Live: Patrick Stump delivers post-Fall Out Boy rock, funk, soul, sweat

by Bill Palmer

“It’s only getting funner,” quips Patrick Stump midway through his second set of the night. “And that’s not even a word.” The singer for Fall Out Boy is flying solo tonight, though he’s got a backing band, and he’s bringing the kind of intensity to his live performance which might lead one to believe – or to conclude that he believes – that his entire solo career rides on the success of this evening.

The music consists of rock, funk, and soul. The atmosphere consists of sweat as much as anything else, as Stump hops around stage like a man possessed throughout the entire hour long set (he even jokes about having ruined his suit from perspiration). Those who’ve heard his solo EP Truant Wave knew more or less what they were in for, as the Michael and Prince inspired places Stump seemingly always wanted to go to during Fall Out Boy have been breached without apology in his emerging solo career. New song “Spotlight” somehow finds its way into both the front and back of the setlist, but the audience doesn’t seem to mind the repetition as Stump’s energy by that point has grown to an arena-like atmosphere despite the confining nature of the tiny Hotel Cafe, more often known as a haven for singer songwriter affairs. By the end of the set he’s inexplicably in the crowd, singing to those who’ve gathered in front of the dinner tables, and then he somehow manages to disappear into it for an end to the evening just as punctuated as the performance has been.

Although most of the crowd for the latter of the evening’s two performances appears to be intimately familiar with Patrick Stump’s previous work (and indeed, many of the same faces had been there for the night’s first set), this was no Fall Out Boy tribute show. Regardless of whether the band ever finds its way back together, Stump appears to have an innate need to be creating the music he’s currently creating on his own, as if it’s the most important thing he’s ever done. But that intensity doesn’t keep him from keeping things affable during the set. At one point, after mangling the last name of one of his cohorts, he jokes that he himself has the worst last name possible. The name “Patrick Stump” may not have the kind of popular cache as the name of his longtime band, but if tonight is any indication, that may change before the year is over. Right now “Soul Punk” only exists as a logo on the t-shirts being sold at the club, but the forthcoming album of the same name is one worth watching for – and not just because it’s from the guy from Fall Out Boy.

Tim & Eric Awesome Tour, Great Job: on-site report

When something is as awesome as Tim & Eric Awesome Great Job Show, being brand new to discovering it might make one feel like they are not part of the awesome inner circle great job club. And that’s exactly the feeling I had standing at Club Nokia on November 6th in Los Angeles. As a lover of Tom Goes To The Mayor, I had only seen bits and clips and would not consider labeling myself a super fan. Of the sold out crowd in attendance, I am willing to bet I am the only one.

The venue features a main stage with a large screen behind it, and scattered small screens throughout, which is a blessing since there would have been no way at all to see what was going on over the heads of the gangly nerds high fiving each other because they were so happy to be there right then.

Tim & Eric’s live show is holiday themed (the Holiday being Chrimbus) and they had plenty of gifts for the audience. Since their sets include several character/costume changes, they managed to keep the crowd entertained by playing some of their classics as well as new material from old standbys, including some new Cynco products and plenty of pre-recorded appearances by regular characters on the show.

Known for their absurd sense of humor and off beat video editing style, they are to comedy what Dali was to art. Much like Dali’s artwork, their humor doesn’t seem to need to be understood in order to be appreciated. They’re just as obsessed with dick and boob jokes as the next middle aged Adult Swim comedian, but what sets them apart is how very little of a fuck they give while still making you like them.

“They’re either doing the smartest thing in the world in the stupidest way or the stupidest thing in the smartest. You can never tell which it is,” fan Schlomo Rabinowitz tells me in the middle of the show. “And they have a great talent for finding people to cast.”

The show itself would have been a lot more enjoyable had it not been for the pressing need of 80% of the crowd to repeat every joke made, call out regular jokes before the cast members made the jokes, or call out sketch requests at the stage. It seemed like the crowd was more into everyone knowing that they were majorly into Tim & Eric, and not as interested in enjoying the show.

However, as one fan pointed out to me, most people usually watch the show “super baked”, so the absence of a smoke cloud over Club Nokia may account for the rowdiness of the normally stoned crowd.

