A Weekend of Music in Elk Rapids Michigan

Elk Rapids for a weekend of music, about as far from Truckee as we get. Harbor Days is on in town — 69 years running now — and it opens with Evening on River Street, live music and vendors, with the parade and carnival rides and fireworks stacked up behind it. Between the summer concert series and the festival, the whole downtown is basically a stage this time of year.

The first stop, though, was Interlochen. There's a bronze bear out front, big enough that a grown man leaning an arm on its shoulder looks small, and you stop for it whether you meant to or not. Inside, a student percussion concert: one piece with nine snare drums in a row across the front of the stage, then smaller groups on marimbas and vibraphones, a suspended cymbal here, a hanging bell tree there. By the end there were thirty-some players in black standing behind an absolute wall of gear — drum sets, chimes, a bass drum tipped on its side. One kid threw his arm up during the applause like he'd just stuck a landing.

Then back to River Street for the evening.