Rock icon Joan Jett with Joan Jett and the Blackhearts will be playing around a dozen concert dates across the United States this Summer. The Platinum and Gold-selling “Queen of Rock n’ Roll” is best known for her string of 80s hits including “Bad Reputation”, “I Hate Myself for Loving You”, and others. [Read more…]
“How do you like your rock ‘n roll? I don’t know about you, but I like mine funky.” Early on in Prince’s “Early Show” Wednesday night – the second evening of his two-night engagement with 3RDEYEGIRL at the tiny 800-capacity DNA Lounge in San Francisco – he let us know what we were in store for over the following hour and a half. And that was the theme of the entire night… funk. Since I already gushed over how the “Late Show” the evening before was one of the best concerts I’d ever been to in my life, I was hoping for more of the same. Well, it was another epic show, but somehow was altogether different from the show the night before. This gave me a different perspective on these concerts, which as precision-driven as Prince is, the concerts overall seem very much like a ripping and spontaneous jam session. A perfect collision of the planned and the unplanned… I got the feeling that there is an overall framework, and incredible planning and timing in all of it, but within that framework is a genius at work – inspired, reacting, and making up brilliant music set pieces as he goes along. He’s not there to please any particular sensibility or set of expectations. He’s there to rock the place out. And boy did he deliver. The highlight for me was, funny enough, when he took over the bass guitar and played that thing in a way I’ve never seen or heard a bass played before. And it was all about funk, without any doubt. $250 plus fees for these shows is a high point of entry, but had I known what I was in for, I honestly would have found a way to go to all four shows in San Francisco this week, they were that amazing. The must-see show of the year, hands down. [Read more…]
I’ve been to a lot of concerts in my life, and for a variety of reasons had never been to a Prince show before last night (as much as I rate him among my favorite artists). I can say, hands down, he is truly the most brilliant performer I’ve ever seen. It is all so effortless and mind-blowing that I can’t really put it all into words (or pictures – no photos were permitted, even from cell phones). Prince and his new all-girl band 3RDEYEGIRL literally sucked all of the oxygen out of the 800 capacity DNA Lounge in San Francisco for his second and final show on Day 1 of his two-day engagement. The only negative was the idea that it was all at some point going to end, but thankfully, I am going to get a second chance for this once in a lifetime experience tonight for the early show on Day 2 at the same fantastic venue, that almost felt as if it was designed to host these very special shows. Not only one of the best concerts of the year, one of the best concerts I’ve ever been to… ever.
No Doubt served as the special musical guest for Jimmy Kimmel Live! last night, as part of a special episode debuting the new 11:35 PM time slot. In addition to performing two songs for the benefit of the television audience, the band put on a good number of additional performances for this concert with eight songs in total, which was awesome for the fans in attendance who either got free tickets through 1iota or won them from the World Famous KROQ. Having just seen the band about a month ago as part of their seven-night residency at The Gibson Amphitheatre, it was awesome to catch them again so soon, and again opening with the title track to their latest album, Push and Shove. During the high energy mini-concert, the band made some news by announcing that they will be doing a world tour starting this Summer. As with the Gibson gig, the members of the Anaheim band (Tony Kanal, Tom Dumont, Adrian Young, Stephen Bradley, and Gabriel McNair) seemed to be having the time of their lives on stage, and were dressed to the nines in their own stylish versions of tuxedos. Brilliant show and awesome crowd.