Search Results for: Hold On Tight

November 4 was a historic night for the United States, the city of Chicago and, on another level, for C3 Presents. C3, an Austin, Texas-based promoter/event producer whose principals are Charlie Jones, Charles Attal and Charlie Walker, produces Chicago’s Lollapalooza and Austin’s Austin City Limits Festival . It now has another production credit: Barack Obama ‘s election night victory rally in Chicago’s Grant Park. “It was definitely one of the coolest things I have ever been involved in,” Jones says. “It was a humbling experience and very emotional.” C3’s relationship with the Obama campaign began during the Democratic Party presidential… Read more »

These days, the old west rail hub of Las Vegas, New Mexico, is little more than a dusty economic dead zone amid a boneyard of bare mesas. In national elections, the town overwhelmingly votes Democratic: More than 80 percent of all residents are Hispanic, and one in four lives below the poverty line. On February 5th, the day of the Super Tuesday caucus, a school-bus driver named Paul Maez arrived at his local polling station to cast his ballot. To his surprise, Maez found that his name had vanished from the list of registered voters, thanks to a statewide effort… Read more »

Hot teen pop trio the Jonas Brothers have vowed to stay virgins until they wed. The three brothers, Kevin, Joe and Nick Jonas, have revealed they’ve sworn a vow of purity. Joe, 18, says, “(We’ve made) promises to ourselves and to God that we’ll stay pure till marriage.” The trio all wear purity rings to remind them of their pledge. Nick, 15, who previously dated Miley Cyrus, tells Details magazine, “I got mine made at Disney World. It’s pretty awesome.” Ten thousand screaming superfans demonstrated Wednesday night at Target Center that, after a few months as openers on the “Hannah… Read more »

KT Tunstall’s apparently tireless capacity for work makes even her laugh. “I feel like a camel,” the Scottish singer-songwriter says with a giggle. “Because I had 10 years of nothing, it does give me an enormous capacity for embracing what’s going on and remembering all that time when I was really wishing things would happen.” That’s why, after two straight years of touring and promotion behind her multiplatinum debut, “Eye to the Telescope” — first released in the United Kingdom at the end of 2004, although its U.S. release was not until February 2006 — Tunstall is, eagerly, right back… Read more »

When Fall Out Boy released their third full-length album, From Under the Cork Tree, no one realized just how well the LP would do. It ended up being one of the surprise breakout hits of 2005 and sold more than 2.5 million copies in the U.S. alone – making for much less surprising first-week sales totals for the band’s follow-up effort, Infinity on High. With close to 260,000 copies flying off record store shelves last week, FOB’s Infinity on High has earned the Chicago rockers a career first: a #1 debut on Billboard ‘s albums chart – a debut one… Read more »

Touring behind Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, the second half of Conor Oberst ‘s recent double disc release, the king of heartache tried with all his might to outplay his opening band and uphold his recent large-scale reputation. However, he was no match for indie dance rock openers The Faint. Amidst the green and purple lights, The Faint hit the stage and immediately threw the crowd into a frenzy via a few bars of violin. With bassist Joel Petersen flinging his arms to the beat and vocalist Todd Fink continuously slamming his head into the microphone, the audience was… Read more »

Touring behind Digital Ash In A Digital Urn, the second half of Conor Oberst ‘s recent double disc release, the king of heartache tried with all his might to outplay his opening band and uphold his recent large-scale reputation. However, he was no match for indie dance rock openers The Faint. Amidst the green and purple lights, The Faint hit the stage and immediately threw the crowd into a frenzy via a few bars of violin. With bassist Joel Petersen flinging his arms to the beat and vocalist Todd Fink continuously slamming his head into the microphone, the audience was… Read more »

Following the release of Fall Out Boy’s 2003 full-length debut, Take This to Your Grave, the Chicago quartet was flooded with hyperbolic praise. The group, which was signed by tiny independent label Fueled by Ramen, was declared the “next big thing” by multiple media outlets, and its album sold more than 200,000 copies. So expectations were high for the band’s major-label follow-up, From Under the Cork Tree, which came out on May 3 and will debut at #9 on next week’s Billboard albums chart. Some pundits predicted a groundbreaking pop-punk expedition, and others awaited a heart-rending emo excursion, but Fall… Read more »

Los Angeles – Out of the blue comes an e-mail from my brother, Miles: “All confirmed. Rehearsals are next Friday, and your show with Andy Summers and Incubus at the KROQ Almost Acoustic Christmas will be on Sunday.” Whaaaat? I dimly remember Miles mentioning something about this radio concert, months ago. At the time I said, “Wow, cool,” and then forgot about it. So I’m thinking about it now, a little panicked, and figure, what the heck? Of course, I had better dig out my drums and try to get some life into my wrists. I remember too vividly getting… Read more »

It wasn’t a very good night for openers Killswitch Engage, as they announced right before their set that their singer had “blown his voice” and Unearth’s frontman (who already sang that night) would be filling in. Fortunately, no angry rioting ensued, not even when they cut their set short and promised to bring a better show through town next time. Their technical defeat was accepted gracefully by the pierced-and-tattooed hordes, who gave KE a roomful of raised metal horns as a salute. Without a doubt, the night belonged to Slipknot. With Number 8 (Corey Taylor) holding up a framed award… Read more »