KANYE WEST - LA TIMES CONCERT REVIEW

Below is a great review of the Kanye West show in Seattle - Don't forget that Kanye will be performing live at AmericanAirlines Arena in Miami on May 6 - tickets still available!

From the Los Angeles Times
POP MUSIC REVIEW

Live: Kanye West's Glow in the Dark tour

In pure comic-book adventure, the Seattle show is big on heroics.By Ann PowersTimes Pop Music CriticApril 18, 2008SEATTLE — KANYE WEST has always fancied himself a hero; now he has staged his "Götterdämmerung." The hip-hop star may or may not have been thinking about Richard Wagner's epic Ring cycle when he decided to turn his Glow in the Dark tour into an apocalyptic space opera. The show, which premiered Wednesday at this city's Key Arena, had more obvious reference points: Japanese anime, Will Smith in "I Am Legend" and any Imax shows about the planets that West might have seen as a kid.But West, the chart-topper most determined to burn his likeness into the walls of pop's Valhalla, cares deeply about what it means to be a hero. Wednesday, he didn't take a spear to the gut the way Wagner's Siegfried did, but he did confront terror, doubt and filial grief in a show that carried his braggadocio into the realm of myth itself.
FOR THE RECORD: This article states that Kanye West performed to prerecorded tracks during the show. He was actually accompanied by a live band playing below the stage. Also, the article incorrectly gave Lupe Fiasco singer Matthew Santos' first name as Michael.
Performing a set of favorites from throughout his repertoire, West moved like a dancer in a Gene Kelly movie on a slanted stage made to look like a distant moon.Screens big and small showed scenes of whirling galaxies and cataclysmic weather; sometimes these images escaped their boundaries and saturated the stage floor. Announcing himself as an astronaut on a mission to bring creativity back to Earth, West used songs like "Through the Wire," "Can't Tell Me Nothing" and "Stronger" to narrate his journey from spaceship crash to alien encounter to self-realization and escape.This was pure comic-book adventure, obvious at times. But the real message came through those unstoppable images. Glow in the Dark raises the bar for arena tours as no show has since U2's 1992 Zoo TV breakthrough. It's that innovative and galvanizing.Unlike most highly staged concerts since U2's meditation on rock in the media age, West's show isn't literary at heart. It's imagistic. West is a conceptual artist who works in visuals as well as sound, and his inspiration comes from fine artists such as Takashi Murakami and haute couture designers like Hedi Slimane. In this show, he's imagining not so much how a hero's story unfolds but what a hero might say if he were to rap -- and how he might appear onstage.Performing alone is one of West's key choices. Negotiating vast stages without the aid of a crew, last night he rapped over backing tracks, asserting his independence and uniqueness and presenting a new way to be a hip-hop star, separate from a protective community.The spectacular backdrops of the Glow in the Dark tour solve a problem his previous solo performances have posed: They provide excitement beyond what West could generate through his own voice and movements, and give him an environment (and a few characters, like that alien -- a chesty, anime-style plastic doll that descended from the ceiling) to play against.The concert's screen images also reinforced West's isolation; he sometimes seemed small, caught up in their storm. The hero's quest is a source of romantic power for West; as he explores the role more, he seems more interested in its painful aspects too. Roaming the slanted proscenium under violent skies heavy with asteroids and whirling clouds, West played the grim son of destiny, unable to break through and connect with others.Against this backdrop, West rapped for more than an hour without a break, only slowing down for "Hey Mama," the ballad he wrote for his recently deceased mother. That song caused a rare moment of real vulnerability as West held his head in his hands for a moment, near tears. Otherwise he projected focused intensity, driving home hits such as "Jesus Walks" and "Touch the Sky" without ever flirting with the audience or even really taking a break to breathe.His lyrics are often clever and light in tone, but pacing across his self-constructed lonely planet, West couldn't have been more serious. After all, he has a world to reinspire -- and even when he states that goal in terms of comic-book fantasy, he means it.The other artists on this carefully built bill share West's forward-thinking attitude about hip-hop, as well as his showiness. The rapper Lupe Fiasco opened the evening with a smooth set that featured red-clad backup singers and several suave turns by singer Michael Santos. The young, very racially mixed crowd yelled "Lupe!" as the Chicago rapper spun out his hipster tales.N.E.R.D. made a sensual racket during its mood-lit set. The band, which features Neptunes producers Pharrell Williams and Chad Hugo and their longtime friend, vocalist Shay Haley, plays hip-hop-infused rock with cutting lyrics and menacing beats. With two drummers pushing the groove forward, N.E.R.D. proved musically charismatic. Williams is the band's star, though he's a rather delicate vocalist; like many rockers before him, he cashes in on charisma.Rihanna, the last of the three openers, can really sing, but she hadn't found her footing Wednesday, struggling to stay in tune and project in the huge arena. It didn't help that the bass was so distorted during her set that it shook the floor; Rihanna's talent is for impressing without ever pushing herself, but when your own band's amps are tuned to "assault," you have to fight back.The noise distracted from her troupe's cute dance moves and shiny retro-new wave costumes, but that's the kind of kink a touring artist works out in a few dates.By the time she and her tour mates hit the Nokia Theatre L.A. Live on Monday, they should be on point and ready to push toward the ridiculous, beautiful heights of West's heroics.ann.powers@latimes.com

