Category — Concerts

The new supergroup, Monsters of Folk, surprised their Halloween crowd this year at the Louisville Palace Theater. After a short intermission they came out dressed in full KISS costumes covering Detroit Rock City.  Watch it here:

The Monsters of Folk are Jim James, Conor Oberst, M. Ward, and Mike Mogis.

Talk about living the dream!  If you were in a local band, hadn’t made it anywhere near the “big time” yet, and just loved playing your tunes, what could be bigger than getting asked to take a coveted spot on Motley Crue tour?!

That’s exactly what happened to a band called the Last Vegas.  According to reports,

“On a recent night at the venerable Los Angeles music club the Whisky a Go Go, the Last Vegas walked away from a battle-of-the-bands contest with what most developing acts can only dream of: an opening slot on a major arena tour, a recording deal and a management contract.”

Wow.  Life really can change with the blink of an eye!  In addition to that coveted spot on the Crue tour, the band will also take home a $25,000 check from The Guitar Center, and another $20,000 in brand new gear from Gibson Guitars.  Um, I’m beyond jealous now.  Just a few days after mentioning not only the 50th Anniversary line of guitars from Gibson, but the Dark Fire as well, I’d do just about anything to get my hands on $20k in Gibson Gear!

Regardless, just goes to show you that even the local guys, even the underdogs, and even the unheard-of’s can make it.  Keep picking away on those guitars, walking those bass lines and turning up the distortion, it could happen to you.

Call me naive but I feel as though Les Paul should have already had about 20,000 Tribute shows given to him.  I’m not sure about the actual number that have occured, but I couldn’t be more pleased about the news I just stumbled upon.

Looks like Les Paul, guitar-legend, amazing guy and “Father of the Electric Guitar,” is being honored again, and most rightfully so, at this year’s Rock & Roll Hall of Fame annual American Music Masters series.  The concert, to be held this coming Saturday, November 15, and ends a weeks worth of festivities that started yesterday in Cleveland, Ohio.  The best news, for all you guitar fans, is that in addition to having the 93-year-old Guitar God play at the concert, he’ll be joined on stage by Guitar Titans Slash, Duane Eddy, Billy Gibbons and the Ventures.  Clearly, if you’re at all a guitar fan, this is not a concert you would want to miss.

Les Paul has always been half artist and half inventor, doing more to advance the technology of the electric guitar than almost anyone else in the entire world.  Many people believe that the work he did in developing hard-bodied electric guitars is what “made Rock & Roll possible.”  That is a compliment worth getting your little butts down to Cleveland for, if you ask me!

Happy Friday friends.  Today we’re going to start rocking what is going to be a new feature on GuitarBassMan…funky, awesome, rare and unique guitar videos every Friday morning.  Why not start your weekend off a little early with some rare glimpses into rock and roll past, present and future with some video proof of everything from hardcore shredding to tearjerking acoustic solos?

To start things off, I thought who better to start things off with than one of the best, of the best, of the best of all time, Jimi Hendrix?  This is obviously from a long, long time ago and is a pretty awesome, fun performance of Purple Haze and shows just how laid back Hendrix is when he’s playing.

Without further ado, enjoy Hendrix, enjoy Purple Haze and more than anything, enjoy your weekend.  Got any videos you are dying to see, or any videos you think we should all enjoy?  Leave us some comments, leave us an email, or send us some recommendations!

On October 16th, the Hammerstein Ballroom in New York City hosted “Change Rocks” a fundraiser for Obama, mainly featuring Bruce Springsteen and Billy Joel.

Some tickets were priced at $25,000 for the event, which was Billy Joel’s first supporting Obama. The setlist featured collaborative versions of each other’s songs including “New York State Of Mind”, “Sprit In The Night” and “River of Dreams”.

Barack Obama himself appeared onstage towards the end of the event, according to MSNBC…

He called the event “a magical evening” and said he wouldn’t ruin it with a long speech. Then he delivered a speech comparing the struggling, everyday people in Joel’s and Springsteen’s songs to the people he’s met on the campaign trail.He warned supporters not to get overconfident because he leads in the polls.

“Don’t underestimate the capacity of Democrats to snatch defeat from the jaws of victory. Don’t underestimate our ability to screw it up,” Obama said. “I want everybody running scared.”

Source.

I posted earlier about an Obama rally with The Breeders and The National in Cincinnati’s Fountain Square. Pitchfork has posted a bunch of awesome pictures from the event so be sure to check them out.

