Stories indexed with the term ‘Sonic Lunch’

Liberty & Division

Rhonda Foxworth and Matt Altruda setting up Bank of Ann Arbor’s Sonic Lunch at Liberty Plaza. Great day for last of this season’s series. Today’s show: The Alternate Routes.

Maynard & Liberty

Fans of Darren Criss, some a bit soggy from the rain, are lined up from Michigan Theater east to State, north to Washington, west to the Liberty Square parking garage. Roadies unloading bus on Washington. It’s part of Sonic Lunch series. Currently not raining. [photo]

A2: Theo Katzman

Billboard magazine published a day-in-the-life column that followed Theo Katzman, a former member of the popular Ann Arbor band My Dear Disco, during his current tour with Darren Criss: “Katzman is joined by the majority of Vulfpeck, his instrumental group formed in 2011 after the members met in a 19th-century German literature class at the University of Michigan. After they filled out with more members of the Michigan music scene, the group began breakneck rehearsals to get ready for the tour, figuring out how to integrate Criss’ back catalog of music in with new tracks he’d be testing on the road.” Criss and Katzman will be playing at the June 13 Sonic Lunch concert in Ann Arbor. [... [Full Story]

Street Closings Approved for Sonic Lunch

At its June 4, 2012 meeting, the Ann Arbor city council authorized a street closure in connection with two dates for Sonic Lunch – a summer music series held on Thursdays in Liberty Plaza at Liberty and Division streets, organized by the Bank of Ann Arbor. The street closure is for the block of Liberty Street between Fifth and Division on June 21, 2012 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. and July 26, 2012 from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m.

Those dates coincide with the appearances of Mitch Ryder (June 21) and Mayer Hawthorne & The County (July 26), who are expected to draw large crowds.

This brief was filed from the city council’s chambers on the second … [Full Story]

Photos: Scenes from Ann Arbor’s Sonic Lunch

If you’re in downtown Ann Arbor around noon on Thursdays, there’s a good chance you’ll at least stroll by Liberty Plaza for Sonic Lunch, a free summer concert series featuring local musicians.

Ann Arbor Sonic Lunch June 30 2011

Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful at the June 30, 2011 Sonic Lunch in downtown Ann Arbor.

This week, Misty Lyn & The Big Beautiful – including Jim Roll on bass, Matt Jones on drums, Carol Gray on fiddle and tambourine, and Ryan Gimpert on guitar – filled the plaza with a soulful, folk-rock sound.

But part of the show for these lunchtime events is always the crowd itself. The Chronicle was there taking photos, and spotted many familiar faces – how many people do you know, too? We’ve supplied fake quotes in some of the captions to help with the challenge.

Cracked slab segue alert: Readers who attended the Sonic Lunch on Thursday will probably have arrived there by foot, more specifically by walking along a sidewalk. Sidewalks are one focus of a very short survey being conducted by the city of Ann Arbor. Take it here: Sidewalk survey. [Full Story]

Sonic Lunch Rocks Liberty Plaza

A group of girls dance to Enter the Haggis' playing.

A group of girls dance to the music of Enter the Haggis at Thursday's Sonic Lunch, a free weekly concert series in Liberty Plaza.

Balloons, bubbles and the sound of bagpipes filled Liberty Plaza in downtown Ann Arbor last Thursday, as the Celtic rock band Enter the Haggis drew a crowd of people with soup and sandwiches in tow for the season’s first Sonic Lunch, a free, weekly outdoor concert series.

As the band warmed up – playing practice notes on their guitars and bagpipes – people filled the seats along the perimeter of the plaza, located at the corner of Liberty and Division. Some came wheeling their bikes, carrying helmets and water bottles. Many pushed strollers or strolled in holding the hands of small children (hands that soon grasped ribbons tied to blue and green balloons – signature colors of the Bank of Ann Arbor, the event’s main sponsor). When the built-in seats filled up, people rested in folding chairs or sat directly on the cement ground. [Full Story]

Picnic in the Park, with Electric Guitar

The Sonic Lunch series has its own brown bag.

The Sonic Lunch series has its own brown bag for carryout from local eateries. The Chronicle has no idea what's inside this one.

September means transition – summer vacations end, school starts, nights get chilly, trees begin their inexorable palette change.

And on Thursday, the weekly Sonic Lunch series came to a close at Liberty Plaza, just as workers started hanging holiday lights there.

They couldn’t have ordered up better weather for their season finale, and dozens of people turned out to eat lunch in the park or just listen to this week’s band, the Dave Sharp Quintet. (Or, as Dave pointed out during a break, the Dave Sharp Quartet, plus musical guest Topaz, on sax.) [Full Story]