You might have noticed a number of professional cameras set up around the Greek Theatre at Phish’s recently completed set of shows and wondered when you’d get to see that
Lollapalooza 2010 – Day Two; August 7, 2010
Follow @BFeldheim for up-to-the-minutes Lollapalooza updates.
Gogol Bordello served as the rowdy greeters to day two of Lollapalooza 2010.
Describing the band as gypsy punk sells them a bit short, though Ukrainian born bandleader Eugene Hütz has used the same words to describe his world circus ensemble. Racing punk drumbeats serve the backbone for snaky violin and accordion, furious chords and Hütz’s vital yelping vocals. As a testament to the combinations of Romany Gypsy music, punk rock and eastern Europe folk, Hütz introduced all band members by nationality. Those mentioned included Ecuador, Israel and Russia, after a stomp rousing Start Wearing Purple to close their set.
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| From Lollapalooza 2010 Day Two |
Onward back up north we went through the woods back to the Sony Bloggie Stage to hear Deer Tick and their haunted blues-spiced rock sounding straight from the south. But it’s not. Somehow they are from Providence, R.I. but they sound like anywhere between Memphis and Georgia. Singer John J. McCauley III led the quartet with a high-pitched rasp, and the band keeps pace with clean tones, even with distortion.
Metric greatly aided a clear trend among the Friday and Saturday performances where the women stood out farther than many of their male counterparts, a great feat to see among male-dominated festivals. Taking better parts of dance rock like clear melody lines, dynamic changes in the instrumentation and overall high energy, Metric will likely be remembered as a stand out set from this year. Singer Emily Haines whirled around the stage, capturing the audience with her movements, but then backing it all up with her emotional vocals, especially during Help I’m Alive. Metric performed a deep set with drummer Joules Scott Key, guitarist James Shaw and bassist Joshua Winstead producing equal parts organic beats and distorted synth-inflected noise.
READ ON for more on Day Two of Lollapalooza 2010…
The Dead Weather performing at the House of Blues, Boston MA on July 14th, 2010.
Trainwreck (http://www.trainwreckwithkg.com/), fronted by Tenacious D’s Kyle Gass and “Lee of the D” announced today that they embark on a 20-date aptly named “Transcontinental Railroad” tour across the country and
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
Follow @BFeldheim for up-to-the-minutes Lollapalooza updates.
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…
As reported in Rolingstone, My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James told the magazine that the band is currently recording the follow-up to 2008’s Evil Urges in their hometown of Louisville,
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…
