All photos by Tracy May.

The last time I was at The Ritz was for the fateful Corrosion of Conformity show where (4) people were stabbed with (1) ultimately dying. I'd heard a lot about the near million dollar renovation the venue had gone through prior to reopening a year (really? it's been a whole year?) ago but I had not seen it yet. What better chance than for their free, one year anniversary show featuring one of my favorite songwriters, Grayson Capps (pictured with hair swinging at right)?

The venue itself is beautiful and the acoustics are dramatically improved. Granted, I am judging the latter on one show but Grayson and the Stumpknockers were loud and they sounded great and the re-configured ballroom is infinitely more conducive to live music than it used to be. While this isn't supposed to be a review of the venue I wanted to mention it 'cause they did a fantastic job and I look forward to seeing more shows there.

This article appears in Jun 24-30, 2009.