Lafayette, La. — When you’re throwing the best Friday night party for 30 years, it should kick-off with a blowout! Get to stepping to Parc International for a huge start to the Spring 2013 season of Downtown Alive! The Spring 2013 series kicks off March 8, 2013, with The Original Pinettes, The World’s Only All-Female Brass Band! Each and every week, join us for GRAMMY winners, The Band Courtbouillon members Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and Wilson Savoy; Crowd favorite Cowboy Mouth; Silver-screen crooner Dege Legg and indie newcomers Generationals. Acadiana’s premiere concert series, Downtown Alive! (DTA!) has united community and culture to create a weekly tradition and celebration in Downtown Lafayette every Fall and Spring. This Spring, DTA! once again offers great entertainment in the form of free, smoke free, family-friendly, outdoor concerts.

Sponsored by Cox Communications, Lafayette Coca-Cola, Hampton Toyota and Super 1 Foods,  DTA! features performances by Grammy award winners, renowned and up and coming musicians representing a variety of genres: Brass, Zydeco, Swamp Pop, Cajun, Blues, Soul, Indie Rock and more. 

DTA! begins at 5:30 p.m. with food and beverage concessions – musical performances from 6:00 p.m.-8:30 p.m., unless otherwise noted. Concession sales help keep DTA! free, so please leave your ice chests at home with your pets. Downtown Alive! is produced by Downtown Lafayette in cooperation with Lafayette Consolidated Government. 

      

    

The Original Pinettes

March 8 – Parc International

Whoever said, "A dream can’t become a reality” didn’t know the world’s only all-female brass band, The Original Pinettes Brass Band, with members ranging from 17 to 40 years old. These young women have a pop formula that works hand-in-hand with their brass-band style, a vocal group panache that is tried-and-true hit material going back to the days of the rock ‘n’ roll girl groups of the early ‘60s. The catchy chants are crisp and joyful, a studied use of crowd-pleasing elements that run from Cab Calloway to Lil’ Wayne. It’s part show business, part community identity and the crowd chants along without prompting from the band. The band plays "Ghostbusters,” and when they chant "Who you gonna call?” the crowd roars back "Pinettes!” Cyndi Lauper’s "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” becomes a raucous sing-along. The pattern repeats all through the set as the band chants and the audience responds. DTA! is excited to kick-off the spring series with this extraordinary group of women!  website | image

Corey Ledet & his Zydeco Band

March 15 – Parc International

Out of today’s current crop of players, no one does what Corey Ledet does quite as well or as naturally. With dazzling trills and fingers flying dizzyingly across the keys, he whoops and hollers so exuberantly that it’s obvious he celebrates life through his playing. It’s no wonder that Ledet was nominated for a GRAMMY this year for his newest album and now you can see what all of the fuss is about! Ledet joins his Zydeco Band to bring their intoxicating throw down dance music to Parc International for the DTA! crowd! He looks forward to entertaining you! website |  image.

March 22 – Parc Sans Souci

Straight from GRAMMY consideration in 2012, the Creole String Beans are coming back to DTA! The classic New Orleans Party Band with Lafayette flavor brings exceptional taste in song selection and a repertoire that ranges far and wide from Fats Domino and Bobby Charles to Duke Ellington and NRBQ, the 'Beans are able to take their devoted dance fans to dangerous altitudes of twistin'n'shoutin' ecstasy with high energy and melodic finesse. Called "the best tasting band in New Orleans" by Chef John Besh, The Creole String Beans have defined a new era in 21st Century "Y'at Rock" on stages from the New Orleans Jazz Fest to back-o-town dives. website | image.

Cowboy Mouth

April 5 – Parc International

The name of the band is…Cowboy Mouth and you all know it! For more than 15 years, the members of Cowboy Mouth have preached and shouted at the top of their lungs the joys of being alive and the joys of being in and from New Orleans, sharing a slice of Mardi Gras heaven with fans around the world. They are Downtown Alive! crowd favorites and the biggest Friday night party in Acadiana when they take the stage! If you’re looking for a show to get you up and moving, Cowboy Mouth is a band you don’t want to miss! website | image.