I already regretted not catching Coachella this year even though Breeders were headlining one of the nights. Now I’m regretting not living in Cincinatti because this event seems like it was a lot of fun. I better make sue I catch them when they play at the Wiltern November , 17th.

More Tour Dates:

The Breeders:
11-11 Seattle, WA - Neumos
11-12 Portland, OR - Wonder Ballroom
11-14 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-15 San Francisco, CA - Slim’s
11-17 Los Angeles, CA - The Wiltern

The National:
10-24 Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-25 São Paulo, Brazil - TIM Festival
10-27 Vitória, Brazil - UFES Theatre
11-08 Austin, TX - Fun Fun Fun Fest

A while back The Cure were releasing singles leading up to their new album “4:13 Dream.” Some of these songs were good, but overall they didn’t seem to excite Cure fans as they should have.

Last weekend the band played a free show in Rome, Italy at the Piazza San Giovanni, this was professionally recorded by MTV and is now available on YouTube. Stereogum has embedded all the songs in the correct order for your viewing pleasure.

The new material is definitely more guitar-centric, but I like it a lot. The Cure’s last album, the self-titled 2004 release, was actually one of my favorites.

I liked its stripped down quality and these new songs retain that kind of feel. “Underneath The Stars” is as good as anything The Cure has written in years and “It’s Over” is almost prog-rock. I’m going to be interested in this record when it comes out.

Source.

A few weeks ago, I posted news about a Smashing Pumpkins DVD entitled “If All Goes Wrong.” The documentary/concert film will be released on November 11th and will contain footage of the band’s residences and the band leading up to reuniting.

“We went into the residencies hopeful to play some new music, with the idea I would write during the day and we could maybe even play new songs that same night,” Corgan comments. “What I didn’t anticipate is how much the process would inspire me, positively and negatively, to report what I was seeing and feeling from the shows. The documentary shows that process in an interesting way that reveals the link between the band and our audience.”

Entertainment Weekly, (of all places), has a preview of the DVD up at their website, in the form of “Starla” live. It looks as if Billy Corgan is playing a Gibson Les Paul in the footage.

The Tracklist is as follows…

Disc 1:

* “If All Goes Wrong” documentary
* “Voices Of The Ghost Children” featurette
* Interview with THE WHO guitarist Pete Townshend

Disc 2:

The Fillmore Residency*

01. The Rose March*
02. Peace + Love*
03. 99 Floors*
04. Superchrist
05. Lucky 13
06. Starla
07. Death From Above
08. The Crying Tree Of Mercury
09. Winterlong
10. Heavy Metal Machine
11. Untitled
12. No Surrender*
13. Gossamer*
14. Zeitgeist

Bonus Tracks: Live From The Floor Of The Fillmore

01. 99 Floors*
02. Peace + Love*
03. No Surrender*
04. Mama*
05. Promise Me*

*previously unreleased

Source.

There are many reasons indie-rockers love Obama. He wants to lower taxes, he supports music and art in schools and he is against the war. But he has more substance than just his stance on important issues. He is young, he’s fresh and people believe he can bring change in Washington. That’s why musicians from all over the country have been showing their support for the Illinois senator.

Bands who have stepped up to support the presidential candidate include The Breeders and The National who will play a show in New York City on October 16th. The following night, The Black Keys and Devo team up to bring their hometown an awesome Obama party in Akron, Ohio’s Civic Theatre. The night’s proceeds will benefit the Summit County Democrats.

The Beastie Boys are also planning their own mini-tour called Swing State Voter Awareness Tour which will be visiting cities in Virginia, Minnesota and Wisconsin. They will be bringing with them an assortement of interesting and entertaining characters such as Santogold and Tenacious D.

Dates for the Beastie Boys’ “Swing State Voter Awareness” tour:

10-28 Richmond, VA - Richmond Coliseum
11-01 Saint Paul, MN - Roy Wilkins Auditorium
11-02 Milwaukee, WI - U.S. Cellular Arena

It isn’t long until Les Paul is officially inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.  A month to be exact.  Slash, Velvet Revolver guitarist and former member of Guns N’ Roses, will be performing at a tribute concert in celebration of the event honoring Les Paul on November 15th.

Being such a huge fan of Les Paul, Slash agreed to play at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s tribute concert without even hearing who he would be sharing the stage with.

“I’m just coming with my guitar,” Slash said. Could it be one of his signature Gibsons maybe?

The concert which features other guitar talents such as Billy Gibbons of ZZ Top, The Ventures and Richie Sambora of Bon Jovi, is part of a series put on by American Music Masters and is set to take place at Cleveland’s State Theater.