It’s always a great day when you can see Ben Harper live and to catch a true rock ‘n’ roll show. Here are some photographs from the show over Labor Day Weekend at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas courtesy of Erik Kabik (www.erikkabik.com).
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Revisited: My Lollapalooza 2011
10 Aug
Sweet home Chicago! What can I say except the 20th Anniversary of Lollapalooza far exceeded any experience I could have ever imagined. More photos will be coming soon but wow what a good time and so many great bands/artists performing. If you wanted to discover new music, hear some great bands of the past 20+ years or just come and hang out, Grant Park was the place to be.
My First Show: Ryan Leslie
My Final Show: Deadmau5
My Favorite Show: GROUPLOVE
Who I Saw:
Day One of Lolla: Ryan Leslie, Tab The Band, Young The Giant, Naked & Famous, Delta Spirit, Foster The People, White Lies, Two Door Cinema Club, Skrillex, Afrojack, Muse, Coldplay and late night CULTS show at the Hard Rock.
Day Two of Lolla: GROUPLOVE, Walk The Moon, Maps & Atlases, Friendly Fires, Black Lips, Big Audio Dynamite, Joachim Garraud, Local Natives, My Morning Jacket, Eminem, My Morning Jacket. Night show: Skylar Grey, Mia Moretti & Caitlin Moe, Black Lips.
Day Three of Lolla: Rival Schools, little hurricane, The Cool Kids, The Pains Of Being Pure At Heart, The Cars, Flogging Molly, Boy & Bear, Nas & Damian Marley, Deadmau5
Best Bud Light Stage Show: Young The Giant or Friendly Fires
Best Music Unlimited Stage Show: Muse
Best Sony Stage Show: GROUPLOVE
Best Google+ Stage Show: little hurricane
Best BMI Stage Show: Boy & Bear
Biggest Surprise: Maps & Atlases and Tab The Band
Overall Stage With The Best Performances: Sony Stage
Most Entertaining Show: Deadmau5 – debut of his new rig extravaganza
Most Disappointing Moment: the police during Eminem not caring about kids who were comatose from whatever got them into that state
Next Big Thing: Young The Giant, these guys drew over 20,000 people at 1 p.m. and Foster The People, man in six months these guys are doing it!
Band Redemption In My Book: My Morning Jacket – I’ve seen them a handful of times and never really dug their shows, I did this time
Bands I Was Sad To Miss: Fitz & The Tantrums, City & Colour, Ween and Foo Fighters plus Portugal. The Man, again – just too hard to be two places at once
Late Night Show: CULTS at the Hard Rock
Angriest Performer: again, Eminem. The crowd was pretty angry too
What Would Have Been Great: a fourth day of the festival
Top Lolla’er: The dude dressed in a watermelon costume crowd surfing
Random Moment Of Awesomeness: mud wrestling taking center stage after the first downpour on Sunday
Best Festival Eats: the guy who brought in Garrett Popcorn in with him. Thanks for sharing!
Best Place To Cool Off: didn’t find one
Biggest Waste of Time: Food lines or anyone who waited for a cooling bandana from Toyota
Best Marketing at Festival: Outside a street team was handing out Foster The People “Pumped Up Kicks” shoelaces and of course I got some
Worst Part: not having a poncho or jacket when the rain came pouring down on Sunday
Clutch Move: running straight for the port o johns and finding a new garbage bag to make a poncho
Tips For Next Year: carry a poncho – when it rains it pours, drink as much water as possible, don’t try to go swimming in Buckingham Fountain – I witnessed a few beat downs, ice cream is your friend in August, make a list of bands you want to see but don’t stick to it, comfortable shoes, you will walk a lot
Revisited: G. Love & Special Sauce (Vegas SEVEN – July 28 Issue)
29 JulCheck it out, I had the opportunity to review G. Love & Special Sauce last week at the Silverton. My review appears in the July28 issue of Vegas SEVEN. Hope you enjoy it!
