This is part of a continuing series of my impressions and experiences staying at various hotels and resorts while traveling to attend concerts worldwide. This review is for the MontBleu Resort Casino & Spa – for a stay in September 2014. [Read more…]
Below is the latest updated list of memorabilia for entertainment memorabilia, including rock and pop music stage and studio used equipment and costumes, as well as other entertainment memorabilia. Please contact me if you are aware of any coming events of interest to collectors. Please also note that I update changes/additions to the calendar until the next update, in order to maintain as up to date as possible. [Read more…]
“I walked out of there with not much, except a feeling in my heart that it was all going to work. And the reason that I tell you this story, is that I want you to know that if you have a dream, and you believe in yourself, and you believe something that you really want, don’t let anybody tell you that you can’t have it. Don’t ever let anybody get in your way, because you can have it, and we are living proof of that…” Optimistic words spoken by Stevie Nicks at the Sleep Train Arena in Sacramento last night, joined on stage by the core members of one of the best rock and roll groups of all time, Fleetwood Mac. I think we collectively need more optimism in the world today, but not just lofty words and sentiments, but used to power individuals to look to themselves and their own abilities and opportuities to make their dreams come true. Somehow, this collection of gifted artists – Stevie Nicks, Lindsey Buckingham, John McVie, Mick Fleetwood, and Christine McVie – all found one another back in the 70s and made music that has endured as classics to this day. I first saw Fleetwood Mac with their tour in 2013, and marked it as one of the best shows of the year. As that tour did not include Christine McVie, with her return on this year’s tour, I marked this show as my top “must see” concert of the year. It did not disappoint. All of the players sound like they are truly at the top of their game, and they seemed to love performing as much as the audience loved watching it. It was also a bit different than last year’s tour, with even higher production standards and maybe the best sound quality I’ve ever heard in a sports arena. It was truly an epic show, and Fleetwood Mac is one of those rare bands that can make playing to a large indoor arena work (I rarely go to such shows because they typically do not work on many levels). They really exceeded my expectations with their nearly three hour show, and I think the highlight for me was “Little Lies”, with Christine McVie’s beautiful voice and the overlapping chorus with Stevie Nicks and Lindsey Buckingham – a real showcase for the distinct character in each of their voices but how well they harmonize and blend together to such effect.
“And that’s how you play The Perfect Kiss!” An emphatic Peter Hook, currently touring as Peter Hook & The Light (formerly of Joy Division and New Order) – rock and roll’s greatest bass player – is apparently a skilled mind reader as well, as he pulled that quote right out of my head to shout back through his microphone after playing the best rendition of the classic song that I’d ever heard. Hooky and his band are in 2014 touring New Order’s third and fourth albums (Low-Life and Brotherhood, respectively) in their entirety, having done the same in 2013 with the first two (Movement and Power, Corruption & Lies). As an added bonus with each of these outings, they open for themselves as Slaves of Venues with dedicated Joy Division sets, which collectively makes for quite a substantive and lengthy set of shows each night. At The Fonda Theatre in Hollywood Saturday night, the dedicated fans in attendance were also treated to a surprise guest appearance on stage for the encore, with none other than Moby coming out to perform vocals for the first two songs of that set to close out the evening. All and all, with a show kicking off around 9:30 PM and going until 12:30 AM, it was three solid hours of celebration for fans of Joy Division and New Order. It was certainly one of those special shows were the venue, artist, and fans all clicked perfectly to make for a very memorable experience and a blazing hot and awesome show by a legendary artist and performer, who in my opinion is the heart and soul of New Order keeping the most authentic live performance of their music alive for old and new fans.
Reignwolf won over the Rock Subculture Journal back in 2013, with a supporting slot with Pixies at the El Rey Theater (I then counted Reignwolf as my #1 Supporting Act for the year). I was blown away by Jordan Cook and his two bandmates and their performance on stage, and have been eagerly anticipating seeing a full set from them ever since. Having supported Black Sabbath for much of 2014, Reignwolf will be playing a handful of special shows to close out 2014, with appearances in San Francisco, Portland, Vancouver, and Seattle. If you are anywhere in the vicinity of the West Coast, I can’t recommend enough coming out to one or more of these shows. Reignwolf will become a huge phenomenon once their first full studio album hits the streets and the rest of the world catches up to this incredible artist. [Read more…]
As readers may or may not know, I own and operate the sister site to the Rock Subculture Journal, the Original Prop Blog. Founded and launched in 2007, my Original Prop Blog site is all about film and television and important pop culture artifacts – finding them, authenticating them, preserving them, and everything that goes on in that specialized art market. Today I have published a world exclusive feature that shares my video interviews with Colin Cantwell, who worked on many important movies and TV shows like Star Wars: A New Hope, 2001: A Space Odyssey, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, WarGames, Battlestar Galactica, and Buck Rogers in the 25th Century. He is well known as the creator of the key ships and vehicles from Star Wars (like the X-Wing Fighter, the Y-Wing Fighter, the Tie Fighter, the Star Destroyer, the Death Star, the Landspeeder, the Sandcrawler, the Millennium Falcon, and the T-16 Skyhopper) by way of the prototype models he created for George Lucas back in 1974/1975. But no one has really talked with him about his work since, so he has until now remained somewhat of a mystery to fans. As it ends up, prior to doing those prototype models, he created concept art that has been lost to the “public record” for the film series until now… [Read more…]
Below is the latest updated list of memorabilia for entertainment memorabilia, including rock and pop music stage and studio used equipment and costumes, as well as other entertainment memorabilia. Please contact me if you are aware of any coming events of interest to collectors. Please also note that I update changes/additions to the calendar until the next update, in order to maintain as up to date as possible. [Read more…]
Milo Greene’s second studio album, Control, is due out via Elektra on January 27th, with the second album track, “On The Fence”, having come out last week (which you can stream on YouTube). Having recently finished a tour with Bombay Bicycle Club and a few sold out headlining dates of their own, they have now announced their first headlining tour in support of their Jesse Shatkin-produced sophomore album, which will kick off at SOhO in Santa Barbara and run through mid-March. [Read more…]
Singer-songwriter Anna Nalick, who has been performing in the U.S. this year, will be closing out her Fall Tour on the west coast, with the final date at Bootleg HiFi in Los Angeles. Having seen Anna for the first time myself in November of last year, I marked it as one of my top ten favorite shows of 2014 (out of over 100 concert event with hundreds of artists), so I would highly recommend checking out one of her upcoming shows if you can. [Read more…]
Rock and roll icons Fleetwood Mac and their “Own With The Show” tour is heading west later this month, with a second leg of shows added for January, February and March of 2015 as part of their extensive North American tour featuring their historic line-up of Lindsey Buckingham, Mick Fleetwood, Christine McVie, John McVie, and Stevie Nicks. [Read more…]