Search Results for: summer

A month after promoters declared the concert industry healthier than ever, big summer tours such as Ozzfest, Fleetwood Mac, the Dead and Lollapalooza have run into a concrete wall of slow sales. “Ticket sales are mixed, and in some cases they appear to be substantially off from the past,” says Alex Hodges, executive vice president of House of Blues Concerts, one of the three major U.S. promotion companies. The summer’s success stories so far are big-buzz superstar events such as Prince and Madonna, plus low-cost packages including the long-running Warped Tour, Alanis Morissette/Barenaked Ladies and No Doubt/Blink-182. Also, the three-day… Read more »

The Projekt Revolution Tour was launched by Linkin Park in 2002 to showcase a diverse range of acts and to turn the band’s fans on to music they might not normally listen to. This year the Revolution will be even more diverse, thanks to the addition of a second stage. Acts confirmed for the second stage so far include Wu-Tang Clan rapper Ghostface, Welsh emo-metal band Funeral for a Friend and rap-metal veterans Downset, with more to be announced. “There might be a couple of up-and-comers, but I think the second stage will really be groups that are on the… Read more »

She has played material girl, sex kitten, theologian and anti-capitalist activist, and this summer Madonna is getting ready to reinvent herself again. The pop legend is in rehearsals for a summer swing through North America that she’s winkingly calling her Re-Invention Tour. The show will feature songs spanning her entire career, according to her management. Madonna’s tour will launch May 24 in Los Angeles and will run through August 1 in Miami. So far, 13 dates have been scheduled, but additional concerts will soon be announced. Madonna’s most recent record, American Life, came out April 22 and has sold 630,000… Read more »

No Doubt and Blink 182 will team up for a coheadlining U.S. amphitheater tour beginning June 1 in Indianapolis and wrapping June 26 near Los Angeles. The summer dates will be planned around No Doubt singer Gwen Stefani’s work on an Interscope solo album and her role in the upcoming Martin Scorsese film “The Aviator.” “I was like, ‘Gwen, can you give me three weeks?”‘ No Doubt manager Jim Guerinot told Billboard. “I would have loved to have had a whole summer of this tour.” Added No Doubt bassist Tony Kanal in a statement: “It’s been a while since we’ve… Read more »

Making a case for hard music, stadium tours in general and Metallica’s own status as a headliner, Summer Sanitarium 2003 goes down as a winner, taking in $46.4 million and drawing 683,472 headbangers to 19 dates. The tour reaffirms the box-office clout of Metallica, which is currently in the planning stages of an extensive headlining tour next year, tentatively set to begin in March. Metallica last toured in 2000, taking in $40.5 million from only 20 shows. About a dozen of those concerts were Summer Sanitarium dates, featuring Kid Rock, Korn and others. This year’s Summer Sanitarium lineup featured Limp… Read more »

With a new single called “The Saddest Song” starting to pop up at radio stations, the Ataris are ready to move past the monster success of “The Boys Of Summer,” their accidental hit that was never supposed to be a single in the first place. Bassist Mike Davenport revealed that he doesn’t think the Ataris will end up a one-hit wonder. “I could see how that would be with some other bands, but I think with us, our fan base is so strong that they understand it, you know,” Davenport said. “But, you know, all the kids that are just… Read more »

While their cover of Don Henley’s “The Boys of Summer” may be poised to stay strong at rock radio well through the end of summer, the Ataris are looking forward to the fall. That’s when they’ll release their next single, “The Saddest Song.” Frontman Kris Roe wrote the piano-driven number about his relationship with his estranged daughter and his experience growing up without a father around. “I hope I get the chance to make it up to you/ We got a lot of catching up to do,” he sings. “We started playing that song live two years ago and kids… Read more »

You know The Ataris’ current hit “Boys Of Summer?” Those SoCal punkers actually didn’t want you to hear that tune. Ever. Well, at least not their version of it. “That was something we DID NOT want released as a single,” grunts bassist/vocalist Mike Davenport about the Don Henley cover tune. “We didn’t even want it on our album, but the record label pushed for it and it proved to be a good idea. They respected our wishes to not release it as an actual single, but the radio stations decided to play it and it caught on. There’s nothing you… Read more »

The largest North American power blackout in history plunged more than 50 million people into darkness in a 9,600-square-mile swath from the East Coast to the Midwest and Southern Canada on Thursday, affecting everything from subways in New York to the water supply in Cleveland. The outage also cut the power to a number of summer tours, knocking Bob Dylan and Tori Amos offline and sending many other bands scurrying for backup plans and places to crash for the night. An eagerly awaited hometown reunion of punk pioneers the Stooges, scheduled to play their first Detroit show in more than… Read more »