The August Weekend That Makes Up for All of July

We told you in July to circle August. Here's the payoff. The weekend of August 14–16 is the fullest three-day stretch on the summer calendar, and — this being Columbus — nearly all of it happens inside a two-block radius of Broadway. Pace yourself.

Friday, Aug 14 — a double feature at The Loft. Start early with Gotta Sing: '80s, an 8 p.m. singalong revue built for people who know every word to songs they'd deny in daylight ($18 advance / $28 door). Then stick around, because the night's real heat arrives at 9:30 when Dyer Davis plugs in. Davis is the genuine article in Southern blues-rock: his debut Dog Bites Back climbed to No. 6 on the Billboard Blues chart, and his 2025 follow-up Kiss the Ring (Valley Rose / Big Wing) cemented a sound Downbeat praised for singing "as if he were probing a deep recess within him." A blues guitarist that pedigreed, in a room that small, for a $10 cover, is the kind of value that only exists in towns not yet ruined by their own ticket prices.

Saturday, Aug 15 — Starboro headlines The Loft. The weekend's marquee local-ish bill, Starboro, takes the upstairs stage at 8 p.m. ($20). This is the ticketed-Saturday slot The Loft reserves for acts with real draw, so buy ahead rather than gamble at the door.

Sunday, Aug 16 — soul with your biscuits. Cool the weekend down where we told you to: the Mike Jerel Sunday Brunch at the Goetchius House on Broadway. Columbus's own R&B-and-soul export — CSU alumnus, Ashburn native, self-described purveyor of "music for the soul" — brings a homecoming set to a midday room. "I want there to be so much joy in the air," Jerel has said of his hometown gigs. On a Sunday afternoon, with the weekend behind you, that's the correct closing note.

Why this weekend matters. Three nights, three completely different rooms of the same scene: a rowdy blues-rock double bill, a ticketed-headliner Saturday, and a soul brunch to exhale into. It's a compressed tour of everything Columbus's small-venue circuit does well — cheap discovery, real touring talent, and homegrown pride — all walkable, all Uptown. If July was the town rehearsing, this is opening weekend.

Logistics, because we care. The Loft's Friday and Saturday shows are 21-plus after certain hours; grab dinner downstairs to make a night of it. Parking Uptown is easy by big-city standards and the whole itinerary is walkable, so pick a garage and leave the car. And if the heat wins, the Chattahoochee and its whitewater are right there for a Saturday-afternoon reset before Starboro.

Looking ahead. Don't unpack the calendar yet. The following Saturday, August 22, the RiverCenter's Bill Heard Theatre goes big with a Michael Jackson tribute — more on that this weekend. August, as promised, is the movie.

But first, this weekend. Blues on Friday, a headliner Saturday, soul on Sunday, all within a few hundred feet of one another. July owes you. August is paying up.

Sources: The Loft Columbus — Events; Dyer Davis — About