Frontman Bill Gaines isn’t sure if, after a 14-year run on the local circuit, his Johnny Sixgun has reached the proverbial musical mountaintop in its career. But he does know that the band has secured a coveted spot at the Summit View (summitviewbanquethouse.com) Summer Concert series in Holyoke May 9, and that’s just fine with him.
“It will be our first time playing there, and it’s such a great venue, with no cover and good outdoor food and drink,” he says, beaming. “Hey, I know we are not a bunch of young guys anymore, but we still love to get on stage and play classic rock the way it should be—loud. And apparently people are still interested in hearing it that way!”
The Summit View Summer Concert Series kicked off May 2 with Southern rockers Bear Mountain and runs weekly on Fridays through Oct. 10 when Shovelhead shuts things down. Some highlights along the way include Orange Crush May 30, Trailer Trash Aug. 1 and Saturday shows with the Vallan Brothers July 12 and The All Star Dyn-O-Myte Disco Review July 26. All shows are free and start at 6:30 p.m., rain or shine. A barbecue buffet is also available from 5:30 to 8 p.m.
A quick Six Gun offshoot news item, too—or perhaps Six Gun offspring is more apropos? Gaines’ daughter Liv Gaines is seeking your vote to help launch her onto The Voice. To watch her audition video and cast your vote, kindly point your browser to extrathevoice.rally.org/oliviagaines. Voting ends May 9.
In other news, a study by one of the nation’s leading secondary ticket market outlets has revealed that Christine McVie is gold as far as Fleetwood Mac tour sales go. According to Ticket Liquidator, the average price paid for a Fleetwood Mac concert in 2013 was $161, with some fans nabbing seats for as low as $6.
McVie recently announced that she will be joining Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, John McVie and Stevie Nicks on Fleetwood’s fall 2014 North American tour. The move effectively reunites the most popular incarnation of the multi-platinum act for the first time since 1998. And judging by the spike Liquidator detected immediately following said announcement, fans of Fleetwood’s fab five aren’t taking their chances waiting for the proverbial musical moons to align again.
The present median price for tickets listed on Ticket Liquidator’s exchange is $185, the lowest, $51.
“Having those five members back makes all the difference,” Ticket Liquidator Entertainment Specialist J.P. Starkey notes. “They put on a fine show in 2013, but it’s just not the same without Christine. Now that she’s back, the On With The Show Tour could be one of their most memorable yet.”
To get in on the memories, get your tickets from ticketmaster.com—or ticketliquidator.com, for that matter—for one of the three area shows on the books. Fleetwood Mac’s On With The Show tour has scheduled stops at Boston’s T.D. Garden Oct. 10 and 25 and Hartford’s XL Center Nov. 1.
Last but not least, the Crawler may soon be in a position to get some of his prized local musical artists some precious airtime. Of course, he has accumulated more CDs in the past two decades than CNN has viewers.
Still, it wouldn’t hurt to have some cherry-picked tunes from the folks who created them uploaded into the digital archive. So bands and musicians of all genres, please feel free to email your best one to three mp3s to garycarra@aol.com and put “Radio Show Fodder” in the subject line plus contact info and bio in the email body for consideration.
This is radio, folks, so we will of course want the best production quality possible and ask that content be completely devoid of those filthy little no-no words that seem to slip out of everyone’s mouths with equal parts ease and frequency. More details to come.•
Send correspondence to Nightcrawler, P.O. Box 427, Somers, CT 06071; fax to (860) 394-4262 or email garycarra@aol.com.
