Like many folks the region over, members of Northampton’s Business Improvement District (BID) knew that their city had a storied, robust music scene. Unlike many of its neighbors, however, Paradise City had somehow ceased to put forth a series of free outdoor summer concerts. That is, until the BID made it its business to rectify the situation.

String rock quartet Darlingside and Brooklyn’s Big Easy-inspired Roosevelt Dime perform at the free Northampton Concert Series at Pulaski Park this Friday, July 26. Future headliners include Primate Fiasco (Aug. 9), Salvation Army String Band (Aug. 23) and LuxDeluxe (Aug. 30). All shows run 6 to 8 p.m. For more details and a full schedule, kindly point your browser to collectivemusicconcerts.com.

 

In other news—and as previously reported in this column a few weeks back—court papers were flying in the Stone Temple Pilots camp as ousted frontman Scott Weiland contested the remaining members’ use of the name without him. Apparently, the legal docs have settled, and in their wake comes not only a tour, but an EP announcement.

Stone Temple Pilots featuring Chester Bennington (of Linkin Park fame) kick off a fall tour in the little town of Bethlehem, Penn. Sept. 4 and have booked dates into November. As of press time, the closest local play is Boston’s House of Blues Sept. 9, but more dates may be forthcoming.

Further, bassist Robert DeLeo says the tour will coincide with an EP that will be distributed via the band’s own label through the Alternative Distribution Alliance.

“We’ve been writing new material and visiting songs from our early albums,” he revealed. “It all feels new again, and we’re excited to get out and play it all.”

To monitor the Pilots’ activity, kindly turn your browser to stonetemplepilots.com

Platinum rockers Filter get the opening nod for the tour, by the way. While the package certainly makes sense in terms of both genre and era, there is also some family history of sorts in the back story.

Filter founder Richard Patrick stepped in during a prior Weiland ousting to work with the STP battery of Robert and and brother/six stringer Robert Deleo with drummer Ray Luzier. That band put out one self-titled album in 2006 under the moniker Army of Anyone.

Since we’ve set the way-back machine to the ’90s, this seems as good a time as any to inform the masses that grunge poster boys Pearl Jam have announced a two-legged fall tour that includes an Oct. 15 DCU Center play in Worcester and a gig at Hartford’s XL Center Oct. 25. Tickets for all North American shows go on sale at 10 a.m. on Saturday, July 27 and are available at ticketmaster.com.

 

Last but not least, Worcester’s Wormtown Trading Company has unearthed some greenbacks for Greenfield.

As company founder/owner Mark Blanchette explains, he wanted to give back to the city that has hosted his biannual music and camping festivals (Strange Creek Campout in May, the Wormtown Music Festival proper each September) for the last decade.

“As the shows have grown, so has our relationship with the city of Greenfield,” he notes. “We know there are some good people and organizations helping this community from the last time we did this, so we want to support some of their work as a way of saying thank you to this community.”

As a means to that end, Blanchette says that Wormtown will give away four grants of $1,000 each and one grant of $2,500 after selecting from letters submitted by interested organizations. Qualifying service organizations and individuals should be located in or near Greenfield and serve the Greenfield community. Interested applicants should send a letter describing their work and how the grant might help with their mission. Letters can be mailed to Wormtown Trading Company, P.O. Box 659, Woodstock CT 06281, and should be received by August 9. Grant recipients will be notified before this year’s edition of the Wormtown Music Festival at Camp Kee-Wanee in Greenfield on September 13 to 15.•

 

Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.