Hootie & the Blowfish (from left, Dean Felber, Mark Bryan, Darius Rucker and Jim Sonefeld) has shows coming up in Holmdel and Camden.
Here is a roundup of arts events taking place around New Jersey, through Aug. 8.
MUSIC
• Hootie & the Blowfish will bring its Summer Camp With Trucks Tour, also featuring Collective Soul and Edwin McCain, to The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Aug. 2 at 7 p.m.; and The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, Aug. 16 at 7 p.m.
In a 2023 press release, Hootie & the Blowfish guitarist Mark Bryan explained the tour’s name by referring back to the period after the band broke through to a huge audience with its 1994 Cracked Rear View album. “Edwin McCain told someone at the time that touring with us felt like summer camp with trucks … and that’s exactly how we want next year to feel, too,” Bryan said.
In 2019, Hootie & the Blowfish released its first album in 14 years, Imperfect Circle. Starting in 2008, the group’s frontman, Darius Rucker, has had a great amount of success as a singer-songwriter in the country world.
ANTHONY J. BROWN
• Gospel artist Anthony J. Brown — whose best-known songs include “Blessings on Blessings (The B.O.B. Bounce)” — will headline the “Blessings on Blessings: Bounce for Antiviolence” concert that will take place at Hinchliffe Stadium in Paterson, Aug. 4 at 4 p.m.
Others in the lineup will include Anointed Friends; Mietta Stancil Farrar & Tahelah; Michael Butler & Company; Marlo Cozart; and The Paterson Music Project.
• Classic-rockers The Doobie Brothers and Steve Winwood are teaming up for a tour that will come to The Freedom Mortgage Pavilion in Camden, Aug. 3 at 7 p.m.; and The PNC Bank Arts Center in Holmdel, Aug. 6 at 7 p.m.
Co-founding Doobie Brothers singer-songwriter-guitarist Tom Johnston is back with the group after missing last summer’s tour due to illness. Others in the current lineup include Johnston’s fellow co-founding singer-songwriter-guitarist Pat Simmons, multi-instrumentalist John McFee, and Michael McDonald, who sang lead on hits such as “Takin’ it to the Streets,” “What a Fool Believes” and “Real Love” during his 1975-1982 stint with the group.
• Talking Heads member Jerry Harrison and Talking Heads touring member Adrian Belew will bring their Remain in Light Tour — featuring songs from the great 1980 Talking Heads album of that name, and more — to The Union County Performing Arts Center in Rahway, Aug. 3 at 8 p.m. The band Cool Cool Cool will open the show, and members of that band, and other musicians, will perform with Belew and Harrison. (Click HERE for a new interview with Cool Cool Cool members Chris Brouwers and Sammi Garett).
• Flutist and composer Allison Loggins-Hull, who will begin her tenure as New Jersey Symphony‘s Resident Artistic Partner in the fall, will be featured as curator, musician and host in “An Evening with Allison Loggins-Hull,” a free chamber concert taking place at Provost Square Plaza in Jersey City, Aug. 8 at 7 p.m. She will perform with New Jersey Symphony members, and the program will include music by Jessie Montgomery and Benjamin Britten.
FELICIA TEMPLE
• Felicia Temple, who competed on television’s “The Voice” in 2017, is a Teaneck native, and will celebrate the release of her Welcome Home EP with a hometown show at Debonair Music Hall in Teaneck, Aug. 2 at 8 p.m., with Natalie Imani opening.
• Eddie Clendening — who made his Broadway debut in 2010, playing Elvis Presley in the original cast of “Million Dollar Quartet” — will perform Presley’s early rockabilly songs with his own band The Blue Ribbon Boys at a free show, outdoors at Woodbridge High School, Aug. 4 at 7:30 p.m. (UPDATE: Clendening has had to cancel, due to COVID, and has been replaced by Brian Clayton & the Green River Band.)
THEATER
• “Titanic the Musical,” featuring music and lyrics by Maury Yeston and a book by Peter Stone, has opened at The Surflight Theatre in Beach Haven and will run there through Aug. 18. This musical about the doomed early 20th century ocean liner premiered on Broadway in 1997 — coincidentally, the same year that the hit movie “Titanic” was released — and ran there through 1999, winning five Tonys, including one for Best Musical.
COMEDY
• The veteran New-York based comedian Nick Griffin — who has appeared on television shows such as “Late Show With David Letterman,” “Conan” and “The Late Late Show,” and been featured in his own Comedy Central special — will perform in the Comedy Night series at The Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel, Aug. 7 at 6:30 p.m. (For a chance to win two tickets, send an email to njartscontest@gmail.com by 11 a.m. Aug. 5 with the word “Griffin” in the subject line.)
FILM
• The Axelrod Jewish International Film Festival will take place from Aug. 4 to Aug. 14, with screenings at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center in Deal and The Bell Theater at Bell Works in Holmdel. The opening-day film, “Seven Blessings” — a family comedy-drama that won Best Picture and nine other awards at the 2023 Ophir Awards (Israel’s equivalent of The Oscars) — will be shown at 4 and 7 p.m. at The Axelrod Performing Arts Center. You can watch a trailer for it below.
JESS KELLIE ADAMS
FAMILY
• The 86th annual Middlesex County Fair will take place at The Middlesex County Fairgrounds in East Brunswick, Aug. 5-11, with The High Flying Cortes Trapeze Spectacular; hypnosis and magic shows; professional wrestling; pig racing; musical performances by country singer Jess Kellie Adams (Aug. 7), Billy Joel tribute band River of Dreams (Aug. 8), children’s entertainer Mr. Ray (Aug. 10) and others; fireworks (Aug. 5 and 11) and more.
• Among the many attractions of the New Jersey State Fair/Sussex County Farm and Horse Show— taking place at Sussex County Fairground in Augusta, Aug. 2-10 — will be the fire dancing act Duo Incendio, Johnny Rocket’s Cycle Circus Live, the K9s in Flight stunt dog show, demolition derbies and Monster Truck shows, plus a performing arts tent that will offer musical performances, dance groups, talent shows and more.
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Click HERE for a list of free shows taking place throughout New Jersey.
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REVIEWS
“The Bookstore” at New Jersey Repertory Company, Long Branch. (Through Aug. 4)
“Set in Motion: Kinetic Worlds from the Studio of Richard Whitten” at Morris Museum, Morris Township. (Through Sept. 1)
“Portrait as Statement” at Halsey Arts, Newark. (Through Sept. 6)
“Morven Revealed: Untold Stories From New Jersey’s Most Historic Home” at Morven Museum & Garden, Princeton. (Through March 2)
“Bony Ramirez: Cattleya” at Newark Museum of Art. (Through March 9)
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