Jason DeBord's Rock Subculture Journal

The English Beat, The Romantics at Dixon May Fair | Dixon, California | 5/10/12 (Concert Review)

by 6 Comments

Thursday night was a special evening of music for fans of 80s music in Dixon, CA at the Dixon May Fair.  Featured in concert were two great bands, with The Romantics opening and The English Beat (or just The Beat in their home of the UK) headlining.  The 80s is my personal favorite era of music, particularly anything that fell into the broad categories of “Modern Rock” (later “Alternative”) and it’s various subgenres.  The performances did not disappoint, as each group played favorite, catchy tunes with a great crowd of real fans in attendance.  Fantastic show and awesome to see both bands on the same night, back to back. [Read more…]

The Black Keys, Arctic Monkeys at Powerbalance Pavilion | Sacramento, California | 5/5/12 (Concert Review)

by 6 Comments

Powerbalance Pavilion in Sacramento hosted an incredible concert event Saturday night, with two awesome bands – The Black Keys and Arctic Monkeys.  Being fans for both, I would have paid to see either one, so it was something special to have both acts on the same bill.  Both rocked the stage and the packed stadium hard, but in totally different ways, with Arctic Monkeys bringing their UK style of alternative rock, and The Black Keys showcasing a more raw style of soulful rock.  Collectively for about three and a half hours, it was a relentless onslaught of rock and roll, and it was freaking awesome.  I was fortunate enough to take it all in from arguably the best spot in the house – center front of the GA floor in the immense area.  If you are a fan of either or both these bands, I highly recommend checking out this show, should you have a chance to see them on tour. Phenomenal. [Read more…]

Music World Loses True Rock Icon: Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, Dead at 47

by Leave a Comment

Today is a sad day for the music world, as the news spreads that Adam Yauch, MCA of the Beastie Boys, died today at the young age of 47 after a battle with cancer over several years.  There are many fine obituaries published all over the web, just hours after the news broke, so I thought I would just share a few more personal thoughts about the man, his band, and their music. [Read more…]

Omega Auctions Two Part Sale: ‘Vinyl, Music & Film Memorabilia’ & ‘The Porl Thompson Collection (The Cure)’ – Catalog Online, UK Events to be Held on May 19th

by Leave a Comment

Omega Auctions has published their online catalogs for two upcoming sale events happening on the same day, Saturday, May 19th – ‘Vinyl, Music & Film Memorabilia’ & ‘The Porl Thompson Collection (The Cure)’.  The sales will be held in the United Kingdom.

[Read more…]

Julien’s Auctions ‘Property from the Estate of Les Paul’ Catalog Online, Event to be Held in Beverly Hills on June 8th & 9th

by 1 Comment

Julien’s Auctions has published the online catalog for their upcoming sale – “Property from the Estate of Les Paul”, which will be held at their Beverly Hills gallery on Friday, June 8th and Saturday, June 9th.

[Read more…]

Coldplay Xyloband (Light Up Wristband) Reanimated By Concert Video, Comes Back To Life… “Is There Anybody Out There?”

by 14 Comments

So I was having dinner with a friend last night, telling her about Saturday’s Coldplay concert in San Jose (see “Coldplay at the HP Pavilion | San Jose, CA | 4/28/2012”).  I had mentioned that after the show, I met Jason Regler, the inventor of the “xylobands”, the wrist bands handed out to concert goers to wear during the performance, which are activated over RF signal to light up (and light up with different flashing patterns) for different songs, at different times during the concert.  These were first introduced for the “American Express Unstaged” concert in Madrid, which was directed by Anton Corbijn (see “Coldplay “Unstaged” at Plaza de Toros | Madrid, Spain | 10/26/2011”).  In any event, since my friend has never seen Coldplay in concert, I thought I’d send her a link to one of the videos I shot during one of those sequences, so she could see just how awesome these are when employed during a show.  That’s when a very strange thing happened, which I thought I’d share with the readers of the Rock Subculture Journal… [Read more…]

Coldplay at the HP Pavilion | San Jose, California | 4/28/2012 (Concert Review)

by 16 Comments

Last night, April 28th, was the second in two back-to-back performances by Coldplay at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA – part of their official Mylo Xyloto world tour. This was the sixth time I’ve seen Coldplay in the past six months (having seen their AMEX Unstaged show in Madrid, Spain in October, some of the special European tour dates at the O2 in London and the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in December, and the special iHeartRadio charity gig at Club Nokia and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! block party in Los Angeles in February.  As such, I don’t think I’m in a position to do a “normal” sort of review at this point, as I tend to subjectively compare to all of the other shows I’ve attended in the past year and beyond… but as I’ve come to expect, with last night’s gig, Coldplay put on a high energy show with a great mix of hits and new material.  Watching many in the crowd seeing the show with “fresh eyes”, it was certain that the nearly 18,000 in attendance came away having shared an awesome experience with this fantastic concert.

[Read more…]

Concert Travel Journal Summary | Las Vegas, NV | April 2012

by 1 Comment

This is a summary essay and concluding thoughts on my trip to Las Vegas this past week for a variety of shows – Garbage at the The Pearl at The Palms Casino Resort on Saturday, Elton John at The Colosseum at Caesar’s Palace on Sunday, and Mike Tyson’s “Live On Stage” event at The Hollywood Theatre at The MGM Grand on Monday.  I also had a chance to check out the Hard Rock Cafe, Gold & Silver Pawn (the “Pawn Stars” shop), and had a chance run in with Penn Jillette of Pen and Teller.  All in all, a busy three days or so. [Read more…]

Inside Gold & Silver Pawn (The “Pawn Stars” Shop)

by 3 Comments

I met up with some friends of mine who live in Las Vegas, who, like me, collect original artifacts from film, television, and music.  I became acquainted with them years ago through my Original Prop Blog, and they have been huge supporters of my efforts.  The History Channel series Pawn Stars has been a topic of discussion on the Original Prop Blog for years (see original article), so who could pass up the opportunity to check out the store where it all happens?  So we visited Gold and Silver Pawn.

[Read more…]

Hotel/Resort Review: ARIA Resort & Casino – Las Vegas, NV

by 1 Comment

Because I do travel for some concert events, I thought it might be helpful to share my impressions and experiences staying at various hotels and resorts, and doing so will build on the “travel for concerts” theme of this website. This review is for the ARIA Resort & Casino in Las Vegas, during my recent Las Vegas Trip (April 2012). [Read more…]