Tag: "concerts"

To celebrate their past 5 years as a band, Boston pop-punkers Transit will be doing a special short tour for their fans. According to the band’s website, “we are doing five shows in which we play our newest record Listen & Forgive in its entirety, as well as our Stay Home EP. These shows will be in New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and Massachusetts.”

In addition, they will also be performing two very special shows on October 26th and 27th “at the TUMC in Tewksbury, MA- a venue we used to play all the time in our teenage years.” The first night they will perform their first 2 LPs This Will Not Define Us and Keep This To Yourself back to back, and the following night they will perform Stay Home and Listen & Forgive.

But that’s not all! For these shows they have also repressed limited batches of This Will Not Define Us, Stay Home, and Keep This To Yourself. You can view details and tour dates on the flier below.

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Most weeks on Live Wired, we bring you our first-hand experiences at concerts from all different kinds of artists. This time around, we want to talk about all of the ways you can find out about the best shows in town and make your concert experience even better! Now there are a vast amount of Web sites that specifically target concertgoers, and a ton of these sites offer apps for your phone. For those of you with Smart phones, here are some of the best apps to fuel your passion for live music. Check them out!

First up is Songkick, a Web site that helps you track your favorite artists who are going on tour. From your phone, the app (which is free, by the way!) will scan your music library to get a sense of your musical tastes, and will also determine your location. This allows the app to work its magic and customize a schedule for you from their database of concerts across the country. You can even get alerts to your mobile device when a show is added, which you can then share with friends across other social networking sites. You can even create your own calendar to keep track of the events you have coming up.

Continue reading ‘Live Wired: The Best Apps For Concertgoers’

There’s something exciting about discovering an artist who not only records fantastic music, but can also perfectly duplicate their music onstage. In this auto-tune age, an artist who can rock just as hard every night in front of hundreds, sometimes thousands of fans as they do the studio—where they have multiple takes to nail that high note—is a rarity. That’s why I continue to go to live shows. Enduring all the mediocre acts is really worth it when you finally come across an exceptional talent. Vocally, I’ve always been blown away by James Taylor‘s live performance and how well he re-creates his sound live. His gentle and soothing voice translates perfectly to live performance, he is a master at utilizing the tone of his voice to mesh, but also to contrast his simple arrangements.  His low-key delivery is able to captivate his audience and get them intertwined in his magnificent stories.

Continue reading ‘Vocal Points: Live Vs. Recorded’

The “biggest live music event in radio history” hit Las Vegas this weekend when Clear Channel’s iheartradio Music Festival kicked off Friday night at the MGM Grand. Thousands of fans came from across the country to see the impressive line-up, which included the best of the best in every music genre.  The festival marked the launch of Clear Channel’s new iheartradio app, which is designed to make users the program directors for their own fantasy radio station. Abandoning the traditional set-up of genre-specific set-lists, iheartradio allows fans to hear the latest and greatest music from their favorite artists, whether its Jay-Z or Rascal Flats. For a true music aficionado, the resulting playlist would probably sound a lot like the incredible mash-up of music offered at the two-night event.

Black Eyed Peas kicked off the show with “Boom Boom Pow” to an ecstatic crowd comprised of die-hard pop, country, hip hop and rock fans.  The night went smoothly with stellar sets from Jane’s Addiction, Carrie Underwood, Bruno Mars and Kelly Clarkson, all of whom were there to celebrate radio and prove why they rule the charts.  Coldplay delivered an amazing set including “Clocks” and Chris Martin came off as the ultimate front man.  The set was enough to convert me into an instant Chris Martin fan.

Alicia Keys was a beaming beauty when she hit the stage to perform a medley of hits including “Try Sleeping With a Broken Heart”, “Unthinkable” and “Empire State of Mind.”Shealso debuted a new song, teasing fans, “Is it OK for me to play something brand new?” The inspirational number, “A Place Of My Own” was classic Keys, who delivered airy vocals over her perfect piano playing.

