Archive for the ‘Concerts’ Category
Live: Mumford & Sons (Support: Fanfarlo, Andrew Davie) 09/03/10
Having purchased the tickets months ago, I’d been looking forward to seeing the bloody lovely Mumford & Sons right in my own city; folking it up like the scruffy chaps they are. I was not disappointed. First up was Andrew Davie: a man endearingly out of his depth in a packed venue. Despite the incessant chatter during his set, the warm applause from members of the audience enamoured with his smooth vocals was great to hear. Davie’s simple lyrics and instant accessibility point to a performer with plenty of potential.
Main support came from Fanfarlo, who are one of the country’s best-kept secrets. Mixing the whimsy of Arcade Fire with the delicate ease of Noah and the Whale, the band strum, yelp, bash and toot their way through a short but sweet set of enjoyable indie-folk. Their soaring harmonies and instrumental wizardry captures the attention of an increasingly impatient audience, and in the end the band come away having impressed just about everyone in the room. Get hold of their records now, they’re well worth the investment. continue reading
HammerFall Rocks NYC
One of Sweden’s top metal bands, HammerFall, performed last night at the Fillmore at Irving Plaza in Manhattan. I attended the concert along with my younger brother and best friend.
Like most of the classic metal bands, the top power metal bands around the globe sound incredible live in concert. HammerFall was no different. They were crisp, clear and not too loud. Now, don’t get me wrong, I like loud shows, but in such a small venue with such a huge band, the volume was perfect. The bass did not overpower the guitars and the drums and vocals were on point.
HammerFall’s overall performance was outstanding. They were so much fun to watch and sing along with.
If you enjoy fun music, give them a listen.
HammerFall homepage: http://hammerfall.net/
The real reason why Howard Jones had to leave KsE’s tour may now be coming to light – and it is tabloid worthy.
Quick recap before I get to the real news so that everyone is caught up.
I went to Killswitch Engage’s first show of their headlining tour this winter back on February 4th. After just five days, lead singer Howard Jones suddenly dropped off the tour due to “unforeseen circumstances” as the band’s official press release put it. That led to much speculation about Jones leaving the band.
But replacement singer Phil Labonte said that he was just filling in until Howard “gets better,” leading most people to believe that he was just hurt or sick. It was then reported that Jones had fallen on some stairs and hurt his back and that was why he left the tour. OK, that’s understandable. Still, if that was the case, the band should have come out and said that instead of letting damaging rumors swirl.
But now ThePRP has exclusively learned the alleged real reason as to why Jones left the tour:
IMPREGNATING A PORNSTAR!
Hahaha, who says they don’t make rockstar debauchery like they used to?
The pornstar in question is Allie Foster (pictured), who took to Twitter yesterday to announce:
Howard Jones of Killswitch engage, meet TMZ and your bitter baby momma coming with sweet sweet fuckin revenge you dirtbag.
Hmm, that sounds like good inspiration for a Killswitch song, but I digress.
She then goes on to Tweet that Howard is married and that he has been pressuring her to get an abortion. Of course, there is a post on her Twitter today which claims that her account was hacked and that she did not post any of that. So who the eff really knows? I mean she did post a picture of her baby bump.
I doubt this is the end of what has become a wildly interesting story of cover-up and deception. But come on Howard, bag it up next time!
-Sam
Here’s a story to file under WTF.
A 31 year old quadriplegic man got impaled at an AC/DC concert in Brisbane this weekend. Yes, you read that right – impaled.
Here’s how it apparently went down.
The disabled guy was a former truck driver who was paralyzed after an accident and now had to use a motorized wheelchair. The concert venue had a special wheelchair podium on the side of the floor where the man was seated along with his friend. But at some point during AC/DC’s set, the man’s friend was dancing, and in the course of his gyrations he hit the wheelchair’s control joystick which “catapulted him into the moshpit.”
And then:
Witnesses said a metal pin used by the 31-year-old Morningside man to manoeuvre objects became a spear and imbedded in his eye as his chair crashed more than a metre to the centre’s floor.
