Rockin' Lakewood's Porch

It was Rochlin who said that the great American front porch represented the ideal of community and was the “open and sociable” part of the house that belonged to all— that “place for family and friends to pass the time.”

For the city of Lakewood, its front porch is the Lakewood Public Library and it’s about to get even more open and social with this summer’s Front Porch Concert Series which starts Friday, July 8.

The string of no cost, open-to-the-public concerts takes place on the library’s front steps (facing Detroit Rd.) for eight consecutive Fridays. Attendees in waiting are encouraged to “bring blankets, chairs, snacks and friends” and even family picnics before the shows.

“Come early, take a stroll and discover what Downtown Lakewood has to offer from shopping to dining and then sit back and enjoy the music!” read the ads.

Some might call it Community Building 101—but organizers just call it creative and fun.

“It’s always been the desire of this organization to get music and arts downtown and that was the impetus to start the concerts,” says Shannon Strachan, Marketing Director of LakewoodAlive, which acts as catalyst for the event with sponsors through Downtown Lakewood, an Ohio Main Street Program.

The summer concert series began modestly three years ago at City Center Park (in front of the Marc’s plaza) as a means to gain exposure for all-student bands, says Chris Vance. But it has definitely morphed in a very short period of time.

“Over the course of things, we started adding other professional bands, with more of a world music focus and every year [these events] keep evolving into different forms,” Vance told Patch in a recent interview.

What happened in the process, is that Lakewood’s music fans and musicians came out in droves. And with them, their neighbors, friends and colleagues.

“Our goal is to have bands all 12 weeks of the summer somewhere down the road,” Vance says, referring to the event's growth and popularity.

The bass guitarist, owner-operator of Lakewood’s Vance Music Studios and member of 15-60-75 (a.k.a. the Numbers Band) will perform with that legendary local outfit as a part of the Front Porch series.

Vance, who holds a Master of Music in Double Bass Performance from The Cleveland Institute of Music, has served as principal bass for the Bermuda Symphony and Buffalo Opera Company Orchestra, and is a fairly active member of the Cleveland popular music scene.

As an instructor, Vance averages some 80 students per week—most of whom study at his Lakewood-based Madison Ave. HQ—and he also performs over two dozen shows a month.

Vance says that love for music instruction led him to this event, but that his love for music, community and for Lakewood helped push him to be an even more active roleplayer in organizing the bands for the event.

The Lakewood Public Library Front Porch Concerts take place from 7-9 p.m. at 15425 Detroit Ave. starting Friday, July 8 and will feature the following performances from local acts:

July 8: The Joe DeJarnette Quintet, featuring celebrated jazz trumpeter Joe DeJarnette who cites Dizzy Gillespie, Louis Armstrong, Miles Davis, Thelonius Monk, and Clifford Brown as influences.

July 15: The Champagnes, a group harkening back to early 60′s sounds (think Elvis Presley, Roy Orbison and Ricky Nelson and the English “Mersey Beat” sound).

July 22: The Hipsters, a “vintage rock and soul” R&B outfit, and the Blues Tour Student Rock Bands.

July 29: Sultans of Bing, the self-described “Cosmic Jam Band” offering originals in shades of sounds recalling the Grateful Dead and Widespread Panic.  

August 5: “The Vance Music Studios Student Rock Bands Summer Tour,” featuring student musicians.

August 12: The legendary 15-60-75 “The Numbers Band” with 30 years of critically hailed live performances and recordings.  

August 19: Singer-songwriter Diana Chittester, a Pittsburgh expat who draws on influences like Ani DiFranco and Alanis Morissette within an indie-folk framework.

August 26: The Revolution Brass Band, a new and funky-experimental afro-beat band featuring (you guessed it) brass.

You can learn more about the acts by visiting the Front Porch Concert Series page here.