Summer Moons Series still going strong

The summer is winding down, but you wouldn’t know it by dropping in on the Rockaway Artists’ Alliance’s (RAA) Summer Moons Series, a weekly concert event that has run every Thursday since June 21, the first day of summer.
The series ends August 30, with the penultimate show taking place Thursday, August 23. The upcoming show will feature local bands Gutenflower and Matty Lyons and Friends.
Gutenflower, formed in Brooklyn in 2005, generates a unique sound by fusing aspects of pop, punk and rock, while Matty Lyons and Friends offers everything from rock to country to improvised jamming.
Rattrap Bumpkin, a four-year-old Rockaway-based band, will also play the next installment of Summer Moons. The band’s style, while rooted in rock, offers glimpses of punk, blues and grunge.
The show will also feature locally-based John Henry Sheridan and the Pencil People.
The Summer Moons series begins at 7 p.m. each week, and typically runs well into the early hours of the morning, said RAA Office Manager Stephanie Bellomo. The most recent show, she explained, lasted until 2 a.m.
“We try to fill up the night as much as possible,” said Bellomo.
RAA is a non-profit organization whose mission is to provide local artists with a means of exposure. With two galleries side-by-side in Gateway National Recreation Area in Rockaway, RAA hosts about ten art shows each year. In addition, RAA offers a summer camp for kids, as well as a free after-school program that gives kids the opportunity to try arts and crafts, music, theater, and other artistic endeavors.
“We’re exposing kids to art,” said Bellomo. “When I was little, I wish something like that was around. I grew up painting and drawing. I wish I had a place like that to go.”
The Summer Moons Series is held at RAA’s Moonstage, an outdoor stage between RAA’s two galleries at Fort Tilden, Beach 169th Street in Rockaway. If it rains, said Bellomo, the concert will move inside.
Earlier performances in the series included local acts like Cool Hand Lou and the Downtown Daddy-O’s and Squid.