Category — Concerts

In case any drummers out there missed it, legendary progressive rock band Rush made their first TV appearance in 33 years on The Colbert Report last night.

When it was announced, some (such as Stereogum), joked about the fact that Neil Peart’s drum kit might not fit in Colbert’s studio, surprisingly it did. The band played their hit “Tom Sawyer” and were interviewed. Stephen Colbert even jokingly asked Neil Peart “how many drums do you have there?” with Neil responding “enough”. It seems like the band must really appreciate Colbert’s show and/or humor to choose his show to break their 33 year TV absence.

Check out awesome footage of Neil Peart’s kit and more importantly awesome footage of the band playing Tom Sawyer on television…

Rush on The Colbert Report.

The Smashing Pumpkins are gearing up for a series of small shows in August in honor of their 20th anniversary.

“According to the group’s Web site, the Pumpkins will visit “mostly smaller-sized venues” during an August run featuring “unique sets and songs.”

So far the only date announced is Aug. 9 at the Venue in Hammond, Ind. The band will also gear up in November for larger shows in Los Angeles, New York and Chicago.

If you want to catch drummer Jimmy Chamberlain and his awesome drum kit, live and up-close you’ll want to start plotting a way to get tickets to those smaller shows.

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Sub Pop Records 20th anniversary celebration is happening soon in Seattle, WA where a whole slew of new and old Sub Pop bands will perform.

Pitchfork Media, have a great piece on the label which includes a pretty in-depth interview with founders Jonathon Poneman and Bruce Pavitt. In it, the two discuss the formation of the label from a little-known zine, early bands such as Soundgarden and Nirvana and the insane direction the label took after the success of Nevermind. This includes discussion of Nirvana’s first album “Bleach” which as many people know, did not feature Dave Grohl, but drummer Chad Channing.

“BP: Bleach is almost double platinum, yeah. And it cost $600 to record, so…I would venture that, just from a business point of view, the return on investment from Bleach might make it the most profitable record in the history of the world. $600 for two million in sales, that’s pretty unusual.”

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Coldplay is sponsoring a contest where you can enter for a chance to open select dates on their upcoming tour.  Yes, you would be the opening act for Coldplay if you won.

The contest is only for select cities, these being the bands Chicago, San Jose, DC, Boston and Hartford dates. Whether or not you are a single songwriter or a full band, you are eligible. The way it works is that, you must submit a YouTube video of yourself to the radio station-sponsored section of coldplayontour.com.

Winners will be selected and notified and will also join the likes of the other opening acts on the tour Shearwater and Santogold. Even if you or your band aren’t fans of Coldplay (I, myself am not), it’s a chance for amazing exposure.

System of a Down offshoot band Scars on Broadway are preparing to launch their first US headlining tour. The tour is to support the groups self-titled album, which will be released through Interscope Records on July 29th.

The band also has a new music video for their hit single “They Say” which was directed by Paul Minor (Muse, Queens of The Stone Age).

While I’m not a huge fan of either Serj Tankian’s solo material or Scars on Broadway, it can’t be denied that John Dolmayan is a monster drummer. His work in System of a Down shows more of his skill with his huge drum kits and wide array of cymbals as opposed to what I’ve heard so far from Scars on Broadway. I’m curious to see what kind of drumming he displays on Scars on Broadway’s debut album.

Check out tour cities, a clip from Scars on Broadway’s “They Say” video and more information here…

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There are now a ton of annual American music festivals. One you may have never heard of though is Chicago’s Wicker Park Fest.

I’m mentioning it here because there are going to be some great bands, with great drummers playing this year…including Isis, Red Sparowes, Russian Circles and many more. *(Don’t mind the “2007″ in the pic above).

This year the fest takes place on July 26th and 27th. Get this, not only does the festival have some pretty cool bands but the entrance fee is a $5 donation! (Proceeds benefit the Wicker Park & Bucktown Chamber of Commerce. For more info, go to www.wickerparkbucktown.com)

Check out the full lineup and more info here.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Seattle drone-rockers Earth at The Echo. To start off, I was pretty surprised to learn the show would be going on at The Echo and not a larger venue. Earth is one of those bands where you know they’re critically acclaimed, but you have no idea how big they really are. The band slowly took the stage, lead-man Dylan Carlson thanked the crowd and began.

The band’s set mainly consisted of songs from their recently released Southern Lord album “The Bees Made Honey In The Lion’s Skull” although not played in exact album running order. Highlights included “The Driver” and Rise To Glory” both of which showed how much the band’s sound has progressed from distorted drone metal to their current style.

