Pop! Goes the Early Summer
With the unofficial start of summer upon us, music is about to fill the air, indoors and out, in the golden sunlight and late into the starry night. While the area’s sizable contingent of resident musicians will deploy to the restaurants, bars, nightclubs, and wineries, touring performers ranging from note-perfect tribute bands to the genuine article will appear at many of the venues across the South Fork and, for those willing to brave the traffic, Westhampton Beach and Riverhead.
Lez Zeppelin, an all-female quartet playing the music of Led Zeppelin, are longtime favorites at the Stephen Talkhouse in Amagansett, often opening and closing the summer season with a unique-yet-spot-on tribute to the legendarily heavy rock ’n’ roll band. They will launch the intimate venue’s summer season with an 8 p.m. set on Saturday, $65. At the same time, the B-52s will get the party started at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, for $125, $175, and $225.
On Sunday night, things will get crazy at the Talkhouse with 10,000 Maniacs. As of Monday, general admission tickets, $90, were still available. The venue’s weekly reggae night launches on the following Sunday, May 31, with Winston Irie, $10.
Leon Russell, another longtime favorite at the Talkhouse, returns for an 8 p.m. show on June 2, $70 and $85. Antigone Rising, the alt-country female band founded by the sisters Cathy and Kristen Henderson, performs on June 4 at 8 p.m., $15. Marc Broussard, a Louisiana-born R&B/rock ’n’ roll vocalist and musician, plays on June 6 at 7 p.m., $50 and $65. The blue-eyed soul singer and onetime Doobie Brother Michael McDonald will also play that night at 8 at the Westhampton Beach Performing Arts Center, $125, $150, and $210.
David Bromberg, a rootsy multi-instrumentalist and sideman to many legends, brings his quintet to the WBPAC on June 13 at 8 p.m., $40, $55, and $75. On the same night, the guitarist Larry Campbell and the vocalist Teresa Williams, who is his wife, will play the Talkhouse at 7, $35 and $50.
The Texas-born guitarist and singer Lee Roy Parnell will stop at the Talkhouse for an 8 p.m. show on June 18, $30 and $45. The following night, the Tex-Mex, R&B, bluesy, and traditional rock ’n’ roll sounds of Los Lobos will fill the intimate space, also at 8, $150 and $165. At the same time, Duncan Sheik will take the WHBPAC stage, $55, $60, and $65.
The 350-seat Suffolk Theater in Riverhead, a 1933 Art Deco movie theater that was recently reborn as a performing arts center, will host the alternative rock bands Soul Asylum and the Meat Puppets on June 26 at 8 p.m., $49.
Summer will heat up when the guitarist G.E. Smith, of Amagansett, and Chad Smith, the drummer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers and a resident of Montauk, meet on the Stephen Talkhouse stage on July 1 at 8 p.m., $30. Taylor Barton-Smith, a singer-songwriter who is the wife of G.E. Smith, will open the show. The following night, Joan Osborne, a bluesy rock ’n’ roll vocalist with a long history at the Talkhouse, will perform as one half of an acoustic duo at 8 p.m., $75 and $90. With the multi-instrumentalist Keith Cotton, Ms. Osborne thrilled a full house at the Suffolk Theater in April.
The biggest names will hit the South Fork in time to celebrate America’s independence. The Beach Boys, featuring a founding member, Mike Love, but not its enigmatic mad-genius composer, Brian Wilson, will surf into Guild Hall on July 3 for a 7 p.m. performance, $145 and $250. Part of Guild Hall’s Season Spectacular benefit, the performance will be followed by a dinner at a private residence. Prices vary. The venue’s website can be checked for details.
Also on July 3, David Crosby, the two-time Rock and Roll Hall of Fame inductee best known for his work with the Byrds and Crosby, Stills and Nash, will deliver a solo performance of songs spanning his career at 8 p.m. at the WBPAC, $96, $131, and $161.
The country singer and guitarist Junior Brown, inventor of the “guit-steel” double-neck guitar, will play a 7 p.m. show on July 4 at the Stephen Talkhouse, $35 and $50.
As the long days and hot nights continue, so will the soundtrack. Another live-music roundup will appear in The Star on July 2.