No Money? No Problem!

It seems that every year concerts get more and more expensive, and the less and less your friends want to front the dough to go with you. So how can you get your friends to join you, and save yourself some money? Free shows, of course! There many going on in and around the Western New York area, check 'em out!

ROCHESTER

July 7 - Rochester Musicfest
The first night of Rochester Musicfest '06 is free at the High Falls Festival Site, featuring the old-school hip-hop stylings of DJ Marley Marl, Big Daddy Kane, and Whodini. Only catch here is you gotta be 21 or over to check this one out. Oh, and it's already sold out!

July 14, August 11 - East End Nightlife Festival
A small festival in the East End District of Rochester promises some great local live music.

August 5, 6 - Park Avenue Arts Festival
From Alexand to Culver Road, Park Ave. is filled with arts, crafts, food, drink and music for all to enjoy on a beautiful summer August weekend.

August 26 - Bug Jar Summer Music Fest
Sponsered by everyone's favorite tiny venue in Rochester, this event takes place at the Highland Bowl, and has previously has a good track record for brining great music (i.e. The White Stripes before their popularity). The lineup hasn't been fully annouced yet, but looks promising with John Spencer and Matt Verta-Ray's Heavy Trash, Foreign Islands, and Chinese Stars.

BUFFALO

Thursday at the Square
Celebrating its 20th Anniversary this year, TATS has become a staple of Buffalo summers, drawing large crowds and brining a wide variety of music for Western New Yorkers to enjoy. This year is no different, and the program has pulled out all the stops this year, with great performances already this summer from Big Bad Voodoo Daddy, Smash Mouth (yes, that's correct), Mike Doughty's Band, Soulive with Bedouin Soundclash, and Blues Traveler, which promted a halting of the metro rails there during their set the crowd was so large. The lineup only gets better from here:

July 6 - India.Arie

July 13 - Jeff Martin (lead singer of The Tea Party)

July 27 - Robert Randolph & The Family Band with The Drive-By Truckers

August 3 - Violent Femmes (nothing will stop me from this one)

August 10 - Yonder Mountain String Band

August 24 - Sloan

Also announced for the summer are some spectacular (I can't stress that enough, espeically for the August one) in-store performances at one of Buffalo's best independent record stores, New World Record:

July 8 - Pete Yorn

August 20 - Bonnie "Prince" Billy

TORONTO

In looking to see Jamie Lidell this summer, I uncovered a series of free weekend festivals in Toronto going on at the Harbourfront Centre. Each weekend festival has a different theme, and features music, dance, art, film, and more. While not all of the festivals have been fully announced, several weekends are already looking fantastic. I highly recommend catching any of these if you can.

Power of Place: Canada Day
July 1 - Jason Collett and The Dears

Beats, Breaks & Culture
July 7 - The Juan Maclean, Prefuse 73, and MSTRKRFT
July 8 - Jamie Lidell, Konono No.1 and Cadence Weapon

From the PEG!
July 29 - The Waking Eyes and The Weakerthans