Source: morecowbell.net

A most excellent Sunday night occasion at Xcel Center, both Bob Dylan and The Foo Fighters strolled into town. The Foo Fighters were carrying their relatively new acoustic sound with them, with a very talented eight-member group. Their set was very tight and Dave Grohl was funny and seemed absolutely stoked to be there. They only played 2-3 songs (fine by me) from their new double record and the older songs sounded great reworked. They’ll be releasing a live double disc CD/DVD recorded in LA called ‘Skin And Bones’ on November 7. It will be nice to have good sounding sources of those songs.

“Everybody got to wonder what’s the matter with this cruel world today”

Great vibes surrounding Dylan’s entrance, the near full house on hand was a really diverse crowd. A very solid set for the evening, starting things off with the attention grabbing opener of “Maggie’s Farm” moving onto one of my favorites “She Belongs to Me”. After “Tweedle Dee”, a rare off-mic comment from Dylan “let’s go!”. I was thinking a rocker from the new record but they chilled things out a bit with one of four cuts from the new record Modern Times (seriously, buy this record if you don’t have it yet). A very respectable crowd allowed Dylan’s crisp (yes, I said crisp) vocals to hang in the air a bit longer and bounce off the ends of the arena. I was suprised how respectable everyone was to the low key tracks. And unlike his Fargo, ND summer tour stop, Bob’s piano was more audible and he even threw down a few solos.

“Simple Twist of Fate” and “Tangled Up In Blue” were highlights of the evening for me. Both songs from Dylan’s masterpiece Blood on the Tracks, mixed with the nice arena sound had them coming across as vivid as ever. Painting those pictures in your mind for the thousandth time. “Nettie Moore” felt the same way, nice to hear a new gem presented in that way.

The standard three-song encore for this tour proved to do the trick. Just before the band (who deserve many props) busted into “Thunder on the Mountain”, the Dylan “eye” logo backdrop was draped down and the sweet groove started. I felt that this was the most re-worked so far of the 4 new ones, but maybe it was just the fast delivery of the lyrics. “Like a Rolling Stone” and “All Along the Watchtower”, didn’t disappoint anyone. Well, maybe a few of the many executives and their wives who bailed out of the show way too early. I’m sure they can read about it in the news if they’d like. Both were enjoyable versions of songs that become wiser themselves, each time you hear them.

It was a special show, always is when you can be in the same building as the man. Many friends in attendance, good sounding venue, sweet seats, and the Foo Fighters opening will make this Dylan show stand out a bit more for me. Until next time….

Maggie’s Farm
She Belongs To Me
Tweedle Dee & Tweedle Dum
When The Deal Goes Down
It’s Alright, Ma (I’m Only Bleeding)
Simple Twist Of Fate
Rollin’ And Tumblin’
Masters Of War
Tangled Up In Blue
Don’t Think Twice, It’s All Right
Highway 61 Revisited
Nettie Moore
Summer Days

(encore)

Thunder On The Mountain
Like A Rolling Stone
All Along The Watchtower

The Strib has a review as well – dig it.

Source: morecowbell.net

Happy (almost) Birthday to me!

December 20th
Orpheum Theatre
Minneapolis, MN

Tickets: $27-32.50

Presale begins Wednesday, November 1st at 10:00 AM

Update: holy f*ck… The Swell Season are opening this show!! For those who don’t know who/what that is, it’s Glen Hansard from The Frames side project. The put a totally brilliant and gorgeous album earlier this year. Wow… this is almost as great as The Frames opening for Damo at the Pantages in ‘03 or whenever that was.

Here are the rest of Damien’s tour dates:

November 2006

13 November – El Ray, Los Angeles (solo acoustic)
16 November – Hiro, New York (solo acoustic)

December 2006

6 December – Paramount Theatre, Oakland, CA
8 December – Orpheum Theatre, Los Angeles, CA
11 December – Orpheum Theatre, Boston, MA
12 December – Beacon Theatre, New York, NY
15 December – Tower Theatre, Upper Darby, Philadelphia, PA
16 December – Lincoln Theatre, Washington D.C
18 December – Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
19 December – Vic Theatre, Chicago, IL
20 December – Orpheum Theatre, Minneapolis, MN

Source: morecowbell.net

My wife put it well last night when she said, “I don’t know why you never want to come see The Decemberists, they’re such great performers.” She was right. I always enjoy seeing them. Sure, the antics can get a little gimmicky, but in the end, I always end up saying to myself, “It’s great to see performers engage their audiences as much as The Decemberists.” Take for example, “the wandering minstrels.”

