16 nights of music, 26 national acts, 18 Grammy Awards, and 27 Junos! In its 25th year we see a lot of Canadian acts coming to Thursday at the Square (Lafayette Square and Main St). I hope our wonderful friends up North will bring a lot of loonies to Buffalo with them when they come visit.
At the Buffalo Place news conference in North American Breweries Labatt USA world headquarters Michael Schmand, Vice President and Executive Director of Buffalo Place, mentioned that these are exciting times in downtown Buffalo.
Tony Colucci III, President and Vice Chairman of Buffalo Place, was his usual witty and enthusiastic self. He said "Artie and Donnie are back!" Artie Kwitchoff and Donny Kutzbach, of Funtime Presents, are the dynamic duo that regularly bring the hippest music in Western New York to the Town Ballroom. They used to book The Square acts, and now they have returned.
Here is the early Thursday at the Square schedule, headliners listed first, openers listed later:
June 2 Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
June 9 Morris Day and the Time
June 16 Blues Traveler with special guest Willie Nile
June 23 Grace Potter & the Nocturnals with special guest FItz & the Tantrums
Then, something totally new... Thursday at the Rectangle (nice one Tony!)... The Square moves to the waterfront venue, Buffalo's gorgeous Eric Canal Harbor Central Wharf for the remaining six weeks, with:
June 30 Lowest of the Low with special guests Hey Rosetta! - and Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins
July 7 Sloan
July 14 Court Yard Hounds
July 21 Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes
July 28 George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
August 4 Tokyo Police Club with special guest the Sheila Divine
New this year is Buffalo Place introducing their own app: mobile.buffaloplace.com
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At the Buffalo Place news conference in North American Breweries Labatt USA world headquarters Michael Schmand, Vice President and Executive Director of Buffalo Place, mentioned that these are exciting times in downtown Buffalo.
Tony Colucci III, President and Vice Chairman of Buffalo Place, was his usual witty and enthusiastic self. He said "Artie and Donnie are back!" Artie Kwitchoff and Donny Kutzbach, of Funtime Presents, are the dynamic duo that regularly bring the hippest music in Western New York to the Town Ballroom. They used to book The Square acts, and now they have returned.
Here is the early Thursday at the Square schedule, headliners listed first, openers listed later:
June 2 Edward Sharpe & the Magnetic Zeros
June 9 Morris Day and the Time
June 16 Blues Traveler with special guest Willie Nile
June 23 Grace Potter & the Nocturnals with special guest FItz & the Tantrums
Then, something totally new... Thursday at the Rectangle (nice one Tony!)... The Square moves to the waterfront venue, Buffalo's gorgeous Eric Canal Harbor Central Wharf for the remaining six weeks, with:
June 30 Lowest of the Low with special guests Hey Rosetta! - and Ron Hawkins and the Do Good Assassins
July 7 Sloan
July 14 Court Yard Hounds
July 21 Southside Johnny & the Asbury Jukes
July 28 George Clinton & Parliament Funkadelic
August 4 Tokyo Police Club with special guest the Sheila Divine
New this year is Buffalo Place introducing their own app: mobile.buffaloplace.com
For anyone who missed the line-up for Buffalo Place Rocks the Harbor:
Since the U.S. and Canadian dollars are very near at par, I hope our local merchants will ask their banks to waive their excessive exchange fees (a 1% fee seems reasonable to me--what about you?) in order to allow those same merchants to accept Canadian money from Canadians at the point of purchase at or very nearly at par. I appreciate being able to fork over a U.S. dollar even in the GTA (not just the Niagara Region) and have it accepted for what it is worth or nearly so, AND without a look of utter disgust on the part of the cashier accepting it.
I don't expect banks without a VERY heavy WNY flavor to do this (Key and Citizens, I'm thinking of you), but M&T, HSBC, First Niagara--you all need to take this action to support WNY and its unique opportunity to encourage cross-border tourism.
When our dollars are trading about a nickel apart on global currency markets, Buffalo and the Canadian Niagara Region ought to be effectively a single-seemless two-currency-accepted-without-fuss market.