All in all, these two overweight dorks from Temple University have managed to revolutionize comedy in the smartest- or dumbest- or is it smartest?- Yes, I think smartest way television has seen in a long time. That certainly makes their live show worth seeing.

report by Nikol Hasler

TimAndEric.com

The Black Crowes: the 2010 concert experience

If you think the nature of the Black Crowes concert experience in late 2010 is going to change just because the band is on its farewell (for now) tour, think again. The band’s gig at the House of Blues this week revealed that the brothers Robinson and crew are carrying out the latter days of this incarnation of the band in the same fashion they always have: the music goes where it wants to, and the music speaks for itself. In fact, if there is a perceptible change in the nature of a live Crowes show of late, it’s that the concept has been taken even further toward its logical conclusion. And for those who’ve come to savor just what it is that makes a Black Crowes concert such a different experience over the years than a Black Crowes studio record, it’s more than welcome.

Here’s what concert goers weren’t greeted to this past Wednesday night: there wasn’t any sort of banter or conversation between songs. Band members didn’t laboriously introduce each other at any point during the set. In fact the Crowes have worked so hard to streamline their shows down to what counts that there wasn’t even an opening act. What the audience did get was a setlist spanning the band’s twenty year catalog. Jealous Again from their debut album. Appaloosa from their recent “Before The Frost” experiment. A bit of everything in between.

That meant opening the night with Gone, which also opened their third album Amorica, which was as close to a hit song as the band performed during its first several numbers. During the course of the evening there were eventually plenty of hits mixed in of course, including radio staples Hard To Handle and Remedy along with live favorite Wiser Time. The latter was one of several songs which simply refused to end, with an extended breakdown which at one point consisted of nothing but keys and rhythm section while the band’s guitarists vacated the landscape. Not that there weren’t plenty of exposed guitar features (and for that matter harmonica features) in there as well. Those expecting a Crowes concert to consist of nothing but faithful to the studio versions aren’t going to get what they came for. Rather, the loyalty is devoted to what the songs could have been if not for the constraints of an album, each evolving over the years into a road life of their own.

Don’t get me wrong. The Crowes know how to interact with their live audience, and on a deeper level than a lot of other bands who try a lot harder to. But rather than telling funny stories in between songs, these guys simply speak to their audience with their instruments. At this point most people coming to Crowes concerts know what they’re in for, and they’re hanging on every note of it. Those looking for studio-faithful renditions of nothing but the band’s biggest radio hits are better off staying home and cherry-picking them from iTunes instead.

You can count on one hand the number of bands that are still commercially relevant in the twenty-first century (Croweology debuted in the top ten this past summer) and yet so brazenly indifferent toward that commercial success when it comes to their live shows. It’s not that the Crowes shy away from their biggest hits as a matter of course; it’s that they’re only going to play the hits that they feel like playing, the ones that feel right for the moment. It’s part of what makes them worth seeing on a repeated basis, because you’ll never end up seeing the same show twice. While their set this night included a number of songs from their heady debut album, their massive radio hit She Talks To Angels wasn’t one of them. Instead the band dusted off Could I’ve Been So Blind, from that same record, and dutifully presented it as one of those songs that’s morphed into something that the original studio version could only have ever dreamt of being.

It’s true of all bands to varying degrees, but with the Black Crowes more so than most others: they either work for you or they don’t. Particularly when you’re talking about a band that’s never tried to hide the fact that they’re rockers from the south, while never pretending to be southern rockers (you either get that delineation or your don’t). But if these guys are your thing, then do yourself a favor and catch them on what’s left of this tour if they’re coming to your town. Not that this will probably be your last opportunity ever, as both Chris and Rich Robinson told me earlier this year that it’s unlikely they’ll never reunite. But as they and their bandmates prepare to part ways at the end of 2010 in order to go home and raise their kids for awhile, it’s worth noting that they’re doing so at a time when their live set is at a historical peak.

Runner Runner: the 2010 concert experience

The beginning of August found me in Lancaster, PA, known for horse and buggies, Intercourse, and farmland for miles. But, I wasn’t there for the shoo fly pie and chicken corn soup, rather I was there for the up-and-coming pop-rock band, Runner Runner. They have been on tour with Secondhand Serenade, the White Tie Affair, and Go Radio since late July. Upon arriving at the small Chameleon Club in town, I was surprised to see how many people were already inside. For a Thursday night, there usually aren’t as many people. I can only hope that some of them were in attendance for the openers rather than just the main attraction, Secondhand Serenade.

