There’s a lot to be said for the coffee-house feel of “second stage” venues at arts centers.
While only the biggest-name stars can fill a thousand or more seats, sometimes equally talented artists with a smaller fan base end up offering remarkable shows on a much more personal level.
Witness the King Center’s Studio theater, that last month hosted jazz pianist Keiko Matsui (sold out before I could even write about it) and next week hosts Jorma Kaukonen, the famed fingerstyle guitarist who started with Jefferson Airplane, branched out to form Hot Tuna with David Casady, and now plays roots, blues and bluegrass as a solo act.
The Rolling Stone’s David Fricke placed Kaukonen at No. 54 in his list of 100 Greatest Guitarists. That was Kaukonen on Starship’s 1970’s college dorm sound tracks, “Somebody to Love” and “White Rabbit.”
Kaukonen’s psychedelic sound was long ago retired as he pursued an even earlier vintage: the blues of the Piedmont. In 1999 and for a couple of years after, he toured with Grateful Dead bassist Phil Lesh (Warren Haynes and Derrick Trucks were also in the rotation).
Kaukonen’s King Center concert is Saturday, August 8.
In Vero Beach, the intimate performance spaces are often found where the pulpits normally go – in churches. Next Thursday, the annual Symphony of the Americas Summerfest concert takes place at Christ by the Sea Methodist Church. The 24th annual concert features the Austria-based Arpeggione Chamber Orchestra which was in residency with the Fort Lauderdale-based organization in 2008. Tickets are $35; $15 for students.
From small venues to sprawling: Riverside Park’s 300-year-old oaks are going to be pressed into shade service all weekend as the festivities continue honoring the 300-year anniversary of 1715 wreck of the Spanish Plate Fleet off our coastline. All last week, the public library was the principal venue for gold coin displays and book signings. This time, it’s a Royal Palm Beach-based enterprise putting on the three-day fair; the company stages pirate-themed events around South Florida, including one in Fort Pierce last January. Vero’s three-day fair includes “period-correct merchants” and period-incorrect vendors. Not sure where the live mermaid falls in all that, but there is one, swathed in what must be a sweltering tail.
Pirate-themed bands include one from Long Island.
Along with washing into shore, it’s also the weekend for swimming out to sea. The humans go first on Saturday morning when the Race to the Wreck takes place at 7 a.m. Fins or no fins, men and women, the competitors will splash off en masse to the wreck of the Breconshire, which sank in 1894 on its way from New York to Tampa.
The 300-foot long British iron-hulled steamer had a schooner’s rig. It sank being towed in after hitting a reef and rested with its boiler above water for decades, until the elements took their toll a few years back. The wreck, now in about 15 feet of water, is a popular destination for divers and at low tide can still warrant a double-take from the Ocean Grill bar.
The 1,000-yard race starts at Ocean Grill’s sibling down the beach, Waldo’s; the race raises money for the Lifeguard Association.
And on Sunday, two loggerhead sea turtles head for the surf, tagged with satellite transmitters, to join the three-month long marathon migration, the Tour de Turtles.
Now in its eighth year, the release is part of the Tour de Turtles fundraiser for sea turtle research; the little transmitters on their backs give out a code picked up by satellite that tells not just latitude and longitude but how many dives they take in a given day, how long the last dive lasted, and the water temperature.
The dozen or so “competitors” are all leaving their respective nesting grounds (so far, they’ve shoved off from Marathon in the Keys, Anna Maria Island near Fort Myers and the Four Seasons Resort on Nevis (they’re having second thoughts.)
Onlookers start gathering at 7:30 a.m.; the release takes place right at 8 a.m. and you can track the turtles on line at tourdeturtles.org. (Now you have something to do until Season.)
The release takes place at the Barrier Island Center at Archie Carr National Wildlife Refuge, which is a beautiful place to spend the rest of your morning.
If you can manage to get released from Vero too this weekend, you might head south to see the Dave Matthews Band. They’re playing two shows: Friday and Saturday, and tickets were already dwindling at press time at the vast Coral Sky Amphitheater. In all, Matthews has sold 19 million tickets in his career. Now 48 and living in Seattle raising kids, he was in the middle of recording another album when he hit the road for the 24th consecutive summer. The trademark pilgrimage starts with an acoustic set this time, and so far, Matthews has surprised fans with some impressive guest artists.
