Concert Dates, Concert Tour News, Artist Information

Timberlake brings sexy back.

No gerand: he’s already brought’en Sexy back.

I’ve been listening to Justin Timberlake’s Futuresex/Lovesounds album nearly nonstop since I posted on it last on November 24 (view orig. post here), and it’s still blowing my mind. Lose Your Way is just a drop-dead amazing sound, and I have to admit that my two roommates and I spent a Sunday morning dancing in the living room to the whole playlist…
Also, Timberlake’s recent appearance on Saturday Night Live was one of the best performances I’ve seen in a long time by a guest host, and one of the better shows I’ve seen overall for quite a while. Andy Sandberg’s parody Christmas song was absolutely hilarious, and it’s been posted on YouTube. I shouldn’t write the lyrics here.

Timberlake will be touring with Pink to promote his Futuresex/Lovesounds album beginning in January with his Jan. 8 appearance in San Diego, and tickets to his sold out shows (and even some advance tickets!) are available on StubHub.com’s fan forum Justin Timberlake Tickets page. Happy New Year’s everyone!

The Moody Blues in Concert

Take a free ride. On this trip. Just for me.

That’s right, the Moody Blues, the 1960’s favorite psychadelic poets, who have been labeled everything from deviants to gods, (although they’re really just singers in a rock-and-roll band) are on tour in the US beginning February 8 in Las Vegas, and will be travelling the country straight through until March 3, where they’ll wind down in Missourri.

They have a new compilation album out from earlier this year, “An Introduction to the Moody Blues”. I’ve seen these guys in concert, and they’ve still got it. Not that I was alive back in the sixties (or before 1983), but they haven’t lost their flare for their soulful, transcendent rock with all its drama and, yes, even occasionally accompanying spoken-word. Which has always blown my mind. Pinprick holes in a colorless sky let insipid figures of moonbeams pass by? I think? Every 19th century poet is on his/her knees.

Stubhub’s forum is currently selling tickets to two shows, with more to come. Check out the Moody Blues Tickets forum for more information and peek in to see about new dates added. These guys are as unstoppable as their old friend Tim Leary. (who is outside looking in, by the by.)

Concert Tours More Popular Than Ever

Everyone loves some kind of music.  Whether it’s country, blues, R&B, rock and roll, gospel, hip hop or anything else, people are flocking to concert venues like never before.  The numbers for the revenue that these tours are producing are staggering, as the Edmonton Sun has detailed today.

Trade magazine Pollstar has noticed these results, and editor-in-chief Gary Bongiovanni makes a point to clarify that these revenue numbers are not just a result of selling more expensive tickets, but they also represent an increase in total attendance.

“Not only did we set a record for gross revenues, but we did it by selling more tickets rather than more expensive tickets,” Bongiovanni said.

If you want to see any concert, anytime and anywhere, take a look at the concert tickets available at StubHub.com, and you’ll be on your way to an unforgettable night.

RIP James Brown

Music fans all over the world woke up to sad news on Christmas morning with the passing of the great James Brown.  Brown was set to perform at several venues, including a New Year’s Eve bash, but his unfortunate passing has created heavy hearts all over the world.  Brown was and is one of the most influential stars of the music scene, and his roots are quite interesting.

Brown’s life consisted of crop sharing, baseball, boxing, love, crimes and punishment, drug problems, struggle and ultimate success.  The “Godfather of Soul” lived a very full life, and his influence will live on forever.  Check out any concert tickets avaialble, and you’ll stand a very good chance of hearing Brown’s style come through any R&B, Soul, Blues, Gospel or Rock and Roll performance.

High School Musical… the Concert

How best to capture the trials, tribulations… (and acne?) of high school? Apparently, given the smash-hit success of Disney’s TV-movie High School Musical, you write a musical about it. So how do you then manage to capture the theatrical grooving and pop-star singing of such a blow-out musical event?

Obviously, a star-studded concert.