Following the opening act, Go Radio, it was Runner Runner’s turn to show off their chops. After a quick setup period, the boys started their set with “Breakup Song.” Lead vocalist, Ryan Ogren, reminded me of the All American Rejects’ Tyson Ritter based on how frenetic he was. His voice is well suited to the pop-rock genre, and occasionally his punk roots come out. His singing tends to be tinged with a little hardcore edge that you don’t really hear from bands like We the Kings and The Maine.

The energetic set continued through songs about girls and dating, like “Hey Alli” and “Kinda Girl.” When they got to “Papercuts,” however, it sounded like a very heartfelt ballad. It had more to do with the mushy feelings associated with relationships than the “passionate” feelings. You always know it’s time to take it down a notch when the acoustic guitars come out too.

It came to my attention following the slow jam that the crowd was not really feeling it, so to speak. When Secondhand Serenade was mentioned, they exploded with squeals of excitement. But, when it came to praising the song that was just played, their reaction was the equivalent of “cheer, clap, silence”. I imagine it just takes some time to build up your street cred with new audiences.

They played close to a minute’s worth of Drake’s hot summer single, “Find Your Love”, to no avail.  I can’t say that I was personally thrilled with this facet of the show.  On stage, there was a copy of the lyrics to the song fragment taped next to the set list.  Maybe it was just part of the show, but I feel like there are better ways that they can grasp the attention of the audience.

Despite the fact that the crowd may not have been picking up what they were laying down, the guys in RR made the best of it.  They did call the crowd out on their quietness, and followed the statement up with photographing everyone from the stage. That’s not a common practice for most bands, so it did get everyone’s attention for a while. When it comes right down it though, as good as these guys are, they don’t need the cover songs to prove to anyone that they’re music is worth paying attention to. It speaks for itself, and, if they are truly as into their music as they seem, they will have no trouble converting the masses.


To finish their speedy set, RR cranked out their latest single, “So Obvious.” Even though this is the song currently being pushed by the RR camp, I’m convinced that it isn’t going to be the best song on the debut. With their combination of skills, they are capable of so much more awesomeness, for lack of a better term. Their first album doesn’t come out until September 28th, but Ryan, Peter, Nick, Jon, and James rolled through the new songs like they’ve been playing them for much longer than they probably have.

Their set was short with only eight songs, and it felt even shorter because they were so obviously having so much fun (no pun intended). From start to finish, their onstage energy was undeniable. They sound like they aren’t taking themselves painstakingly serious.  They are passionate about the music they are making, but they seem to be having too much fun to care about what everybody thinks.  Though, if you are having doubts about this band, you need to go see them live. There is just no comparison to the over-production of their single releases. Put simply, their passion translates much better on the stage than on the plastic.

by Keri Franz

Tour dates at RunnerRunnerMusic.com

Norah Jones: the 2010 concert experience

If the shift from her traditional seat on the piano bench to a more guitar-oriented approach on her latest album The Fall begged the question about what effect it would have on her live performances, Norah Jones wasted little in clearing up any any doubt as she took the concert stage with an electric guitar in hand. Accordingly, she opened the show with a rendition of the smoky “I Wouldn’t Need You” from the new record, and that guitar didn’t leave Norah’s hands for the first several songs. But no fear, old-school fans, as she found her way over to the electric keyboard eventually, then later over to a real piano on the other side of the stage, and then eventually to acoustic guitar by the encore.

But none of the shifts in instrumentation took away from the fact that Norah Jones is still Norah Jones, and that’s a good thing, of course. Her dreamy evening music is served up mid tempo, slow tempo, and even slower tempo – a fact that she herself couldn’t resist poking fun at midway through the set. In what might come as a total surprise to someone attending one of her concerts for the first time, Norah just can’t seem to resist cracking jokes and telling silly stories between songs, which only served to add to the humanity of it.

Of the fact that she had just attended a theme park the day before, Norah cracked that “I screamed a lot on the roller coasters, that was dumb” before she mocked choking on her own voice. Of the fact that Aerosmith has its own Disney rollercoaster, she quipped that if there were a Norah Jones roller coaster, it would be “the slowest ride in the world.” The quips kept coming, seemingly spurred on by the fact that various audience members worked up the courage to shout things to her in the hopes that she’d riff on them. And yet Norah being Norah, it somehow didn’t take away from the music itself.