Revisited: Widespread Panic – 7 16 11 – Las Vegas – The Joint
17 JulIf it really was the last time I’d be able to see a Widespread Panic show, what a night it was. Last night the legendary rockers performed the final date on the Summer Tour at The Joint at the Hard Rock Hotel in Las Vegas and had a capacity crowd going wild from start to finish. For me I’d have to say the highlights of the first set were easily “Climb to Safety,” and “All Along The Watchtower” followed by “All Time Low.” As for the second set, “Surprise Valley” into “Heaven” back to “Surprise Valley” into Drums and back into “Surprise Valley” was sick and a random occurrence, Carrot Top came out during “Coconut” and did a little percussion assistance. And the encore, wow, you couldn’t ask for more; “Ophelia” into “Shape I’m In” was a funky good time and if “Porch Song” is the final song I ever get to hear the boys perform live, no complaints.
I’ve been lucky enough to see Widespread Panic more than a handful of times and if after 25 years this is the final year, their live shows will surely be missed. I hope that when JB said at the end of the show “We’ll see you” and then paused before saying “sometime,” that there is a chance they won’t be saying goodnight forever.
Big thanks to EverydayCompanion.com for always being my source for Widespread Panic setlists. Below is last night’s.
1: Henry Parsons Died, Climb To Safety, Radio Child, Sharon, Visiting Day, Rebirtha, Driving Song > Disco > Breathing Slow > Driving Song, All Along The Watchtower, All Time Low
2: Pigeons > Junior, That Don’t Make It Junk, Coconut*, Jack, Surprise Valley > Heaven > Surprise Valley > Drums > Surprise Valley, Space Wrangler** > Tall Boy
E: When You Coming Home, Ophelia > The Shape I’m In, Porch Song
* with Carrot Top on percussion
** with various crew members on percussion
Revisited: Brett Dennen and DAWES – 6 23 11 – Las Vegas
24 JunLast night was one of those concerts you really appreciate, intimate venue and musicians who you could tell were genuinely having fun. Plus the venue, Veil at the Silverton, is a really great place in Vegas to catch a show.
I was super excited not only to see Brett Dennen in concert once again but also the opening act DAWES and let’s just say neither disappointed. DAWES ripped through a 45 minute set playing a handful of songs off their new album Nothing Is Wrong, which came out two weeks ago, and work off their debut album North Hills including the crowd favorite “When My Time Comes.” Two little side notes, last night bassist Wylie Gelber could have been mistaken for the Treme character Sonny played by Michiel Huisman and please if you haven’t already, check out Taylor Goldsmith’s side project Middle Brother which I still can’t get enough of.
A quarter after 9 p.m. Dennen took the stage in Las Vegas for the first time. He definitely had the crowd dancing throughout while jamming on both his acoustic and electric guitars to deliver a 90 minute set that spanned his catalog and also included a couple sing-a-longs. As expected, he performed a lot of new material off his latest disc, Loverboy including “Dancing at a Funeral,” “Comeback Kid,” and “Sydney (I’ll Come Running).” The highlight of the show however was the four song encore which began with Dennen playing “Heaven” and “Ain’t No Reason” acoustically before being joined by his band and DAWES for a rocking cover of Steve Miller Band’s “Swingtown.” Closing with “Blessed” the song that put him on the musical map was a perfect way to cap the night.
Revisited: Toots & The Maytals
17 JunCourtesy of our friend and photographer, Erik Kabik, check out the pics and words from Wednesday’s Toots & The Maytals show at the Hard Rock Hotel in Vegas.
Toots & The Maytals performed at The Hard Rock Hotel Beach Club as part of the SOUNDWAVES Poolside Concert Series on June 15th, 2011. Frederick “Toots” Hibbert, known as the man who coined the term “Reggae” in 1968 had led Toots & The Maytals for over 40 years. The reggae legend performed an extended set of classic Toots & The Maytals hits to an enthusiastic crowd who danced and sang along throughout the entire show. At 66 years of age, Toots still performs an intensely energetic solid set of reggae music that evokes the spirit of Otis Redding, Ray Charles and Al Green and is also infused with a heavy dose of Gospel Revival music.
