New England’s Lake Street Dive for a hint of classically-motivated indie-pop. If roughing-it in the woods for three days isn’t your cup of tea, packages including weekend passes, two nights’ lodging at Peak’N Peak Resort, and shuttle bus service to and from the festival grounds are available for $249. The festival takes place Friday (July 5) through Sunday (July 7). Gate prices are $90. Single day passes on Friday are $30, Saturday $40, Sunday $30. To camp out, one must purchase a weekend pass. Kids under 12 are free! Gates open at 9 am on Friday. For more info, visit greatblueheron.com.

- meghan sauer

9am Friday to dusk Sunday, 2361 Waits Corners Rd, Sherman (greatblueheron.com). $90 weekend gate price, $30 Friday and Sunday gate price, $40 Saturday gate price, $40 youth ticket anytime

Thursday, July 4

Canalside 4th of July Celebration

Buffalo’s Canalside has it all. This Fourth of July, visit the vibrant waterfront location for a series of family extravaganzas. Younger toddlers can be occupied by the Stories of Buffalo Puppet Show and activities set up by the Explore & More Children’s Museum. Later on, prepare your brain because the whole family can be awed by Dennis George, the notorious quizmaster who has worked at such venues as the Rivera Casino in Las Vegas and Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland. George’s game show pits people against each other in a series of questions and challenges that are hilarious and entertaining. After an official flag folding ceremony, turn your attention to the George Scott Big Band for some relaxing tunes to settle down from all the excitement at 7:30pm. Following the set list is a performance orchestrated by the Buffalo Niagara Concert Band at 9pm. And what’s the Fourth of July without fireworks? Warm up a spot on the lawn for the whole group to watch Buffalo blast the sky. Fireworks kick off at 10:15 pm. Lawn and camping chairs are also permitted. All events are free, except any available concessions and parking.

- jacob knott

6pm Canalside, 44 Prime St. Buffalo (canalsidebuffalo.com) free

Friday, July 5

Second Trip

Psychedelic stoner metal is on the rise from Lake Worth, Florida to Buffalo by way of three prog rock nerds, Second Trip. With the intent of making peers aware of the delight of real soul, the trio banded in 2004 and refined their sound with the elements they all loved to hear in music growing up. The first thing to come to mind when listening to the opening of their song “A Lot of People Are Going to Die” is Black Sabbath, absolutely. Hard, heavy, slow, mucky, grimy: rock. Second Trip creates a fine balance between pumped up funk and sluggish metal to entice heads to bob in sync. They state their influences as the 1960s, the 1970s, psychedelic lighting effects, and fog machines. Artists like Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, and Deep Purple make their list of influences as well. In their home state of Florida, shows were sparse, but Buffalo is warm to the group and is proving to have a growing fan base. Carlos Alas plays guitar, synthesizer, and the organ, Jose Alas mans the drums, and Jeffrey Martinez is on bass and lead vocals. This Friday (July 5), Nietzsche’s will be welcoming the band as they celebrate the release of their new EP. Bands playing will include Handsome Jack, Super Killer Robots, and Ronald Raygun.

- jaz frazier

9pm Nietzsche’s, 248 Allen St. (886-8539 / nietzsches.com) $5, 21+

Saturday, July 6

The Vans Warped Tour

The Vans Warped Tour is coming around to Darien Lake on Saturday (July 6) with bands like Hawthorne Heights, the Black Dahlia Murder, Reel Big Fish, Motion City Soundtrack, Bring Me the Horizon, and obviously many, many more. Rising bands like Bring Me the Horizon have been packing fans into the pit for high intensity sets all summer long on the Kia Forte stage, while Reel Big Fish and Big D And The Kids Table have been providing some old school ska-punk for the veterans. Even some favorites from the last decade, like Silverstein, the Early November, and the Used are on tap to deliver some loud guitars and banging drums. For 19 years, the Warped Tour has been bringing names (big and small) to outdoor venues around the United States and Canada, and in 1998 began touring internationally. Starting as a punk outlet in 1995, the tour has adapted to the likes of modern youngsters who are now into post-hardcore, screamo, and pop-punk acts.

