Search Results for: so what music festival

Dashboard Confessional and Jack Johnson played acoustic, and Beck and Coldplay celebrated Christmas, but otherwise KROQ-FM’s annual Almost Acoustic Christmas was a two-day, 20-act festival all about rocking. And the sold-out event was certainly crammed with rock and roll moments, particularly the announced live debut of Audioslave (they played a secret club show the night before), and an amusing rendition of “Do They Know It’s Christmas?” orchestrated by Beck and the Flaming Lips and featuring Coldplay’s Chris Martin, Dashboard Confessional’s Chris Carrabba, Johnson and a horribly off-key Juliette Lewis. (Click here for photos from the show.) Audioslave were the talk… Read more »

Eddie Vedder has found plenty of material in mortality over the years. His band, Pearl Jam, was born of a heroin overdose more than a decade ago. Rival songwriter Kurt Cobain of Nirvana committed suicide while at the height of popularity. Two of Pearl Jam’s biggest hits, “Jeremy” and “Last Kiss,” deal with teen death. Now comes renewal, an appropriate topic as the lead singer and his bandmates re-emerge from their most proximate shock: the deaths of nine fans trampled during the 2000 Roskilde festival in Denmark. “Riot Act,” released Nov. 12, is Pearl Jam’s first studio album since the… Read more »

No, Ron Jeremy won’t be emceeing the proceedings and Jenna Jameson won’t be dancing onstage, but Sum 41’s Sum on Your Face Tour will provide select fans an opportunity to see the band’s rock-hard stuff in an up-close and intimate setting. All dates on the 17-show tour, which begins October 31 in Dallas, have been booked at small clubs and the only way to purchase tickets is through the band’s official Web site, starting Saturday. The mini-tour will hit markets on both coasts as well as the South and the Midwest. The last date will be November 30 in San… Read more »

“Some bands, when they go away for a while, people start talking bad about you.” said Benji, guitarist for Good Charlotte. “It’s good to come home and see all you kids still supporting us,” said lead singer, Joel, finishing his twin’s comment. Good Charlotte has always been a live band. Both their Self-Titled debut, as well as their sophomore effort, The Young and The Hopeless, tries to capture their spirit – and while some of the fun shines through the recording, nothing can match the energy of their live show. Playing to a packed crowd for their CD Release at… Read more »

In true punk spirit, rowdy music fans pelted the Sex Pistols with beer on Saturday as the one-time scourge of the British establishment played its first U.S. concert in six years outside Los Angeles. The hailstorm may have been meant as an homage to the band’s own anti-establishment roots, but drenched singer John Lydon was having none of it, labeling one thrower a “turd” and a “wuss,” to the delight of the 50,000-strong crowd. The Sex Pistols, who briefly ruled the music world in the late 1970s with such incendiary anthems as “God Save The Queen” and “Anarchy in the… Read more »

Axl Rose may have declared “Round One” at Guns n’ Roses’ recent performance at the MTV Video Music Awards, but Slash is getting ready for Round Two. “I’m doing a fucking record with me, [bassist] Duff [McKagan] and [drummer] Matt Sorum,” the former Gn’R guitarist said this past weekend at the San Diego Street Scene festival, where he was on hand to pay tribute to Jimi Hendrix. “Dave Pusher is playing guitar right now, and we got the baddest fucking, be-all, end-all rock & roll band.” The as-yet-unnamed band (“If I had a name, I’d tell you,” Slash says) is… Read more »

No Doubt, Sum 41 and Nappy Roots are among the acts lined up for this year’s Voodoo Music Experience. The fourth annual event, which boasts three stages, over 20 acts and 12 straight hours of music, will take place in New Orleans City Park in New Orleans, Louisiana, on November 2. This year’s lineup also features the Crystal Method, 311, Garbage, Counting Crows, (hed)pe, Macy Gray, the X-ecutioners, Galactic, DJ Z-Trip, Jurassic 5, Michael Franti & Spearhead, Jack Johnson, the North Mississippi Allstars and the Blind Boys of Alabama. Last year’s Experience also featured a diverse lineup that included Tool,… Read more »

Sitting in an outdoor cafe for lunch the other day, Richard McDonnell mentioned he was working on just three hours of sleep. The former investment banker, who founded and runs the small, independent record label MAXJAZZ, was up nearly the entire night before in St. Louis, reading up on key buyers at record retail chains. Now he was in Washington for an afternoon meeting at the Kennedy Center, then had plans to go to Chicago the next day to see one of the singers on his roster, Carla Cook, perform at the Chicago Jazz festival. This whirlwind schedule is not… Read more »

Avril Lavigne looked at home onstage during her Opening Act performance before Thursday’s MTV Video Music Awards, but she need not get too comfortable. The Best New Artist in a Video winner will not actually tour until next year. “My album just came out, so it’s been promotions, going to other countries,” Lavigne explained backstage at the ceremony. “I won’t be on a tour bus until after Christmas. I’m like, ‘Come on, hurry up!’ I know I’m going to love it. I’ll get to sleep in the same bed every night. And it will just be fun being with my… Read more »

Should Sum 41 decide to record a cover while working on their second full-length, John Cougar Mellencamp’s “Hurts So Good” might be a fitting selection. In addition to tracking the follow-up to last year’s All Killer No Filler, the Canadian quartet are creating an EP by their alter ego, Pain for Pleasure. They hope to have both releases out in late November. Fans may remember Pain for Pleasure as the group who looked frighteningly similar to Sum 41, only dressed like metalheads, performing their namesake song as a coda to the “Fat Lip” video. But this time out, the pop-punks’… Read more »