State Champ Radio Concerts
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The ultimate all-American b—- kicked off the North American tour of her long-awaited Guts world tour on Friday (Feb. 23), as Olivia Rodrigo took the stage at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif.
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Following the release of her 2023 Billboard 200 chart-topping sophomore album, Guts, the newly 21-year-old superstar is now a veteran to the touring scene, and she proved it as early as the set’s opening track, “Bad Idea Right?,” during which Rodrigo strutted around the U-shaped stage with the confidence of a pop pro, complete with her standout vocals that didn’t waver throughout the full hour-and-a-half performance.
With two albums out, Rodrigo had the 11,000 fans in the crowd belting out the lyrics to every song in the career-spanning set, which included her Billboard Hot 100-chart topping lead single ballads like Sour’s breakout hit, “Drivers License” and her blood-sucking Guts opera-tinged track, “Vampire.” She also amped up the energy with her high voltage, head bang-ready songs like “Get Him Back!,” “All-American B—-,” “Bad Idea Right?” as well as “Brutal,” “Deja Vu” and more.
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Rodrigo will continue to perform in North America through April, where she’s scheduled a pair of dates for April 5 and 6 at Madison Square Garden in New York City, then heads overseas, beginning her international dates on April 30 in Dublin, Ireland. The pop star returns to the United States with a July 19 show in Philadelphia, and wraps her world tour with two concerts at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles on Aug. 13 and 14.
See below for the best moments from Rodrigo’s Guts tour kickoff in Palm Springs, Calif., from tender moments of gratitude to the introduction of pop’s brightest rockstar.
“Drivers License”
There is nothing more special than a star singing their breakthrough hit to an arena full of fans. The Rodrigo who released “Drivers License” in 2021 was heartbroken and unaware of the whirlwind three years ahead of her. The Rodrigo who performed “Drivers License” in 2024, however, was visibly self-assured and proud of how far she’s come. With just a piano and her characteristically heartfelt vocals, the full circle moment of performing her first mega-hit during her second sold-out tour felt particularly special.
“Teenage Dream”
During the performance of her Guts closing track, “Teenage Dream,” the screen behind Rodrigo played a montage of videos of the star when she was a child — dancing ballet and smiling with friends, or singing into a microphone. “They all say that it gets better, it gets better the more you grow / Yeah, they all say that it gets better, it gets better, but what if I don’t?” she repeated to wrap up the track, before she looked out to the crowd, teary-eyed.
Rodrigo then stepped offstage, as a voiceover played throughout the arena of a five-year-old Rodrigo stating that she’s excited for her first show. “I dedicate this song to my friends and family,” the tiny tot is heard saying, marking another moment of gratitude and physical representation of growth during the show.
The Moon
Coincidentally, it was a full moon outside Acrisure Arena, but inside the venue, Rodrigo sat on a crescent moon and floated above the crowd for dreamy renditions of “Logical” and “Enough for You.”
“Obsessed”
Rodrigo’s Guts deluxe track quickly became viral on TikTok, and the second Rodrigo sang the opening line of “Obsessed,” the crowd ruptured into venue-shaking screams from the surprise setlist addition. At the end of the track, Rodrigo grabbed a guitar and delivered an impressive guitar solo, amplifying the rock-leaning sound of her sophomore album.
“All-American B—-”
“For this next part, I want you think of someone or something that really pisses you off and I want you to scream your heart out,” Rodrigo told the crowd after the song’s bridge. All 11,000 people in the crowd then joined the singer in soul-wrenching screams to let out the anger, marking a hilarious and healing moment of emotion during the set.
Olivia Rodrigo spilled her guts onstage at the long awaited opening night of her Guts world tour on Friday (Feb. 23) at Acrisure Arena in Palm Springs, Calif. With two albums now under her belt, the freshly 21-year-old pop superstar had no shortage of hits to get the crowd belting their hearts — or guts, […]
Reunited thrash metal band Slayer will headline the second night of this year’s Louder Than Life festival in Louisville, KY. The band join fellow headliners Slipknot, Mötley Crüe and Korn at the event slated to take place at the Highland Festival Grounds at Kentucky Exposition Center on Sept. 26-29.
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The 10th anniversary of North America’s largest rock festival will also feature sets from Disturbed, Judas Priest, Five Finger Death Punch, Evanescence, Falling in Reverse, Breaking Benjamin, The Offspring, Staind, Till Lindemann, Chevelle, Dropkick Murphys, Halestorm, Gojira, Seether, In This Moment, Anthrax, Sum 41, Mastodon and Rage Against the Machine guitarist and solo act Tom Morello.
