It was a banner week for Erasure’s Vince Clarke and Andy Bell when they arrived at Oakland’s Fox Theater for their sold out performance. Clarke, the strong-but-silent founding member of
After ten years, four albums (plus one of remixes), and four EPs, Minus the Bear decided to take it back to the beginning for a diamond anniversary extravaganza. Celebrating a full decade as a band called for a tour highlighted by performances of their debut album, Highly Refined Pirates, in its entirety. Promising to “dust off some vintage tunes” when announcing the tour schedule in late July, there was plenty of time for anticipation, not trepidation, to build for the dates that will see the band travel to every corner of the country.
Having been the first band to ever play on the Honda Civic Tour in 2001, Blink 182 has come full circle, having been followed by Paramore, Good Charlotte, Fall Out Boy, and New Found Glory on subsequent outings.
Kudos to Life Is Good for putting together what has to be the best run outdoor event on the calendar.
Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark (OMD) has defied the odds. With many of their 80’s art-rock and synth-pop peers disappearing into novelty and nostalgia, childhood friends Andy McCluksey and Paul
Journey is not just out there promoting old songs via a new voice. They have a new CD out called Eclipse which sounds like the Journey everyone knows and loves but carries a harder-edge punch. They played two new songs, “City Of Hope” and “Edge Of The Moment”, which teased the crowd that this band is moving forward in the right direction and not standing still.
WSP haven’t been able to sustain the rejuvenation that took place when Jimmy Herring joined the band, and they’ve transitioned to the 6000 capacity Raleigh Amphitheatre after routinely drawing 15,000-plus people in the area just ten years ago. While smaller venues aren’t necessarily a bad thing for the fans, the decline in attendance certainly seems to coincide with many longtime fans’ feelings that the quality of shows has declined as well.
With a careful editing eye and a reinvestment in the tools that made him so innovative as a male singer-songwriter, Howie Day can really go far again, despite the many blunders of recent memory.
In the three days just before hitting the Orpheum Theatre in Boston last Thursday, Troy “Trombone Shorty” Andrews was busy. His band’s new album, For True was released 9/13, he kicked off the night prior with a release party at the venerable Tipitina’s in his hometown New Orleans, and then followed the next night by a industry type showcase set at The Box in New York, later to be followed with a Late Night With Jimmy Fallon appearance with The Roots.
Despite a lackluster ending, the Popped! Festival overcame a large number of difficulties to provide Philadelphia with an enjoyable, if non-traditional festival experience. It may pale in scope to festivals like Lollapalooza, Sasquatch or Outside Lands, but this year’s show proved that Philadelphia can make a festival work.
