Dueling Pianos, Lost Diamonds, and a Night on the Commons

Hi Internet.

Houghs and Larsons, establishing headquarters at Tunes By the Tridge. . .

Living in Midland has its perks. These days is the city really bends over backwards during the Summer months to keep the plebeians entertained and happy (which is good, because we have a lot of uppity, high-maintenance people in this town of ours.) 

I mentioned all of this last year, of course, and am once again referring to the city's months-long opening up of the Downtown Commons, a two-block wide stretch of Main Street. Live entertainment, relaxed laws regarding open alcohol containers, and a whole slew of pedestrian amenities, all closed off to traffic with giant concrete barricades. 

Two guys, two pianos, and a whole slew of song selections from oldies to present.

The Commons are the place to be on a given summer night, especially on the weekends, but the kick-off of each Summer Weekend is the free concert (provided by the Powers That Be in local City Government) put on in the park by the Tridge. Tunes By the Tridge is a weekly, two-hour-long concert offering anyone and everyone an opportunity to see a wide variety of artists from a wide variety of genres, free of charge. We usually attend a handful of these concerts every summer, focusing on the genres we prefer: we make it a point to do Dueling Pianos night, the 50's/60's/70's night, etc., and skip the weirder ones, like Jazz night and Zydeco night (seriously.)

Tonight marked the opening performance of the concert series, and opened up with the ever-popular - and Kris' favorite - Dueling Pianos. We got down there at the same time as the Larsons were rolling in, right around 6:45pm, and shortly afterwards we were joined by the Johnsons, Colliers, and Mitch (who rolled in stag, the rest of his fam not feeling up for it. . . per the usual.) We brought coolers, blankets, folding chairs, and were able to hang out and enjoy the evening's show, free of charge, for over two hours.

And of course, the weather was perfect.

Check it out folks - our Summer's first installment of Tunes By the Tridge. . .

The assembled team for this evening, Left to Right: Sophie, Danielle (Morgan was up getting food), Mees, Kris, Erik, Ryan, and then Kris' boss, Paul, and his wife, Melanie.)

Kris, cluckin' away about something or other. . .

About fifteen or twenty minutes into the concert, Danielle became alarmed: apparently the diamond off her engagement ring had fallen out of its bracket (or whatever you call that) in the ring, and was missing. She wasn't sure when it had happened, whether or not it was earlier in the day while she was at work, or when she was setting up her camping chair, but we started looking around in the grass for it. Needle-in-a-Haystack sorta thing, but we tried anyway. Clearly not being able to enjoy themselves with something so tragic happening, the Larsons took off to continue looking at home for it, but we made sure to keep an eye out for it here and there throughout the remainder of the evening. We all felt super bad for her.

Kris and that son of a bitch, Mitch.

Ella, Courtney, Mees, Mitch and Erik.

(Probably talking about dentistry.)

As usual, we drove separate, seeing how Abby 'wasn't ready' when we originally left. She ended up getting a ride downtown later once her older sister got out of work at 8pm.

She's a special gal.

(Probably talking about golf.)

The assembled masses. Dualing Pianos usually brings the biggest crowd of the season, along with the Country night.

The girls walked around up in the Commons, up on Main Street, most of the evening, where they did the usual teenage thing - taking pics and selfies all over the place (like this one of Ella clicking her heels walking down the street.) 

Abby, getting artsy with the sunset.

The dynamic duo.

Doin' it for the 'Gram.

Abby's pic.

Like I said, we had perfect weather this evening - made for some really awesome sunset pics.

Like we do every night, The Tribe closed the place down - last ones to pack up and head home at the end of the evening, long after everyone else left and went home.

Meanwhile, back on The Commons, Alayna took some pics of Abby and Ella.

Not sure which of the girls took this one. That's a shitload of ants, folks.

Abby's pic of a sunset over the Tittabawassee River.

Like I said before, we regularly looked for Danielle's missing diamond here and there throughout the evening - like Kris and Mitch are doing here - but we didn't have any luck. We were hoping the phone flashlights would make the diamond sparkle and therefore make it way easier to see amidst the grass, but it wasn't to be.

Packing it up, finally, towards the end of the evening.

The girls got one, last artsy pic of Abby walking up these steps they always like getting pics in front of on their way back to Alayna's car. Thus ends this season's first outing to Tunes By the Tridge, our favorite Thursday evening activity of the Summer. Stay tuned for future installments, kids.

- Brian