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Concert Articles
Rob Thomas Tickets – Plans to Return Home, Where It’s Comfortable
You knew that he didn’t want to be lonely anymore in his 2005 album Something to Be, and now Rob Thomas is remedying that problem as he returns to the group Matchbox Twenty for a new studio set. Though still supporting his second successful solo record Cradlesong with a tour, Thomas plans to be back with the guys next year once his current tour wraps up. He revealed to the Detroit News that they have “already started to kick some ideas around.”
After Thomas left the group in 2005, Matchbox Twenty went on hiatus until 2007, when a new slew of musicians came onboard to attempt some similarly infused contemporary adult grunge. Without Thomas, however, the results were only mediocre to the success that will be inevitable once Twenty’s principal songster returns. “I think that’s just where everything started for me. Those guys are my family… it’s just what I’m really comfortable with,” Thomas revealed to LiveDaily.
A veteran performer and songwriter, Thomas has seen success with two solo albums that have earned him a record number of albums sold (about 80 million) and a headlining set featuring OneRepublic and Carolina Liar. The second headlining set for this army brat who generally thrived in South Carolina and Florida, Rob Thomas tickets from http://www.stubhub.com are sure to be a crowd pleaser this year.
It might have just been differing opinions that originally separated the quartet, but after Thomas’ first solo stint and a new Matchbox Twenty album, the guys forgot about the past and thought about the future. It started innocently enough – Thomas invited guitarist Paul Doucette to play a quick set with him while performing in New York, and “it kind of changed everything,” admitted Thomas to CJBK Newstalk. “And we’re like, ‘Alright, we’re being silly.’” And with that, the 1990s group was back on.
Born in 1972 on an Army base in Landstuhl, Germany, Thomas floated through the States after high school and landed with a group of musicians in Orlando during the early ‘90s that helped him form Tabitha’s Secret. While the group’s success was only local, once Brian Yale, Doucette and Thomas all headed for higher pastures, renaming themselves Matchbox Twenty, their success became legendary. As a group, Matchbox Twenty was beyond mainstream, yet Thomas didn’t find individual success until after the group’s multi-platinum debut, with the Carlos Santana duet “Smooth.” Penning the track, Thomas won two Grammy Awards that year – Record of the Year and Song of the Year.
The simplicity of the track ended up defining Thomas’ career. Rather than focusing solely on performing, Thomas worked extensively on his skills as a songwriter. “Songwriting is the only thing that makes sense to me. Years of doing it helps, but the truth is that the reason you do it for years is because it’s what you do,” he says on his website. The result left Thomas parading around as a veteran performer, songwriter and producer – helping Matchbox Twenty see two more successful sets followed by his own solo career. With two solo albums and a potential for more grungy licks via Matchbox, it’s doubtful that there will ever be a shortage of Rob Thomas tunes.
The Flaming Lips Tickets – Flaming Lips Make Rare Appearance at Voodoo
Taking the stage before festival closer Lenny Kravitz, the Flaming Lips were the second-to-last act to perform at New Orleans’ Voodoo Music Experience in City Park during Halloween weekend. The self-professed “Oklahoma psychedelic alternative rock band” released its latest fever dream of an album, Embryonic, in mid-October, but its Voodoo Music Experience gig was one of the band’s few American dates since the album’s arrival.
The Flaming Lips’ show in the Big Easy opened with a trippy video of a woman dancing around before lying down, at which point a bright light shone on a certain region of the female anatomy and the members of the band emerged onto the stage. While the rather strange introduction (but hey, it’s all relative when concerning the Flaming Lips) was fitting considering the band’s 12th album is titled Embryonic, one female fan took it to heart and stormed the stage naked later on in the show. Flaming Lips frontman Wayne Coyne played along until she was ushered off the stage!
Also during the show, Coyne told the audience how relieved he was that the Bush administration was no longer in charge and vowed to play “Taps” until the war in Afghanistan is over, joking with Flaming Lips multi-instrumentalist Steven Drozd, “Looks like we may be playing this song forever, Steven.” After crowd-surfing in a giant plastic bubble, Coyne recalled the last time the Flaming Lips played at the Voodoo Music Experience (2006) and said to the audience, “It’s just so perfect to be alive right now, don’t you think?” The band capped off their performance with the aptly-optimistic tune “Do You Realize.”
Although the Flaming Lips didn’t break into the mainstream until the mid-1990s, the band formed in Oklahoma City in 1983 and unsurprisingly made its live debut at a local transvestite club. After releasing an eponymous debut album, the lineup shifted. More lineup changes occurred throughout the remainder of the ‘80s until the band’s frequent calls to Warner Bros. paid off, and the major label signed the Flaming Lips in 1991, by which point the band had churned out four albums.