After an introduction instructing the audience to introduce ourselves to our neighbors and then imagine ourselves in a world being whisked away from the breeze and other elements, we were introduced (again) to The Decemberists.

The Decemberists started their set with “The Crane Wife 3,” followed by the second track from the new LP, “The Island – Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel the Drowning.” The set was dominated heavily by new songs, which I was happy to see. While I love the older songs, I’ve definitely had my fill of “The Mariner’s Revenge” and its accompanying gimmicks of particpatory audience screaming. That’s not to say some old favorites were not present: most notably “July, July” and “The Legionnaire’s Lament.”

After applauding Bob Mould and Husker Du, the band launched into an “island version” of “Divide & Conquer”. It was pretty amusing, but I think the cover was lost on most of the crowd. The crowd was not very engaged for the first half of the set. Maybe they were too excited about the nice weather, but whatever it was, The Decemberists worked hard to gain everyone’s attention and once they got it, they commanded it well (as usual). Another highlight, was a re-worked version of “Song for Myla Goldberg.” It was much slower and relaxed from the album version, and a great change-up. Also, at one point in the show, Colin decided it would be a good idea to grab an audience member’s camera and proceeded to take photos of his fellow band mates.

After an 1 1/2 hour main set, the crew stepped off-stage for a few minutes to come back for a quick encore.

They opened the encore with the B-side, “The Culling of the Fold,” and after “Legionnaire” and a very audience-engaged “A Cautionary Song,” the band left to leave the house-lights rise after just shy of two hours of tales of the sea and all things Decemberists-esque.

Tonight’s show will be webcast from NPR’s All Things Considered. Hopefully they’ll get The Tain tonight!

Setlist:

- The Crane Wife 3
- The Island-Come & See/The Landlord’s Daughter/You’ll Not Feel The Drowning
- We Both Go Down Together
- Engine Driver
- Yankee Bayonette (I Will Be Home Then)
- The Perfect Crime #2
- Divide and Conquer (Husker Du) (the island version)
- The Shankhill Butchers
- Song for Myla Goldberg (the slow and steady “remix”)
- O Valencia
- July, July!
- 16 x 32
- The Crane Wife 1 & 2
- Sons & Daughters

Encore break

- Culling of the Fold
- The Legionnaire’s Lament
- A Cautionary Song

More photos at Flickr.

Source: vipticketblog.com

Country singer Martina McBride (buy tickets) is planning a holiday-themed tour for the weeks leading up to Christmas, and tickets continue to go on sale in new cities.Ticket on-sales get underway Saturday (10/28) for McBride’s shows in Grand Rapids, MI; Evansville, IN; Cedar Rapids, IA; Columbus, OH; Reading, PA; Worcester, MA; Manchester, NH; and Washington, DC.

Click here to search for your Martina McBride Tickets.  Act fast, as these will sell out very fast!

The Joy For Christmas Tour runs through December 19th when the tour ends in Portland, ME.  Except a great turnout for all the events, Martina is one hot lady and puts on a great concert!  Men and women just love her!  Remember to get your tickets quick, as they will sell out FAST!

Source: morecowbell.net

Sunday, November 19th
7th Street Entry

If you missed their great show at the Entry a month or two ago, do not miss this one. This band won’t be playing this size of venues much longer, trust us.

Source: vipticketblog.com

Now that +44 Drummer Travis Barker is recovered from his broken arm, they are rescheduling their concert dates (Buy +44 Tickets) to make up for the ones that they had to cancel.

Originally scheduled to run from Oct. 13 through Nov. 22, the outing will launch with a Nov. 8 show in Tampa, FL, one of the 10 previously scheduled dates still intact. The make-up shows extend the itinerary through Dec. 17

Buy your +44 concert tickets here!

Source: vipticketblog.com

The Blue Man Group (Buy Ticket) has added 62 additional dates to its 42 previously announced engagements.  The new leg kicks off Feb. 1 in Yakima, WA, and will keep the trio on the road through the end of next April.