The hit songs were there. New hit single Chasing Pirates. The classic Come Away With Me. And a beautiful rendition of her biggest hit Don’t Know Why, featuring nothing more than Norah on piano along with a pair of backing vocalists and no other instrumentation. But as if to balance it out, there was the absurdly funny song Man Of The Hour whose lyrics were directed at her dog but in such a way as to take one humorous backhanded jab after another at an ex.

Bottom line, though, is that the music sounded great live, with the six piece band often offering up live versions of songs that were arguably superior to the studio originals simply due to having that palpable live in-the-room feel.

Either you like the ever-mellow stylings of Norah Jones or you don’t. But if her kind of music is your cup of tea, then seeing her live in concert at least once is something you should consider mandatory.

Tour dates at NorahJones.com

Christina Perri performs Jar of Hearts live on SYTYCD

Christina Perri, whose music career was launched a mere three weeks ago when her independently recorded “Jar of Hearts” was used on the popular television show So You Think You Can Dance, will appear on the show tonight to perform the song live on the show, which is at this point a chart climbing hit. Perri has said that she wrote the song after she went home to her native Philadelphia late last year for the holidays and found herself hiding from the from the local guy whom the song ended up being about. So You Think You Can Dance airs tonight at 9:00pm.

Ed Kowalczyk of LIVE releases solo album Alive today

Ed Kowalczyk, former lead singer of the multi million-selling band LIVE, has released his solo album Alive today in iTunes and elsewhere. Upon first listen, the sound of Kowalczyk’s new album appears to be more closely analogous to 1991′s Mental Jewelry than anything else in LIVE’s back catalog. While the release of the solo album won’t do anything to help the future prospects for LIVE, which suffered from a nasty public split last year, fans of the band will likely be glad to hear new Kowalczyk material one way or the other. The iTunes link for Alive is right here.

Christina Perri posts live acoustic version of “Jar of Hearts”

Christina Perri has posted a live acoustic piano rendition of her sudden hit song “Jar of Hearts” to YouTube less than forty-eight hours after the tune made its national debut on the television show So You Think You Can Dance. “Jar of Hearts” has become a national sensation this week after newcomer Perri, who is unsigned and was working as a waitress in Los Angeles at the time the song first aired on TV, has suddenly been thrust into the spotlight and the song has raced up the iTunes charts to the number eight spot among pop singles. The live acoustic version of Jar of Hearts was recorded at Village Studios.

Dweezil Zappa interview: Frank Zappa and more

Dweezil Zappa is doing more to keep the memory of his late father’s music alive than merely talking about it – he’s been traveling the world for years and performing it. As he releases “Return Of The Son Of” today, Dweezil talks about the importance of exposing new audiences to all of Frank’s music and not just the oft-recalled novelties, along with his own musical legacy.

I guess just by association over the years, I thought I knew the music of Frank Zappa, but when I listen to your new album, I realize I don’t know it as well as I thought I did. Was that your goal?

Well yeah, I think too many people have only really a casual exposure to the music and they don’t really know what they’re missing in the music. Some people think if they’ve heard two or three songs, that they know Frank’s music. He made over eighty albums, and if you’ve heard “Don’t Eat The Yellow Snow” and “Dancing Fool” and “Valley Girl” and you think you know Frank’s music, you’re mistaken. I meet people all the time who say “I have all your dad’s records” and I say “really, how many do you have?” and they say “I have about four.” Well you’re not even close to having all the records.

So there is a common misperception out there. They think that they’re a big fan and that they know everything about it, but they don’t. So my goal is to present a broader variety and perspective when people come to the show, so they hear music from different eras and are able to get a better understanding of what I think makes up the most iconic things about Frank’s music. So a lot of the instrumental things that we choose to learn are things that I think really make him stand out as a composer.

I can’t help but notice that you keep referring to your dad as “Frank” – is that something you’ve always done, or is that just because we’re in an interview setting?

No, we always call our parents by their first names for the most part. It just was a natural thing for us to do in our family, I guess. We never thought about it. That’s just how it was [laughs].

Was this a sudden epiphany to do the Zappa Plays Zappa project, or was it something that evolved in your head?