When the Flaming Lips’ commercial debut Hit to Death in the Future Head surfaced in 1992, it failed to makes as big a splash as the band hoped. Sublime Transmissions from the Satellite Heart followed in 1993 and the single “She Don’t Use Jelly” became a sleeper hit, propelling the band into the Top 40. The follow-up to Transmissions, 1995’s Clouds Taste Metallic, spawned a string of hits but nonetheless didn’t achieve the commercial success of its predecessor.
After a few more albums that solidified the Flaming Lips’ status as a cult favorite, the band released Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots in 2002 to critical and popular acclaim (the album also contained perhaps the band’s biggest hit, “Do You Realize”). A tour with Beck and a documentary titled The Fearless Freaks followed, and then the band released At War with the Mystics in 2006. The album earned a Grammy nomination for Best Alternative Album in 2007, and the Flaming Lips took home the Grammy for Best Engineered Alternative Album, Non-Classical that year, as well.
Although the Flaming Lips have played only scattered dates so far in support of the follow-up to Mystics titled Embryonic, the band is set to embark on a full-fledged tour in 2010. Check out StubHub.com for The Flaming Lips tickets to see Wayne Coyne & Co. live.
Phish Tickets – Some Firsts for Phish at Festival 8
Empire Polo Field in Indio, California—also the site of the indie music event of the year, Coachella Valley Music Festival and one of country’s biggest events, Stagecoach—hosted Phish’s Festival 8 over Halloween weekend, and Phish phans flocked to the pristine So Cal outdoor venue for the jam band’s multi-day music festival. Phish draws a crowd wherever the Vermont-bred band performs, which is why Phish tickets are such a hot commodity.
During the second day of the three-day event, Phish delivered the Rolling Stones’ classic album Exile On Main Street from the beginning to the end as part of the band’s tradition of “musical costuming” in celebration of Halloween. Coincidentally, Rolling Stones frontman Mick Jagger performed across the country one day earlier, when he took the stage with Irish rock band U2 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s anniversary concert at Madison Square Garden in New York on Halloween night.
Phish has covered the Beatles and the Who on past Halloweens, and according to Rolling Stone, contenders for this year’s Festival 8 were Genesis’ Lamb Lies Down On Broadway, Radiohead’s Kid A, Prince’s Purple Rain, MGMT’s Oracular Spectacular, Jimi Hendrix’s Electric Ladyland, King Crimson’s Lark Tongues in Aspic and David Bowie’s Hunky Dory. Phish frontman Trey Anastasio revealed to the audience of 40,000 that he first heard the Stones’ Exile on Main Street in the late 1970s while in a friend’s dorm room.
On the final morning of Festival 8 (Nov. 1), Phish phans, still chattering about the band’s impressive performance of Exile, were treated to the band’s first-ever full-length unplugged set, served with a side of free coffee and donuts (shaped like the number 8, no less!). The set started with “Water in the Sky,” which was followed by “Back on the Train,” during which Anastasio urged fans to sit down and enjoy the music because “we’re gonna play a lot of mellow tunes.” The audience obliged, but when Phish played “The Curtain (With)” five songs later, everyone was back on their feet again.
On the heels of Phish’s sold-out reunion tour and the release of Joy, the band’s first studio set since 2004’s Undermind, the band announced plans for a fall trek to begin on Nov. 18 at Detroit’s Cabo Arena. Among the dates is a three-night run at New York’s Madison Square Garden from Dec. 2-4, and additional dates are expected to be announced in the next few weeks. Check out StubHub.com for Phish tickets.
Phish worked with veteran producer Steve Lillywhite, perhaps best known for his work with U2, to record its reunion album, Joy. Self-released after the band’s 25th anniversary, Joy features the opening track, “Backwards Down the Number Line,” which sees Anastasio singing, “Happy happy, oh my friend/ Blow out candles once again.” But despite the celebratory and nostalgic vibe of the album, Joy has also been hailed one of the band’s deeper efforts by Rolling Stone, which rewarded the album with four of its coveted five stars.
Norah Jones Tickets – Norah Jones’ New Album Gets Remixed
Although Norah Jones’ new album, The Fall, arrived as recently as Nov. 17, the chanteuse’s songs are already receiving the remix treatment from artists like Beck, Santigold and the Beastie Boys. Jones told Entertainment Weekly that she initially wanted to work with Beck on The Fall, but eventually enlisted musicians who worked with the Record Club composer instead. Luckily for Jones, Beck joins the ranks of artists remixing songs from her fourth studio album.
Released via Blue Note Records, Norah Jones’ new album features jazzy selections like the haunting track “Light as a Feather,” which she co-wrote with alt-country artist Ryan Adams. The Fall showcases a new backing band comprised of drummers Joey Waronker (Beck, R.E.M.) and James Gadson (Bill Withers), guitarists Marc Ribot (Elvis Costello, Tom Waits) and Smokey Hormel (Johnny Cash, Joe Strummer) and keyboardist James Poyser (Al Green, Erykah Badu). Will Sheff of Okkervil River and Jesse Harris, Jones’ longtime collaborator (also responsible for her hit song “Don’t Know Why”), also make cameos.
