The streets are officially near empty in Huntington as the town has officially faced the mass exodus of University closing. I refuse to complain on several grounds. The first is that I wake up about five hours later now with no class obligations. The second is that traffic, pedestrian and otherwise, has improved tenfold. The last and final reason is that I am looking forward to the jealous rage all of my friends will succumb to when they return fall semester.    

The reason for the rage is the upcoming show at Huntington’s most active night spot, the V Club. Josh Ritter, a childhood folk hero of yours truly, came into town to play his brand of storytelling music. Please keep in mind, I am a fairly young guy, so childhood hero means only a few years ago. The music of Josh Ritter is delicate and beautiful, soft and sweet. The Genuine Junk Band, a local group, also played the V Club the night before as a part of their CD release party.

With all of the excitement of moving out, and the coming of Josh Ritter, I hope that you did not forget your mother last Sunday. Huntington witnessed a special Mother’s Day celebration when Hillary Clinton and her daughter Chelsea attended a service at the First United Methodist Church. Was Hillary acknowledging her fondness for Huntington from her last visit? Doubt it — the West Virginia primaries were too close to believe that.

Other than political scheming — something else is afloat in the air of our city. It is the sound of the music coming off the river as Holderby’s Landing has packed their upcoming schedule with dining and entertainment all summer long. If you have ever dreamed of listening to live acoustic music while eating dinner on a floating river boat, Holderby’s Landing is offering you 23 weeks to fulfill your dream.

The Monkey Bar, the former bastion of Huntington’s music scene, has only a few small acts planned for the upcoming weeks, with the only near A-list band on their schedule being Hatebreed, and they are not coming until June 26. The new up and coming venue, Club Echo, however, is planning on several shows in the future with a lot of heavy acts. If you are a member of the Huntington metal scene, or just want to be, Club Echo seems to have a hot show every weekend for the next few months. If you are a fan of more industrial rock, Paradox Rift is offering up a fairly impressive lineup in the next few weeks as well. The show that I will be looking forward to the most will be a performance by a set of local musicians who go by the name of Pi.

Huntington is alive and well even without the core University population. The coolest of them stayed here anyway, right? Well, it does not appear that any of the clubs are taking notice of the lack of University students, and as long as this entertainment pipeline stays fresh, I am here to hook you up to it.

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Contact Taylor at tkuykendall@graffitiwv.com