Performances

Big Star’s Third:  An Orchestrated Live Performance of the Legendary Album will appear twice in June 2013.

Each show will feature guest vocalists and musicians and a chamber orchestra backed by a core band featuring Mike Mills (R.E.M.) on bass; Mitch Easter (Let’s Active), Chris Stamey (The dB’s) and Ken Stringfellow (The Posies, Big Star) on guitar; Charles Cleaver on keys; Django Haskins (of The Old Ceremony), Brett Harris and Skylar Gudasz on harmony and guitar; and original Big Star member Jody Stephens on drums.

Shows and guest performers:

Friday June 28, 2013
Vic Theater, Chicago, IL

Guest Performers: Ken Vandermark, Sally Timms (The Mekons), Ed Roeser (Urge Overkill), Tim Rutili (Califone), Gary Louris (the Jayhawks), and Josh Caterer (Smoking Popes)

Sunday, June 30, 2013
Central Park, Manhattan, NYC
7:00 PM – 10:00PM

Guest Performers: Sharon Van Etten, Richard Lloyd, Kurt Vile, Marshall Crenshaw, Pete Yorn,  Reeve Carney (Spiderman: Turn Off The Dark),  Jonathan Donahue (Mercury Rev), The Uptown Horns and Becky Stark (Lavender Diamond), a twenty- piece chamber orchestra including the famed cellist Jane Scarpantoni.

In addition to the songs of Big Star Third, the concert will feature a selection of earlier songs, including the much-hailed “September Gurls” and “In The Streets” (which was used as the theme of the popular TV sitcom “That ‘70s Show, performed by Cheap Trick).

Originally released in 1978, Third was written and recorded when the band was primarily a studio project consisting of Alex Chilton and Jody Stephens of the legendary Memphis rock band Big Star. The original members drew on the musical styles of British Invasion groups while adding their own dark, cathartic themes to Carl Marsh’s groundbreaking string arrangements. The album, while long out of print, inspired the alternative rock bands of the 80s and 90s via shared mixtapes passed hand to hand. The Replacements famously released a song “Alex Chilton” that paid tribute to his songwriting genius.  R.E.M.’s Peter Buck said, “Big Star served as a Rosetta Stone for a whole generation of musicians.”

Third is included on Rolling Stone’s “The 500 Greatest Albums of All Time”.  Experience this classic of late 70′s power pop through the prism of a one-of-a-kind collective of immensely talented fans of one of the most influential American rock bands ever.