That hurts just thinking about it.
The man is now out of intensive care but is still in serious yet stable condition.
Rightfully so, the venue is getting a lot of heat for their lack of safety measures in place to prevent something like this happening. Just look at the wheelchair podium (pictured). There’s absolutely nothing (other than a board and some red tape) acting as a barrier between the podium and the crowd. Did the venue think a wheelchair is like a Matchbox car and will get turned aside so easily by a board? Mixing big, heavy machines on wheels with people dancing crazily on a raised platform above hundreds of other people with no barrier preventing the chair from rolling off just seems negligent.
Hopefully this guy can retain his eyesight and get back to rocking out soon.
-Sam
Megadeth Tour Update and Awesome News!
After postponing their tour due to a surgery needed for the front-man of Slayer, Megadeth has released the new dates for their upcoming tour entitled American Carnage. The tour still consists of Megadeth, Slayer and Testament. These summer tour dates can be found on www.megadeth.com.
Also, the former founding member and bassist of Megadeth, David Ellefson, is now back with the band after an 8-year hiatus!
Ellefson is responsible for a huge percentage of the original sound that Megadeth created over the years and it will be a treat for any true Megadeth fan to see him live in concert on the upcoming tours.
Megadeth is hitting the road before the American Carnage tour for a 20th Anniversary tour of their hit 1990 record, Rust In Peace. Many Megadeth fans and metal fans worldwide claim that this is their best and most genre-changing album to date. On this special tour, Megadeth will be playing the entire Rust In Peace track list from front to back. David Ellefson is said to be rocking the bass guitar for these two upcoming tours.
Bonnaroo 2010 lineup announced
Hooray! It’s festival lineup announcement season!
I don’t know about all of you, but every year around this time, I start poring over all the lineups for the coming year’s festivals, hoping that one will have enough bands that pique my interest to make it worth the trip.
Well, this year’s Bonnaroo may be the one that does it.
Bonnaroo’s website has the initial list of artists (with more to be announced).
The band’s I’d like to see out of that list: Kings of Leon, Jay-Z, Tenacious D, Weezer, John Fogerty, Regina Spektor, The Avett Brothers, Rise Against, The Black Keys, Jeff Beck, Dropkick Murphys, She & Him, Against Me!, Kid Cudi, Isis, Baroness, and Diane Birch.
That’s not even a quarter of the lineup, and they still haven’t announced the comedians that will be there yet!
So go check out that list and let us know how you feel about the lineup.
-Sam
Good thing I saw KsE when I did…
[UPDATE: So it seems like Howard Jones is simply hurt and/or sick. Fill-in singer Phil Labonte had this to say on Twitter: "Yep, I'm singing for KsE until HoJo gets better. Not sure how long it'll be but I'm here till they don't need me anymore." If that is indeed the case, the band should have just come out said that in the first place instead of allowing some of these rumors to swirl. In any case, check out this awesome fan-filmed clip of the band playing "My Curse" during the first sans-Howard show. Labonte didn't know the lyrics yet to this song so he sat it out and the whole crowd just took over. So cool. Original story below.]
Whoa.
So I got to go see Killswitch Engage kick off their new tour in Boston last week, and as I wrote, they put on one hell of a show.
Well, the band announced yesterday that lead singer Howard Jones has left the tour “due to unforeseen circumstances.” Here’s the entire press release:
KILLSWITCH ENGAGE vocalist Howard Jones is leaving the band’s current headlining tour with The Devil Wears Prada and Dark Tranquility due to unforeseen circumstances. All That Remains vocalist Phil Labonte will be filling in for Jones for a few shows in the interim, until the KsE guys can determine what the plan will be for the remaining tour dates, which are currently scheduled to run through the end of March.
No one knows why Jones has dropped off the tour after just five days. Speculation ranges from personal/family issues to Jones potentially leaving the band for good. But again, that’s just all speculation.
