By Chip Chandler — Producer
Here's a quick take on your 10 best entertainment bets in the next 10 days.
1. Sounds of Summer
Just a few more weeks remain in the outdoor concert season. Amarillo Botanical Gardens' annual Music in the Gardens series will continue at 8 p.m. July 25 with Amarillo party band Velvet Funk and at 8 p.m. Aug. 1 with Amarillo folk-rock band The DustJackets at the gardens, 1400 Streit Drive. The Starlight Theatre series will continue at 7 p.m. July 30 with Amarillo country band The Prairie Dogs at Sam Houston Park, Line Avenue and Western Street. Center City of Amarillo's High Noon on the Square will continue its 25th anniversary with Amarillo country singer Buster Bledsoe and hamburgers from Bubba's 33 at noon July 31 on the lawn of the Potter County Courthouse, 501 S. Fillmore St.
2. These Scenes, This Order
Collegiate theater students compete against each other in this original work by Amarillo playwright Jason Driver, to be staged July 26 to Aug. 3 in the Amarillo College Experimental Theatre. Also on stage: ongoing performances of long-running outdoor musical Texas at 8:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Sundays through Aug. 17 in Pioneer Amphitheater in Palo Duro Canyon State Park; RR Bar's Lapdance burlesque and cabaret show at 10 p.m. July 27 at the bar, 701 S. Georgia St.; and Yellow City Comedy's Outlaws of Comedy show at 9 p.m. July 29 at Cactus Bar, 4831 S. Western St.
3. Chalk It Up
Come watch amateur and professional artists alike create imaginative, colorful sidewalk pieces at Amarillo College's third annual event at 8 a.m. July 27 on the Oeschger Family Mall on the Washington Street campus. Other family events include Squary Potter Day, Palace Coffee's final Harry Potter celebration, featuring activities at the Canyon Farmers Market, Burrowing Owl Bookstore and the courthouse square from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. July 27; Discovery Center Wizarding School, with wand-making, wizarding classes and more from 9:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Aug. 3 at the center, 1200 Streit Drive; and Amarillo Museum of Art's Cut Up / Cut Out Family Day celebrating its newest exhibition, from noon to 2 p.m. Aug. 3 at the museum, 2200 S. Van Buren St.
4. Original Harley Party
The 25th annual party will begin at 5 p.m. July 27 at 10th Avenue and Polk Street, benefitting Family Support Services and featuring music from The Buster Bledsoe Band, Lindsey Lane and Texas Tumbleweed Junction. Also for the charitably minded: Long Wooden Spoon Brewing's Pints for Pups at 6 p.m. July 27 at the brewery, 4098 Business Park Drive, benefitting Amarillo SPCA and featuring music from Honey Badger and Monarch and food from Coast to Coast, Stix, Kountry Boyz and Marble Slab.
5. Amarillo Bombers
The Yellow City soccer squad continues its playoff run with a 6 p.m. July 27 game against the Falls Town Flyers in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex Coliseum, 401 S. Buchanan St. In other sports action: the Amarillo Sod Poodles have games scheduled Aug. 1 to 4 against the Frisco Roughriders, and the Flashlight Shootout street racing event at 3 p.m. July 27 at Amarillo Dragway, 12955 Burlington Road.
6. Hobbs & Shaw
Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson and Jason Statham branch out on their own in this high-speed Fast & Furious spinoff opening Aug. 2 (previewing Aug. 1). Opening July 26: Quentin Tarantino's Tinseltown epic Once Upon a Time in Hollywood. Special engagements will include 40th anniversary screenings of The Muppet Movie on July 25 and 30; 30th anniversary screenings of Kiki's Delivery Service on July 28, 30 and 31 as part of the Studio Ghibli Fest 2019; and Kathy Griffin: A Hell of a Story on July 31. Plus, look for a free screening of How to Train Your Dragon 3: The Hidden World at 9 p.m. July 26 at John Stiff Memorial Park, 4800 S. Bell St.