The band’s chemistry on this night was evident. Band leader Dylan Carlson’s Telecaster was clean, crisp and piercing, laced with different kinds of delay, flange and various other effects. The guitar playing worked in tandem with Don Mcgreevy’s bass playing and Steve Moore’s keyboard, filling in any empty spaces. The results of which were beautiful soundscapes and dreamy passages. However, the real pulse of the band live was drummer Adrienne Davies. It appeared as if someone had put her into slow motion, as she drummed away on each song, keeping the beat of the song with her body. Her drumming definitely brought the whole experience together.

Opening band Jesse Sykes and The Sweet Hereafter were a great support choice. Sykes lyrics and singing were folky and trippy at the same time, and her band’s gentle twang perfectly set the stage for Earth to take the stage. I’d advise anyone who can to check out this tour.

Last night I had the pleasure of seeing Russian Circles again. The bouncers/door people at the Troubadour were less than friendly, but thats to be expected from a meat-head door staff at a nightclub. Anyway, I arrived late to the show, just before Russian Circles were about to play, so I missed Young Widows and Daughters, who I had seen once before and didn’t really care for.

Russian Circles tore through newer songs from the “Station” album and selections from their first full-length “Enter” as well. My favorite track on the new album is definitely “Youngblood” and I was really glad to hear them play it last night. The band nailed it flawlessly with that precise and heavy guitar riffing, the whole way through. Other highlights were “Carpe” which was great as well.

What’s really amazing is how good Dave Turncrantz is on drums. I’ve complimented his drumming before but last night I got to see him from the side, and I was watching him the most out of all the band members. His kit was a basic 4-piece setup with 2 crash cymbals, a ride and hi-hat. His drum kit was setup on the floor with no drum riser of any kind. I unfortunately didn’t get to see what kind of kit he was playing, as the place was pretty packed and I couldn’t get any other angles. But I have a feeling it was a Gretsch (as pictured above).

However, what I did get to see was his use of creative fills and great sense of rhythm. It’s kind of obvious to mention, but the band would be nothing without this guy’s drumming. He propels the song’s into other passages with ease and does a lot of nasty, complicated fills usually culminating in the climax of the song. He also has a great sense of pushing and pulling the song, which is almost jazz-like.

I’m glad to see that an instrumental band that writes complicated material, can pack out a place like The Troubadour. If Russian Circles are coming through your area, you really should check them out.

This is not a Metallica blog. Just had to put that disclaimer out there, as I’ve been doing a lot of Metallica related posts, just because they are in the press so much lately. The band plays the Bonnaroo Festival today in Manchester,TN where they will probably “kill the festival” (according to esquire magazine).

Last night though, the band (with honorary 5th member - Lar’s Ulrich’s crappy sounding Tama Drum kit), played a surprise 175-capacity club show for fan club members and club employees.

The band played 9 songs as a warm up for tonights headlining show in front of an estimated 130,000 people, which will also be broadcast on the Fuse TV channel.

More info and video footage of the band’s small warm-up show can be found over at Billboard…

Source.

If you can make it, this should be amazing, you can catch Jason Bonham playing his awesome Ludwig Kit up-close and personal.

Harmony-Central.com reports…

“Fresh from playing in the Led Zeppelin reunion tour Jason Bonham today confirmed he will officially open The London International Music Show next week. The son of drumming legend John Bonham will cut the red ribbon and welcome crowds next Thursday 12 June at 10am at ExCeL London.

Europe’s largest drumming festival, Drummer Live, is part of the overall music show and has a truly world class line up of drummers to play the show.” Line-up is now as follows:

Drummer Live Stage (Saturday & Sunday):

Saturday 14th June

• 11.15 George Barnett (Young Drummer of the Year) (mikedolbear.com)
• 11.30 Ray Luzier (Korn & Jonathon Davis)
• 12.45 Derico Watson (Victor Wooten Band)
• 14.00 Trevor Lawrence (Snoop Dogg, Independent)
• 15.15 Jojo Mayer (NERVE)
• 16.30 Chad Smith (Red Hot Chilli Peppers)

Sunday 15th June

11.30 Josh Devine (Mapex Drummer of Tomorrow)
• 11.45 Roy Mayorga (Stone Sour)
• 13.00 Pete Ray Biggin (Mark Ronson)
• 14.15 Gavin Harrison (Porcupine Tree)
• 15.45 Jason Bonham (Led Zeppelin & Foreigner)