“We’re thrilled to announce that Slayer will be reuniting for an earth-shattering performance at Louder Than Life,” promoter Danny Wimmer of Danny Wimmer Presents said of the thrash icons who retired in 2019 after what they said at the time was their final tour. ”I was at their last show at The Forum in 2019 and have been working since then to bring them back to the Louder stage! With over 140 bands on five stages, we’re celebrating our 10th Louder Than Life with the biggest lineup yet!”
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Slayer — whose final lineup included original members guitarist Kerry King and bassist/singer Tom Araya along with drummer Paul Bostaph and guitarist Gary Holt — were also announced as headliners for this year’s Riot Fest on Wednesday (Feb. 21).
The 150 acts at Louder Than Life will set up on five stages at the festival that will also include a selection of Louisville’s best spirits and local cuisine and sets from Anthrax, Mastodon, Architects, Skillet, Clutch, Highly Suspect, Lorna Shore, Body Count, Spiritbox, Grandson, Nothing More, Sevendust, Jinjer, Poppy, Badflower, Starset, Sleeping With Sirens, Filter, Eagles of Death Metal, Juliette Lewis and the Licks, Marky Ramone Plays the Ramones Classics, Black Stone Cherry, PUP, Three 6 Mafia, P.O.D., Fozzy, Fugitive, Saosin, L.S. Dunes, Biohazard, Polaris, From Ashes To New, LIT and many more.
Single day and weekend GA admission along with Park Community VIP passes and information on new Loud Lounge Suites are on sale now here; Angel’s Envy Top Shelf VIP passes, RV and car + tent camping passes are already sold out.
Check out the 2024 Louder Than Life festival poster below.
Pittsburgh‘s long running indie punk, emo and hardcore Four Chord Music Festival is celebrating its 10th birthday at a new venue this year, the 140-year-old historical landmark of Pittsburgh’s Carrie Furnace on the banks of the Monongahela River in the Pittsburgh area industrial town of Swissvale.
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“We’ve been trying to get in there for a while,” festival founder Rishi Bahl tells Billboard. “Carrie Furnace is one of the oldest blast furnaces in Pittsburgh, which obviously is known for steel,” adding, “It just felt right for the 10th anniversary to bring the festival back to Pittsburgh proper, which aligns with the ethos of the festival and its blue collar, independent, DIY and anti-Live Nation endeavor”
The historical festival site will serves at the backdrop for the 10th anniversary of Four Chord, June 22 and 23, featuring A Day To Remember, All-American Rejects, The Story So Far, Something Corporate, State Champs, Motion City Soundtrack, Four Year Strong, The Get Up Kids, Microwave, Militarie Gun, Relient K and more.
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Situated within the remnants of the iconic U.S Steel Homestead Steel Works, the Carrie Blast Furnaces stand as a testament to Pittsburgh’s industrial prowess in the 20th century.
“We’re going to outfit the furnaces with lights and branding to match the festival,” says Bahl, who also leads the band Eternal Boy and is an assistant professor at La Roche University in Pittsburgh.
Four Chords began in 2014 as a local punk rock festival in a 1500-capacity club and has grown into a massive stadium-sized two-day destination event, featuring the punk scene’s biggest and brightest, while keeping its independent DIY roots intact.
Bahl says, “10 years is a long time. Most things that you were into 10 years ago have not survived, so to reach the 10th anniversary of Four Chord Music Fest is something we are very proud of. We really tried to make this one the biggest and best one yet and are stoked to spend the weekend with all of you at our brand new, historical landmark of a location, The Carrie Furnace. Get out the sunscreen and bring the Advil, it is going to be a party.”
This year, Four Chord Fest is partnering with nonprofit Biggies Bullies which is dedicated to the rescue and rehoming of pitbull-type dogs in both Pittsburgh and its neighboring regions.
Attendees can choose from general admission and VIP tickets, with a new deluxe VIP tier now available. This option provides access to a spacious elevated viewing lounge, private bathrooms, a partially open bar, and more, enhancing the overall festival experience. Early bird GA tickets and VIP are on sale now, while public on sale opens Friday (Feb. 23) at 11 a.m. Eastern.
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Bobby Weir and Sun Ra Arkestra will headline A Great Night in Harlem fundraiser for the Jazz Foundation of America. The annual benefit will take place March 28 at The Apollo in Harlem. Its name plays off of A Great Day in Harlem, the classic 1958 Art Kane black-and-white photograph for Esquire that featured more than 50 […]
Corinne Bailey Rae recently wrapped an eight-show residency at Manhattan’s beloved Blue Note Jazz Club, performing 2023’s Black Rainbows – which explores soul, garage rock, jazz, downtempo electronic and even a bit of house – in its entirely. That album was one of the year’s finest, but seeing it presented live — with Rae sharing the painful and inspiring stories of Black American history that galvanized her to make these songs – made it clear that the concepts and ideas behind the album are as rich and stunning as its musical tapestry.