7. XIT Rodeo & Reunion
Saddle up for the 83rd annual Dalhart rodeo from Aug. 1 to 3, featuring a free watermelon feed on Aug. 1, free pork chops on Aug. 2 and the world's largest free barbecue on Aug. 3, plus concerts from Mike Chism & Hollow Point on Aug. 1, The Bellamy Brothers on Aug. 2 and Cooder Graw on Aug. 3. Also on tap for cowboy lovers: National Day of the Cowboy on July 27 at American Quarter Horse Hall of Fame & Museum, 2601 E. Interstate 40; the 61st White Deer Rodeo on July 26 and 27; and the third annual Oliver Cowboy Celebration 3-in-1 Ranch Rodeo and Open Ranch Bronc Ride at 6 p.m. July 27 at Will Rogers Range Riders Arena, 313 W. Loop 335 South.
8. First Friday Art Walk
Enjoy one final stroll through the galleries at 5 p.m. Aug. 2 at Arts in the Sunset, 3701 Plains Blvd. (Plans call for the majority of the old Sunset Mall to be demolished, but the walks could return in a new incarnation once construction is finished, officials said.)
9. Aaron Watson
The Amarillo native will continue the celebration of his release of Red Bandana, the latest album in his 20-year career, with an 8 p.m. Aug. 2 show with Ned LeDoux and Ross Cooper at Starlight Ranch Event Center, 1415 Sunset Drive. Other live music offerings of note: singer-songwriter Ryan Paul Davis at 7 p.m. July 25 at La Bella's Pizza, 3801 Olsen Blvd.; rock band Shred Flintstone at 9 p.m. July 25, pop-punk bands Sarchasm and Dead Words at 9 p.m. July 28 and Amarillo surf-rock band The Mag 7 at 9 p.m. Aug. 2 at The 806 Coffee + Lounge, 2812 S.W. Sixth Ave.; pianist Neal Nossaman and singer Keralee Clay at 7 p.m. July 26 and Austin Brazille Trio at 9 p.m. July 26 at Esquire Jazz Club, 626 S. Polk St.; Fleetwood Mac tribute band Forever Mac at 8 p.m. July 26 and The Josh Abbott Band at 8 p.m. July 27 at Starlight Ranch Event Center; a songwriter night with Lindsey Lane, Darby Sparkman and Bob Simpson at 8 p.m. July 26 at Joe Daddy's, 2108 Paramount Blvd.; a CD release party for Americana singer Chuck Hawthorne at 8 p.m. July 26 at Long Wooden Spoon Brewing; Tejano artist Michael Salgado at 8:30 p.m. July 26 at Tejano Wild West, 1200 S.E. 10th Ave.; Amarillo band Texas Love Company at 10 p.m. July 26, Texas rock favorites The Electric Gypsies at 10 p.m. July 27, Voice contestant Jake Worthington at 10 p.m. Aug. 1, Texas country singer-songwriter John Baumann at 10 p.m. Aug. 2 and Texas country singer Bri Bagwell at 10 p.m. Aug. 3 at Hoots Pub, 2424 Hobbs Road; and punk band Franks & Deans with The Bastard Sons of David Hasselhoff at 10 p.m. July 26 at Leftwoods, 2511 S.W. Sixth Ave.
10. Ama-Con
Friends of the Amarillo Public Library's eighth-annual pop-culture celebration will return Aug. 3 (and 4) in the Amarillo Civic Center Complex, 401 S. Buchanan St. Other fests of note: the new Wild & Free on 83, a five-community family festival in Canadian, Wheeler, Shamrock, Wellington and Childress beginning Aug. 1; the Hey Amarillo Beer Fest at 5 p.m. Aug. 3 at Starlight Ranch Event Center; and the 16th annual Don W. Houghton Polk Street Cruise at 6 p.m. Aug. 3 in downtown Amarillo.
Chip Chandler is a producer for Panhandle PBS and a member of GALECA. He can be contacted at Chip.Chandler@actx.edu, at @chipchandler1 on Twitter and on Facebook.
