If you follow @WidespreadPanic on Twitter and saw setlist tweets coming in this morning you might have thought Twitter was on the fritz, but there was nothing wrong with your
If you’re trying to put your finger on why the name Eleanor Friedberger sounds familiar , it may be because you may know her better as one half of the
Want to feel old? MTV turns 30 on Monday. The first cable network devoted to rock music celebrates by taking over the airwaves of VH1 Classic starting on Saturday at
Back in June, prog-jammers Umphrey’s McGee told fans to save the dates of October 28 and 29 for a Halloween celebration down in Atlanta at a yet-to-be-announced venue. Well now,
On September 27, HT faves Wilco will release their eighth studio album The Whole Love via their brand new label dBpm Records. While we still have a couple more months
This week for Postcards From Page Side, I decided to focus on an issue close to all of us, whether we realize it or not: voter registration and the impact on not only our scene, but our world in general. HeadCount is a non-profit organization focused on registering voters at live concerts, amongst other things. Co-founder Andy Bernstein was gracious enough to take some time to chat with me about HeadCount’s first eight years as a non-profit and what lies ahead for the organization with the impending election year in 2012. “It’s been a very interesting few years for us. In a lot of ways, I’m more excited and honestly more proud of the work we are doing this year than any of the years that came before it,” says Bernstein. “We really wanted to take it to the next level in 2011 and 2012 and take action, by taking the momentum of the election and turning our community into a force.”
My conversation with Bernstein quickly turns to not only the past and present of HeadCount, but also most importantly, its future, namely the election year of 2012. And trust me, HeadCount has big plans. More than just sending teams on the road to register voters, they are all about having “fun” at the shows while educating the masses. “Going into this year we took a kind of different approach. Our goal this year was to really have fun with the community on a socially conscious level. That was everything that we feel the previous years had been calling for. We wanted to just strengthen our tie to the community on a pro-social level and that would take us back into the presidential year with a whole new position and ability to reach people and get the vote out.”
Bernstein continues to elaborate on certain, specific ways that HeadCount is continuing to reinvent themselves. “We have done three major things this year. The first is a survey called the Fan DNA Project that we are doing at shows asking about their musical tastes and political beliefs. We are going to compare different fan bases and different festivals [to find out] what do we all have in common? Where are we different? What do we believe in? It will help the bands understand their fanbase better and HeadCount understand the people we are trying to reach better.”
READ ON for more on HeadCount’s history and future plans…
You couldn’t make it too far down the FM dial without running into one of Stone Temple Pilots’ hard-edged hits during the ’90s. The California-bred alt-rockers are touring this summer
The Allman Brothers Band have a long illustrious history of performances at the Beacon Theatre that includes literally hundreds of sit-ins. That tradition continued tonight when the pioneering southern rockers
In the wake of the death of British neo-soul singer Amy Winehouse many fans, celebrities and organizations went to Twitter to express condolences for the fallen artist. Most of the tweets were sympathetic to loss of the young talent at only age 27.
However, some rather high profile tweets warranted apologies and retractions. READ ON for a look at these controversial tweets…
Gathering of the Vibes at Seaside Park, Bridgeport, CT – July 21-24
Words: Carla Danca
Photos: Jeremy Gordon
Outside of a few questions that aren’t suitable for print, “So how many have you been to?” is probably the most asked question around Gathering of the Vibes. Sixteen years after its humble beginnings as Deadhead Heaven – A Gathering of the Tribe on the campus of SUNY Purchase, Vibes has become one of the Northeast’s largest annual festivals and one of the oldest as well. In a year when many “newer” festivals celebrate their tenth anniversary, GOTV is well into is second decade. Each summer, friends – many of whom only see each other for four days each July – meet up at Seaside Park in Bridgeport, CT to spend a weekend together. With the heat at record highs over the weekend (103°F on Friday) more than ever it was the people, both Vibes veterans and newcomers, who made this year’s event memorable.
[All photos by Jeremy Gordon]
Sticking to its roots as a celebration of the Grateful Dead, five different members of the band played at some point during the weekend. Dark Star Orchestra brought Donna Jean Godchaux to the stage on Thursday, Bob Weir and Phil Lesh’s Furthur headlined on Friday, while Mickey Hart and Bill Kreutzmann’s Rhythm Devils held court on Sunday. While many other festivals have recently been adding more electronic and popular acts – sometimes to the dismay of their core audience – Gathering of the Vibes has always stayed true to its roots. If the crowd on the field for Furthur was any indication, it seems that GOTV knows their audience as trying to snake your way out of the concert field was all but impossible with a patchwork of singing, swaying fans.
READ ON for more on Gathering of the Vibes 2011…
