Category — Concerts

Modern Drummer Festival Weekend 2008

Produced since 1987 by Modern Drummer magazine, the world’s most widely-read drumming publication, the two-day Festival presents a roster of today’s top drumming talents, representing a variety of popular musical styles. Some offer solo “clinic” performances; others appear “in concert” with additional musicians. All share their talents in an educational and entertaining format that has made the MD Festival a must-see event for drummers around the world.

Dates: Saturday, September 20 and Sunday, September 21, in the Concert Hall on the State University of New York at Purchase campus. See Map

Times: Doors Open 12:30 p.m. Show begins 1:00 p.m. and concludes approximately 7:30 p.m.

The Modern Drummer Festival is a great opportunity to see some of the greatest drummers around in an intimate setting. A lot of the drummers that regularly play the festival are world-class, stadium headlining drummers who will perform and show off a lot of the chops they otherwise don’t get to on their regular gigs. This is also a chance for fans to see, in detail, the drum kits, configurations and other gear these players use.

Click here for a list of the drummers appearing at this years edition.

Punk-pioneers the Sex Pistols will be putting out a live DVD on June 30th. There’ll Always Be an England, is “a concert film lifted from several performances the perpetually reunited band put on last November at London’s Brixton Academy.”

“In addition to 16 tracks culled from the gigs, Always will include nearly 100 minutes of extra junk, including the Pistols’ guide to London, archival footage, interviews, and the like.”

While a lot of drum magazines/websites don’t usually cite Paul Cook of the Sex Pistols as an influence or give him much attention, his 4 on the floor driving style and compressed drum sound have influenced a ton of drummers. I am not sure what kind of drum kit he currently plays though as pictures of him and his drum kits are few and far between. I have seen various pictures of him playing Tama drums more recently, although I have seen pictures from the 70’s of him playing other kits such as Slingerland and Ludwig.

The DVD should be really interesting and a great way to check out Paul Cook’s playing and kit, even though it’s not 1977 anymore, although he’s probably gotten better over the years…one would hope.

-Sex Pistols Tour Dates-

06-07 Las Vegas, NV - The Joint
06-11 Birmingham, England - Academy
06-13 Nickelsdorf, Austria - Nova Rock Festival
06-14 Newport, Isle of Wight, England - Isle of Wight Festival
06-20 Venice, Italy - Heineken Jammin’ Festival
06-23 St. Petersburg, Russia - Jubeleyny Arena
06-25 Moscow, Russia - SSA Luzhnik
06-27 Borlänge, Sweden - Peace & Love Festival
07-04 Piest’any, Slovakia - Hodokvas Festival
07-05 Gdynia, Poland - Heineken Open’er Festival
07-06 Bobital, France - Bobital Festival
07-11 Turin, Italy - Traffic Festival
07-13 Novi Sad, Serbia - Exit Festival
07-18 Madrid, Spain - Summercase Festival
07-19 Barcelona, Spain - Summercase Festival
07-31 Paredes de Coura, Portugal - Paredes de Coura Festival
08-02 Lokeren, Belgium - Lokerse Festival
08-03 Loch Lamond, Scotland - Live at Loch Lamond
08-09 Tokyo, Japan - Summer Sonic Festival
08-10 Osaka, Japan - Summer Sonic Festival
08-15 Budapest, Hungary - Sziget Festival
08-16 Biddinghuizen, Netherlands - Lowlands Festival
08-20 Riga, Latvia - Riga Arena
08-22 Tallinn, Estonia - Saku Suurhall
08-23 Helsinki, Finland - Ice Hall
08-31 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival

Source.

Drone-metal band OM have released a new live album via Southern Lord Records entitled “Om - Live at Jerusalem.” The album is limited to 3,000 copies pressed on 180 gram black vinyl.

The band had made the trek to Jerusalem in December of 2007, at that time, still with original drummer Chris Haikus, not current OM drummer Emil Amos. On the night this live album was recorded the band played for over 4 hours!

The live album includes essential OM tracks “Flight of The Eagle” and “Bhima’s Theme.” Bob Weston of Shellac fame handled the vinyl mastering process in the United States. The record is available through Southern Lord.

The “Smashing Pumpkins” (I put this in quotes because they still lack original members D’Arcy and James Iha) are planning to release a DVD of some their recent shows. The band is also planning to play some anniversary shows, put together demos of new songs and eventually release another album.