Jones worked with producer Jacquire King, known for his worth with rock bands like Modest Mouse and Kings of Leon, for The Fall. Of her decision to pair with King, Jones said in a statement, “I got in touch with Jacquire initially because he engineered one of my favorite records of all time, Tom Waits’ Mule Variations. He was really eager to do it and we got along really well, which was important.” King definitely added a rock element to The Fall, as the album features more guitar than any of Jones’ previous releases.
The lead single off The Fall is “Chasing Pirates,” and Jones released a video for the track prior to the release of her new album. Directed by Rich Lee, who has worked with artists like Michael Buble and Fergie and helmed the visual effects for all three Pirates of the Caribbean movies, the video shows Jones on a quest to find the ocean amidst a New York cityscape while dressed as a pirate.
Although Norah Jones is most often described as a jazz artist, the New York native and daughter of musician Ravi Shankar didn’t begin performing jazz until attending high school in Dallas. After dropping out of school, Jones began regularly performing at jazz clubs and coffee shops and recorded a demo for Blue Note Records in 2000. The jazz label signed her early the next year, and she set to work on her debut album.
Norah Jones’ standout album Come Away with Me debuted to critical acclaim in 2002, although the singer did battle apathy from critics who dismissed her as simply another offspring of a famous musician without the talent to survive. Boy, did she prove them wrong, as Come Away With me sold 18 million copies worldwide and went multiplatinum. The standout single from the album, “Don’t Know Why,” also made Jones a household name.
In 2004, Norah Jones released her sophomore album, Feels Like Home, and Not Too Late surfaced in 2007. Between the two releases, Jones showed her versatility by appearing on the Little Willies’ self-titled album in 2006, joining the alt-country act in covering artists like Willie Nelson, Hank Williams and Fred Rose. Check out StubHub.com for Norah Jones tickets to see her perform live.
Pink Tickets – Pink Will Rock Swansea’s Liberty Stadium
Rock star Pink already has plans for next summer and it’s not yet 2010. The singer recently announced that she will be taking the Funhouse Summer Carnival Tour to six different stadiums across the UK next June, and one of those is Liberty City in Wales. Pink’s Funhouse Tour boasts a circus-like atmosphere with a carnival-style spectacular, and fans will be amazed by the stunning theatrical effects. Her upcoming tour is also going to stop in Bolton, Coventry, Glasgow, Alton Towers theme park and Ipswich.
In unrelated Pink news, the singer was also recently held by security before her performance in Birmingham, England. The mix-up was the result of a confused bouncer who failed to recognize her - clearly her hair wasn’t dyed its telltale shade of light rose. Security guards stood their ground outside the door and refused entry for the star until she was finally allowed inside after showing her identification. She made light of the incident on her Twitter page, saying, “The security guy just carded me for my laminate to get into my dressing room.” Of course, most fans would recognize the “So What” superstar, especially if they get Pink tickets from http://www.stubhub.com for her next live show.
Pink first emerged in the late 1990s among a crowd of other bubblegum pop acts looking for a day in the sun. What soon became evident, however, was that Pink was not some teeny-bopper one hit wonder. Shortly after the release of her debut album Can’t Take Me Home she appeared in a remake of Patti LaBelle’s “Lady Marmalade” along with Christina Aguilera, Mya and Lil’ Kim. The track was featured on the Moulin Rouge soundtrack and topped the charts in both the U.S. and the U.K. It also exposed Pink to a much wider audience on a global scale.
What came next for the singer was her sophomore album, M!ssundaztood. The title itself seemed to represent Pink’s own struggle in the industry as she was initially branded a “bubblegum pop star” when she in fact represented a more eclectic and personal sound than your average teen star. The album’s two most popular songs, “Get the Party Started” and “Don’t Let Me Get Me,” became huge hits on the charts and officially laid to rest any “misunderstandings” about her music style.
In November 2003 she let loose Try This, which explored even further the sounds of rock material, mainly because she worked extensively with Rancid frontman Tim Armstrong. For musical experimentation on this effort she picked up a Grammy Award for Best Female Rock Vocal Performance.
A follow-up effort a few years later arrived in the form of I’m Not Dead, and its singles “Stupid Girl,” “Who Knew” and “U + Ur Hand” quickly took over the Top 10 on the charts. Her latest album Funhouse arrived in October 2008 and has been a huge hit worldwide thanks in part to the leadoff single “So What.” Make sure to catch Pink on her Funhouse tour by getting tickets today.
