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Sweet Siren energizes crowd during Thursday concert

Photo by Jake McNeill Lead singer Carolyn Curfman hits some high notes as Sweet Siren entertains the Sounds of Summer crowd on Thursday night.

MARSHALL — Sweet Siren kicked off the music scene at this year’s Marshall Sounds of Summer Thursday night when they performed on the stage across the street from Memorial Park.

The concert drew an audience of all ages. A group of around a dozen young kids danced in front of the stage with their mothers, running and jumping around like the Energizer bunny. Others simply watched from the picnic tables lined up throughout the venue, soaking in the music while enjoying a snack from one of the several locally-based food trucks parked at the entrance of the venue.

The annual music festival is something that attracts locals every year, regardless of music taste, said Ross Anderson, who has lived in Marshall for 22 years now. Anderson said that no matter who is playing, he always enjoys walking down the street and taking part in the festivities.

Sweet Siren plays primarily rock covers, although not necessarily of rock music. Oftentimes, they took songs such as Lady Gaga’s “Applause” and arranged it in such a way that the loud electric guitar bended the genre to something beyond pop. Additionally, they threw in a few country classics, such as Florida-Georgia Line’s “Cruise”

Sweet Sirens have taken the stage with a number of more nationally recognized artists, such as Bret Michaels and .38 special, and it certainly showed in their showmanship. The harsh parking lot lights were an afterthought when they were pierced by the colored floodlights and lasers projected out from the stage.

They emerged from the clouds of fog onto the stage at 8:20 p.m. and opened with a cover of Pitbull and Ke$ha’s 2013 hit,“Timber.” With about a couple hundred people inside, the parking lot was not full, but those in attendance were clearly energized by the performance.

Kara Berkner, who has been to the festival each of the past few years, said that she was much more excited for this year’s performance. While she had come in past years, she checked out Sweet Siren’s music in advance thought the organizers did a particularly good decision in this year’s booking.

Not everyone in attendance was as familiar with the festival. Chase Jackson, 29, said he enjoyed listening to the music this year because, while he had a good experience last year, the music wasn’t central to his memory of the festival.

“I actually came to Marshall right before this happened last year,” Jackson said. “It was kind of overwhelming for me, but I got to meet a lot of people around town by coming here.”

The music will continue Saturday night with a performance by Time Machine at 9:00 p.m. featuring a fireworks show at 10:00.

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