Four young guys playing with reckless abandon, with nothing to lose and everything to gain, playing a set rife with inside jokes that only select few got, or pretended to get.
Twenty years after releasing “Born in the U.S.A.,” Bruce Springsteen returned to the anti-war anthem as he and other artists kicked off a multistate tour aimed at helping oust President Bush.
Springsteen and R.E.M., both vocal critics of Bush and the war in Iraq, are the headliners for the “Vote for Change” tour, a 10-day series of shows in battleground states. Friday night’s performance at the Wachovia Center in Philadelphia was one of six across Pennsylvania.
Springsteen and R.E.M. frontman Michael Stipe introduced the first band, Bright Eyes, and reminded the crowd of the importance of voting November 2.
“This is a very important moment for every one of us and for our country,” Stipe said.
Springsteen opened his set with a solo version of “The Star Spangled Banner,” followed by “Born in the U.S.A.”
“I hope everybody saw the debate (Thursday) night,” Springsteen said at one point, adding that he thought Democratic candidate John Kerry did well. “We’re on a roll now.”
During R.E.M.’s hourlong set, Stipe occasionally offered political comments. Introducing a song called “Final Straw” that was released the week the United States declared war on Iraq, he said: “Did anyone watch the debates last night?” Thousands in the packed stadium cheered loudly, many raising their hands.
At the other end of the state, the Dixie Chicks and James Taylor performed in Pittsburgh. Other concerts were held in Erie, State College, Reading and Wilkes-Barre.
“I think our guy did really pretty good last night,” Taylor said of Kerry’s debate performance. He advised undecided voters to “take a real close look at both of the candidates and then vote for the smart one.”
Dixie Chicks’ Natalie Maines, once criticized for saying she was ashamed to share her home state of Texas with Bush, noted that a few people booed Taylor’s assessment of Kerry’s debate performance.
“We don’t feel at home unless we hear some boos, so you’re welcome,” she said.
The tour, also featuring Pearl Jam, Jackson Browne, Bonnie Raitt, John Mellencamp and others, includes 37 shows in 30 cities through October 11.
Proceeds will go to America Coming Together, or ACT, a group raising money for Democratic candidates. Organizers said 90 percent of the shows, including the one in Philadelphia, were sold out as of Friday.
The tour will also make stops in Ohio, Michigan, North Carolina, Florida, Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, Missouri, Washington, Arizona and Washington, D.C.
Pearl Jam guitarist Stone Gossard said he wants to convince voters that the Bush administration has been reckless in its foreign policy since September 11.
“For me, personally, I very much want John Kerry to win,” Gossard said in an interview. “I think that he’s expressed an interest in re-engaging the world community and saying the last administration is not representative of the way America wants to do business with the world.”
Source CNN.com.
Deja Voodoo is a 64 box of crayons filled with only shades of blue, and Warren Haynes delivers them in a fashion no one on the scene matches. You can never go wrong with the blues.
Pearl Jam, Death Cab, Bright Eyes also donate downloads to registered voters
MustVote.com has signed up bands ranging from Radiohead to Death Cab for Cutie to donate free downloads as incentive for young people to register to vote. The non-profit aims to register 100,000 new voters between eighteen and twenty-five in the final weeks before their states’ deadlines.
Visitors are rewarded with a free song — an exclusive studio track, live performance or remix — for every person they convince to register through the Web site, with those under seventeen able to take part as well.
Other bands participating include Bright Eyes, Lisa Loeb, Talib Kweli, Cursive, the Distillers, the Faint, the Fever and Von Bondies.
Source rollingstone.com.
Ozomatli has extended their lengthy tour in support of their recent album Street Signs through December. Tour dates run from October 2nd in Tucson, AZ, hit the east coast and swing back to the west, rapping up with a two night at the Belly Up in Solona Beach, CA
Ozomatli Dates
10/2
In his newest venture, Les Claypool teams up with long time drummer Brain, legendary keyboardist Bernie Worrell, and the enigmatic guitarist Buckethead as Colonel Claypool
On his second album, The Clarence Greenwood Recordings, Cope takes a bite from Eminems’s alter ego playbook, mixing fact and fiction. But rather than a straight hip-hop record, Cope fuses rock, dub, reggae, and blues into an eclectic effort that, although sleepy and moody, proves patient and drawing.
