Posts by L. Paul Mann

For the sixth year in a row, the most infamous section of Hollywood’s Sunset Strip, was shut done for the finale of the Sunset Strip Music Festival which took place on August 3rd. Like in years past, two large stages book ended the well known boulevard. The festival shut down the stretch in front of […]

On July 31st the sixth annual Sunset Strip Music festival got under way with their customary awards show at the House of Blues in Hollywood. This years’ honoree was the Queen of Rock and Roll, Joan Jett.  The feisty slender singer guitarist was one of the first successful women in rock, with a string of […]

Vans Warped Tour founder Kevin Lyman has pulled another rabbit out of his hat and kept Vans Warped Tour alive for its 19th year. The festival faced an uphill battle this year, with less well known big ticket bands on the roster. Attendance is down too, about 8% overall on average from last year. But […]

A very special debut concert is set to take place at the end of the month at the El Rey Theater in Los Angeles. The July 25th concert features the first live show by Circa-Zero. The band is composed of the former guitar player extraordinaire of The Police, Andy Summers and lead singer and multi […]

One of the most prestigious double bills of the concert season appeared at the Santa Barbara Bowl, Friday June 28th, featuring two blues master vocalists, representing multiple generations. Opener Grace Potter and The Nocturnals, played a hastened forty minute set to a half full bowl. In the eight years since their debut album Nothing But […]

One of the most prestigious and well organized live music gatherings in the world, the Coachella Music and Arts Festival got underway Friday, April 12th. Music fans from across the globe, lucky enough to possess the coveted tickets, (that sell out almost as soon as they go on sale), gathered under classic spring time California […]

13 is a classic Sabbath album in every sense of the word. The recording features eight songs that come in at just under, sixty minutes, just like a record from the golden age of rock. The album features a blues drenched metal sound that is the closest sounding recording to the band’s first album, that the group has ever produced. Harkening back to the American black blues sounds of the fifties and sixties that influenced all of the top English rock bands (The Stones, Led Zeppelin) of their generation, there is even a bit of harmonica on one track. But make no mistake this is a heavy metal album in every sense of the word