Next up was Hova himself, who seemed to be in a particularly good mood when he hit the stage for his forty-minute set.  With Memphis Bleek by his side, he delivered hit after hit from his sixteen-year career.  He repped The Black Album pretty hard and touched on his most successful singles, including “Jigga What”,  “99 Problems”, “Give It To Me” “Run This Town”, “Big Pimpin’” and “Dirt Off Your Shoulder”.  He closed the show with “Empire State of Mind” after Alicia Keys returned to the stage to belt out the huge hook.

Continue reading ‘Soundcheck: Hip Hop Hits iheartradio Music Festival’

Über-concert ticket/ music industry beast LiveNation. Deal-of-the-day mega magnate Groupon. What do they have in common? On paper it doesn’t look like much if only because their business models are based on opposite goals. Groupon has to get you, the consumer, the best deal that they can because that’s how they make money while LiveNation WILL charge you that $5 facility fee, $2.50 for convenience fee and another $3 because why not fee. They say that opposites attract though which makes news of a joint venture between the two companies all the more intriguing. On May 9th, Groupon and LiveNation announced a strategic partnership, a new online ticketing service. The name of the progeny of this unholy union, you ask? GrouponLive.

Real original guys.

So what’s the “deal” with GrouponLive (pun intended)? Well, it’s exactly that. The partnership promises discounted tickets which makes sense given their respective backgrounds. What’ll set GrouponLive apart, what’ll distinguish them from other discounted ticket services, is the pedigree that goes along with their name and their approach to ticket sales. By subscribing to their service via email, GrouponLive will send out a concert-of-the-day ticket deal to users for a show happening that day. So if they offered $10 U2 tickets—like that’ll ever happen—in the morning then the show would be that night.

So, is this good or bad? Well, even though this alliance is formed by two giant corporate behemoths, on the surface, things look pretty beneficial for all the parties involved—a rare occurrence indeed in the music biz. The deals that GrouponLive would offer would be to shows that are not close to capacity the day of, so you would likely see more smaller, independent acts coming up in the offers. And everything would work under the Groupon model with tickets typically to be sold at 50% off their face value.

For those not familiar with how Groupon works, here’s a tutorial: You sign up with Groupon and they send you a new discount deal every day which you need to request to make available by putting down money for it. If enough people sign up for the offer then the offer becomes available to all. If not, then the money that you put down for that coupon becomes a credit you can user later. People get bargains, businesses get more business, Groupon gets a cut, ostensibly a win-win for everybody. Plus LiveNation claims that the subscription will expose fans and artist alike to one another which isn’t nearly half as dirty as we’re making it sound. Check out the President of Live Nation say it more eloquently then we are:

All sounds good, right? People get introduced to new music in a live setting on the cheap and artists can better fill the room and get new fans. What’s not to love? Well, depending on who you ask, a lot.

First, it would appear that the offers would only be available to LiveNation venues so your friend’s basement venue probably can’t get in on the deals. On the industry side of things, many have grumbled that when the service goes live in June and begins offering steep ticket discounts, copy cat companies will spring up and begin offering their own discounts. A pricing war driving ticket costs to the rock bottom might be great for the fans but would be damaging to the artists and the venues involved. Also, the “Live” part of “GrouponLive” partnership might be the biggest shadow looming over the deal. Sure, a $10 concert ticket is great, but tack on a service charge here and a convenience fee there and who knows if you’re really saving money? At that point is anyone really winning?

At this point, all we can do now is speculate. Outside of the deal announcement both Groupon and LiveNation have been pretty quiet about the particulars of the deal. It’s unclear who is getting how much of a cut on the ticket sales as the financial terms of the deal remain undisclosed. Regardless of anyone’s feelings, the merger could be the kick in the ass the live entertainment industry needs right now. Concert revenues, previously hailed as the savior of the modern music industry, counted on to make up for lost revenues for artists where album sales once were, are down. According to Billboard, 11,555 shows brought in $2.1 billion in gross revenue in 2010. Those numbers represent a 26% drop in revenue and a 24.4% drop in fan attendance from ’09. Another telling number: as many as 40% of all tickets last year went undersold.