Disney Channel’s High School Musical concert is on the road now though January 28, bringing the show that was broadcast to the top into its fans cities, and coming along with it are some of those fans’ favorite actors from the movie. Cast members Ashley Tisdale, Vanessa Hudgens, and Corbin Blue will be along with the band to sing the hit songs from the musical, and they’ll be accompanied by Drew Seeley, writer of “Get’cha Head in the Game,” abcnews.com is reporting. Also in news, Zac Efron will be missing the tour because of his ongoing work with the cinematic version of “Hairspray” the musical. (read abcnews’s full article here)

The next scheduled show will be in Long Island, NY on 12/29, followed by Manchester, New Hampshire (word) on the 30th. The cast will then take a short New Year’s break before performing in Toronto on January 2nd, which is their only Canadian appearance planned currently.

Tickets to all these shows (even the sold-out ones!) are available now on StubHub.com’s High School Musical tickets forum, where jocky/nerdy/pimply(that’s everyone, really) fans go to buy and sell tickets.

Christmas Carol Performances

Charles Dickens’ Christmas Carol is perhaps the definitive work on the modern tradition of Christmas. Surely filled from beginning to end with good Christian cheer as brought to the work by Dickens’s tireless humanitarian work, it at the same time is a gernerally ethical play that emphasizes the importance of good will between fellow people.

Okay, did that sound a bit too abstract? Sorry, I had to do it, because although we’ve heard this a million times, there’s a reason that Christmas is associated with the practices of gift-giving and good social cheer, and much of that is due to the popularity of Dickens’  story. there’s an absolutely wonderful piece on it by NPR that aired last night in New Hampshire, the mentions of its historical import following ion the tail of a one-man reading of an abridged stage version. Read by Jonathan Winters, it’s really an amazing rendition, and it’s worth a cup of egg-nog, a fire, and a quiet post-celebratory 26th of December. Download the audio version of Charles Dickens’  A Christmas Carol  from NPR here.

Productions of A Christmas Carol  are going on all across the country from DC to Chicago to San Francisco, and StubHub has the tickets to the sold-out shows. For tickets to this classic show both before, during, and after Christmas, go to StubHub’s listing of Chrismas Carol shows of readings and dramatic productions, where Dickens enthusiasts buy and sell last-minute tickets.

My Top 3 New Year’s Tickets at StubHub.com

2006 is in its darkling corpuscular hour, and I thought I’d take a moment to cue you all in to those best shows you should sneak in before the year goes out, especially if you’re a James Brown fan, in which case you should groove your way into 2007. With James. So, for your consideration, my top 3 StubHub New Years shows. Please to enjoy:
1: Top of my list is the Trans-Siberian Orchestra, of course, if only because of the seasonality of it all. They’re best known for their dominating stylistic interpretations of classical Christmas songs, so ’tis the season. Quite appropriately as well, the Trans-Siberian Orchestra tour ends on the December 30th show in Washington DC’s Verizon Center. An anthemic end to 2006.

2: Bob Seger is playing at the Palace of Auburn Hills in Minnesota on December 30th, where the show begins at 8 PM. He’ll be playing, as on the rest of his tour, with his long-time compatriates Chris Campbell, the Alto Reed saxophones, Craig Frost, Mark Chatfield, Shaun Murphy, and Laura Creamer. His tour is currently slated to run until the end of February, and his ever-American rock/blues show is a great way to round off the year.

And Number 3: James Brown. The legend. Is playing at the B.B. King Bar & Grill in Manhattan on New Year’s eve. (This is a testament to StubHub’s ability to get hard-to-find tickets.) And at the time of press, there are only four tickets to be had. At $136 a pop, these are as cheap a ticket as you’ll get into any bar if you’re lucky/unlucky enough to be in NYC for New Year’s, so jump on the James Brown tickets now.

And of course there are countless other shows going on before the year makes its way into the history books for good, so find a good deal to your favorite band in a city nearby on StubHub.com’s general concert tickets directory, where you can search A-Z for fan-sold tickets to that show you’ve been putting off all year.

It Just Comes Natural for George Strait

George Strait, country superstar, is bringing his natural, traditional style across the country following the release of his new album, “It Just Comes Natural.”

