Image Credit: Kevin Winter/Getty ImagesThe crowd settling into the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Sunday evening knew that anything could happen over the next two hours — primarily because anything did happen at the last MTV Video Music Awards. (Lil Mama, you are not forgotten.) I’m sure I wasn’t the only one in that auditorium wondering whether we were about to see any more jaw-dropping surprises when the lights went down at 6 P.M. West Coast time. But did we? Read on. READ FULL STORY »
Tag: On the Scene (41-50 of 61)
Jul 11
2010
10:23 PM ET
Lilith Fair in L.A. with Sarah McLachlan, Miranda Lambert, Jenni Rivera, Emmylou Harris, and more: EW is on the scene!
Despite my best efforts, it was awfully hard to walk into Lilith Fair on Saturday with an open mind. I was initially jazzed for this summer’s return of the “celebration of women in music,” but then the underwhelming day-to-day lineups got announced and the show dates started to get cancelled and some big-ticket artists decided to drop out, and by the time Lilith rolled into Irvine, Calif.’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater, it felt a little bit like attending the funeral of something that wasn’t quite dead. But festival co-founder Terry McBride asked us critics to check out Lilith for ourselves, and “then see if you want to criticize it afterwards.” So off to Irvine I went, through the Lilith looking glass on a beautiful, sunny, SoCal day. What did I find there, between sets from Sarah McLachlan, Miranda Lambert, local fave Jenni Rivera, Emmylou Harris, Brandi Carlile, and ever so many more? Hmm. You mean besides the free tampons?
Jun 14
2010
12:22 PM ET
Bonnaroo '10 Sunday: What the sun heats up, the Dave Matthews Band cools down
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.comIt was hot at Bonnaroo yesterday. (How hot was it?) It was so hot, I could have poached an organic free-range egg in my Nalgene bottle. It was so hot, the mice crawled out of Jamey Johnson’s beard, hoping to catch a breeze. It was so hot, They Might Be Giants only got halfway through “Particle Man” before he evaporated. I’ve got a million of ‘em, folks. Try the veal.
It was so very hot, in fact, that your brave festival correspondent, namely me, decided to forgo the photo pits — always a good 30 degrees or so worse than the temperature outside — and just see as much music as I could. At a music festival! It was a crazy decision, and one that paid off. Between 2 and 8 p.m., I saw a grand total of 14 bands, and time-coded my notes as I went to give you a minute-by-minute recap of my travels leading up to the Dave Matthews Band and their big closing set on the mainstage. Oh, how I was looking forward to “Ants Marching”! All day, as I walked under the oppressive sun, that was my thought: Just a few more hours, and you get to hear “Ants Marching”! Keep going! You can do it! Almost there!
After the jump: Jamey Johnson, Regina Spektor, Against Me(!), Fogerty, Ween, They Might Be Giants, Miranda Lambert, Phoenix, and yet another lesson in why the secret to life is low expectations…
Jun 13
2010
02:24 PM ET
Bonnaroo '10 Saturday: Stevie Wonder and Jay-Z bring in the noise and also the funk
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.comBonnaroo is frequently a land where time has no meaning, where an hour can pass in a blink or an eternity depending on what you’re listening to and the quality of your footwear. While Friday’s 14-hour marathon was an experience I’d not trade — until you’ve watched an entire Kings of Leon set while standing in mud so thick you have to move your rain boots every couple of songs to be sure they don’t get stuck, I believe you have not yet lived — it’s possible that my compact, musically-mindblowing Saturday is the day of this year’s ‘Roo I’ll remember most.
Though I only saw six artists, there were moments in each set that lifted me out of my post-apocalyptic surroundings, transporting me on a cloud of endorphins to a happy place where puppies and kittens roamed, and beer was non-caloric and free. The blisters on my feet stopped screaming. The pain in my back subsided. The worker bee who lives in my head and is constantly telling me to keep moving keep working you’re not doing enough they’re gonna yell at you was silenced, and I was able to enjoy every one of the six acts as a straight-up fan of music who felt very lucky to be standing in her rain boots in that Tennessee field in that humid moment.
After the jump: The soaring emotion of Mumford & Sons; the thunder of the Dead Weather; the songwriting royalty of John Prine; the spazzy joy of Weezer; the uplifting mastery of Stevie Wonder. And then there was the massive mainstream hip-hop headliner who not only started on time — we here at Bonnaroo are skittish about such things, *cough*Kanye*cough* — but proceeded to absolutely rap our faces off. I understand self-aggrandizement is par for the course in his genre, but as far as I’m concerned, Jay-Z is welcome to refer to himself as “the best rapper alive” as often as he’d like from now on. Jigga what? Jigga yes. HIT ME!
Jun 12
2010
05:07 PM ET
Bonnaroo ’10 Friday: Kings of Leon come home
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.comIt was 6 a.m. when my head finally hit the pillow this morning, after an epic day in the Bonnaroo fields that started with a standup comedian in exile, peaked with the Tennessee homecoming of a suddenly-giant rock band, and ended with a New York City dance act in mourning. After fourteen straight hours of music, my ears were ringing, my blisters were burning, and my back had taken a brief sabbatical from operating in a fully upright and locked position. It was difficult to remember which foot to place forward first. I may or may not have briefly wept sometime around 3:45 a.m. It’s hard to remember that long ago.
But there’s no rest for the weary at America’s most endurance-based music festival. Bonnaroo demands, and almost always deserves, a herculean effort. To stand inside those walls, surrounded by light and sound and flesh, is to experience a peculiar pull to cover every inch of its currently-muddy soil and consume whatever it cares to offer. I promise I will not write this whole blog post like some sort of epic poem, but seriously, Mixers, yesterday was long.