The ironic aspect is that he’s being replaced on the tour by Phil Labonte of All That Remains. You see, when KsE were looking for a new vocalist after the departure of Jesse Leach, it came down to Jones and Labonte, and Jones eventually beat him out for the job. That in itself is what’s driving the speculation about Jones being gone for good, but realistically, Labonte is probably just the guy the band is most familiar with and who is most familiar with the band’s songs.
Of course, the dark horse explanation for why Jones left the tour is that he couldn’t live with listening to The Devil Wears Prada open for him every night. (Rimshot!)
-Sam
Metal Roundup: Tuesday, Feb. 9
Here’s a sampling of some interesting stuff going on in the world of metal:
- Disturbed have entered the studio to begin recording their fifth album. They plan to release it this summer.
- Godsmack have changed the title to their upcoming album from Saints & Sinners to The Oracle, claiming the former title has “already been done before.” While no official release date has been set yet, the disc is expected to hit stores in March or April. Song titles include “Whiskey Hangover”, “Crying Like A Bitch”, “War & Peace”, and “Devil’s Swing.” Singer Sully Erna said in an interview that with this album ending the band’s two year hiatus, they plan to “get back into it for the next 10 years again and really grind hard.”
- Black Label Society have parted ways with drummer Craig Nunemacher.
- Spin.com has an exclusive stream of the title track off High on Fire’s upcoming album Snakes for the Divine. It’s pretty damn awesome.
- In other High on Fire news, they just released the dates for their spring headlining tour with Priestess, Black Cobra, and Bison b.c.
- And in what may be the greatest tour of 2010, Mastodon is heading out on a run that will target the secondary markets with support from Baroness, Between the Buried and Me, and Valient Thorr. Now I know how Andy Samberg felt, because that lineup makes me want to…well, you know.
-Sam
Killswitch Engage, those dyed-in-the-wool metalcore practitioners, began their first U.S. headlining trek behind their latest album on Thursday night in their hometown of Boston at the House of Blues.
And as any frequent concert-goer can tell you, the combination of starting off a tour and playing in one’s hometown generally combine to bring out the best in a band (if not some technical difficulties along the way).
KSE are a band particularly known for their live show due in large part to singer Howard Jones and guitarist/general goofball Adam Dutkiewicz. They understand that they are there to entertain and they usually seem genuinely stoked to be on stage performing. Of course, if you aren’t prepared to see a tall, gangly guitarist wearing a cape and headband running back and forth across the stage while jump-kicking and simultaneously shredding all while playing songs of a decidedly more serious nature, it can be a bit disconcerting. That’s just how KSE rolls; as far as live performances go, fun comes before all else. I know some people who strongly dislike that choice, but I don’t have a problem with it. After all, there’s always the album itself to go back to if you don’t like the band’s stage antics.
Anyways, the show started off with a bang as the band hurried on stage and dove immediately into one of their hits, “Rose of Sharyn”. Throughout the rest of the set they liberally incorporated cuts off their latest record, playing almost half of the songs from that disc. The new material is not drastically different from their back catalog so it fit in seamlessly.
The Super Bowl brings forth a bonanza of prop betting each year, and a lot of it has to do with the halftime entertainment.
Last year, a lot of the oddsmakers’ attention was focused on what four songs Bruce Springsteen would be playing during his halftime performance. Bets were even placed on whether Clarence Clemons would have a featured sax solo or if Bruce would reach into the crowd and pull Courteney Cox onstage, a la the “Dancing in the Dark” music video.
Well, a lot of that betting suspense was removed this time around when this year’s halftime performers, The Who, told Billboard exactly what they’d be playing.
According to Pete Townshend, the band will play a “compact medley” of the following songs:
- Baba O’Riley
- Pinball Wizard
- the close of Tommy
- Who Are You
- Won’t Get Fooled Again
That’s a solid set list, but it’s a bit surprising not to see “My Generation” on there. In any case, it’s shaping up to be a pretty good halftime show. Catch it during the Super Bowl on February 7th on CBS.
-Sam