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Black Rainbows began taking shape when the English singer-songwriter visited The Stony Island Arts Bank in Chicago’s South Side. The hybrid space, which Theaster Gates opened in 2015, is a gallery, media library and museum that encompasses everything from African American periodicals dating back to the 1940s to the personal vinyl collection of house godfather Frankie Knuckles to a collection of historical artifacts portraying Black people in blatantly racist ways. In short, it’s a complicated space dedicated to African American history, one that gives people the opportunity to confront the beautiful and the ugly in equal measure.
Rae’s visit morphed into an ongoing perusal of the collection, and soon, new songs began to take shape in her mind. A vintage photo of a teenage girl who won the “Miss New York Transit” title 70-some years ago inspired the riot grrrl energy of her song “New York Transit Queen” (Rae even tracked down and interviewed the woman, Audrey Smaltz); the story of writer/abolitionist Harriet Jacobs, who escaped slavery but spent seven years in a cramped hiding space, watching her children play through a peephole, informed the hopeful yet elegiac “Peach Velvet Sky”; advertisements from Valmor Products, a Chicago beauty brand geared toward African American women, led to the jazzy, ambient “He Will Follow You With His Eyes”; and a sweaty dance party to Knuckles’ records at the Stony Island Arts Bank resulted in the thumping “Put It Down.”
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In the midst of performing “Put It Down” at the Blue Note on Friday (Feb. 16), a woman in the seated audience stood up and began dancing – greeting the sight with a smile, Rae stepped down from the stage to join her as the band kept the house-inflected groove going. And from the sax player to the drummer, that band was a knockout. Perhaps having Rae explain the stories that inspired the songs before playing them pushed her players to bring each one to vivid, vibrant life in that intimate space.
When it came time for the encore, Rae gamely trotted out her 2006 soul-pop gem “Put Your Records On” and the sweetly soulful “Trouble Sleeping” from the same album. It probably goes without saying that she’ll be forever associated with the former, and there’s nothing wrong with that – it’s a timeless classic, one that’s recently found a Gen Z audience via a viral cover. But Black Rainbows stands as Rae’s finest artistic statement to date, an exquisite tapestry that electrifies both intellectually and emotionally – and seeing her present this layered work live is a gift.
Guessing which surprise songs Taylor Swift will play during her acoustic section on The Eras Tour just got a little trickier. She’s now serving some unexpected mashups.
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Swift previously told fans she’s given herself permission to repeat songs she’s already played this tour for the trek’s international leg, which she’s currently on. But she’s still set on bringing some element of chaos to her nightly song choices.
“That was to challenge me to really get to all the ones that I just don’t naturally gravitate towards, and I feel really proud about having done that,” Swift said at her Melbourne, Australia, show on Feb. 18, referring to her original plan to avoid surprise song repeats throughout the tour.
“But this is sort of a public service announcement to everyone who might be anywhere else on the tour, or whatever, or watching this — we have a lot of people, we’re very lucky to have a lot of people watch this on the internet and care about these shows if they’re not here,” she continued. “I’ve just been kind of rethinking, and I’ve been thinking I want to be as creative as possible with the acoustic set moving forward.”
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Swift tried to explain further: “I don’t want to limit anything, and I don’t want to just say like, ‘Oh, if I played a song before, I can’t play it again.’”
“I don’t want to take any paint colors out of the paintbox of colors,” the pop star said. “I don’t want to take any tools out of the toolbox. What’s the metaphor I’m looking for? I want to be able to play songs more than once if I feel like it, and I want to be able to make changes to songs.”
In other words, continue to expect the unexpected during the acoustic section of Swift’s shows.
Swift combined “Come Back… Be Here” from her Red era with Lover closing track “Daylight” at Melbourne Cricket Ground on Feb. 18, a day after performing a mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door.”
Swift has wrapped her Melbourne shows and heads to Sydney for four Eras tour dates at Accor Stadium, starting on Feb. 23.
Watch her “Come Back… Be Here” and “Daylight” mashup below. At the concert, Swift’s second surprise song was her debut-era “Teardrops on My Guitar,” played on piano.
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Welcome to the acoustic section: Taylor Swift crossed eras to play an unexpected mashup of “Getaway Car,” “August” and “The Other Side of the Door” in Melbourne, Australia, on Feb. 17.