Pink Floyd’s music has always been theatrical and operatic, but now former frontman Roger Waters is taking those aspects one step further: Floyd’s 1979 double album The Wall is being made into a Broadway musical. And it’s not alone. We Will Rock You, which features twenty Queen songs, opened in Las Vegas on September 8th, and musicals based on the songs of John Lennon, Elvis Presley, Frankie Valli and the Beach Boys are all in the works.
“These songs are simply the new standards,” says Harvey Weinstein, co-founder of Miramax, which is co-producing both The Wall (expected in late 2005) and the Elvis musical All Shook Up (slated for March). “The Broadway audience has been graying for many years,” says New York Times theater critic Charles Isherwood. “This is a way of appealing to the baby-boomer generation, who don’t really go to traditional musicals anymore.”
We Will Rock You, about a rebel trying to bring creativity to an Orwellian world, opened in Las Vegas after a successful continuing run in London. “All of our songs speak about human emotions and human fears and human aspirations,” Queen guitarist Brian May says. “It’s uncanny how much the songs tell the story that needs to be told.”
Broadway insiders point to the runaway success of the Abbamusical Mamma Mia! as the inspiration for the current crop of rock-based shows. It debuted in London in the spring of 1999 and now includes fifteen productions in thirteen countries. “When one of these things hits big on Broadway, then you have roadshows and multiple-venue opportunities,” says former Sony Music head and Wall co-producer Tommy Mottola. “For some of these bands, it really can be the jackpot at the end of the rainbow.”
Of course, artists don’t always have control of their music. Good Vibrations, for example, uses the Beach Boys’ biggest hits, owned by Universal Music Group, to tell a tale of four teens’ last fling before adulthood, via a road trip to Southern California. The show opens at the Eugene O’Neill Theatre on Broadway in January, but sources close to the band say that members might not be at the opening party.
Much like attaching a star actor or actress, boasting a hit-song catalog gives would-be producers one more reason to believe in a show’s prospects. But it doesn’t guarantee success. In London, Our House, based on the ska band Madness’ catalog, closed after less than a year (it opened in October 2002), and Tonight’s the Night, featuring the hits of Rod Stewart, opened in November 2003 and will close in October.
Still, producers are betting that fans will want to hear their favorite songs performed live, especially when catching a concert is no longer an option: Lennon is tentatively scheduled to open on Broadway next summer, and Don Scardino, the writer, director and co-producer, has worked with Yoko Ono and combed historical archives to present Lennon in his own words, creating ten vignettes, each detailing a different point in the singer’s life. Toward the end of the play, the narrative moves to the Double Fantasy period. “It’s all this amazing music he never got to play live,” says Scardino of Lennon’s last recording. “The play becomes a concert we never got to hear.”
Coming to the Great White Way:
The Ticket: The Wall, Pink Floyd, expected late 2005 on Broadway.
The Plot: The story mirrors the Wall movie — a dark, semiautobiographical tale about a rocker named Pink Floyd. “I’m superexcited,” says co-producer Harvey Weinstein. “Roger Waters has been talking about adding humor and new songs.”
The Ticket: We Will Rock You, Queen, currently playing Las Vegas’ Paris hotel.
The Plot: A futuristic planet lacks musical instruments; rebels must save the day. “It was conceived three years ago, in response to boy bands and reality TV,” says Queen guitarist Brian May. “We thought it wouldn’t be relevant for long, but it seems to be getting more relevant.”
The Ticket: Lennon, opening in April at San Francisco’s Orpheum Theatre, then on Broadway.
The Plot: Ten actors each play John Lennon at various stages in his life. “Lennon wasn’t just the art-college student or the Liverpool tough or the famous Beatle,” says director Don Scardino. “He went through all these phases and embraced each of them wholeheartedly.”
The Ticket: Good Vibrations, the Beach Boys, opening in January on Broadway.
The Plot: Four small-town teenagers travel to Southern California, having adventures along the way. “It’s perfect for the Beach Boys,” says musical supervisor David Holcenberg. “Their songs all deal with themes of youth and growing up.”
The Ticket: All Shook Up, Elvis Presley, opening in March on Broadway.
The Plot: The story of a guitarist who comes to a middle-American town in 1955 to help everyone discover “the magic of romance and the power of rock & roll.”
Source rollingstone.com.
