It’s summer, and the great weight of high-brow cultural offerings is lifting, as if to offset the oppressive heat and humidity. The two remaining art exhibits at the Vero Beach Museum of Art are about to be packed up – this is the last weekend to see the Oscar Bluemner exhibit, and Martin Johnson Heade’s landscapes and still lifes come down June 5.
After that, it’s playtime. For two of the three exhibits this summer, museum staff got to dig into their permanent collection like kids in a toy box and they’ve pulled out enough to fill two galleries. One will feature a cross-section of works; what they have in common is that they were each acquired after being part of solo exhibitions held over the museum’s 30-year history.
The other gallery will show off the extent of the permanent collection’s works of studio glass including pieces by Dale Chihuly and Harvey Littleton.
Both of those shows start June 4. Then, June 16 in the Holmes Gallery, the museum looks beyond its earthly limits to the largesse of NASA, which is sharing its collection of space-related art, including one by Andy Warhol. Commissioned or collected by the space agency since 1962, the idea was to make its highly technical mission more accessible to the masses.
Riverside Theatre is also lightening up its summer offerings – not that its splashy musicals are ever heavy, but the new Howl at the Moon events starting next month allow for audience participation beyond the usual standing ovation.
Howl at the Moon, a dueling piano singalong with a playlist generated by audience requests, has become a national phenomenon. Riverside has teamed up with the Orlando Howl to bring the musicians here. It’s bound to be a far cry from the International Drive set – tons of stranger-in-a-strange-land tourists, as compared to everybody-knows-everybody Vero Beach. I’m thinking familiarity would breed hilarity. Hopefully for the pianists, it will also generate good tips – which is what you attach to your request if you want to up your chances of hearing it.
The bi-monthly event will rotate with Comedy Zone on the Waxlax stage, with the black-box theater set up cabaret-style with a full bar and snacks menu.
Meanwhile, there’s comedy this weekend from Frank Del Pizzo, a former car mechanic from New Jersey turned comedian, who headlines Friday and Saturday night’s Comedy Zone at Riverside Theatre. It’s the second of its Summer Nights-themed evenings. Before the show starts in the Waxlax, you can stretch out under the oaks and listen to live music while Riverside manages the bar and the grill. As for the bands, Friday, it’s Southern Exposure; Saturday, the Jacks are playing. Both do a variety of styles of rock.
While you have to wait a week for Howl at the Moon at Riverside, this Saturday evening you can howl at the moon with a folk duo, performing under the pavilions on Coconut Point on the south side of Sebastian Inlet State Park. The park’s Nightsounds series, timed to the full moon, this month features songwriter and multi-instrumentalist Lee Hunter, who performed for many years with guitarist Arvid Smith as Tammerlin. She’s now joined by Joey Kerr, himself a songwriter who sings and plays guitar and mandolin. He won the Gram Parsons Guitar Pull and Tribute Festival Songwriting Contest in 2013. The moon rises over the water during the concert, which starts at 7 p.m. Folding chairs are suggested, and the nearby Island Grill sells hot dogs, burgers and soft drinks. The concert is free with the park admission fee.
If you like a brew or two with your roots music, Friday night at the Kilted Mermaid there’s a band called the Copper Tones up from Fort Lauderdale playing a pretty delightful sound they call Soulgrass. Formed a couple of years ago, vocalist Stephanie Smerkers plays a banjulele, which adds a nice touch, and Dylann Thieme sings playing upright bass. Those two went to high school together, though Smerkers sang jazz and Thieme played bluegrass. They’re joined by a drummer with a background in punk, Andy Annoied.
If you can’t make it Friday, you can catch the Copper Tones later this summer when they come back to Vero Aug. 6 to play outside during one of Riverside Theatre’s Comedy Zone nights.
In Stuart on Saturday night, at the lively outdoor bar Terra Fermata, a Latin fusion band from Miami is hosting an album launch celebration. The Jupiter-based, six-piece Moska Project is releasing its latest album, Cuatro, that day. It plays from 8:30 p.m. to 10 p.m. The East Coast Reggae jam band Treehouse warms up the crowd starting at 7 p.m.