Just as quickly as it started, the Greek Theatre run that kicked off the second leg of Phish Summer Tour 2010 in Berkeley, CA has just come to a close.
Lollapalooza 2010 – Day One; August 6, 2010
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Lollapalooza has never been a quick jaunt around Grant Park.
Try to see too many of the 126 bands and DJs performing at the ever-growing festival behemoth, and much will be missed getting to and from stage to stage. But this year, a new addition to the grounds made it easier to trek from north to south with ease compared to past years. The grounds were extended west toward Michigan Avenue, giving all attendees the use of Columbus Drive as a walkway.
So with the welcome drop in humidity on Friday and more room to maneuver on the grounds, Lolla Day One started off with soul. Raphael Saadiq on the south big stage was a good warm up with horns blazing while he sang, but I only caught a minute before jogging up north to see Mavis Staples.
A major force behind 60 years of gospel, blues and soul singing, Mavis Staples rallied the growing Lollapalooza crowd as if she was still teaching The Band how to sing. The group’s harmonies during The Weight brought me chills as Mavis and crew belted out reflections of pain and struggle. Jeff Tweedy appeared to play guitar on a song from the group’s new album he produced, but he knew to just let Mavis do the singing. Her voice still rich and striking after decades kept the crowd focused.
READ ON for more on Day One of Lollapalooza…
Phish returned to the iconic Greek Theatre in Berkeley, CA this evening for their second show of three at the venue. Tonight’s performance started innocently enough with Chalk Dust, Guyute
Lollapalooza is well underway at Grant Park in Chicago. If you’ve been following our man on the scene, Benji Feldheim’s, twitter feed then you already knew that Jeff Tweedy sat
Los Lobos @ Bowery Ballroom, August 4
Los Lobos have humility, chops and professionalism to spare, and on a good night, these things propel them, and on a less-than-good night, maintain them. They’re hard to criticize because they just don’t falter: they play that broad, experienced mix of canciones, cumbias and folk songs with rock, blues, country and a whole host of other things, and do it with equal helpings of grace, raunch and bravado.
Sure, album-wise, they’ve been in something of a holding pattern since at least Good Morning Aztlan, and their shows don’t always have the sustained spark of yesteryear. And long-held Los Lobos quibbles – maybe they could mix it up a little more? why again did they bring Louie Perez out behind the drumkit in the mid 1990s to add another guitar voice and utility player? – are what they are at this point. But you’re grateful to have ‘em; rare is the Lobos show that fails to convince you of that.
They were in a peppy and giving mood at Bowery – a small room for them – which kicked off with a passionate Emily opener and dove into range of deep-catalog cuts (how about that filthy Georgia Slop!) sprinkled among the usual rockers (Don’t Worry Baby), cumbias (Chuco’s Cumbia, the heaving Maricela), genre-shifting charmers (still love that accordion on their typically fizzy take on Flaco Jimenez’s Ay Te Dejo En San Antonio) and just plain beautiful Los Lobos staples (the ancient folk tune Volver, Volver – which always seems to hit just as the crowd is slipping from buzzed to drunk and ready to sing).
READ ON for more from Chad on Los Lobos @ the Bowery…
This week’s theme is a little looser than most Friday Mix Tapes, as it’s a collection of fun party time music from all over the map, as opposed to a
Recently through the power of reconnection with old co-workers, classmates and friends that Facebook offers us, I reconnected with someone I worked with at a restaurant I opened in Washington D.C. a long time ago. I was surprised to find out he is now a master pizzaiolo (pizza maker). He is also a member of the United States Pizza Team – an organization which I never knew existed. I opened and owned part of a high end pizzeria overseas 10 years ago that was modeled after Trenton Tomato Pies so I was curious about the U.S. Pizza Team and what my friend Steve Lieber was up to.
I asked Steve to give me a little background about the United States Pizza Team. Here is what he shared with me:
The US Pizza Team is a group of pizza makers and dough acrobats whose goal is to promote the pizza industry. Our acrobatic leader is Juan Hermosillo from the hugely popular VISA commercial.
READ ON for more on pizzaiolo Steve Lieber…
The leader of the webcast pack, iClips, has just announced the third leg of the company’s “Couch Tour.” The action kicks off today at 2PM CDT from Lollapalooza and continues
This weekend’s episode of Live from the Artists Den on PBS features southern rockers the Black Crowes at an intimate performance filmed at the Lyric in Oxford, MS last September.
As we previously mentioned this fall Bryan Ferry will release his latest studio album, Olympia, via Astralwerks Records. The album, which features a who’s who of high profile guests including
