Category — Concerts

In a joint effort with the ‘Iraq Veterans Against the War and Tent State University’ Rage Against The Machine will be playing a free show at the Denver Coliseum on August 27th during the Democratic National Convention. According to Billboard.com…

“The performance is part of the Tent State Music Festival to End the War, and will alsp feature Flobots, the Coup, State Radio and Wayne Kramer.

Tickets will be given away for free by lottery. Fans can sign up by presenting a photo ID at Cuernavaca Park at the university’s campus starting Aug. 24 through Aug. 26 from 11 a.m. to 6:30 p.m. The all-ages event is set to begin at 11 a.m. Rage has also scheduled a performance for Sept. 3 in Minneapolis, during the same week the Republican National Convention is rolling into town”

The band itself has not given any interviews or issued any statements regarding either shows at this point. I personally think the free show idea is a great way to promote the cause and a great way for the bands fans to get involved. These shows are also significant because they mark two of the bands only true headline concerts that are not huge festivals. Could this be a sign that the band may go into the studio? It’s possible, and I would definitely like to hear some new Rage and new Brad Wilk drum beats.

I have been trying to find out the specifics of the drum kit Brad Wilk is currently playing on tour with Rage but all I can find is information on his 1992-2000 Rage kit and his Audioslave kit which was a Gretsch with Paiste Cymbals. I assume this is his most recent setup. If anyone knows more about, please let me know.

The Oya Festival happened last weekend in Norway, and while it seems like the US has enough festivals, we never get ones with these kind of lineups. Lots of cool bands played, with lots of great drummers. This was the 10th year of the festival, which has a capacity of around 20,000 people, relativly small for most festivals. Still, lots of people came out to see Sonic Youth, My Bloody Valentine, No Age, Isis, Sigur Ros, Mogwai and many many more.

The Oya Festival is renown for having a great setup so that barely any bleed-through occurs from stage to stage and they do a good job of showcasing up-and-coming Scandinavian acts while still having international ones. Pitchfork Media has some exclusive photo’s and coverage of the festival worth checking out.

Every time I see stuff like this I just shake my head. The reason being that the European festivals seem to always have better lineups than we get here in the US, at least more in line with my taste anyway. Hopefully this will change in the coming years as US festivals evolve and grow.

Metallica has been making headlines everywhere recently, leading up to the release of their new album. This time though, the band has played one of their new songs live at Ozzfest in Dallas, TX. The song, titled “Cyanide” is not their new album’s first single.

A full live performance video of the song can be found over at YouTube. The song definitely harks back to the bands “Ride The Lightning” and “Master of Puppets” classic years. Although I don’t believe it’s on the same level as the bands classic material, its worlds better than “St.Anger” and in my opinion even the bands “Load” and “Re-Load” era output.

Lars has got plenty of tricky drum parts in there, classical guitars and fast, aggressive sections. Check the song out for yourself. The one thing I think is lacking is the vocals, ever since the bands Black Album days, James Hetfield’s voice has never recovered from when he blew it out. Anyway, judge for yourself.

Sigur Ros is not usually thought of by their drummer, but I really like the band and the atmospherics they create. Fairly recently the band played a live set at NYC’s Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) and it was recorded by CurrentTV and is now available online for your viewing pleasure.

Museum’s are not usually thought of as ideal places to have a loud rock band play but the sound on the recordings is great. The whole video is around 45 minutes and well worth watching if you like this band.

Sigur Ros Live @ MOMA.

Set List:

01 “svefn-g-englar”
02 “glosoli”
03 “se lest”
04 “ny batteri”
05 “vid spilum endalaust”
06 “hoppipolla”
07 “med blodnasir”
08 “vidrar vel til loftarasa”
09 “saeglopur”
10 “inni mer syngur vitleysingur”
11 “olsen olsen”
12 “hafsol”
13 “gobbledigook”
—-
14 iceland national anthem
15 “popplagid”

Best Buy has obtained exclusive rights to sell the new Police Live DVD/CD “Certifiable” due out October 7th.

“The set was filmed last December in Buenos Aires. It will be available as a 2 DVD/2 CD set, a single disc Blu-ray/2 CD combo and in a triple vinyl configuration with an MP3 download.

Drummer Stewart Copeland previously told Billboard.com the DVD would feature a behind-the-scenes documentary shot by his son Jordan.”

This is great news for any Stewart Copeland/Police fans out there. I actually saw the reunited Police back in 2007 and they were great as ever, specifically Stewart Copeland with his signature Tama drums and usual vast array of cymbals. His playing was just as tight live in 2007 as it is on some of the Police’ most famous recordings. For more info and a tracklist, click below.

Source.

Rage Against The Machine have announced a headline show at The Target Center in Minneapolis, MN on September 3rd. This is noteworthy because the band hasn’t played any solo headlining shows besides festivals and because its during the same time period as The Republican National Convention, happening in the same city from September 1st - 4th.

