Menace to Sobriety plays the TRN Chicken Fry this Saturday, 6-10 p.m.
As we settle into the last weekend of June 2025, the weather stays hot and the music keeps cool, while the summertime activities come on full speed ahead, no holds barred and without a doubt. Let’s see what there is for us to experience in our music scene.
Our first news is sad, tragic and heartbreaking with the loss of Greg “Lucky” Patterson last Sunday. Greg went deep in our music making community as a drummer first, then later as the singer, songwriter, rhythm guitarist (a lefty, you know) and band leader of the Wolf Crick Boys. The many poignant posts on his Facebook page will give you an idea of the depth and reach of his influence and character that permeated and enriched so many in our world. But nothing can actually tell of the many lives he touched as a brother, husband, father, veteran, friend, mentor, musician, songwriter and, just as so many wrote, an all-around good guy, always there when you needed a heartfelt hug and kind, caring words. Rest in peace, Lucky. When the nighttime falls, someone calls and you’re not there, we will be missing and thinking of you, my friend.
As Greg would be the one to say, “go on, git,” so let’s get going to see what we’ve got happening around town. Thursday again rises to the occasion with a Levitt AMP concert, this week featuring the popular, local Grateful Dead/Jerry Garcia cover band Sunshine Daydream opening for Luv Locz Experiment, an Ohio-based, music collective doing a genre they’ve dubbed Caribbean Funk for your listening and dancing pleasure. All our regular Thursday gigs roll on as well so take a peek at the listings and see what tickles your fancy.
Friday brings us more than 30 events including the Artist in the Park doings when the Springfield Area Arts Council hosts a weekly noontime performance at Union Park with food trucks on site and Rudy Boz and Friends as your musical artist of note this week. There’s a regular Friday night show in neighboring Jacksonville called Main Street Downtown Concert Series held in Central Park Plaza featuring Laura Rain and the Caesars as this week’s touring act. In evening area outdoor shows (is it really that hot?) check out Mississippi Leghound with Bad Bill Robinson on the patio at Brookhills Golf Club, Devin C. Williams on the Buzz Bomb Adams Street stage, Captain Trip and the Space Cadets in the beer garden at The Bird Tavern and Stereo Typical at Long Bridge Golf Course, plus Broken Stone at the Blue Grouch and Phat Kitti at Weebles in its respective, expansive, outdoor venue spaces. Then for something wonderfully different, wander into Washington Park for the weekly, summerlong, Thematic Concert Series performed on the glorious Thomas Rees Memorial Carillon with Taylor Swift songs on the bill this Friday.
Saturday checks in at (only!) 42 ways to experience music being made with plenty of outdoor and indoor choices. I’m liking the early gigs with the Springfield Municipal Band outside the ALPLM at 10 in the morning, Ryan Seaton and Brock Bordenkircher at The Railyard (1-4 p.m.) and JackAsh at the Stadium (2 p.m.). We haven’t spent much time out at Lake Springfield this summer, but every weekend there’s likely some live music and a chicken fry or three with Menace to Sobriety at the TRN Club and Jonny Concaroo Band at the Springfield Motor Boat Club on for this week.
Sunday shows some 20 acts making the music sing for you. Please take a look in our listings and find what fits you, then “go on, git” going to it. Later on.