After the jump, we begin with a little Conan O’Brien, then party with the Gossip, harmonize with Dr. Dog, meet cute with She & Him, raise a glass to the National, raise a sausage to Tenacious D, meditate with Tori Amos, sit at the feet of Steve Martin while he plays the banjo, check out new songs from Kings of Leon, almost get killed in the Flaming Lips photo pit, bliss out to the Black Keys, and finally, finally put the night to rest alongside LCD Soundsystem. Won’t you come along? READ FULL STORY »
Jun 11
2010
01:03 PM ET
Bonnaroo ’10 Thursday: The xx are a glum, glum band
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.com“BONNAROOOOOOOO!”
It was about 11 p.m. on Thursday night when I had my first run-in with a random screamer, a pretty blond coed in a hippie headband who got right in my face while I was taking notes on the white-boy soul of Mayer Hawthorne and the County, because I suppose I looked insufficiently engaged in my surroundings. But trust me, Mixers, from the galoshes on my feet to the humidity-matted hair on my head, I knew exactly which field was playing host to me and thousands of others this weekend. It is Bonnaroo. It is tie-dyed. And it is unmistakable.
Thursday is always a bit of a warmup day, as campers sit in traffic on the highway for hours and newbies try to get their bearings. The festival organizers did a nice job programming the half-day with bands you don’t necessarily have to know to enjoy: Here We Go Magic, Local Natives, Miike Snow, Neon Indian, The Temper Trap, and the aforementioned xx (note: “glum” [pictured] is not necessarily a bad thing) all have devoted followings, but they also work extremely well as ambient noise. Follow me after the jump for those acts and more on Day One of Tennessee’s Extreme Festival Experience. READ FULL STORY »
Jun 11
2010
12:00 PM ET
Backstreet Boys at NYC's Hammerstein Ballroom: Aggressive fans, tears, and, oh yeah, a concert
Image Credit: Larry Marano/Getty ImagesAnyone doubting the seemingly eternal appeal of the boy band era needed only to scope out the line wrapping around the block outside Manhattan’s Hammerstein Ballroom shortly before 6:30 p.m. last night, hours before a Backstreet Boys show. In the battle of fans’ evolved musical taste vs. nostalgia, nostalgia will always come out on top. The man behind me in line was so bemused by the fans braving the rain for a chance to be eight inches closer to Nick, Howie, A.J., and Brian that he turned to his girlfriend to say, “There are going to be crazy girls, of course. It’s a boy band.”
His statement echoed in my head as I walked ever-so-confidently into the general admission ballroom. Having been to three Backstreet Boys concerts in my youth (if you consider five years ago “my youth”), I felt like I had grown up since those days. I was sure that much of the obnoxiousness, fan bickering, and “crazy girls” I had encountered in the past would be subdued, if not completely absent. I was wrong. It was, in fact, worse than before. READ FULL STORY »
Jun 1
2010
02:27 PM ET
Pavement, LCD Soundsystem, My Morning Jacket, She & Him (& more) rock Sasquatch!: Music Mix was on the scene
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek for EW.comMy Morning Jacket, Vampire Weekend, Nada Surf, the National, the Hold Steady, Broken Social Scene. That was your lineup Saturday at the 2010 Sasquatch (exclamation point!) music festival… and those are just the bands that played after 5:30 p.m. Sunday featured LCD Soundsystem. She & Him (pictured) showed up on Monday, sandwiched between Drive By Truckers and Passion Pit and Band of Horses and MGMT.
Does that sound like your iPod come to life? Then you might be into this music festival, Mixers.
The annual Memorial Day weekend throwdown at the aptly-named Gorge Amphitheatre in Central Washington draws a stellar lineup every year, making it completely worth burning your valuable vacation days to attend — at least in this weathered EW.com correspondent’s opinion. Smaller grounds mean lower attendance and plenty of personal space even when it’s sold out; the desolate location and occasionally extreme weather conditions (simultaneously getting rained on and sunburned) mean a minimum of concert dilettantism; the giant hill you have to scale to find food means it’s an effective cardiovascular workout every time you eat a hot dog. The happy hippie environment is the perfect place to let your freak and/or Canadian flag fly — animal hats, tails, and ears abound, as does body paint and the occasional Batman costume. And the view! Oh, the view… got kind of wrecked this year, now that they’ve wrapped the mainstage with thick black masking. It’s ostensibly a safety situation — the Gorge is located near what I can only assume is a very lucrative wind farm — but how I missed looking straight through the stage to the landscape. Still, the view to the left and right was impeccable as usual. Why not spread your blanket out on the hill and stay awhile? READ FULL STORY »
Apr 18
2010
04:31 AM ET
Kenny Chesney premieres his 'Summer in 3-D' movie in Las Vegas: EW is on the scene!
Image Credit: Whitney Pastorek/EW.comIt’s the eve of the Academy of Country Music Awards, and Nashville has blanketed Vegas with its twang: Gary Allan played poolside at the Mandalay Bay; Sugarland did a Dr. Pepper-sponsored show at the MGM; Miranda Lambert rocked Fremont Street. But the night’s most anticipated event was the premiere of Kenny Chesney: Summer in 3-D, the concert film shot as Kenny blew up America’s biggest football stadiums last year, opening nationwide April 21.
Celeb friends like Morgan Freeman, Matthew McConaughey, and Dierks Bentley were on hand — as well as Chesney’s fun-loving crew and touring band — and the audience packed two theaters at a local multiplex. Kenny appeared in both to personally introduce the screenings. “Everybody in these two theaters has been a part of our life,” he said. “This film documents our life, and thank you for being a part of it. I’m glad we documented something that shows the relationship with the fans, and I’m really proud of it.” READ FULL STORY »
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