The Blue Man Group (Buy Ticket) franchise has grown to encompass ongoing theatrical productions in New York, Boston, Chicago, Las Vegas, London, Berlin and Toronto. The group’s debut album, “Audio,” was nominated for a Grammy in the Best Pop Instrumental category in 2001, and has since been certified gold by the Recording Industry Association of America.

Buy your Blue Man Group Tickets Here!  You don’t have to goto Las Vegas to see them anymore!

Source: vipticketblog.com

Army Of One has announced its first-ever live concerts (Buy Tickets), with seven dates planned through the latter half of November.

The band features Filter frontman Richard Patrick with former Stone Temple Pilots members Dean DeLeo on guitar and Robert DeLeo on bass. Ray Luzier, a veteran of David Lee Roth’s band, mans the drums.

The group’s first live appearance is scheduled for Philadelphia November 18. The itinerary includes club shows in Boston, Atlanta and Nashville, and the band promises a full tour next year.

Army Of Anyone’s self-titled debut album, produced by Bob Ezrin, is due out November 14.

“We can not wait to get out there and play these songs in front of a live audience,” Patrick said in a press release. “We’ve had a great time doing live on air radio performances. But to be out there in front of a live crowd, that’s what we’ve all been waiting for.”

Get your Army of One Tickets Here!

Source: morecowbell.net

So, as many of you know from our last post, Travis and I were meeting up in DC (he was flying in from Minneapolis, I from work travel elsewhere in the midwest) to help out with the webcast for Wilco’s concert at the 9:30 Club. Trav was supposed to leave Minneapolis at 7:15 am and arrive in DC about 12:30 pm. I was leaving at 8:00 am and arriving around 1:45 pm. That should have been plenty of time for both of us to make sound check. After a few txt messages back and forth that went a little something like this:

Dude, I’m delayed 45 minutes!

Dude, I’M delayed an hour

Ok, now I’m deboarding the plane I was on, and we’re not leaving for two hours. See you at 4!

Travis got into DC around 1:15 and cabbed to club, there by 2:30. He met a lot of the staff at the 9:30 whom all turned out to be pretty cool cats. After some vegan jambalaya and vegan tacos, the laptops were needing to be setup. Soundcheck: 4:00 pm which included: Company In My Back, Radio Cure, Impossible Germany (new), and Monday. I managed to get to the club about 6:00, just after Wilco’s soundcheck concluded (sweet! Thanks again Northwest!) After soundcheck, there were some minor issues (i.e. seven hours of troubleshooting for a task that all-things-working-properly takes 10 minutes to get rolling) to get the webcast working. The webcast cure? It turned out to be a software issue that we never quite figured out. Oh, did I mention that we got it working 17 minutes before Wilco’s set time? Troubleshooting computers over the phone in the middle of the opener was interesting to say the least.

Wilco opened the set with Radio Cure, in our opinion: a perfect opener. It set the mood for the packed-house, let us all know that they were in control of the show and we were following their lead. The new songs sounded great, and shaping up to be tighter and tight each show.

Highlights:

• The crowd, became really excited at the opening chords of Handshake Drugs
• A really well-placed Poor Places With the District’s historic problems of poverty and wealth living 200 feet from each other, this chilling rendition seemed incredibly appropriate.
• The trio of Theologians, I’m the Man Who Loves You, and Via Chicago was a perfect main-set closer. Theologians – always seems appropriate in this political/religious climate in a political town. I’m the Man – Just always brings you to the time when you listening to YHF on a roadtrip, and rawking with the windows down. Via Chicago – 2nd to last show, you could tell the band was anxious to take the road show home.

The set finished up with the Randy Newman cover of Political Science, and Misunderstood sent everyone on their way, with a shout-out to the crew & Ken for their great work and then everyone else:

for nothing

Fast-forward to end of the show, and while we’re chatting and having a few beers, Ted Leo rolls up and says, “Hey.” My reaction (after stumbling over my words) – “What’s up Ted?”

It was nice meeting Johnny and Bob of NPR. Again, here’s their piece on the show. All in all, a solid evening from the 9:30. Thanks to Wilco for letting us be a part of it. Watch the Wilco Roadcast for an archive of the gig.

Signing off from DC: T & B

Source: morecowbell.net

Here’s a few photo highlights from last night’s Wilco show. Check out my Flickr set for the rest of the photos from last night.

NPR also has a few photos on their site as well as a Flickr set.