GrouponLive and the inevitable clones that will pop up in its wake may be a tool, a valuable instrument to heal the wounded concert business. A drop in concert revenue is a problem and this could be part of the solution. But even if this might be good for the industry it remains to be seen whether it’ll be good for the rest of us. Looks like we’ll find out in a few weeks and just in time for the summer concert season to boot.

Now that the snow is finally melting and Spring is right around the corner so is the Spring/Summer concert season. Every year, I anticipate festival line-ups and envision my ideal headlining mash-ups, and every year, I’m pleasantly surprised with at least one can’t-miss tour. This year, you may want to start pinching pennies early, because there’s more than one hot ticket in town.

Janet Jackson will embark on her largest world tour to date with her “Number Ones: Up Close and Personal” Tour. The seasoned superstar who recently starred in Tyler Perry’s critically-acclaimed film, For Colored Girls recently completed her first book and has a new man to be giddy about. The North American leg is a 35-city tour, which promises all the nasty girl’s fan favorites from her latest LP, Number Ones, kicks off in Texas on March 3rd, wrapping up in Las Vegas on April 24th.

Another throwback must-see is the ‘Hip Hop Legends’ Tour. Salt N Pepa will celebrate the 25th anniversary of their 1986 debut, hit album Hot, Cool & Viscious. Cheryl “Salt” James, Sandy “Pepa” Denton and  Deidre “Dee Dee” Roper, better known as DJ Spinderella will hit 20 cities and be joined by fellow hip hop veterans like Doug E. Fresh, MC Lyte, Slick Rick, Whodini, Kool Moe Dee and  Naughty By Nature among others. Kicking off the tour on February 4th in Cleveland and wrapping up in Atlanta on April 2nd.

The hottest ticket in hip hop is undoubtedly Lil Wayne’s “I Am Music II” Tour, which kicks off in Buffalo, NY on March 18th. The 24-city tour will feature NickiMinaj,Rick Ross, Travis Barker and Beastie Boys’ Mixmaster Mike and promises to be worth the wait at the ticket counter.

Snoop Dogg will continue his “Get Wet” Tour through March with stops in Las Vegas, Houston and Pittsburg among others. Some lucky concert-goers will get twice as lifted with special engagements featuring Wiz Khalifa in select cities.

Kid Rock has set out on his “Born Free” Tour with his Twisted Brown Trucker Band for the 28-city stretch, kicking off in Kansas City last week. He will headline the 2011 Rockfest Music Festival July 14th-17th in Wisconsin, performing songs from his latest album, Born Free.

Sade will hit the road with John Legend on June 16th for the first time in 10 years for her 50-date “Soldier of Love” Tour. The GRAMMY-winning pair will also appear at Coachella in April.

Rihanna is currently overseas on her “Last Girl on Earth” Tour, but will be back in the states to kick off her “LOUD” Tour in Baltimore on June 4th. When she wraps up her stateside leg, she will head to Europe on September 29th, where she won’t wrap until December 17th. Let’s hope RiRi doesn’t poop out on her ‘round the world stretch.

Two of my favorite festivals are sure to deliver some serious line-ups this year, with Eminem heating up Chicago for Lollapalooza, along with Muse and Foo Fighters among others. The 3-day festival held in Grant Park is August 5th-7th, with the official line-up coming soon. Coachella is another favorite desert destination, and this year’s star-studded line-up includes Kanye West, Cee-Lo Green, Lauryn Hill, Wiz Khalifa, Nas & Damien Marley and Erykah Badu. The hot and sweaty, weekend-long, jam session gets rollin’ April 15th date in Indio, CA.

No matter how tight your band is musically, your live show could suffer greatly if you don’t have good stage presence.

What is stage presence, anyway? Basically, it’s the way you carry yourself on stage and interact with the audience and your fellow band members.

As an artist, your goals should be: to sound as tight as possible, make sure your audience has a good time and make sure they leave with some merch and/or music. Here are some tips to make it all happen.

Remember, this is a performance...don't be afraid to go a little crazy!

When organizing your set list, it’s a good idea to consider the flow of the songs. Essentially, don’t load all your new songs at the beginning or the end of the set and don’t play similar songs back-to-back. Adding in a cover song can be a fun way to engage audience members who don’t know your original material yet. You should always end your set with your strongest song or your newest single in order to leave the crowd with the best impression possible.

