Blogcritics The critical lens on today's culture & entertainment
Attending a music festival has quickly become a must-do for anyone’s summer schedule. There are plenty of festivals to pick and choose from, and Sacramento residents actually have quite a few to locally attend.
Indie radio station Radio 94.7 recently announced the first five confirmed artists to perform at its increasingly popular late summer shindig City of Trees Summer Concert Event on Sunday, September 24, 2017 at Papa Murphy’s Park (formerly Bonney Field) in the Cal Expo in Sacramento, California.
Headlining this year is ’90s pop punk icons Blink-182 in its current iteration with Matt Skiba (Alkaline Trio) as the co-main vocalist. Hardcore fans might lament the loss of founding member Tom DeLonge, but it still will be interesting to see how the band will sound compared to how I remember the music sounding almost two decades ago during my MTV phase.
AFI and No Doubt-new wave hybrid Dreamcar makes its Sacramento debut, having released its eponymous full-length debut last month. In case you were wondering, this band does not include Gwen Stefani and instead features AFI lead singer Davey Havok on vocals.
Danish rock trio New Politics returns for a second festival appearance, having performed at the inaugural event two years ago. At that time, New Politics performed in support of its breakout third album Vikings with the big hit, “West End Kids.” With new single “One of Us” currently hitting the Billboard Alternative charts, I think it’s safe to assume a new album release is on the horizon.
Rounding out the remaining first lineup are a couple U.K. artists: Scottish singer-songwriter Bishop Briggs (“River”) and indie band The Greeting Committee (“Hands Down”).
City of Trees has been slowly moved to later in summer, and I think organizers are hoping to avoid some of the extreme heat that plagued the last two events. While not a deal breaker for most longtime residents, listening to live music is a bit more enjoyable when the temperature is less than three positive digits.
Pre-sale starts June 6 at 10 a.m.
