City of Trees Summer Concert Event 2015: Preview (August 15, 2015)

Can a city ever have too many music festivals? Possibly. There are only so many weekends in a year, let alone in the summer, so single all-day concert events can be a welcome breath of fresh air for with booked weekend plans. Already home to the Sacramento Music Festival (formerly the Jazz Jubilee), Aftershock Festival and TBD Fest (formerly known as Launch), Sacramento is less than a week away from the first annual City of Trees Summer Concert Event at Gibson Ranch on August 15, 2015.

Presented by local indie music radio station Radio 94.7, City of Trees represents a departure from the city’s other music festivals. Sacramento Music Festival showcases a diverse lineup, including many traditional jazz acts as an ode to the festival’s original beginnings. Aftershock Festival celebrates the energy of hard rock and metal music. TBD Fest is musically closer with its lineup of electronic and dance artists with sprinkles of rappers and indie bands (for example, Tyler the Creator, Pretty Lights, and Chromeo headline this year’s TBD Fest).

Taking a more local approach, City of Trees’ star attraction is the legendary alternative rock band Cake with its ridiculous wit but always fun musical style. Radio 94.7 allowed its listeners to help pick the artists and bands invited to perform on its two stages, which heavily skews toward young acts. In fact, the professional age of Cake (almost 25 years) is older than the biological ages of some of the other performers – Garrett Borns of BØRNS is 23, while singer Halsey is just 20. (And now this Gen-Yer feels old, and no I am not a millennial, dammit.)

Joining the aforementioned acts are Icelandic quintet Of Monsters and Men, who recently released its highly anticipated sophomore album, Crystals, English singer-songwriter James Bay (who was nominated for this year’s MTV VMA Artist to Watch award for “Hold Back the River”), and Ohio native singer-songwriter Elle King – you may have heard her blues pop single “Ex’s & Oh’s” once or twice on the radio. A few more alternative rock bands round out the rest of the festival lineup, including central California alternative rockers Night Riots (“Contagious”), Danish alternative rockers New Politics (“West End Kids”), and up-and-coming Los Angeles alternative rockers The Moth & the Flame (“Young & Unafraid”).

Thousands of people are expected to converge on the 325-acre regional park this Saturday, and surprisingly, service fee-free tickets are still available (and there’s free parking). The pre-show “Pre-Trees” – cute and lame, I know – featuring X Ambassadors, In the Valley Below, and Meg Myers at local club Ace of Spades, is already sold out.

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