Columns

Our friend Neddy earlier today pimped out a typically wordy and awesome review of Widespread Panic’s April Fool’s show at the Palace Theater in Albany. And since we’re showing off some words about that 4/1 concert, we might as well go all out and present some pictures from the night before in Cleveland.

Our friend Christian James took in the 3/31 show at the Playhouse Square Center State Theatre in Cleveland. And, as they say, Cleveland rocks.

Read on for 15 more of Chris’ amazing shots from Saturday’s WSP show…

Today is finally opening day for most of the teams in baseball, and the first pitches have been thrown. The Hidden Track Baseball Preview rolls on, and today we discuss the Boston Red Sox with the leader of the Ryan Montbleau Band.

We reached Ryan in the studio, where he is recording a new album with his five-piece band. Montbleau, a native of Peabody, Massachusetts, was initiated into Red Sox Nation upon birth. In this interview, Ryan shares his thoughts about two things that are close to his heart: his beloved Sawx and his music.

Scott Bernstein: How closely are you able to follow the Red Sox when you are on the road?

Ryan Montbleau: Not as close as I would like. I can’t follow them as closely as I used to. I think that’s one of the good things about baseball. It’s such a long season and there are so many games that I can kind of catch up every couple of days or whenever I can and still keep a general sense of what’s going on.

SB: Do you go to games often when you are home?

RM: Yeah, whenever I can, but not as much now. I grew up pretty spoiled on games. My dad had season tickets to Fenway from the time I was 9 until the time I was 24. I used to go to tons and tons of games. I’d go to games by myself and have an extra seat because I couldn’t even give away tickets. I went to a lot of games back then, but now I’m lucky if I go to a couple of games a year.

SB: Does your father still have the tickets?

RM: No…my father gave them up right before the 2003 season [collective groan]. The ticket prices were skyrocketing every year, and it just got to the point where he couldn’t afford it. He went to Florida, and I couldn’t afford to take over the tickets.

Read on for the rest of Ryan’s take on the 2007 Red Sawx and much more…

The USTORM Foundation threw itself a 1st Birthday Party at the Park West in Chicago this weekend, and just by reading the setlist that follows, we’ve never been more jealous

Three schoolteachers from Manhattan’s Urban Assembly Media high school were busted for smoking pot outside the Beacon Theater before the Allman Brothers show on Friday night. The trio lucked out

The Final Four match-ups predictably blew goats (I have proof). But the end of week became a little brighter when our friend Pipe showed us this lovely music video for

“Not only am I going back on tour, but we’re going to Massachusetts and Rhode Island and Pennsylvania and North Carolina and Indiana, and then we’re going to Michigan and Illinois and Minnesota…and then we’re going back to Vermont to re-form the popular rock band Phish! Byaaah!!!” –Page McConnell, 3/30/07

The Chairman of the Boards has announced a full set of tour dates, piggybacking on today’s streaming show on NPR for WXPN’s World Cafe Series and next week’s Gramercy Theater show that Scotty and I will be reviewing for the blog (an HT interview with Leo has also been penciled into Page’s schedule).

Here’s the full set of tour dates from Page’s new website (it’s so nice):

05/30 – Higher Ground, Burlington, VT
05/31 – Avalon, Boston, MA
06/01 – Lupos, Providence, RI
06/02 – Theatre of Living Arts, Philadelphia, PA
06/04 – Irving Plaza, New York, NY
06/05 – 9:30 Club, Washington, DC
06/07 – Variety Playhouse, Atlanta, GA
06/08 – The Orange Peel, Asheville, NC
06/09 – Bogarts, Cincinnati, OH
06/10 – The Vogue Theatre, Indianapolis, IN
06/12 – Majestic, Detroit, MI
06/13 – The Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
06/14 – Pantages Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

Page’s band includes Adam Zimmon, Jared Slomoff, Rob O’Dea, and Gabe Jarrett. Tickets will be available through a real time presale beginning Friday, March 30th at 5:00pm (EST) and ending Friday, April 13th at noon (EST) at http://pagetickets.rlc.net./. The presale ends on April 12th for a select number of shows, so please check each date’s individual ticketing info.

Damn, this guy Page is really gettin’ himself back into the news cycle after one of the more extensive hibernations outside of the mouse lemur and European hedgehog families. Way to get back out there, buddy.

• Download today’s debut right here (full track list after the jump)

Get your prog rockin’ untz untz shoes on: Umphrey’s McGee and the Disco Biscuits have combined forces to stage the Transgression Festival in Copper Mountain, Colorado on July 14th and

This week’s mix is a selection of increasingly crazy jazz, with piano, ostensibly at least, as the principal performer. The first cut is from Venezuelan pianist Edward Simon’s Unicity, which

Page McConnell returns to the stage at noon today to perform a set for WXPN’s World Cafe series. I saw McConnell’s set at moe.down in August and had my interest

I missed it. We all missed it. Unless you were there. In that case, you didn’t miss it, and from all accounts, you may not have a face anymore.

Thanks to this entity called “work,” I was stuck in our nation’s capital as Warren Haynes trotted out a smorgasbord of talent at Irving Plaza for his special Evil Teen Re-launch all-star jam last night. As we had hoped, and as we had feared (because, again, we missed it), the Allman Brothers played two songs on their off night from the Beacon, and Derek Trucks and Susan Tedeschi, Edwin McCain and the remainder of Gov’t Mule all showed up to rock the smallish house.

Our friend Jon Hochstat says it was so hot he’s “at a loss for words,” and he was kind enough to pass along the already uploaded torrent. Click here to download this memorable and obviously epic show that I fucking missed.

And read on for the full setlist from the evening…