A Look Back: June 29
By Mike Stampalia on June 29, 2025
(Image: Jazz fans don their foul-weather gear during an early afternoon shower at the Kool Jazz Festival at SPAC, 6/29/85 – photo by Bruce Squiers for the Saratogian)
By Mike Stampalia.
50 years ago: Stephen Stills @ Saratoga Performing Arts Center
Stephen Stills on SPAC stage, 6/29/75 – photo by the Saratogian
His voice, the same one that led CSN&Y for years, failed him several times, making him inaudible over his guitar. Stills struggled bravely on, however, and gave one of the longest concerts by a single group at SPAC in many years. There was no warm-up group, and Stills only missed about 15 minutes of the three hour concert.
– Steve Grandin for the Saratogian
Steps Ahead plays on center stage – photo by Bruce Squiers for the Saratogian
Toward evening, the music became more intricate and the fans became more serious, concentrating intently on the music, applauding well-crafted solos, nodding at each other in solemn appreciation of a lyrical line.
– Mae G. Banner for the Saratogian
30 years ago: The Surfing Brides / Ivy / Michael Eck @ Alive at Five
20 years ago: (Josh Gracin) / Cowboy Crush @ Empire State Plaza
… a massive thunderstorm swept in just moments before headliner Josh Gracin was scheduled to take the stage. Needless to say, Gracin never sang a note, but he managed to round up a few new fans, anyway. With Gracin’s Marine training, he wasn’t about to let a few raindrops keep him from his fans, who were bravely huddling beneath the State Museum terrace.
The thunder was booming. The flashes of lightning seemed nonstop. And the rain was so torrential that from the museum steps you were unable to make out even the outline of the Capitol at the other end of the Plaza.
But the former “American Idol” finalist – he finished fourth in the FOX-TV show’s second season – bounded up the steps in the midst of the downpour to greet his fans.
Soaking wet, he ambled through the crowd, flashing a toothy, million-dollar smile and shaking hands, as a giggling gaggle of teenage girls paraded behind him, frantically snapping cellphone photos of the country singer who never got to sing.
Then the hulking 24-year-old dashed back down the stairs, and a few moments later, the show was officially canceled, leaving opening act, Cowboy Crush, as the only performers of the evening.
– Greg Haymes for the Times Union
The sound was solid, the rain was liquid, but Saturday at the Solid Sound Festival at Mass MoCA was a gas.
– Leif Zurmuhlen for Nippertown
Samara Joy made her triumphant return entering the mainstage with thunderous applause and a full band. An old soul in a young woman, she sang her repertoire of standards and Brazilian music but even threw in a curve ball of Sun Ra’s “How Dreams Come True” with an original grafted on.
– Rudy Lu for Mirth Films
Trey Anastasio with the Boston Pops @ Tanglewood
In September 2009, “You Enjoy Myself” saw its debut at Carnegie Hall, and the moment saw the audience sitting in silent awe, with occasional laughs during the ‘vocals.’ On this evening at Tanglewood, for the unenlightened, “You Enjoy Myself” would draw out more than laughs and silence, but also dancers in the aisles of the lawn (yes, there are aisles on the lawn, sort of) and back of the shed.
– Pete Mason for NYS Music
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