Concert Reviews
Soaring upwards at The Mile High Festival
The day began as you might expect it to.
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The day began as you might expect it to.
Even early in their careers, the Beatles led charmed lives. Sure, they spent hundreds of nights playing the clubs of Hamburg before their inherent talent and practiced skill were discovered. But once they were waved into the privileged sanctum of the signed recording artist, they commanded the world’s attention.
After years of speculation, hints and fervor, Midtown is back.
In the weeks leading up to the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, the recession was the tense undercurrent beneath the excitement over its 40th anniversary. The lineup was announced early this year to extend the ticket-buying season, and other festivals canceled or scaled down. Corporate sponsors Borders, AIG and Southern Comfort withdrew their support. But any concerns about Jazz Fest’s economic well-being evaporated Saturday when Bon Jovi delivered the second-largest audience in festival history. The hard rock band was this festival’s cause célèbre, evidence for festival veterans that Jazz Fest is losing its way, trading New Orleans music for… Read more »
NASHVILLE — Watch Nathan Followill breeze into his local Nashville watering hole, and it’s obvious that he’s well known and well liked by the crew at McCabe’s Pub. Clad in sweats and a Yankees cap, the Kings of Leon drummer comes off more as cool local guy than international rock star Nothing in this manner indicates that his Nashville-based rock band’s fourth album is finally making the Kings as big in the United States as they have been in Europe since 2004, when the group had back-to-back No. 1 singles in the United Kingdom According to the band’s label, RCA,… Read more »
BROOKLYN, New York – What does Vampire Weekend frontman Ezra Koenig have in common with Sting and Gene Simmons? It’s definitely not a shared sense of style. But like Sting and Simmons, the cardigan-and-Top-Sider-sporting 23-year-old spent a year as the antithesis of the flashy, rule-breaking rock star: a teacher. Before belting out tunes like “Oxford Comma” and “A Punk” in front of sold-out crowds and landing on the cover of Spin – along with bassist Chris Baio, keyboardist Rostam Batmanglij and drummer Chris Tomson – Koenig was juggling band practice and performances with a day job as an eighth-grade teacher… Read more »
Reunited rock band Stone Temple Pilots will play their first concert in more than seven years at the Rock on the Range festival in Columbus, Ohio, on May 17, the band said Tuesday. Frontman Scott Weiland, who went on to co-found Velvet Revolver, recently entered rehab to deal with a chronic addiction. But he is expected to be ready to join forces with guitarist Dean DeLeo, his bass player brother Robert, and drummer Eric Kretz. Other acts confirmed for Rock on the Range, which also takes place May 18 at Columbus Crew Stadium, include Kid Rock, Disturbed, 3 Doors Down,… Read more »
In the months since Army of Me’s “Citizen” was released, the band has enjoyed nationwide airplay of its hit single, “Going Through Changes,” has been featured on MTV, and has toured the country. But the local rockers, whose sound would fit perfectly alongside the noises Bono and Chris Martin make, aren’t quite satisfied quite yet. “It’s like there’s this big mountain we’re trying to climb, and when you’re far away from the mountain, it doesn’t look that big,” lead singer Vince Scheurman said. “It’s like Mount Everest. There’s ‘false summits.’ When you get to one peak, there’s always another one.… Read more »
Stevie Wonder has not performed at the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival in 35 years, and has never headlined the event. Organizers want to change that this year. Wonder was scheduled to headline the second weekend of the 2008 Jazz Fest along with Billy Joel, Sheryl Crow and Louisiana native and country music star Tim McGraw, festival promoter Quint Davis said Thursday in announcing the lineup. Joel, Crow and McGraw are all festival first-timers. The last time Wonder took the stage at Jazz Fest was in 1973, when he participated in an impromptu jam session with The Meters, the… Read more »
Snatching Martin Scorsese’s eagerly awaited documentary about the Rolling Stones away from rival film festivals for the Berlinale next month is a career highlight for festival director Dieter Kosslick. The Berlin boss, humiliated when great rival Cannes poached “Motorcycle Diaries” at the last minute four years ago, said on Wednesday the buzz hasn’t even begun to wear off since he secured Scorsese’s “Shine a Light” for the February 7 opening. “We’ve been talking about this film for a year and obviously every festival director was trying to get it,” Kosslick said, adding the British band will join the American director… Read more »