There is some controversy being brought up over this, with some saying that the band is looking for a conflict. Whatever the case may be, and regardless of what i think of this band at this point in time, I’ve heard they are still good live. Brad Wilk is an amazing drummer, he’s definitely a master of just straight-up 4/4 grooves. Hopefully nothing too insane happens on September 3rd.

Source.

Now in it’s 16th year the Montreal Drum Fest will be held October 24th, 25th and 26th. This year’s edition of the festival features an impressive lineup of great drummers.

“Headliners are: Legend Lenny White (Innovation, Istanbul, Vic Firth, Remo), Simon Phillips (Zildjian, Tama, Pro-Mark, Remo),  Morgan Agren & the Mats/Morgan Band (DW, Sabian, Vic Firth), The Yamaha Groove Hour with Canadian drummers Paul Brochu, Mark Kelso and Larnell Lewis, Wolfgang Haffner (Meinl), Johnny Rabb (Roland) and Tommy Clufetos (Sonor, Sabian).”

For more information about the festival, visit Montreal Drum Fest online.

Nine Inch Nails will start hitting arenas and festivals today as they begin their “Lights In The Sky” tour. This tour is special because Trent Reznor has said to be incorporating some kind of “high-tech” stage setup and video displays.

This tour is also significant for drummers because Josh Freese is once again taking on drum duties. If you recall from the rehearsal footage I posted here a while ago, his drumming is better than ever and fun to watch.

Here are the NIN tour dates:

07-25 Pemberton, British Columbia - Pemberton Festival
07-26 Seattle, WA - Key Arena at Seattle Center *
07-28 Edmonton, Alberta - Rexall Place *
07-29 Calgary, Alberta - Pengrowth Saddledome *
07-31 Winnipeg, Manitoba - MTS Centre *
08-02 Minneapolis, MN - Target Center *
08-03 Chicago, IL - Grant Park (Lollapalooza)
08-05 Toronto, Ontario - Air Canada Centre %
08-07 Uncasville, CT - Mohegan Sun Arena %
08-08 Worcester, MA - DCU Center %
08-09-10 Baltimore, MD - Pimlico Race Course (Virgin Mobile Festival)
08-12 Knoxville, TN - Knoxville Civic Coliseum %
08-13 Duluth, GA - Gwinnett Arena %
08-15 Oklahoma City, OK - Ford Center #
08-16 Houston, TX - Toyota Center #
08-18 Dallas, TX - American Airlines Center #
08-20 Saint Louis, MO - Scottrade Center #
08-22 Cleveland, OH - Quicken Loans Arena
08-23 Auburn Hills, MI - Palace of Auburn Hills #
08-25 Toledo, OH - Seagate Convention Center #
08-27 East Rutherford, NJ - Izod Center $
08-29 Philadelphia, PA - Wachovia Center $
08-31 Lexington, KY - Rupp Arena ^
09-02 Morrison, CO - Red Rocks Amphitheater %
09-03 Salt Lake, City UT - The E Center of West Valley %
09-05 Oakland, CA - Oracle Arena %
09-06 Inglewood, CA - The Forum %
10-04 Santiago, Chile - Arena Santiago
10-07 Sao Paulo, Brazil - Via Funchal
10-09 Porto Alegre, Brazil - Pepsi on Stage
10-12 Bogota, Colombia - Coliseo el Campin
10-15 Caracas, Venezuela - Poliedro de Caracas
10-18 Mexico City, Mexico - Foro Sol (Motrokr Festival)
10-19 Guadalajara, Mexico - VFG Arena (Motrokr Festival)
10-21 Monterrey, Mexico - Arena Monterrey
10-24-26 New Orleans, LA - Voodoo Music Experience

* with Crystal Castles
% with Deerhunter
# with A Place to Bury Strangers
$ with Does It Offend You, Yeah?
^ with White Williams

Source.

The Steve Albini fronted Shellac have tour dates now booked. It’s a rare occassion that the band tours and when I first noticed the dates I thought “great I can finally see them live!” but as usual most of the dates are out of the US or not close enough.

Shellac Tour Dates:

09-15 Pontiac, MI - Crofoot *
09-16 Toronto, Ontario - Horseshoe *
09-17 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa *!
09-18 Montreal, Quebec - La Sala Rossa
09-21 Catskills, NY - ATP New York
10-27 Galway, Ireland - Roisin Dubh
10-28 Dublin, Ireland - Button Factory
10-31 London, England - Forum (Release the Bats ATP)
11-02 Glasgow, Scotland - ABC

* with Chris Brokaw
! with A Place to Bury Strangers

Source.

Europe’s annual Download Festival is hitting 2 US cities this weekend. The lineup seems to feature a few older reunited bands such a The Jesus and Mary Chain and Gang of Four, as well as a lot of newer acts.

The Download Festival on Saturday (7/19) happens in the San Francisco area at the Shoreline Amphitheatre. The Sunday (7/20) version will be occurring at Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, with another version of the festival occurring in Camden, NJ on August 2nd.

This is an interesting way of planning a festival as most occur for 2 or 3 days in the same location. For the full festival lineup and more information go to downloadfestival.com