Between the games

OK, so at first I was bummed that the Patriots' march to the Super Bowl kept derailing music in the Coppertop; I mean, I was looking forward to hearing Glenn Stewart on Sunday. But I have to admit, it was pretty cool being in the company of ski-bum Pats fans surrounded by TV screens as Baltimore Ravens kicker  Billy Cundiff turned an easy field goal into a ticket to the Big Game for New England.

So now we have a couple of weeks before the big New England-New York rematch AND full snow coverage on the mountain. So, yeah, it's a good week to check out things, starting Thursday with Grand National Championships playing at 8 p.m. in the Coppertop.

On Friday night, the acoustic duo Second Base is at the mountain. WSRS-FM  morning host Greg Byrne and Ron Stacy formed Second Base alongside their duties as guitarists in the band Shaky Ground . Byrne and Stacy cover tunes that feature their vocal harmonies and guitar fretwork, hitting classic and contemporary material alike.

It's a blue Saturday  in the Coppertop with Hoodoo Revelator, the band featured in the video above. These North County guys also like to pull from different eras. Their sets draw on the blues' foundations and move into the rock 'n' roll era, though putting a traditional spin on things.

Five on Friday helms the Coppertop's afternoon show at 4 Sunday. The band features Josh Briggs and Dave Rotondo on guitars and "Bongo" Mike Sheehan on percussion. While Five on Friday can cover artists as diverse as Cee Lo and Stephen Stills, it's nice to see that Briggs recently released a CD of his own material.

 All in all, not a bad run of  pre-game shows.