It was something I thought about for a long time. To take something like this on required a lot of forethought, because you can’t just wake up and say “Yeah, I’m gonna put a band together and go play Frank’s music starting tomorrow.” It’s too hard to play, and you need people that you can rely on who can execute this stuff and respect the music. So the real inspiration to do it came from the fact that I felt like there were, as we were talking about, people that didn’t really know the music, especially that younger generation, and that I didn’t want to see Frank’s music fade away in my lifetime. So I thought if there was a chance to expose it to people in a live situation, now would be a good time to do it.

About seven years ago I started studying his music, glistening ideas as I listened to every record that he has ever made, in chronological order so I could get a sense of his work in its totality and really find where all of the things are connected. There’s thematic coherence in music, different things come and go, and a lot of people don’t know, even after years of listening to his music, that certain themes present themselves in one song and then become a whole other song on a whole other composition.

There’s plenty of examples of it. Something like the song “Wild Love” for example off of Shake Your Booty has an instrumental section that appears a few times in that song, and then a few records later you hear a whole other fully orchestrated version of that and it’s called “Sinister Footwear.” Frank would constantly be writing, and he would insert things that he wanted people to hear into other songs. So that became something that was very visible when you check it out over the course of his whole career.

Ultimately, for me, I wanted to know as much about the music as possible so I could focus on the right things that I wanted people to see, as opposed to continuing that thing that people make the mistake of doing, which is to say “Oh yeah, he’s that comedy music guy, he’s the guy that had the kids with the crazy names, and he has a couple of songs that were on Dr. Demento, Titties and Beer, yeah I know Frank Zappa.” that to me is such a disservice to all the music that he created. I just wanted to level the playing field and have people given a chance to have the music speak for itself. So I had to study the music for two years and train. As a a guitar player I had to completely change how I play, which was no small feat. You take something that you’ve been doing for nearly thirty years.

The way that you’ve retrained yourself to be able to play his stuff, I guess your newfound skills will impact the music that you make of your own, going forward.

Yeah. I haven’t had a chance to even work on any of that, but I definitely agree with you, it will make an impact for sure.

In one of your dad’s final interviews, how he wanted to be remembered, and he said it wasn’t important to him. If he didn’t feel it was important, why is it important to you?

He always had a self deprecating sense of humor, so when somebody asked him “How would you like to be remembered?” he said “I wouldn’t.” To me, I could see that humor in that, but at the same time I thought that was upsetting because I felt like there were so many thing that he accomplished that were not recognized and should be recognized, maybe in his lifetime he was so frustrated by the fact that he was just ahead of his time in so many ways. People just didn’t get what he was doing, so it was an uphill battle.

Everything was a superhuman task for him, like you’re always pushing the rock up the hill and always having somebody say “No I don’t think that’s going to work” and then you get there. He did stuff that nobody else would ever have taken on, and he did it in his own way and self financed it. So it was just an amazing amount of stuff that he was able to accomplish. And so for me it was important to say let’s look at this and let’s respect the fact that because he has done some of these things, other people have been able to benefit from some of this stuff. Musically, production wise, a lot of the things that he did were so ahead of his time that other people then caught onto doing.

You yourself has had an unusual career, the first time I saw you was when you were seventeen and you were hosting MTV, and you’ve been an artist and a composer, and now you’re doing this. Do you care how you’re remembered?

I never even think about it, you know? I think it’s evolving as to what people think of me or what I do. Prior to playing Zappa Plays Zappa, most people knew that I played guitar but didn’t have any real familiarity with any of my own music. So it wasn’t really until Zappa Plays Zappa that they could put it in a context that they understood. And the funny thing is, now more than ever, more people are saying, “Now I’m really curious to hear your own music and hear what you’re doing, I want to hear this band play new music that you’ve written.” And that was something that I didn’t even really take into account when the thing started, because the goal was to give people an opportunity to hear Frank’s music, and I wasn’t interested in putting my music into the show, because I thought for sure that everybody would be thinking “Oh, he’s just using this as a platform to cash in on a name.”

That kind of thing has been done by other people, but I was not concerned about that in the long run, because I knew that how we were doing the music would speak for itself.

What’s the setlist for the tour? Is it these same fourteen songs from the album or does it vary?

Every night we play a different setlist, different songs from different eras.