ERIC CLAPTON - A GUITAR GOD...

Catch Eric Clapton Live at Ford Amphitheatre in Tampa on May 3!

A Guitar God’s Memories, Demons and All
By ALAN LIGHT
IT is one of the most mythic romantic entanglements in rock ’n’ roll history. At some point in the late 1960s, Eric Clapton fell in love with Pattie Boyd, wife of his close friend George Harrison. Mr. Clapton’s 1970 masterpiece, “Layla and Other Assorted Love Songs” (recorded with his band at the time, Derek and the Dominos), was an offering and a plea to her; they eventually married in 1979 and divorced in 1988.
The saga sits at the center of “Clapton: The Autobiography,” which is being published this week by Broadway Books. Mr. Clapton’s memoir follows the recent release of Ms. Boyd’s side of the story in “Wonderful Tonight” (named for a song he wrote about her), which in September entered the New York Times best-seller list at No. 1. Mr. Clapton said that he had not read her book but that he had seen excerpts in newspapers and noted discrepancies, both small and large, between the two accounts of their relationship.
On the phone from his home outside London, where he lives with his wife, Melia McEnery, and their three daughters, he singled out as far-fetched Ms. Boyd’s description of a night in which he and Mr. Harrison had a “guitar duel” for her hand. “We each have our different versions of our years together,” he said.
His description of his relationship with Ms. Boyd, though, offers few excuses for his emotional swings, substance abuse and extramarital affairs (including one that produced his oldest daughter) that defined much of their decade together. “Someone recently read the book and told me that I was really hard on myself,” Mr. Clapton said. ”I think that’s a misunderstanding of it. I just tried to take responsibility for all the different phases of my life.”
There is now a long tradition of rock biographies, usually the more lurid, the better. But as the luminaries of rock get older, they are beginning to write their own histories. The autobiographies of Bob Dylan and Sting have been best sellers in recent years, this fall will see the publication of books by Ron Wood and Slash, and Keith Richards recently received a contract for more than $7 million for his life story.
“Clapton” chronicles the many musical configurations of Mr. Clapton’s career. He has played in several monumental bands (the Yardbirds, Cream); accompanied giants from the Beatles and Bob Dylan to Muddy Waters and Howlin’ Wolf; and topped the charts and filled arenas as a solo performer. (An accompanying two-CD retrospective, “Complete Clapton,” is also being released this week.)
With his sturdy blues foundation, liquid tone and architecturally structured solos, Mr. Clapton, 62, is one of rock’s most influential and revered guitarists. Early in his career, the scrawled phrase “Clapton is God” was a common sight on the walls of London.
But Mr. Clapton’s life has also been defined by a series of tragedies and oddities. He was raised by his grandparents, under the illusion that they were his parents; he never met his father and, until the age of 9, believed that his mother was actually his older sister. He suffered through a lengthy, epic battle with alcoholism and drug addiction. In 1991, Mr. Clapton’s 4-year-old son, Conor, died after falling out of a hotel room window (inspiring one of his most popular songs, “Tears in Heaven”).
“I wanted to wait until I had an entire life to write about,” he said. “And though I don’t think I’m quite done yet, my memory was starting to play tricks on me. I realized that if I didn’t do it now, I might have to rely on other people’s memories, and it might start to lose some of the accuracy.”
Unlike some of his peers, though, Mr. Clapton has long been known as extremely private and press-shy. He said that he had thought about writing his memoirs for a long time, though always at the prompting of others.
He first attempted the conventional process for a celebrity memoir, with the use of a ghostwriter: Christopher Sykes, a longtime friend. But Mr. Clapton was unhappy with this version. “It looked very defensive, judgmental, full of self-justification,” he said. “It just looked dreadful.”
Charlie Conrad, Mr. Clapton’s editor, acknowledged that the early drafts were “a bit breathless.” He said, however, that even at that stage, “we were fully satisfied; we were actually surprised at how frank and forthcoming it was, but he felt it wasn’t truly him.”
So in the midst of a worldwide tour last winter, Mr. Clapton — who, in the book, describes himself as both lazy and a perfectionist — took over the writing himself. He put himself on a disciplined schedule, working in “self-imposed exile” in his hotel room every morning and afternoon.
“I found that I couldn’t wait to pick up the thread each time,” he said. “I really enjoyed doing it; it was really fun to learn how to put a sentence and a paragraph together.”
What is most striking about the result is the author’s distinctly measured tone, which never becomes hysterical or sentimental, even when writing about painful, dramatic or unflattering situations. (“I considered all of my previous irrational behavior to have been reasonably excusable,” he writes, fairly late in the story, “because it had been conducted with consenting adults.”) In at least one case, though, his voice was a cause for concern from his editors.