The album is his latest in a long string of huge hits: Strait is an undeniable country legend, having 13 multiplatinum, 32 platinum, and 35 gold albums to his name in his long career. “It Just Comes Natural” is earning huge reviews across the board, bringing in another number one single for Strait with the track “Giving it Away,” and pulling down rave comments from critics like About.com’s country music forum, (a five-star review) who said “[It Just Comes Natural] will knock your socks off.” (read About.com’s 5-star review of “It Just Comes Natural” here)

The track list is a fairly long one at fifteen songs, but they’re all solid and it doesn’t drag at all:

1. Give it away
2. She Told Me So
3. That’s My Kind of Woman
4. Wrapped
5. It Just Comes Natural (Title Track)
6. He Must Have Really Hurt You Bad
7. Heart Like Hers
8. Why Can’t I Leave Her Alone
9. One Foot in Front of the Other
10. I Ain’t Her Cowboy Anymore
11. Texas Cookin’
12. Better Rain
13. How ’Bout Them Cowgirls
14. What Say
15. Come on Joe

Tickets for his tour, starting in January at the Cajundome in Lafayette, Louisiana, are on sale on StubHub’s fan-based George Strait Tickets Forum, where hard-to-find and sold-out shows are a specialty, and a little Texas Cookin’ is, well, cooking.

The Who? The them!

Exactly.

But seriously. Abott and Costello aside, The Who’s Endless Wire tour is rolling in high gear right now across the country, promoting its month-old album, Endless Wire.

And the tour has been a developmental hit for the band. Said frontman Pete Townshend in an interview with the Star Tribune of his long-term collaborative relationship with Roger Daltrey, “It just gets better. Neither of us ever hoped for such a coming together at this stage. We’ve always respected and loved each other, but have often said we don’t care that we don’t actually always like each other. That is changing now, we do like each other. Maybe this happens because of an increased dependence, but more because we see each other very clearly now.” For more information on the tour, including interviews, press releases, and other reviews, go to www.thewhotour.com or any of the subject pages previously listed.

And as reported on October 24 on StubHub.com (see the “The Who Promote Endless Wire Album” post), Endless Wire was voted by the Observer as one of the top ten albums to hear in 2006, it debuted at #7 on the Billboard album chart, and sales are reflecting that. Tickets are extremely hard to come by, but StubHub has ten hard-to-find shows on sale on its fan-based The Who tickets forum, running from the February 3rd Reno show to the March 13th Show in Tampa, FL.

Welcome Eric Clapton Back Home

Eric Clapton, one of the best guitar players alive, is bringing his tour back to the US beginning in February, when he’ll hit the American Airlines center in Dallas on the 28th of February.

While Clapton’s album, Back Home, recieved only mediocre reviews, his tour is flat-out flooring fans. The London Times’ music review saw in Clapton’s performances a complete reawakening of his old energy, an ability to completely capture a crowd with the gut-wrenching power he’s known so well for. Said the Times of his show at Glasgow, “he still sang in his sleepy, soulful drawl, but played guitar with a rediscovered energy and urgency.” The article went on to say that “Clapton remains a supremely gifted performer…. there was some of the old fire here as well.” (Read the rest of the London Times article on Eric Clapton’s Back Home tour here.)

Clapton’s tour mates include the brilliantly talented slide-guitarist Derek Trucks and Clapton’s new guitarist partner Doyle Bramhall, who bring a lot of talent and fire to the show. Clapton’s website has a great interview with Bramhall, covering his excitement to be working on the tour and what he’s adding to the group’s performances. Bramhall on collaborating with Clapton: “He just understands the way I play. He knows that I get him musically on a lot of levels. I always listen to him instead of being a rhythm guitar player that’s just trying to hold up. He likes playing off of me, which I do as well with him. I can’t speak for him, but it feels that way. Each night is a totally different journey for us.” (read the full Doyle Bramhall interview here.)

Clapton already did a brief stint in the US on his Back Home tour earlier this year, but only hit select states along the Eastern seaboard before hopping over the pond, as it were, and touring across Europe. Currently, he’s playing in Tokyo, and will be rocking his way through the South Pacific before coming “Back Home.” As it were.

Back Home is available at any large online retailer, and tickets to Eric Clapton’s Back Home US tour in 2007 are in high demand—visit StubHub.com’s fan-to-fan Eric Clapton Tickets Forum to buy or sell tickets to your closest venue.