EXCLUSIVE: Multi-platinum singer Aaron Lewis performs live at Circle Drive-In in Dickson City on Aug. 30
From a press release:
After being forced to cancel his concert at Mohegan Sun Arena in Wilkes-Barre in May due to the coronavirus pandemic, Grammy-nominated singer/songwriter Aaron Lewis is still coming to Northeastern Pennsylvania – he’s just adjusting to these strange times.
Today, it was announced exclusively on NEPA Scene that Stage West in Scranton and DamnMillennial Promotions will bring the multi-platinum-selling artist, who is now known for his country music as well as his breakout hard rock band Staind, to the Circle Drive-In Theatre in Dickson City on Sunday, Aug. 30.
Unlike the recent Garth Brooks and Blake Shelton events that screened at drive-in theaters across the country, Lewis will be performing live in person at the Circle Drive-In. Opening acts are TBA.
Gates open at 5 p.m., and the show starts at 7 p.m. Tickets, which are $199 per vehicle for general admission (up to four guests max) and $289 per vehicle for Gold Circle parking close to the stage (up to four guests max), go on sale this Saturday, July 25 at 10 a.m. via Prekindle. For more details, visit the Facebook event page.
While still open for takeout food and Press’d juices, Stage West is unable to host big concerts under the current COVID-19 state guidelines, so the music venue has started booking at the Circle Drive-In with safety regulations in place. The first shows announced last week were two EDM “Pavement Raves” with Philadelphia dubstep producer Subtronics featuring different opening acts each night on Friday, Aug. 7 and Saturday, Aug. 8. The Saturday event has already sold out.
The Circle Drive-In (1911 Scranton/Carbondale Hwy., Dickson City) is following Department of Health recommendations and “adhering to safety protocols, mandatory face covering requirements, social distancing, and strict disinfecting and cleaning procedures.” Restrooms will be open with attendants on-site.
Anyone attending a drive-in movie or event must wear a face covering and practice social distancing. The concession stand will have limited selections and has put extra safety procedures in place.
Throughout his more than two-decade career, whether topping the charts as frontman of hard rock heroes Staind or his second act as a No. 1 artist on the country charts as a solo artist, Aaron Lewis has always been painfully honest in his music.
“That’s all I’ve ever done. My songs have always been me wearing my heart on my sleeve, and my emotions on my sleeve, and my misfortunes on my sleeve, my sins on my sleeve,” Lewis said. “I don’t feel like it would be genuine nor worthy of this crazy ride I’ve been on if it wasn’t.”
He is 100 percent open, as he has to be, about his stunning new collection, the Buddy Cannon-produced “State I’m In,” released by the Valory Music division of Big Machine Records on April 12, 2019.
“The songs I wrote on this record, they were some dark times,” he explained. “The state I’m in is not Mississippi, or Texas, or Massachusetts – it’s more about the emotional state I’m in and everything I’ve surprisingly talked about in this interview. I’m always surprised by what comes out of me. I’m always surprised by the overall content of a record. It is a flow of consciousness.”
“State I’m In” is the follow-up to “Sinner,” which went No. 1 on Billboard’s Top Country Albums, Top 200 Albums, and Top Digital Albums charts upon release chart and blasts through today’s country music doldrums like a shot of 100-proof whiskey, with the singer making zero compromises with either himself or the restrictions of a format that seems to have abandoned its rougher tendencies in favor of pop and ‘70s rock inclinations largely lacking in grit.
That led Lewis to the most vulnerable record of his career. In the gorgeously melancholy title track, he sings candidly, “I’m still working my fingers to the phone / When the show is over I sit alone / Where the angels and the devils are my only friends / And I get up in the morning and I do it again.”
Lewis, who fronted the wildly successful rock group Staind, has sold 13 million albums worldwide and four consecutive Top 3 debuts on Billboard’s Top 200, including the single “It’s Been Awhile,” which remains the most-played rock song of the decade.