“They called me up and wanted to know why I was so detached about the loss of my son,” Mr. Clapton said. “I had to explain that it was impossible to re-enter that period of time. It’s so traumatic that I can really only talk about it from a distance, as if it were about someone else.” In the book, he writes that when he got the news, he “stepped back within himself” and then entered “a permanent daze.”
He added that it wasn’t a matter of being unable to summon his feelings. “It’s not difficult to revisit. The sadness is always there, it taps me on the shoulder and all comes flooding back. But it is difficult to write about it without sensationalizing it or falsely creating an emotional standpoint just because that’s what’s expected.”
Mr. Conrad said that both he and the book’s editor in Britain found the chapter about Conor’s death “kind of restrained” but ultimately accepted it. “We suggested that he might explore it in more depth, but he gave us what he wanted to say.”
The biggest curiosity for readers, however, presumably surrounds his account of his marriage to Ms. Boyd. Her book incited a bit of a tabloid frenzy, particularly a scene of the two guitarists battling for her affection with their instruments like medieval knights.
Mr. Clapton remembers the evening in question. “I went over just to hang out, he got two guitars, and we played,” he said. “But we were always doing that, so how do you make an everyday thing into a commodity?”
Ms. Boyd said in an e-mail message that she and Mr. Clapton are “friends” now but that he “is quite right in saying that we each have our memories of our years together.”
Despite his anguish over his initially unrequited love, which drove him deeper into addiction, Mr. Clapton says now that the affair didn’t seem like such a big deal. “At the time it was kind of like swinging, very loose and amoral,” he said. “I think we didn’t give it too much thought. It was really only later that we realized that we treated each other quite badly.”
The despair of “Layla,” Mr. Clapton added, represented a creative choice, not a documentary about his life. “That’s the art of writing love songs,” he said. “I was desperately obsessed with Pattie, but creating a song is just putting a stamp on a feeling.”
Ms. Boyd has different feelings about the intensity of their affair. “It was a big deal,” she wrote. “Eric was very attractive and persuasive. George and I had many problems in our relationship that had a great deal to do with the enormity of his fame and his increasing passion for meditation and the spiritual life. He frequently simply wasn’t there for me, and there were other women.”
Mr. Clapton’s friendship with Mr. Harrison survived the change in Ms. Boyd’s allegiance; famously, the former Beatle once said, “I’d rather she be with him than some dope.” Mr. Clapton served as the musical director for the “Concert for George” tribute show after Mr. Harrison’s death from cancer in 2001.
“For George, it was all maya,” he said, referring to the Hindu concept of cosmic illusion. “Something would come up, and we would get together to play because that’s what drew us together. His take was purely spiritual, that we could always get past the physical world.”
Ms. Boyd’s summation is that “George was able to put all of this in perspective.”
If Mr. Clapton sounds at peace with his complicated personal history, what emerges as he recounts his musical career in his autobiography is a kind of perpetual dissatisfaction. In one telling anecdote, he remembers coveting a certain guitar when he was young, only to lose interest after buying it. “As soon as I got it, I suddenly didn’t want it anymore,” he writes. “This phenomenon was to rear its head throughout my life and cause many difficulties.”
Mr. Clapton comes across as feeling equally uneasy as a frontman and as part of a band. He tells of joining and quitting groups, no matter how successful, frequently and with little warning. He races dismissively through his solo albums from the 1970s (which he described in conversation as “unfulfilled and half-baked”). Most recently, he seems happiest collaborating with old friends like B. B. King or the reclusive songwriter J. J. Cale; he is exploring possibilities with Steve Winwood, his partner in the ill-fated supergroup Blind Faith.
“My musical identity has taken my entire life to develop,” Mr. Clapton said. “Now I can sing in a band, play backup, lead, sing a duet — there doesn’t have to be a label on it anymore. The most important thing is that I enjoy listening to music, and I still do.”
Mr. Clapton said he finds his stability in the blues, the music that he first loved and that he continues to regard as a kind of beacon. “There’s a matter-of-factness, a sense of acceptance about the blues,” he said. “Acceptance is a great state of being. It steps aside of hysteria, drama, extreme emotions.” And it is precisely this even, unblinking sensibility that defines the author’s voice in “Clapton.”
“To write this book, I had to be comfortable with my day-to-day existence,” Mr. Clapton said. “I like that I can look back and feel comfortable with my life.”

