That’s right, Aesop Rock’s coming to Big D November 16 to the new Palladium Ballroom. I’m pretty sure I’ll be there…I’ve been hearing Aesop for years but have yet to see this Definitive Jux staple perform live. It should be well worth the price of admission. I haven’t had the opportunity to rock out at Palladium yet, so I figure this is a perfect first opportunity. He’s out on a fairly extensive U.S. tour in support of his upcoming (August 28) album None Shall Pass. I’ve got the tour dates for posted for you below.
Also, check this interview with between Aesop and an almost wholly incompetent interviewer. It’ll entertain you for about 10 minutes as you read about how Aesop used to skate and stuff. Then check out Aesop’s video for Fast Cars, below. It’s sweet.
(from antiMUSIC) Wouldn’t it make your life to see “Eruption” performed live? No? Oh. Well, David Lee Roth has decided that 22 years is a long enough period of time to hate his old band Van Halen and the band’s hitting the road once again for a 25-date North American tour and, according to the singer, “We’re getting along better than ever before”. I would see to it that I made nice too if I were gearing up for a tour that’s likely to leave a couple of dollar bills in my pocket! Things were looking uncertain for a while when the band’s namesake, Eddie Van Halen, checked into rehab back in March, “so that in the future I can deliver the 110% that I feel I owe you and want to give you.” Both a wise and admirable move, following yesterday’s post on Michael Schenker’s onstage intervention of sorts. Then again, I just couldn’t picture Eddie getting too drunk to play. Didn’t he do something along the lines of…inventing the guitar? I forget. Nonetheless, he’s out and ready to rip it up.
It won’t be a full-scale reunion as the original bassist Michael Anthony won’t be returning – but tell me this isn’t bad ass: Van Halen’s sixteen-year old son Wolfgang will be bassing it up! How many legendary moments like that come along before you even hit senior prom? “Yeah, I rocked out with VH on stage for a couple months. What? He’s just my dad.” The tour’s expected to evolve into a full-blown globetrot, but as of right now here are the dates (with Dallas, even Texas altogether, notably absent; prepare for road trippage!).
Sep. 27 Charlotte, NC Charlotte Bobcats Arena
Sep. 29 Greensboro, NC Greensboro Coliseum
Oct. 01 Philadelphia, PA Wachovia Center
Oct. 07 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
Oct. 10 Cleveland, OH Quicken Loans Arena
Oct. 14 Indianapolis, IN Conseco Field House
Oct. 16 Chicago, IL Allstate Arena
Oct. 18 Chicago, IL United Center
Oct. 22 Auburn Hills, MI Palace of Auburn Hills
Oct. 24 Minneapolis, MN Target Center
Oct. 26 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
Oct. 28 St. Louis, MO Scottrade Center
Oct. 30 Boston, MA TD Banknorth Garden
Nov. 03 E. Rutherford, NJ Continental Airlines Arena
Nov. 13 New York, NY Madison Square Garden
Nov. 20 Los Angeles, CA Staples Center
Nov. 23 Glendale, AZ Jobing.Com Arena
Nov. 25 San Diego, CA Cox Arena
Nov. 27 Sacramento, CA Arco Arena
Nov. 29 San Jose, CA HP Pavilion at San Jose
Dec. 01 Portland, OR Rose Garden
Dec. 03 Seattle, WA Key Arena
Dec. 05 Vancouver, BC General Motors Place
Dec. 09 Edmonton, AB Rexall Place
Dec. 11 Calgary, AB Pengrowth Saddledome
(from Yahoo!) But unless you’re willing to drive out to Georgia or Massachusetts, forget about attending. It’s his first tour since 1995, so this might be cause for celebration and road-tripping. I’m really going to have to debate this issue…I’d love to see Stevie, but I’d shoot myself if I had to drive that far for one show (which I’m sure will be pretty healthily priced). Until then I’ve got Sir Duke and Signed, Sealed, Delivered to bring a smile to my face. Alongside a bunch of music completely unlike Stevie Wonder. But hey, that’s the nature of this business. Tour dates listed below, tickets on sale August 11. More information on this story can be found here.
“A Wonder Summer’s Night” will feature 13 concerts from Aug. 23 to Sept. 20 in eight states:
(from BK’s Myspace) Ben Kweller’s got a slew of summer tour dates up on his page, and one of them is set for August 18 at Hailey’s here in Denton! If you’ve ever been to Hailey’s, you’ll know why this is such a great thing – the intimacy of the venue is tough to beat (outside of HOB’s Tea Room-esque side stage). I was introduced to Hailey’s several years ago when I started to catch some really great hip-hop shows out there. Small capacity, get your tickets fast before they sell out. I’ve posted the rest of BK’s summer tour dates below (note the September 18 Austin City Limits date – that’s right, you can’t keep Ben away from ACL, even when his nose starts spouting blood and he has to plug it up with a tampon provided by a member of the audience.