– EK
Revisited: Bonnaroo 2011
13 Jun
10th anniversary of Bonnaroo is in the books and I’m ready to get tickets for next year. Being a Bonnaroo rookie, it was all about taking in as much of the experience as possible. After an afternoon waiting for everyone to fly in, rent the truck and an off the reservation experience at Walmart, we were on the road. Some 60 miles and one wrong turn later, we arrived. After finding the RV and unpacking enough food and booze to feed the entire stage crew for the festival, it was time to get the party started. Meandering through the festival grounds at night it was hard to capture just how big the Bonnaroo fields are and how over 100,000 people flow in and out. The first time you see it during the day, your jaw drops at the sight of an entire city being created in virtually the middle of nowhere. If that’s what it takes for people to get along, be polite and just have a good time, I can live with that.
I also learned that no matter what bands you plan to see, you can go ahead and throw that plan out, it just isn’t going to happen and that’s a good thing. Getting a chance to pop in and out of shows, listening to some new bands (and some old), wandering around the festival grounds and just kind of going with the flow seemed to be just fine. Photos will be coming soon (I promise) but here are some of my highlights from Bonnaroo X.
My First Show: The Walkmen
My Final Show: Apache Relay
Best What Stage Show: The Black Keys
Best Which Stage Show(s): G.Love/Warren Haynes
Best Tent Show: Ryan Bingham & The Dead Horses
Best Overall Show: Walk The Moon
Biggest Surprise: Childish Gambino
Best Legend Show: three way tie – Robert Plant, Dr. John, Gregg Allman
Random Moment Of Awesomeness: blue blinkers dropping from the sky for Arcade Fire’s set
Overall Stage With The Best Performances: On Tap Stage – shows included Band of Heathens, Apache Relay, Chancellor Warhol, Mat McHugh, Pimps of Joytime, JEFF The Brotherhood, Bobby Long and more
Most Entertaining Show: Lil Wayne for the fact that at least 40,000 festival goers/hippies knew all the lyrics to his songs – you had to be there to understand where I’m coming from
Most Disappointing Moment: Terrible sound quality for the Buffalo Springfield show made it almost impossible to listen to (this saddened me more than anyone will ever know)
Next Big Thing: Walk The Moon and Apache Relay
Top Party: the overflowing sea of madness for Girl Talk at 2:30am
Oddest Show That Was A Blast: Primus
Funky Good Time Show: Black Joe Lewis & The Honeybears
Band I Was Sad To Miss: GIVERS
Angriest Performer: Eminem
Best Intro: Lewis Black for Warren Haynes
What Would Have Been Great: a late night set from a headlining DJ
Top Roo’er: Guy trying to make the “World’s Biggest Glow Stick” (if you saw/met him, you know what I’m talking about)
Top Sports Bar Moment: Game 6 of the NBA finals was like the March Madness scene in Vegas (video coming soon).
Best Festival Eats: Bear Creek Farms’ hand cut French fries and Gravy
Best Broo’ers Festival Beer: Ashville Brewing Company’s Ninja Porter
Best Place To Cool Off: the cinema (if no line to wait)
Biggest Waste of Time: anything that involved a line
Shocker Of The Festival: no rain
Worst Part: Dust everywhere and if you didn’t have a bandana, you were SOL
Clutch Move: renting a pickup truck
Tip For Next Year: less junk food and more healthy food, bring laxatives and don’t go off the reservation
More Tips: flip flops are your enemy, dust sucks, that fountain water is filthier than Vegas’ Rehab, expect rain, drink water and more water
Revisited: Little Hurricane – 5 28 11 – Las Vegas
31 MayLast weekend I had the opportunity to check out San Diego based Little Hurricane at Chandelier Bar at Cosmopolitan. In the fairly short amount of time I had listened to their music prior I was impressed but after seeing CC and Tone live, I’m now a huge fan. Their sound of dirty blues/rock just works and I can’t picture the music with more than just the duo on stage. Between Tone’s raw voice and skills on the slide guitar and CC providing solid beats (and also easy on the eyes), Little Hurricane are a force to be reckoned with. Big things are in their future, get onboard now; pick up their album Homewrecker while you’re at it and see them live.
Follow @doyouheartmusic
Revisited: RS 867, April 26, 2001 – Top 10 Singles
26 AprA decade ago today, here where the Top 10 songs. I can’t believe this was ten years ago, just look at some of these songs and more, the artists.
Do You Hear The Music? 