This year’s Rock on the River event will look a little different from years’ past. It will focus solely on local talent.
Each year, the organizers have brought in top-notch acts from the rock/metal world. However, many of the touring acts they had hoped for this year accepted performances at other venues around Fort Wayne or surrounding areas. Rather than scrap the event entirely, they recruited a handful of local acts.
The Kickbacks, Blood from a Stone, System of Dying Angels, and Live Wire are among the bands who will invade Headwaters Park on Saturday, Sept. 18, from 6 p.m.-midnight.
General admission tickets will set you back $5 with special VIP tickets available for $15. The prices go up on the day of the show, so grab yours soon via Eventbrite.com. A portion of all proceeds will benefit the local charity Invisible Vets of Fort Wayne.
Here Come the Mummies again
After an outstanding performance at this year’s Three Rivers Festival, Here Come the Mummies are set for another return to Fort Wayne in 2021. The Clyde Theatre recently announced the high-energy multi-piece funk act will hit the stage on Saturday, Dec. 4, at 8 p.m.
Opening the show will be Saxsquatch, the American musician notable for wearing a Bigfoot costume and playing popular songs on the saxophone.
Tickets can be purchased at clydetheatre.com, by calling (800) 514-3849, or in person at The Clyde box office, all Wooden Nickel locations, Neat Neat Neat Records, and Sweetwater Sound. It’s time to get funky!
Concept Album takes flight
After two years of hard work, Whatzup contributing writer Keith Roman is about to release a new album, Bell: Songs about Larry Bell and his Aircraft. This gem is a progressive rock concept album about Mentone, Ind., native Lawrence Bell of Bell Aircraft.
“Other people write love songs,” Roman saod. “I write about airplanes.”
Though he has been an airplane geek all his life, he got the idea for the album after visiting the Bell Aircraft Museum in Mentone.
One of the songs, “Don’t Touch That Cobra,” is from a story his dad told from his days in the U.S. Army Air Corps. Another, “Jet Lady,” is about Ann Baumgartner, the first American woman to fly a United States Army Air Forces jet aircraft.
The album’s 12 tracks were recorded in Roman’s home studio BigMeow with mixing and mastering by Jon Gillespie at The Cloister. The album will be released on Saturday, Sept. 11, at the Bell Museum’s annual event, Rotors Over Mentone, taking place from 10 a.m.-4 p.m.
The theme for this year’s event is “Honor our Heroes” — including frontline workers, first responders, and our military service personnel. Roman will have a booth at the event and proceeds will go to the museum. You can also find the album on Bandcamp.com.
Check out some ‘Mountain soul’
Multi-instrumentalist Ruby Hornsby will be in town on Wednesday, Sept. 8, for a couple of performances.
Born and raised in West Virginia, Hornsby has performed in multiple bands spanning from rock to honky-tonk. As a soloist, Hornsby draws upon a lifetime of experience as a songwriter and performer, creating a collaboration of styles to form a genre she has coined “mountain soul.”
She performs at the Crescendo Club stage at Sweetwater at noon. Later that Wednesday, she will head to The Ruin for a performance beginning at 8 p.m.
