Charlotte, North Carolina · September 9–13, 2026
Virgo Season Bday Week
Five days of live music, good food, Browns football, and grown Charlotte energy.
Wednesday through Sunday in Charlotte. Two headline nights — the Friday concert and the Sunday Browns opener — with the rest of the week filled in around them. Come to one thing or come to all of it.
Video via YouTube · JazzArts Charlotte. Plays in a privacy-enhanced embed.
Main event · Friday
September 11 · 7:00 PM
Sherrod's Big Birthday Concert & Open Jam
Featuring
Quentin Talley& The Soul Providers
The Common Market Plaza Midwood · The back patio
Join us for a free night of live music in the heart of Plaza Midwood, featuring acclaimed Charlotte artist Quentin Talley & The Soul Providers. Expect a soulful blend of spoken word, jazz, funk, and R&B—with the night opening up into a real community jam session. Musicians are welcome to bring their instruments and sit in. Come celebrate Sherrod's birthday, support Charlotte music, and enjoy the patio.
Why here
Blake Barnes opened The Common Market on 8 December 2002, during an ice storm, in an old barbershop on Commonwealth Avenue in a part of town nobody wanted. Sixteen people came in on the first day. He is a retired musician, and by his own account he built the place on tallboy PBRs and loose cigarettes. It has not closed for a single day since — twenty-three years straight — while the neighbourhood around it turned over and over. It calls itself your neighbourhood living room. Sherrod calls it one of the last real places left, and it is where he landed when he first moved to Charlotte in 2014. Quentin Talley was one of the first artists he saw play after he got here. Friday, Talley headlines his birthday, on that patio.
- Where
- The Common Market Plaza Midwood, back patio
- Admission
- Free
- Open jam
- Bring an instrument and sit in
More on Quentin Talley & The Soul Providers
Quentin “Q” Talley is a Charlotte actor, director, poet and producer whose work puts Black Southern stories on stage through theatre, spoken word and music. In 2006 he founded OnQ Productions, Charlotte's first Black-led theatre company, and he has spent nearly two decades on that work — including Soulful Noel, which the city now treats as a holiday tradition.
He formed Quentin Talley & The Soul Providers around 2015: a band built to carry his poetry, with jazz, funk and soul underneath a poet's delivery. Queen City Nerve described the result as upbeat, uplifting soulful jazz — and, perfectly, as a plea for socialization. As a poet he has shared stages with Nikki Giovanni, Amiri Baraka, Sonia Sanchez and MC Lyte, and his work has been featured by PBS North Carolina, JazzArts Charlotte and Charlotte SHOUT!
The Common Market Plaza Midwood
Main event · Sunday
September 13 · 1:00 PM
Browns Opening Day at 24K
The game
Cleveland Browns at Jacksonville Jaguars
24K Bistro & Lounge
We're closing Sherrod's birthday weekend with the Browns season opener at 24K Bistro & Lounge, owned by the family of Browns first-round pick KC Concepcion — a Charlotte kid. Join @dawgpoundcharlotte as the Browns take on Jacksonville at 1:00 PM. DJ Tramare keeps the energy going, and Sunday Funday continues from there. Come for kickoff and stay for the celebration.
About the room
24K is one of northwest Charlotte's newer rooms, out at Northlake just off I-77, and it bills itself as Charlotte's newest bistro and lounge. It's a hybrid: elevated plates on one side, a lounge on the other, with low light, a busy bar, DJ sets and weekend brunch. Doors open at noon on Sundays and it runs until midnight. For the opener it's football gear and casual — wear your colours.
- Kickoff
- 1:00 PM Eastern · CBS
- Music by
- DJ Tramare
- After the game
- Sunday Funday
- With
- @dawgpoundcharlotte
- Dress
- Football gear and casual
The football part
Cleveland plays at Jacksonville on Sunday, September 13 at 1:00 PM on CBS. There's a storyline built in: the Browns traded with Jacksonville to draft KC Concepcion, and Week 1 is at Jacksonville.
Concepcion went 24th overall in the first round of the 2026 draft. He is a Charlotte kid — he moved here at three and won back-to-back state championships at Julius L. Chambers High School — and he played at NC State and Texas A&M. In 2025 he posted 61 catches for 919 yards and nine receiving touchdowns, earned first-team All-SEC recognition, won the Paul Hornung Award as college football's most versatile player, and was named a first-team Associated Press All-American.
Dawg Pound Charlotte were Brownstown Midwood before the rebrand — the same neighbourhood the week opens in on Wednesday and peaks in on Friday.
The rest of the week
Everything Going On
Friday and Sunday are the two headline nights. Everything below runs around them, and every one is optional — pick what you want. Two of the five days are in Plaza Midwood; the neighbourhood does a lot of the work this week.
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Wed Sep 9 8:00 PMKickoff at Pinhouse
Pinhouse, Plaza Midwood
2306 Central Avenue, Charlotte, NC 28205
An easy first night in Plaza Midwood — big patio, big screens, and the balcony over Veterans Park.