These are all the tour dates, from current through October 1, that Def Leppard will be playing with Styx. Two well-established mega groups on an extensive tour that’s being pimped out by Ticketmaster ensures ticket prices will stay nice and high (surprisingly, I can’t think of a single crude joke to follow that up with). Enjoy, and please, do buy me a ticket for the September 1 Smirnoff stop in Dallas. That would be a great segway into the September 2 Black Crowes show at Billy Bob’s in Fort Worth (with co-headlining local cult favorites Cross Canadian Ragweed and featuring alt-country underground stars Son Volt), no?
Exciting news – The Pumpkins are coming to Dallas! Well, it’s news to me at least, give me some credit. This is a super old news story but I said I’d follow up, so I figure it’s better late than never. If I were throwing this in as a last-minute story in next month’s magazine issue you wouldn’t even have known that I’ve been slacking. That’s the bad thing about this instantaneous technology stuff. I digress – below is the updated Summer ‘07 tour itinerary for the regrouped Smashing Pumpkins, who claim to be touring in support of their newly released album Zeitgeist, though it’s clear that they could simply reappear with no new material in hand and sell just as many tickets. Dallas fans, I’ll see you in Grand Prairie on November 3. I recommend bringing earplugs, because Nokia likes to crank the sound until it overloads your ears and you can’t reasonably enjoy the sound without sticking your fingers into your head. That said, I hate Nokia, but I will begrudgingly break the running boycott I have against Nokia to see SP play for the first time. Really – invest in some earplugs. It’s not about the volume, it’s about the sound quality.
Here are the Smashing Pumpkins’ fall tour dates:
Sept. 8: Montreal (Osheaga Festival)
Sept. 9: Toronto (V Fest)
Sept. 13: Las Vegas (the Pearl)
Sept. 18: Phoenix (Dodge Theatre)
Sept. 24: Vancouver (NE Forum)
Sept. 28: Salt Lake City (McKay Center)
Sept. 30: Morrison, Colo. (Red Rocks)
Oct. 2: St. Paul, Minn. (Wilkins Auditorium)
Oct. 4: Normal, Ill. (Braden Auditorium)
Oct. 7: Detroit (Fox Theatre)
Oct. 9: Pittsburgh (Palumbo Center)
Oct. 11: Columbus, Ohio (LC Pavilion)
Oct. 15-16: Boston (Orpheum Theatre
Oct. 21-22: Philadelphia (Tower Theatre)
Oct. 25: Memphis (Mud Island Amphitheatre)
Oct. 30: Atlanta (Fox Theatre) Nov. 3: Dallas (Nokia Theatre)
Nov. 5: Nashville (Ryman Auditorium)
(from the official Ozzfest website) Starting at 10:00 AM tomorrow, tickets will be available online for the Ozzfest summer metal festival stop in Dallas on August 2, among others. This is the first year that the festival has been put on for free, thanks to hefty sponsor contributions, but I still bet on dwindling attendance. Ozzfest was the genesis of rock concerts for me; I walked into the show a boy and emerged a demon. My first Ozzfest was back in 2001, and it was halfway decent then. Due either to a waning interest in bad music or a waxing interest in Vans Warped Tour, the festival’s barreled downhill lately. In 2005 Sharon Osbourne encouraged an onstage egg assault from the audience against Iron Maiden’s Bruce Dickinson along with repeatedly cutting power to the band’s set. These childish antics were intended as Dickinson’s revenge for his “remarks about reality TV”, the singer said in an August 26, 2006 interview with The U.K.’s The Sun Online. Whatever the case, there should be a bunch of stoners waking up unusually early tomorrow to sit faithfully in front of their computers, waiting for the 10:00 mark to hit. I’d sleep in, pick up the tickets at your leisure. The internet isn’t going anywhere, and neither, I suspect, are those tickets. We shall see.
Well, to all of you who may still be reading this (or are just joining on), I promised I’d return in May, I think. It’s now the ass end of June. But I have good news! As you may or may not expect, it involves Thrice.
That’s right, Brand New is heading out on tour starting October 18 with Thrice and mewithoutYou! This is going to be a huge tour. It also marks the first time that Brand New and Thrice have toured together since several years ago when they came through with Dashboard on the Honda Civic tour, which was sort of my first proper introduction to Brand New. The Dallas stop is set to occur Nov. 14, so mark your calendars for a sick show. The House of Blues has my full recommendation as a venue, despite its obvious lack of underground cred (read: it is fully commercialized). The sound quality is great (at least in the small Gypsy Tea Room-esque performance area it was), the decor is suiting and detailed, and it pulls in acts like this one. Keep your eyes on this website for show info and purchasing information.
Tah-dah! Five new festival dates in the glorious month of July 2007 have been posted for those of you who still listen to Def Leppard. Thanks to the reader who tipped me off on this one! The tour’s still in the early stages of planning, obviously. I’ll try to stay on top of any updates.
Jesus Christ, I’m going to stop reporting so many tour dates if it kills me…but I had to mention that Sage Francis is coming to the Granada Theater on June 8 along with Buck 65 (who I mentioned in my SXSW post that I sort of…fell off of) and two other acts! Sage Francis is an incredible lyricist, if you don’t know, and yet another white rapper showing that he can hold his own. The fact that it’s at Granada Theater makes it so much sweeter.
EDIT: He’ll be playing Emo’s in Austin the very next day, June 9!
