Free, Floydian, and Funky: The Ruby Lights Up Friday Night
The clubs are hibernating, the students are scattered across three time zones, and the smart money this weekend is on a lawn chair by the Monongahela. Friday, July 10, the Ruby Summer Concert Series rolls out its next free installment at Hazel Ruby McQuain Park: Dark Side of the Moonshine, a Pink Floyd tribute, with Morgantown's own Alex Heflin & The Moot Point opening. Music at 7 p.m. Admission, as always, zero dollars.
Let's talk about the headliner, because a Pink Floyd tribute can go one of two ways — reverent or ridiculous. Dark Side of the Moonshine, a West Virginia–and–Pennsylvania outfit, files firmly under reverent. The band pitches itself on "precision, discipline, and a deep respect for the music," with members who've shared stages and studios with Grammy-winning artists. Translation: this is the crew that sweats the reverb tails on "Us and Them" and actually nails the vocal climb on "The Great Gig in the Sky." On a river at dusk, with the sky doing its own light show, "Wish You Were Here" is going to hit like a freight train.
The opener is the real local flex. Alex Heflin & The Moot Point grew out of Heflin's 2020 solo work into a funk-jazz fusion quartet — Heflin on tenor guitar, Jonah Henthorne on drums, Ryan Quickel on keys, Mason Atha on bass. Their sets blend Heflin originals with "an eclectic mix of funk, jazz, and other idioms," which is a polite way of saying they'll groove you into next week before the Floyd guys even plug in. If you like your jam bands with actual chops, get there for the opener, not just the headliner.
Here's why the Ruby matters more than the average free show. This is city-funded, community-facing programming that has quietly become one of the region's biggest summer draws — a series the arts department frames as a seasonal tradition, not a one-off. In a July when WVU is empty and 123 Pleasant Street's marquee is dark, the Ruby is doing the heavy lifting of keeping live music alive in this town. That's civic infrastructure disguised as a good time.
Logistics for the uninitiated: it's a bring-your-own-chair, family-friendly, food-truck-adjacent affair, and the good grass goes fast. The series runs on community donations because artist fees climb every year, so if you've got a few bucks, the concert-series fund is tax-deductible and takes any amount. Consider it rent on the best free ticket in North-Central West Virginia.
Two tributes and a funk band walk onto a riverfront stage, and it costs you nothing. In a quiet Morgantown July, that's not a consolation prize — it's the whole point.
Sources: Dark Side of the Moonshine – July 10 (Ruby Amphitheater); Ruby Summer Concert Series (Ruby Amphitheater); Ruby Summer Concert Series gets underway (WV MetroNews)