Learn more at ZappaPlaysZappa.com • MySpace • Facebook

Katy Perry brings California Gurls to MTV awards ahead video premiere

Katy Perry promised a spectacle for her live performance of California Gurls on tonight’s MTV Movie Awards, and she delivered with a performance which saw her arriving on a floating surfboard, a guest turn from Snoop Dogg, and scantily clad backing dancers galore. The live debut of the song comes as California Gurls hits radio and in advance of the expected August release of her sophomore album Teenage Dream. While there were no truly over the top moments in Katy Perry’s performance, it was the most musically valid component of the music network’s movie awards and will likely catapult Perry’s song even further into the summer 2010 driver’s seat while perhaps igniting an east coast – west coast (friendly, mind you) rivalry among pop stars after all. Now we just have to wait for the California Gurls music video to arrive (hint: the above screen capture is from the video).

Ed Kowalczyk of Live to release solo album “Alive” in early July

Ed Kowalczyk, longtime lead singer for the band LIVE, will release his debut solo album in early July via his own website. The album, entitled Alive, is available for pre-order on CD now and includes the lead single Grace. No official word yet on whether the album will also be available digitally via iTunes or whether the CD will also be available via retailers. Kowalczyk has tour dates scheduled in the U.S. and Europe throughout the summer with what he promises will be a “full rock band.” The brief snippets we’ve heard from Ed’s solo album suggest that Alive will continue down the musical path that he had been on during his years with LIVE. More details on Ed’s new album and tour are at edkowalczyk.com.

Kowalczyk split with his LIVE bandmates acrimoniously last year; they’ve gone on to form The Gracious Few with members of Candlebox.

STP live: Stone Temple Pilots on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight

Stone Temple Pilots will take the stage on Jimmy Kimmel Live tonight (Thursday) to promote the release of their new self titled album, their first new material together in several years. The reunited band has been touring together for a couple years, but finally got around to making an album, which was released this Tuesday and is current atop the iTunes album charts behind only the latest Glee soundtrack. STP’s most likely performance tonight is lead single Between The Lines, but you’ll just have to tune in to find out. We’ll be tuning in to see Stone Temple Pilots for sure.

Kimmel has said that Scott Weiland and the STP gang will be performing on the show again tomorrow (Friday) night for an encore, a back to back appearance similar to the one that fellow grunge rockers Alice in Chains pulled off last year when they released their new album Black Gives Way To Blue.

Train to perform “Hey, Soul Sister” on Regis today

Train, the San Francisco based band who are seeing their biggest chart success in years with current single “Hey, Soul Sister” will be performing the song on Regis and Kelly this morning. The band, who’ve scored hits over the years with songs such as Drops of Jupiter and Calling All Angels, have named their latest album Save Me, San Francisco in honor of their hometown.

Today’s television performance precedes a marathon touring effort which will kick off April 30th in Oklahoma and run non stop through September 4th in Illinois, with tour dates on both coasts in between plus a side trip to Australia and New Zealand in June.

Train previously performed “Hey, Soul Sister” on CSI: New York, with lead singer Pat Monahan portraying a fictional singer in the accompanying episode.

Sharon Osbourne will also appear on the Regis episode.

V.V. Brown tour dates announced

V.V. Brown, the rising UK pop star whose February digital release of her debut album Travelling Like The Light has boosted her U.S. profile to the extent that she was invited to perform her hit single “Shark In The Water” on The Ellen Show this past week, has announced a handful of headlining tour dates including New York City’s Bowery Ballroom on April 28th, UC San Diego on May 10th, The Troubadour in Los Angeles on May 12th (editor’s note: this is a tiny venue, start working to get tickets now if you hope to attend), and finally at the Basilica Block Party in Minneapolis on July 10th.

For those who still love their CD collection, Travelling Like The Light finally comes out in physical format this Tuesday, April 20th. Beatweek spoke with V.V. Brown about her album earlier this year; you can read the full interview here.

Iceland volcano grounds UK band

As if to remind us all that there are bigger things going on than within the confines of the entertainment industry, volcanic ash from the recent eruption in Iceland has ground flights in surrounding nations, causing at least one UK-based band to have to give up on a U.S. tour date. The group known as “Los Campesinos!” was forced to postpone its planned weekend gigs in New York and New Jersey because band members couldn’t get a flight out of the UK in time. However, the Jersey show has been rescheduled for Wednesday, and the rest of the tour appears to be intact.