Pinhouse opened on Central Avenue in July 2019 and became one of Plaza Midwood's anchor hangouts: over 6,000 square feet, a full bar, two outdoor seating areas, a huge patio, big screens, and a balcony that looks straight out over Veterans Park. Seven years in it still runs on the same premise — it's where the neighbourhood goes when it wants a night rather than a dinner.
The plan is dinner from Touché, the new restaurant next door, but that arrangement belonged to the previous tenant and nobody has confirmed Touché is carrying it on. Treat the food as a maybe until we say otherwise; the night works either way.
Wednesday programme to confirmTouché dinner arrangement to confirm -
Thu Sep 10 8:00 PMLive Music Thursday at Marquee
Marquee Charlotte, Tuckaseegee Road
3131 Tuckaseegee Road, Charlotte, NC 28208
A live band, a featured vocalist and a DJ between sets — with a section held for the group.
Marquee bills itself as Charlotte's premier luxe lounge: an opulent room on Tuckaseegee Road, tapas, a proper cocktail list, and a different night every night of the week. Thursday belongs to Live Music Thursday — the Rhythm4U Band with a rotating featured vocalist, DJ Styles between sets, and an open mic for singers who want it.
The room opens at 5:00 PM and the music starts at 8:00, with no cover. 8:00 is the group's time.
Section reservedSeptember 10 vocalist announced week-ofSection terms to confirm -
Sat Sep 12 11:00 AM–4:00 PMRnBrew: Dear Summer 2026
Urban District Market, NoDa
2315 N Davidson Street #300, Charlotte, NC 28205
R&B, coffee, cocktails, DJs, and daytime energy—with a special ticket block for Sherrod's birthday group.
RnBrew calls itself a community social rather than a day party: live DJs playing R&B, Afropiano, soulful house and global grooves, coffee poured alongside cocktails, games, and room to actually talk to people. Dear Summer 2026 is the end-of-summer edition, back at Urban District Market in full festival format, and it runs in three moves — Social Sip to warm the room, Groove Shift for the 90s and 00s R&B, and Power Hour to finish.
Urban District Market is a 20,000 sq ft food hall in a converted textile building where NoDa, Villa Heights and Optimist Park meet, with about a dozen family-owned stalls and free parking.
DJ LP promotes Saturday's RnBrew — a Hampton classmate of Sherrod's, which is how the group block came about.
Ticket requiredGroup block still being arrangedDJ lineup not yet announcedTickets on PoshTickets are advance only — none are sold at the door, so do not plan on paying on the day. Buy yours now if you do not want to wait. If it shows sold out, contact Sherrod — we hold a reserved block that is not on public sale, and he can get you in. Either way, tick RnBrew on the form so he knows to count you.
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Sat Sep 12 7:00 PMDinner at Mr. Charles, then Uptown
Mr. Charles Chicken & Fish, Uptown
413 Dalton Avenue, Suite F, Charlotte, NC 28206
Soul food at 7:00, then Uptown for as long as the night holds.
Mr. Charles didn't open so much as grow out of a neighbourhood. Willie James Rhynes was born in Charlotte's First Ward in 1935 and educated at Second Ward High, the city's first high school for Black students. By the 1970s he owned restaurants, nightclubs, grocery stores and pool halls along the Statesville Avenue corridor — including the Big Apple, home of the Annual Labor Day Party. That building became Mr. Charles Chicken & Fish. The name belongs to a family friend who leased them the original building for nothing. Rhynes died in 2024 at 89; the family runs three Charlotte rooms now, and the Uptown one puts live R&B on on Saturdays.
It's about a ten-minute drive from RnBrew in NoDa, so the gap between 4:00 and dinner is comfortable.
Where the night goes after dinner is deliberately unplanned.
Group reservation to confirm -
Sun Sep 13 11:00 AMWorship at First Mt. Calvary
First Mt. Calvary Baptist Church
209 West 28th Street, Charlotte, NC 28206
Sunday service at 11:00, with Sherrod on bass.
First Mt. Calvary was organised around 1905 in a three-room house in Dulstown. Charlotte's urban renewal displaced it repeatedly through the 1960s and 70s — the same forces that erased Brooklyn — until the congregation moved into 209 West 28th Street in February 1980, where it still worships. Rev. James Hawthorne Sr. then served thirty-two years; since 2016 the church has been led by Rev. Dr. Kevin J. Griffin.
Come as you are — casual or formal, both are welcome. Parking is on West 28th Street, with overflow in the grassy area on Poplar Street and accessible parking near the main entrance.
Service runs about ninety minutes. If you're doing both, plan to head straight out at the end — expect to catch kickoff at 24K rather than the pre-game.
Sherrod on bass
RSVP
Tell him what you're in for
Pick the parts you're in for. Nothing here is all-or-nothing, and you can send the form again if your plans change.
The film
Twenty years of this,
in under two minutes
Made by friends, for the run-up to the week. Sound on.
Plays in a privacy-enhanced embed. Nothing loads from YouTube until you press play.
The rooms
Charlotte rooms across five days — plus 24K Bistro & Lounge for the Browns opener on Sunday.