Always arrive to the venue at or before the specified time. If the booking agent doesn’t tell you when to show up, an hour and a half before doors open is always a safe bet. This will ensure that you have enough time to load in your equipment and, if possible, sound check before doors open to avoid any potential technical difficulties.

During your set, remember to encourage audience participation. The vocalist should always try to be charismatic, exciting and fun. Start claps, teach them a sing-a-long part or talk directly to certain crowd members. If the audience is into your music, they will love feeling like they’re becoming a part of it.

Keep up the audience engagement and someday you may hear thousands singing back to you!

Through the set, you should try to mention your band name three times. It also helps to tell the audience where you’re from and where they can find you online. Mention that you’re on MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, OurStage, etc. and encourage them to look you up. Keep in mind that the more the audience hears your band’s name, the more likely it is that they will remember it when the show is over. Of course, you should also tell the audience about your latest release and what your plans for the future are, especially if you plan on playing in the same area in the near future.

It’s also important to sell from the stage, as your merch is both promotional material and a way to earn cash from the show, regardless of ticket sales. Point your audience’s attention to your merch table and list two or three of the items you have available. As always, have your mailing list set up at the table so you can capture names and contact information.

If you’re not headlining, always try to stay for the bands playing after you to provide support. Introduce yourselves to them before or after the show—don’t forget that each performance is a networking opportunity!

Just like athletes watch footage of their latest game, filming a show and going over it with your bandmates afterwards will help you see how you appear to the audience. And if you like the video, be sure to enter it in our brand new Pro Performance Video Channel!

Which tips would you add to the list? Let us know in the comments.

OurStage Classifieds is a music-centric classifieds section designed to help music lovers, emerging artists and industry pros connect with one another on many levels. Think of it as your local classifieds section but on a music discovery site with over 4 million monthly visitors. The OurStage community lives and breathes music—what better place to fulfill all your music-related needs?

This week in Classifieds news, we’re tackling the Events category. Events features 8 subcategories: CD Releases, Clubs, Concerts, Conferences, Festivals, Listening Parties, Other, Tour. Here are the details of each sub-group:

• CD Releases – A place for artists, labels, PR firms and others to promote new releases.
• Clubs - A place for clubs hosting live music or music-oriented events to promote themselves.
• Concerts - A place to post listings that promote live music concerts.
• Conferences – A place to promote music industry conferences.
• Festivals - A place to promote music festivals.
• Listening Parties – A place for artists, labels, pr firms and others to promote listening parties.
• Other -A place to spread the word about other music-related events not covered by the existing categories of CD Releases, Clubs, Concerts, Conferences, Festivals, Listening Parties and Tours.
• Tours – A place for artists, labels, PR agencies and others to promote artist tours.

Here are some current listings in the Events category:

Events: Concerts

6/19 VICTORY BY REVENGE, VALET PARKING, FAIRVIEW & guests at Ground Zero (Allenstown, NH)

A great all-ages night of Pop and Indie Rock. For more info on this listing, click here.

Events: Festivals

6/25 Warriors of Metal Festival (Chillicothe, OH)

Forgotten Legacy will be playing at the Warriors of Metal Festival in Chillicothe Ohio. Headliners include: Jacobs Dream, Cage, Aska, and more! For more info about this listing, click here.

Events: CD Releases

7/25 Dr. E’s “Elevated” CD Release Party & Concert (Columbus, OH)

Vonn Jazz-Supper Club & Sanger Shahid Productions welcome the soulful jazzy sounds of singer/songwriter Dr. E for the release of her new CD “Elevated” on Sunday, July 25th at 7:00p.m. For more info on this listing, click here.

Remember: If you notice a listing in the wrong category, please flag it using the OurStage flagging system. The OurStage staff reviews all flags and will take any appropriate actions.

For a limited time, posting in Classifieds will be free, so log in to your OurStage account and get posting! Want to browse Classifieds? Click “Marketplace” in the main navigation bar at the top of the site and select “Classifieds” from the drop down menu or click here. Not sure which category is best for your listing? Check out our Classifieds FAQs!