Posts from the Concert Category at Spinner.com

Rock Pix: Hot Chip, Santogold + More

Hot Chip looked positively regal in London, Kings of Leon rocked out in Detroit, Santogold dueted with Spank Rock at the mtvU Woodie Awards and much more.

Posted by Kim Davis on Nov 17th 2008 7:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Rock Pix

Van Morrison Performs 'Astral Weeks' in Full

Widely regarded as one of the greatest albums of all time, Van Morrison took to the stage for two nights at the Hollywood Bowl this past weekend to celebrate the he 40th anniversary of his Warner Bros. debut, which Morrison performed for the first time in its entirety.

The songs and Morrison have aged four decades, and the singer wisely treated the album as such. Morrison and his band, including original 'Astral Weeks' musicians Jay Berliner and Richard Davis, changed much of the material for the live setting, extending 'Sweet Thing' into a jam at the end, adding a Flamenco flair to 'Beside You' and a bluesy choo-choo riff for the finale of 'Cyprus Avenue.'

Continue reading Van Morrison Performs 'Astral Weeks' in Full

Posted by Steve Baltin on Nov 10th 2008 5:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Rock Pix: The Ting Tings, Mogwai + More

This Week: The Ting Tings rocked Perez Hilton's One Night Stand party, the Killers marched on London, Mogwai glowed onstage in Berlin and much more.

Posted by Kim Davis on Nov 7th 2008 8:30PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Rock Pix

Rock Pix: Neil Young, Billy Corgan + More

This Week: Neil Young got sweet on Cat Power, Norah Jones rocked a hot new look, Josh Groban sang a duet with Billy Corgan and much more.

Posted by Kim Davis on Nov 3rd 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Rock Pix

Neil Young Cancels Concert Amid Protests

Neil Young is a man of the people. The veteran singer-songwriter canceled his scheduled Thursday night concert at L.A. 's Forum, when he received word that the International Alliance of Theatrical Stage Employees (IATSE) planned to picket the show. The union group is in a contract dispute with the Forum's owners, the Faithful Central Bible Church, after the famed venue "forced steep cuts on Forum workers and slashed workable hours," according to the company's website.

Young learned of the group's intention this past weekend following his annual Bridge School Benefit shows, and the news put him in a bind: play the nation's second-largest market and alienate the organization, which he and his wife and are lifetime members of, or cancel the show. "I am extremely disappointed to have to choose between satisfying my fans or backing my brothers and sisters of the IATSE," Young said in a statement. "I will miss playing in Los Angeles and apologize to my fans for the inconvenience this has caused."

Young will continue his tour on Saturday night in Reno, Nevada. The L.A. date will be rescheduled for next year.

Posted by Steve Baltin on Oct 30th 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Led Zeppelin Eyes Tour, Sans Plant

Ten months after rocking a London crowd with their first show in nearly two decades, Led Zeppelin are itching to do it all over again with a tour and new album, bassist John Paul Jones confirmed on British radio this week.

Here's the kicker: Robert Plant will not be involved but instead, replaced by a new frontman.

"We are trying out a couple of singers," Jones said on BBC Radio. "It's sounding great and we want to get on and get out there."

Jones, guitarist Jimmy Page and drummer Jason Bonham -- the son of original member John Bonham who died in 1980 -- are reportedly all on board with the comeback. But it is Plant who has categorically shot down a full-scale reunion, and last month issued a statement clarifying his stance.

"Contrary to a spate of recent reports, Robert Plant will not be touring or recording with Led Zeppelin," he said.

Continue reading Led Zeppelin Eyes Tour, Sans Plant

Posted by Marc Schneider on Oct 28th 2008 4:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

Rock Pix: CMJ Takes Over NYC

This Week: CMJ Music Marathon took over New York last week with a dizzying schedule of performances from hundreds of bands on the rise. Flip through some of the highlights below.

Posted by Kim Davis on Oct 27th 2008 2:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Rock Pix

Against Me! Frontman 'Glad to Be Alive' After Bus Crash

Against Me! frontman Tom Gabel is "glad to be alive" after the group's bus crash, which occurred in the early hours Wednesday on I-80 in Wyoming. The accident was caused when the vehicle hit a patch of ice en route to a Salt Lake City gig and spun out of control as its trailer broke free from its hitch, slamming the bus into a ditch in the median of the interstate.

"I woke to the sound of my friends screaming, various expletives, inarticulate gasps, the sensation of spinning and the sound of crashing inside and outside the bus," Gabel wrote on his blog late Wednesday night. "My eyes opened to blackness. I immediately pressed my hands and feet into the roof of my bunk as hard as I could, bracing for what I did not know."

Continue reading Against Me! Frontman 'Glad to Be Alive' After Bus Crash

Posted by John D. Luerssen on Oct 24th 2008 2:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News, Holy Hell

Secret Machines Light Up on Tour

The Secret Machines have always been known for sick staging and light shows that are usually just as psychedelic as their swirly anthems. They've done the silhouette thing, the in-the-round thing and now they're doing the ... um ... WTF thing.

Perhaps set designer Es Devlin (Kanye West) can do a better job of describing it. In a recent press release, she explains, "The band will be caught within a Naum Gabo-inspired rhomboid structure, surfaced with gauze and punctuated with radiating tensioned cables which will catch the light in a more lyrical way than a pure saturated block of back light ... What the fans will see will be a visual expression and counterpoint to what they hear, allowing them the space to project their own interpretation of the music and the courage to intensify it."

Continue reading Secret Machines Light Up on Tour

Posted by Benjy Eisen on Oct 23rd 2008 10:00AM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, News

CSS Bring the 'Sex' to Iceland Airwaves Festival

Most of the time, Reykjavik is just a preternaturally calm, winsome, elegant city, perched at the western edge of Iceland. During the Iceland Airwaves festival, which this year ran October 15-19, it feels like one huge, raging rock club. Pretty much every band of note in the country crowds into every available space in downtown Reykjavik to play showcases and parties and secret gigs, and so do dozens of bands who've flown in from Europe and the Americas. (Björk's not playing, but she's in town.)

You can't walk down Laugavegur, the fashionable district's main drag, without encountering posters and flyers for Airwaves everywhere, and you'll probably stumble onto half a dozen shows in the course of a five-block amble. There are seven official Airwaves venues (as opposed to nine last year), all within a few minutes' walk of each other, but half the fun of the festival is the "off-venue" shows -- many of them listed in the official program guide, some not, but almost all free to the public.

Continue reading CSS Bring the 'Sex' to Iceland Airwaves Festival

Posted by Douglas Wolk on Oct 21st 2008 3:00PM
Filed under: Concerts and Tours, Exclusive