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Introducing the acoustic part of her Eras Tour show at the third of four concerts in the city, Swift — who at each tour date performs two tracks that are not often heard during the show — told the Melbourne Cricket Ground crowd she wanted to pick a song “that they really wanna hear, and I think I might’ve achieved it.”
“You have to let me know,” she teased the Melbourne audience. “I really just want you to be happy ’cause you’re making me really happy.”
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Lucky for them, Swift actually gave fans a three-song mashup on guitar that counted as only one of the songs during her acoustic set.
About three minutes into a performance of Reputation standout “Getaway Car,” Swift shifted into Folklore‘s “August,” singing, “I can see us lost in the memory/ August slipped away into a moment in time/ ‘Cause it was never mine/ And I can see us twisted in bedhseets/ August slipped away like a bottle of wine/ ‘Cause you were never mine.”
Swift closed the mashup with the outro of “The Other Side of the Door,” which originally appeared on the platinum edition of Fearless in 2008 and was re-recorded for 2021’s Fearless (Taylor’s Version).
“With your face and the beautiful eyes/ And the conversation with the little white lies/ And the faded picture of a beautiful night/ You carry me from your car up the stairs/ And I broke down cryin’, was she worth this mess?/ After everything and that little black dress / After everything, I must confess I need you,” she sang to loud cheers.
The Midnights star then took to the piano to perform “This Is Me Trying,” from Folklore, as the second surprise song of the set. She’d played “Getaway Car” and “This Is Me Trying” only once before so far on this tour.
Watch Swift’s surprise mashup below. Keep up with a full list of her surprise songs on The Eras Tour here.
Cali Vibes — the West Coast’s biggest reggae, roots music and hip-hop festival — returns to Long Beach this weekend with one of its strongest lineups yet, including headliners Gwen Stefani, Stick Figure, Slightly Stoopid, Rebelution, Ice Cube and more.
For the third year in a raw, Cali Vibes will include the Boomyard stage curated by Leslie Cooney, a longtime A&R rep at Delicious Vinyl specializing in Jamaican and Caribbean dancehall, reggae and soca artists. This year’s Boomyard stage will include Jamaican rapper and reggae artist Kabaka Pyramid, Jamaican reggae artist Protoje, rasta reggae singer Lutan Fyah, Ghana artist Stonebwoy and DJ sets from KrossFayah, DJ Daneekah and Mr Crooks.
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Goldenvoice’s own Nic Adler got his start working in the mailroom at Delicious Vinyl, the West Coast hip-hop label that was home to the Pharcyde, Tone Loc, Young MC, The Brand New Heavies and other acts in the late 1980s and ’90s, says label co-founder Mike Ross, who also hired Cooney around the same time to bring reggae artists to the label. In 2018 — the same year reggae imprint Delicious Vinyl Island was launched — Cooney and Ross created a regular showcase and party for Jamaican artists called Boomyards at Delicious Pizza on West Adams in L.A.
“The idea behind it was to create a place to commune and celebrate the records we were putting out,” says Cooney. “I was putting out records by a lot of these young Caribbean acts and Boomyards became a way to play those records and meet up with DJs and dancers in the community. I used my relationships with all of my friends like Shaggy, Protoje and Mr. Vegas and all of these big artists that would just come touch the mic because they were friends of mine and the Party just took off.”
Jamaican DJ and singer Yaadboy, who performs at Boomyards, was the first artist Cooney worked with at the Delicious Vinyl Island imprint, although Delicious Vinyl’s ties to Jamaican music go back to the hip-hop-reggae group Born Jamericans, whose debut record Kids from Foreign was released on the label in 1994. As the record business changed, Cooney shifted focus to managing acts including Mr. Vegas and Trinidadian soca star Machel Montano and building up the Boomyards brand.
“It’s an extended community and everybody that I put on my stage is friends or family with a lot of other Jamaican people in the community,” Cooney explains. “So the stage is kind of like a meeting point. We’ll have the Marleys on the main stages, but their kids will be performing on the Boomyards stage or DJing.”
Cooney expects Protoje’s Sunday set to be among the biggest draws for the Boomyard stage, telling Billboard that “fans are going to get the real culture there because they’re going to see Protoje perform the way he might at home at a sound session. It’s DJs, playing his tracks live, mixing them live, flying in sound effects and all sorts of fun. It’s going to be insane.”
Learn more at www.calivibesfest.com.
On Wednesday (Feb. 14), Billboard announced its return to South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin, Texas, for three star-studded concerts running Thursday, March 14, through Saturday, March 16. Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news Billboard Presents THE STAGE at SXSW will kick off with a night dedicated to […]