Los campesinos!, the seven-member welsh outfit who released their sophomore album Romance Is Boring in February, will continue in the U.S. through San Diego in May (full tour dates here).

The pair of Icelandic volcano eruptions this past week have had societal and economic impacts worldwide.

Soundgarden concert tonight in Seattle

Those who’ve been waiting twelve years (and that includes us) to finally see a reunited Soundgarden in concert won’t have to wait as long as originally expected. While the band has already confirmed a headlining slot at August’s Lollapalooza 2010, Billboard is reporting that Soundgarden will perform a show tonight in its native Seattle, at the Showbox at the Market.

Still no word on whether there will be a new album, or what the band’s 2010 tour plans might look like beyond the Lolla gig, but the mere fact that Soundgarden is performing somewhere in the world tonight leaves us with good feelings. The band is also giving away free tickets via its Twitter page. If any fans make it into the show, be sure to let us know how it went.

Update: a few minutes after posting this, we received additional information about tonight’s show directly from Soundgarden itself: “Please leave your camera and video recorders in the dungeon. There will be a VERY LIMITED number of tickets available. All tickets sold on line. No tickets available at the door. All tickets are will call only.”

photo courtesy SoundgardenWorld.com

Neil Young to tour in May

Neil Young, who’s twice been inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and finally won his first Grammy earlier this year, is hitting the road for his first solo tour dates in several years. The tour, which kicks off in Albany, New York on May 18th, will consist mainly of shows in the northeast and southern United States, concluding in Dallas, Texas on June 7th. According to Young’s camp, the concerts will include performances of his classic songs as well as new songs that haven’t yet been recorded or released.

Full tour dates available on Neil Young’s official site.

Corinne Bailey Rae returns to U.S.

Corinne Bailey Rae, the British songstress who released her sophomore album The Sea in January, has returned to the U.S. for her first tour dates here in three years. Having already kicked things off with performances on the Today Show and the Tonight Show, Bailey Rae will also be performing on The Early Show and Jimmy Fallon in May.

Highlights of the tour include a performance at the Coachella festival in California on April 17th and New York City’s Webster Hall on May 3rd, along with shows in Portland and Seattle which will contribute to the Project RED campaign.. According to her camp, Bailey Rae will also be participating in multiple Lilith Fair 2010 dates which have yet to be announced.

Full tour dates available on Corinne Bailey Rae’s official site. The Sea is available in iTunes.

photo credit: Tierney Gearon

Adam Lambert discusses “extensive” U.S. summer tour

After concluding an international press tour this past month and appearing on American Idol this week as contestant mentor and performer, Adam Lambert will turn his attention to launching the long awaited summer tour that his fans in the U.S. have been clamoring for. While the dates aren’t yet set, Lambert told Beatweek about his plans for the shows, which he describes as “atmospheric”:

“As far as I’m concerned, they aren’t necessarily arenas,” Lambert tells Beatweek. “But I’m gonna pull out all the stops for the production values as best I can. I think I’m gonna try to make it theatrical, environmental, and interactive, something that people who know the album will love, but then people who don’t know the album will really enjoy it as well.”

As for the length of his U.S. tour: “It’s gonna be pretty extensive,” Lambert says, “as far as how many dates we’re going.”

Adam Lambert is on the cover of the current issue of Beatweek Magazine, in which he discusses his debut album For Your Entertainment, his choice of singles, and why he’s chosen to return to American Idol this week.

The full Adam Lambert interview can also be found here.

Carlos Santana to play Summerfest

Carlos Santana will be headlining this year’s Summerfest in Milwaukee on July 1st as part of the nation’s largest annual music festival. The performance will come amidst Santana’s 2010 Universal Tone Tour, along with his ongoing Hard Rock residency at The Joint in Las Vegas.

Santana spoke with Beatweek Magazine last year about his Vegas residency: “I’m having fun hanging around with me no matter where I am now. So it could be Las Vegas, a parking lot, I mean I’ve seen Bob Marley, he played in front of Tower Records in San Francisco, same thing with Traffic. So I said damn, you know, if they can play in the streets.”

Carlos also told Beatweek about his experiences as a new iPhone user, why he launched a Santana iPhone app, maintaining the energy level of his live shows, and why he feels younger now than he did when he performed at the original Woodstock, because “I’m not with fear.”

Beatweek’s full interview with Carlos Santana can be found here in full.

Next Page »