Van Halen Tampa Show Review

Where Have The Good Times Gone? Right Here, Van Halen Shows Crowd
By CURTIS ROSS The Tampa Tribune
Published: Feb 19, 2008

TAMPA - Kids - mere kids, I tell you - were bombing down the Forum's lobby Monday night, whooping "Van Halen!" at the top of their lungs like it was 1978 or something.
These kids - babies, really - were nowhere even near conception when some in the crowd of 16,853 were wearing the oxide off cassettes of "Van Halen" and "Van Halen II."
They should thank classic rock radio or dad's record collection for hipping them to one of the finest over-the-top rock acts ever.
But they - and those of us who never got any closer to Van Halen than blasting the tapes in our cars - mostly should thank Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth for putting aside veritable rivers of bad blood and finally touring together for the first time since 1984.
Whatever their personal differences, guitarist extraordinaire Van Halen and showman's showman Roth looked genuinely pleased to be sharing the stage again; almost as glad as the crowd was to see them there.
The band - including drummer Alex Van Halen and Eddie's son, Wolfgang, on bass, replacing the departed Michael Anthony - ripped through most of the high points from the six albums the original foursome recorded between 1978 and 1984.
Roth and Eddie Van Halen, both 53, were in fighting trim, both displaying torsos that would do a man half their age proud. Roth even executed a few high kicks with apparent ease.
Still an amazing guitarist, Van Halen's playing combined speed and technique with inventiveness and a wicked sense of humor.
He demonstrated that on "Everybody Wants Some!!" when he and Roth engaged in a duel imitating the sound of a car engine, with Roth, for once, conceding defeat.
Of course Roth isn't known for modesty, and he preened and pranced like a man born to the stage, vaudeville or rock. In his spangled coat and top hat, he strutted like a raunched-out Yankee Doodle Dandy.
Wolfgang, just 16, kept his head down and played mostly, but he sounded just fine both on bass and handling the backing vocals.
Highlights depend on your favorite Van Halen song - if they played it, it probably sounded great, but from my seat, "Atomic Punk," "I'm the One" and "Romeo Delight" were tops.
Reporter Curtis Ross can be reached at (813) 259-7568 or cross@tampatrib.com.