- jaz frazier

11am Darien Lake, 9993 Allegheny Road, Darien Center. (585-599-4641 / godarienlake.com) $47.50

Monday, July 8

Tegan & Sara

The era of new-wave indie rock from the likes of So Jealous and The Con has run its course for Canadian duo Tegan & Sara. Their polar sounds—Tegan’s melancholy guitar hymns accompanied by Sara’s stable yet upbeat keyboard tunes—have taken a new turn altogether with a rising synthpop feel. 2007’s Sainthood was our last taste of a complete rock-esque Tegan & Sara, for the next six years would be highlighted by the gradual shift to synthesizer and keyboard melodies. With almost a decade of the blossoming indie rock genre under their belts, the melodramatic rock sound began its twist slowly, alluding to a newer pop feel after several 2009 remixes of their hit single “Alligator.” A new wave in the indie scene has emerged, electronica and techno combined with the meaningful and essential alternative noise that only elite artists could produce. Tegan & Sara has just been thrown into the mix. Finally, after several months of recording since, February of 2012, Heartthrob dropped early this year. Preceding the January release of Heartthrob, Sara Quin notes: “We can make a record that maybe marries what we’ve done with the band in the past and work with a producer who is going to help us embellish and sort of amp up the sound a bit.” Hearthrob doesn’t throw away the classic feel that the duo have produced during their lengthy career, instead it introduces the rising blend of indie music with a noise completely centered around electronic pop and synth produced sounds. Singles “Closer” and “I Was a Fool” are only a taste of the electric and eccentric alternative hits that overflow from Hearthrob and mark the beginning of a new pop wave for Tegan & Sara to flourish in. The Town Ballroom will play host to Tegan & Sara on Monday (July 8).

- Malachi Karpie-Jones

7pm Town Ballroom, 681 Main St. (852-3900 / townballroom.com) $34 advance, $39.00 day of show

Wednesday, July 10

O.A.R.

An O.A.R. album is one thing, an O.A.R. live record is another, but there is nothing like catching the Rockville, Maryland jam band in person, on stage. The band is known for their extensive live albums like Live From Madison Square Garden, and their recently released Live on Red Rocks set, a 22-song performance. It might seem like a cliché the way this influential band formed: members met in college in the mid-1990s, peddled demos to fellow co-eds and gained a gradual following through campus radio play, but their music has come to define what it means to be a roots-rock jam band in America. Since 1997 O.A.R. has released seven full-length albums including their debut The Wanderer, and 2011’s King. Although frontman Marc Roberge sings lyrics like “sometimes I just wanna get a little crazy,” on King, there is not much insanity going on inside the record, more like a band playing it safe. O.A.R. have always been the kings of feel-good music though, and they’ll bring their good vibes to Artpark’s Ampitheater on Wednesday (July 10). Andrew McMahon and Allen Stone open the show.

- cory perla

5pm Artpark, 450 South 4th St., Lewiston (754-4375 / artpark.net) $10

Wednesday, July 10

Vienna Teng

Singer-songwriter, Vienna Teng, is in love again. After a musical hiatus spent studying sustainability at the University of Michigan, Teng has rediscovered and reinvented her passion for music with her newest album, Aims, which she intends for release in late September. In the meantime, she is touring North America and making a stop at Buffalo’s own Babeville in its downstairs Ninth Ward on Wednesday (July 10). Teng began piano lessons at age five and, by the age of 16, had enough songs to create an album. Her innovative perspective concerning music has no bounds, especially in the making of Aims, where Cason Cooley is cited saying, “Vienna has a great sense of adventure and fun. It’s like we’re starting at the top of a mountain and running down, taking whatever paths open up along the way, with no preconceived notion of how we’re going to get to the bottom.” Her soft, yet insistent, voice is as hauntingly striking as the tinkering jewelry box of a piano that she skillfully presses. The lyrics of Teng’s songs are poetically sung into your ear like delicate lace. The time spent studying in Michigan, away from her music, showed Teng that the ugliness in the world can be a source of inspiration. Of that experience, she states, “[That’s] when I finally fell in love with music and with the world again. Through music, we can take painful contradictions and make them beautiful. We can embrace what overwhelms us, and then do something about it.”

- jaz frazier

8pm Babeville’s Ninth Ward, 341 Delaware Ave. (852-3835 / babevillebuffalo.com) $15