Straight from Billy Corgan: “We’re working on a DVD that’s sort of a documentary of our residency Fillmore shows. We’re going to put out hopefully some of our early demos for Christmas, probably put out a new Pumpkins single with new Pumpkins in the fall and then do a fall tour, and then we start putting out a new Pumpkins album probably beginning next year.”

To me this bands whole reunion thing is a joke, although Jimmy Chamberlain is a phenomenal drummer, I never really considered him a rock drummer. He has more of a soft, jazzier approach that helped separate the Smashing Pumpkins from other early 90’s bands.

This recent wave of bands reuniting is crazy, although at least most of the other bands reuniting contain their original lineups! Granted, Billy Corgan wrote and played most of the Pumpkins material, but come on! D’Arcy and James Iha were a huge part of the band.

Oh well, I can always throw on Siamese Dream and enjoy it, especially Jimmy Chamberlain rockin’….err….jazzin’ out.

Source.

Since I’ve sort of been reporting on what’s been up with Metallica lately, here is some more news…

Drummer Lars Ulrich revealed last night at the band’s small sold-out performance at The Wiltern in Los Angeles, CA, that the band will release it’s new album in September and a full scale tour will take place following the release in October.

Last night the band didn’t play any new songs, but did offer up a lot of old classics. Tickets for the sold-out show were priced at $200 and $500, with proceeds going to benefit Flea’s (of The Red Hot Chili Peppers) Music Conservatory in Los Angeles. Flea joined the band on bass for the song “Fight Fire With Fire” from the bands classic “Ride The Lightning” album. The concert was rumored to have netted around $300,000 for the conservatory.

Metallica is slated to headline Los Angeles radio-station Kroq’s annual “Weenie Roast” on May 17th followed by the Bonnaroo Music Festival in Manchester, TN on June 13th.

It seems obvious that the new Metallica will most likely suck. You can always hope though…

-Set List from the bands May 14th show in Los Angeles-

“The Ecstasy of Gold”
“Fuel”
“For Whom the Bell Tolls”
“Sanitarium”
“…And Justice For All”
“Sad But True”
“Disposable Heroes”
“One”
“Master of Puppets”
“Battery”
“Last Caress/Green Hell” (Misfits cover)
“No Remorse”
“Enter Sandman”
“Fight Fire with Fire”
“Seek and Destroy”

Source.

Famed drone and Southern Lord Records band Earth will be touring certain parts of the US this summer. The band has just wrapped up a tour of the East Coast and now has dates announced on the West Coast.

I’ve personally been waiting to see this band live for a while, as I never have before and I’m interested in how their quiet multi-layered approach will go over in a live setting.

Drummer Adrienne Davies is not the most furious, fast, loud or even busy player, but her drum parts fit and blend perfectly with the songs. It seems like it might be challenging to play as minimal as she plays, and as gently. I’ve seen pictures of her playing both big Ludwig and Gretsch drums but I’m also interested to see what type of setup she has.

-Earth West Coast Dates (so far)-

Earth @MySpace.com

It hasn’t really been announced on any major music news sites such as Stereogum, Pitchfork, etc…but Russian Circles will be touring and coming through Los Angeles again. Witness Turncrantz drumming skillz in person!

The band will be playing The Troubadour in West Hollywood with the band Daughters and its $10 advance and $12 at the door. This is one show I will not be missing. You can expect to see a review up here after the show.

It’s pretty much a full US tour…

-Russian Circles, touring with Daughters-

Jun-03 Iowa City IA Picador
Jun-04 St Louis MO Bluebird Theater
Jun-05 Kansas City MO The Riot Room
Jun-06 Denver CO Marquis
Jun-07 Salt Lake City UT Burt’s Tiki Lounge
Jun-08 Boise ID Neurolux
Jun-09 Seattle WA Neumos
Jun-10 Portland OR Doug Fir Lounge
Jun-11 Chico CA Cafe Coda
Jun-12 San Francisco CA Slims
Jun-14 Pomona CA The Glasshouse
Jun-15 West Hollywood CA Troubadour
Jun-16 San Diego CA The Casbah
Jun-18 Phoenix AZ The Clubhouse
Jun-20 Austin TX Red 7
Jun-21 Ft Worth TX Lolas
Jun-22 Houston TX Rudyards
Jun-23 Baton Rouge LA Spanish Moon
Jun-24 Birmingham AL Bottle Tree
Jun-25 Atlanta GA The Drunken Unicorn
Jun-26 Chapel Hill NC Local 506
Jun-27 Wilmington DE Harmony Grange
Jun-28 Cambridge MA Middle East Upstairs
Jun-29 Brooklyn NY Music Hall of Williamsburg
Jun-30 Baltimore MD The Ottobar
Jul-01 Buffalo NY Mohawk Place
Jul-02 Detroit MI Magic Stick (*no Daughters)