Dege Legg and Black Bayou Construkt

April 12 – Parc Sans Souci

"Brother Dege”, Dege Legg is one of the best kept secrets in the Deep South. Well make that…”was” one of the best-kept secrets! Legg’s song, "Too Old to Die Young” was hand-selected by Quentin Tarantino to appear in the soundtrack of Django Unchained.  A musician, writer, workingman and heir to a long line of unusual characters born and raised in the south. His music is full of raging, dirt-earth pounding slabs of swamp heat, haunted redemption, and bell tower experimentation. Dege has pushed slide, resonators, and the deep south, kicking and screaming into the 21st century, melding elements of folk,  Delta blues, punk, rock, metal, hippie ragas and outlaw county into one blasted, raw whole. Let him and Black Bayou Construkt blow you away at DTA! website | image.

Band Courtbouillon

April 19 – Parc International

GRAMMY winners, Wayne Toups, Steve Riley and Wilson Savoy are some of the most prominent and entertaining personalities and also incredibly talented accordionists. This power-house trio is coming to Downtown Alive! for the first time and we know Acadiana would love to help celebrate their GRAMMY win for Best Regional Roots Album in 2013. We are so excited to have The Band Courtbouillon is just a few larger than life Cajun musicians sitting down to play the music they love the music they were brought up on and that you love listening and dancing to when you hear it! website | image. 

Rue Boogaloo

May 3 – Parc Sans Souci

Smack dab in the middle of where Jimmy Reed, R.L. Burnside and the Meters would all crash and smash, we find Rue Boogaloo and their delicious stew of blues and funk that will leave your ears hungry for more! Veteran members, Marty Christian, Frank Kincel and Lee Allen Zeno swing and shuffle like crazy revolving around the interlocking rhythm section of Zeno and Kincel while Christian sings on top of a slippery, funky beat creating a highly danceable, thereby Southwest Louisiana live music prerequisite! This band will change your perspective and have you dancing down Boogaloo Street and end up at Parc Sans Souci with Rue Boogaloo! website | image.

Louisiana Red

May 10 – Parc Sans Souci

Delivering classic covers and Top 40 favorites since 1972, Louisiana Red is a veteran band with a solid repertoire to send you down memory lane while incorporating a taste of contemporary music. Each musician has toured with top acts covering the U.S. and Canada. Louisiana RED has always had a reputation for its ability to perform a wide variety of music from KC & the Sunshine band to Patsy Cline to Louis Armstrong. Whether it's Pop, 50’s & 60’s, Dance, R&B, Rock, Country, Cajun two-step, Zydeco, traditional French music or Funk you want to hear, they've got you covered! website | image.

Mercy Brothers

May 17 – Parc Sans Souci

The Mercy Brothers are a Hillbilly-Gospel outfit dreamed up by Kevin Sekhani and Mark Meaux of the Bluerunners that will bring a tent revival, gospel-rocking, retro set that can come across as sincere or satire, depending on the ears their sound falls upon. Rounding out the Mercy Brothers lineup are the likes of Greg Walls, Garland Theriot, Cal Stevenson, and Andrew Duplantis for a show that is full of quirks and surprises not soon forgotten! website | image.

Sassafras Jubilee

May 24 – Parc Sans Souci

Sassafras Jubilee will lull you back to a world where the banjos, fiddles and mandolins were king! The sweet voice of Andrea Cohen provides the perfect spirited, sensual, soul-backed vocal compliment to the steady, upbeat pickings of Walter Pierce while Adam Cohen and Brent Williams provide the perfect, dream-inducing rhythm. The fast string plucking of popular bands like Mumford & Sons have nothing on this Lafayette-based band that packs a unique Lafayette punch sure to bring a new sound to Downtown Alive! this spring. You will be hearing more of this band in the future and you can say you saw them first at DTA! website | image.

LillyBrave and Generationals

May 31 – Parc Sans Souci

Driven by intense drums, duo-gender harmonic vocals, deep organ tones and smooth bass rides, LillyBrave creates deeply honest to goodness music that defines the upbeat outlook of their generation. With original, lively numbers created between multiple creative minds that have formed a selfless, unified projection that ultimately creates a living, musical expression full of soulful, melodic tunes that will excite the crowd and leave an impression. website | image.

New Orleans-based Generationals are steeped in the sounds of bygone eras. Their albums glisten with flecks of the British Invasion, doo-wop bopping from the 50s and smooth, California dreams glowing through the indie-rock porthole. Their momentous shuffle beat, pop-up horns and dreamy guitar will send you jump-running to the dance floor in a mad, groove-induced shake. Just like their electronic-shining hit, "You’re in my heart”, you’ll be serenading this anthem back to the duo when they bring their summer kickoff party to DTA! website | image.

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