Summer Concert Series

Want to perform? The Public Arts & Culture Planner oversees the Summer Concert Series. Interested performers should fill out the Summer Concert Series Performer Application. Question about the concerts? Contact Liz Helfer.


timeline

  • July 2: Classic Groove
    Led by Steve Tashjian, Classic Groove draws on the versatility of its members to perform a diverse repertoire that ranges from R&B and Top 40 to Smooth Jazz and Latin. As comfortable with Country and Swing as with Middle Eastern music, Show Tunes, Blues, and Motown, you'll get in the groove. 
  • July 9: Lightning Rising
    Lightning Rising performs a variety of crowd-friendly music from classic rock and soft rock hits. The band features Watertown-based performers, Dawn and David Scaltreto on keys and bass, neighbor John Copeland on guitar, and Drummer David Donnelly.  All four are vocalists and provide sophisticated backing vocals on all songs.
  • July 16: Mwalim DaPhunkee Professor with THUNDERCHILD
    Mwalim DaPhunkee Professor is a multi-award winning performer, composer, writer, and scholar. THUNDERCHILD is his 7th studio album, and the first featuring his work as a guitarist. Drawing the title from the collective term used to describe the various sacred clown traditions of indigenous people; Mwalim is a Mashpee Wampanoag elder, as well as a student and keeper of the AHANAEENUN, or Sacred Clown, tradition of Wampanoag people. Mwalim is a three-time winner of the New England Urban Music Award for Best Male Jazz Artist and a multi-year top nominee in the Native American Music Awards and founding member/resident songwriter of the multi-Grammy nominated GroovaLottos. 
  • July 23: Black Sea Salsa
    Black Sea Salsa makes any event a celebration with its original high-energy mix of Latin Jazz and Blues. Led by trumpeter and former Watertown resident, Dan Teager (Tergukasian), this 12-member world-music group started Watertown's summer concert series way back in 2000!
  • July 30: Marc Berger and RIDE
    Marc Berger is based out of NY and tours nationally. He's performed at Austin’s SXSW and opened shows for Bob Dylan and other national acts. His current release, RIDE, has received national airplay and critical acclaim and STARBUCKS has licensed it for worldwide in-store airplay. Enjoy his band's rootsy music combining blues, country, and shake your booty rock n' roll.
  • August 6: Joe Pete + Six is Nine
    A roots-rockin’ jammin’ electric guitar trio. The band features Joe Pete on guitar and vocals leading a crack rhythm section of bass and drums through a most righteous rock ’n’ roll repertoire.
  • August 13: Ike Moemeka
    Ike Moemeka is a multi-instrumentalist, producer, and arranger based in Watertown. Ike and his group of fellow musicians from Berklee College of Music blend sounds of jazz, hip-hop, R&B, funk, and soul into a set of captivating music for all to enjoy. 
  • August 20: Sons of Levin
    Sons Of Levin performs a mix of jam band and classic rock sounding original material, as well as rock/pop/funk covers in their own way. Our name for this conglomeration is "Dad-Rock".  We are a band comprised of, mostly, Berklee graduates and have been performing together since 2019.  
  • August 27: Shokazoba and The Puppeteers Cooperative
    Shokazoba (Nigerian for shock absorber) is an award-winning horn driven dance party powerhouse performing original top-quality, high-energy music designed to move our feet, inspire the mind, & activate our souls! Founded in 2005, as a Fela Kuti tribute project, their aim is to proliferate conscious awareness and positive social change through the vehicle of an irresistibly danceable polyrhythmic trance music they call New World Funk.
    The Puppeteers Cooperative brings a collection of artist-made giant puppets for everyone to dance, parade, and have fun!