Russian Circles @ Myspace.com

“A New York City press conference featuring the Police and New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg today (May 6) heralds the band’s final concert ever, to be held in New York at a date to be announced in August.

This final concert will be a fundraiser with proceeds benefiting the production of arts programming for public television stations Thirteen/WNET and WLIW New York. Tickets will be available nationally online via the Thirteen/WNET and WLIW Web sites.

Additionally, Sting and the Police announced that they will contribute $1 million to Mayor Bloomberg’s MillionTreesNYC initiative — a gift the city will match — to plant trees all over New York City.”

This is interesting as the Police supposedly played their last show a long time ago and just recently reunited. It is always so hard to tell whether bands like this will really play a “last show” without coming back 5 years down the road for another tour.

I saw The Police last year, and while Stewart Copeland was amazing on drums, the band just didn’t have the same purpose or fire they did just from older videos I’ve seen. It just didn’t seem relevant.  Sting also seems completely out of touch with reality, he just seems like a larger than life rock-star persona.

The band’s last American/European tour of 50 shows, grossed $212 million dollars.

Source.

Icelandic band Sigur Ros will be playing a slew of tour dates this summer, only no US shows have been announced yet, (besides an appearance at this years Bonnaroo Music Festival) . I’m sure they will soon though, as it has been a little while since the band played an extensive tour here.

Sigur Ros isn’t usually a band most drummers cite, but both their previous and current drummers are great. While obviously not playing any really busy parts, the use of drum brushes, tambourine, and soft understated drumming allows the band to create a musical environment that is very melodic and ethereal. I have seen the band live, with current drummer Orri Páll Dýrason, and he played with incredible focus and intensity, one song in particular off the band’s last album Takk surprised me as he hit very hard on it.

Here are the band’s current tour dates…

06-05 Guadalajara, Mexico - Teatro Degollado
06-07 Tepoztlán, Mexico - Festival La Colmena
06-08 Tijuana, Mexico - Multiculti
06-14 Manchester, TN - Bonnaroo Festival
06-20 Tuttingen, Germany - Southside Festival
06-22 Bremen, Germany - Hurricane Festival
07-05 Werchter, Germany - Rock Werchter
07-06 Arras, France - Main Square Festival
07-08 Vienna, Austria - Arena Vienna
07-11 Florence, Italy - Guardino di Boboli
07-12 Rome, Italy - Cavea Auditorium
07-13 Milan, Italy - Arena Civica
07-19 Suffolk, England - Latitude Festival
08-07 Oslo, Norway - Oya Festival
08-08 Gothenburg, Sweden - Way Out West Festival
08-19 Prague, Czech Republic - Arena HC Sparta Praha
08-20 Warsaw, Poland - Palladium
08-27 Moscow, Russia - B1
08-29 Stradbally, Ireland - Electric Picnic Festival
08-31 Inveraray, Scotland - Hydro Connect Festival

Sigur Ros Official Site.

So I wasn’t able to get my camera in to the show, but I did see the drummer, Dave Turncrantz’ setup. I was surpirsed to see that he had a very minimal 4-piece setup. To the best of my recollection, at this show he was using 2 crash cymbals and a ride.

As far as Russian Circle’s set as whole, it was amazing. They played with the same tenacity that you hear on their album “Enter” but a lot louder, (obviously) and and with a lot more jamming. At one point during the song “Death Rides A Horse” they let the drums keep on playing this one hypnotic hip-hop style beat, eventually culminating in the rest of the band coming back in with it and just rocking.

The band is working on a follow up record that should be out soon. They should also be touring again soon, I strongly recommend seeing them live if you get the chance. They are phenomenal.