WEST PALM BEACH AMPHITHEATRE GETS A NEW NAME!

LIVE NATION ANNOUNCES THAT CRUZAN WILL BE NEW NAME IN TITLE SPONSOR OF WEST PALM BEACH AMPHITHEATRE


West Palm Beach, FL (February 1, 2008) Live Nation, the world’s largest and live music company, and The Absolut Spirits Company, Inc. are pleased to announce a long term sponsorship deal that changes the name of southern Florida’s premier outdoor music venue.

Formerly known as Sound Advice Amphitheatre, the venue will now be called Cruzan Amphitheatre. The initial agreement is for five years. Located on the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach, the Cruzan Amphitheatre has been a groundbreaking leader in the region’s music scene. It has a capacity of 19,000 and holds an average of more than 30 live events each year.

“As the rum of the islands, Cruzan has always been associated with easy living and entertainment,” says James Schleifer, Vice President of Trade Strategy, The Absolut Spirits Company. “Our relationship with Live Nation allows us to celebrate our musical heritage, while giving music aficionados a taste of our exciting rum portfolio. Nothing says fun in the sun like a delicious mojito or voodoo rum punch.”

“It is with great pride that we announce our strategic partnership with Cruzan,” said Neil Jacobsen, President of Live Nation Florida. “We are thrilled to join forces with Cruzan to bring the biggest names in live entertainment to the people of South Florida. Cruzan shares our vision of celebrating the South Florida lifestyle through the power of live music.”

Since its opening in 1996, the Cruzan Amphitheatre has entertained over 3.6 million music fans with more than 400 major concerts and festivals, and has hosted such superstar acts as Aerosmith, Jimmy Buffett, Kenny Chesney, Dave Matthews Band, Tim McGraw, Rod Stewart, Sting, and Tina Turner.

SOME NEWS FROM LASTFM.COM

In case you dont frequently visit the site - lastfm.com had some interesting news recently - read below...taken from the lastfm.com blog. Very interesting stuff here...

Free the Music
Wednesday, 23 January 2008
by Richard Jones

A few days ago we sent out some cryptic invitations to a press conference in New York that Felix and Martin are presiding over. We’ve had fun in the office reading the rumors and speculation, but it’s time to spill the beans:
As of today, you can play full-length tracks and entire albums for free on the Last.fm website.
Something we’ve wanted for years—for people who visit Last.fm to be able to play any track for free—is now possible. With the support of the folks behind EMI, Sony BMG, Universal and Warner—and the artists they work with—plus thousands of independent artists and labels, we’ve made the biggest legal collection of music available to play online for free, the way we believe it should be.
Full-length tracks are now available in the US, UK, and Germany, and we’re hard at work broadening our coverage into other countries. During this initial public beta period, each track can be played up to 3 times for free before a notice appears telling you about our upcoming subscription service. The soon-to-be announced subscription service will give you unlimited plays and some other useful things. We’re also working on bringing full-length tracks to the desktop client and beyond.
Free full-length tracks are obviously great news for listeners, but also great for artists and labels, who get paid every time someone streams a song. Music on Last.fm is perpetually monetized. This is good because artists get paid based on how popular a song is with their fans, instead of a fixed amount.
We will be paying artists directly.
We already have licenses with the various royalty collection societies, but now unsigned artists can put their music on Last.fm and be paid directly for every song played. This helps to level the playing-field—now you can make music, upload it to Last.fm and earn money for each play. If you make music, you can sign up to participate for free.
We’re not printing money to pay for this—but the business model is simple enough: we are paying artists and labels a share of advertising revenue from the website.
Today we’re redesigning the music economy. There are already millions of tracks available, and we’re adding more every day. We will continue to work hard to bring this to everyone in the world.

Rascal Flatts in The New York Times

Check out the Rascal Flatts article / review from Madison Square Garden. Stay tuned for info. on possible Florida shows!

January 21, 2008
Music Review Rascal Flatts

Power Ballads for Suburbanites
By JON PARELES
Wholesomeness reigned when Rascal Flatts headlined Madison Square Garden on Friday night. The top band in 21st-century country music, with four multimillion-selling albums and a fifth that has sold a million copies since September, Rascal Flatts is fearlessly contented and relentlessly inoffensive.
Exulting that the band had sold out the famous arena, its bassist, Jay DeMarcus, called out, “Madison by God Square by God Garden!” — no cuss words for Rascal Flatts. During “He Ain’t the Leavin’ Kind,” a song about the omnipresence of God, a group of United States marines marched onstage to stand at attention, which might have offended only those worried about separation of church and state.
The three core members of Rascal Flatts — Mr. DeMarcus and the singer Gary LeVox, both from Ohio, and the guitarist Joe Don Rooney, from Oklahoma — write and sing about happy marriages, undying love and dreams coming true. Sometimes the reassurance is interrupted by a heartbreak, which gives Mr. LeVox a chance to make his high, quavery voice extra tearful.
Although the eight-man band is based in Nashville and includes some country instruments, its pedal steel guitar or mandolin are usually more visible than audible. Rascal Flatts is, by and large, a power-ballad band. Like many current country acts, it sings for suburbanites, and its prime sources are 1970s and ’80s soft rock and arena pop: Steve Miller, Bon Jovi, Billy Joel, the Eagles and, especially in its vocal harmonies, Crosby, Stills & Nash.
It’s a proficient band. Mr. Rooney has a whole arena-rock guitar vocabulary at his fingertips, from crunchy blues-rock riffs to commanding leads. As if insisting that the band isn’t led by its main frontman, Mr. LeVox, the other two founders had their own indulgent solo segments. Mr. DeMarcus sang James Brown’s “I Got You (I Feel Good),” and Mr. Rooney offered the concert’s most aggressive song: the Guess Who’s “American Woman.”
The band had country moments like the witty “Backwards,” about hearing a country song in reverse: “You get your truck back, you get your hair back, you get your first and second wife back.” But most of the time Rascal Flatts specialized in simpering and big buildups, amid an arena-rock spectacle of flashing video and fireworks. Settled heartland Americans certainly deserve songs that address their lives. The question is whether those songs have to be so cloying.
Kellie Pickler, who opened the concert, was dressed in a low-cut red top and knee-high leather boots with spike heels. But she could sound like an old-fashioned country singer, with a North Carolina drawl and some twangy tension in her voice. She did a Dolly Parton impression in “9 to 5,” while alluding to her own career-building appearance on “American Idol” (she didn’t win) by calling Ms. Parton “my definition of an American idol.”
Ms. Pickler’s 2006 album is entitled with her demographic credentials, “Small Town Girl” (BNA). In its songs Ms. Pickler offered minor skirmishes of the sexes — making a guy miss her by going out on the town in “Red High Heels,” dressing casually in “One of the Guys” — and the autobiography of being abandoned by her mother in “I Wonder.” Ms. Pickler has her own power ballads alongside her honky-tonk, and she’s not challenging any Nashville conventions, but at least she’s keeping some down-home charm.

MARILYN MANSON - Live at The Fillmore Miami Beach! 1/20/08