Concerts
Page: 47
A bomb threat derailed a concert Saturday night (July 8) at Saratoga Performing Arts Center (SPAC), shutting down the venue before the main act, Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, could take the stage.
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According to multiple reports, Metric and Garbage completed their opening sets, but the High Flying birds got their wings clipped when the site was abruptly evacuated just ahead of their headline slot.
An announcement before 10 p.m. said the show would not go on due to “circumstances beyond our control,” according to a report from Jim Shahen of the Albany Times-Union.
Adds reporter Jon Campbell, who was in the room: “The stage was all set for Noel Gallagher. Then a guy came on stage and said: ‘Due to circumstances beyond our control, the show will not continue.’”
Weird things happening at SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center, for non locals). The stage was all set for Noel Gallagher. Then a guy came on stage and said: “Due to circumstances beyond our control, the show will not continue.” pic.twitter.com/EUqZ83IGkD— Jon Campbell (@JonCampbellNY) July 9, 2023
“We have no idea what happened tonight,” Garbage posted on its official Twitter channel. “We were just all evacuated and we were concerned for everyone !!! I’m sorry we have no real information. We were just told there was an emergency evacuation!!!!”
We have no idea what happened tonight. We were just all evacuated and we were concerned for everyone !!!I’m sorry we have no real information . We were just told there was an emergency evacuation!!!!— Garbage (@garbage) July 9, 2023
The situation now has clarity, with officials confirming the closure was in response to a “bomb threat.”
“Out of an abundance of caution, the concert at Saratoga Performing Arts Center was suspended at 9:40 pm and concert attendees were evacuated without incident. K9s completed a sweep of the venue after the crowd exited, with negative results,” reads a statement from the NY State Park Police.
The venue, operated by Live Nation, had a particularly eventful weekend. Sunday’s performance of Kidz Bop was delayed due to “inclement weather in the area,” with organizers urging guests to “seek shelter in the venue.”
Attention Kidz Bop fans at SPAC: Due to inclement weather in the area, we are sheltering in place at the venue.Please continue to monitor our social media pages for further information. pic.twitter.com/yBDtZxVpNW— Live Nation Saratoga (@livenationtoga) July 9, 2023
Gallagher is touring in support of his band’s latest album Council Skies, which last month debuted at No. 2 on the Official U.K. Albums Chart, denied the crown by Foo Fighters’ But Here We Are. The Foos ended Gallagher’s record streak of 10 consecutive No. 1 studio albums dating back nearly three decades, including all seven LPs with Oasis and the previous three with High Flying Birds.
Pittsburgh has a problem. The entire world is clamoring for a glimpse of Beyoncé’s eye-popping Renaissance World Tour, including the mayor of Steel City. In a statement posted to social media this week, Pittsburgh Mayor Ed Gainey wrote that he was “deeply disappointed” that Beyoncé made the difficult decision to cancel the tour’s stop in […]
Taylor Swift’s record-breaking Eras Tour has dominated the world since it first kicked off back in April, and the stadium-sized trek is showing no signs of slowing down. Between Swift’s mind-boggling success and the positive economic impact of her tour stops on the cities that she visits, even politicians and government officials are clamoring for […]
Well, at least it isn’t human cremains this time. Pink is once again going viral for accepting an unorthodox present from a fan in the crowd at one of her concerts, but luckily, instead of a plastic bag containing the remains of someone’s mom, this gift was simply a large wheel of Brie cheese. In […]
Pink encourages throwing fistfuls of glitter in the air, but she (understandably) draws the line at throwing your dead relative’s cremated remains at her shows. The 43-year-old pop star was left stunned at her Sunday (June 25) BST Hyde Park show in London after someone in the audience lobbed a plastic baggie of gray powder […]
This was supposed to happen three years ago. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of her 2000 seminal debut album — Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 — the singer-songwriter announced she would tour and perform the entire Hidden Beach Recordings project in 2020. Then, along came the pandemic.
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But the wait was worth it for the 17,500 screaming fans who greeted the three-time Grammy winner at the Los Angeles stopover on her relaunched anniversary tour. Strolling onto the stage at the sold-out Hollywood Bowl, garbed in a sparkly pantsuit accented by a colorful kimono, a smiling Scott said to resounding applause, “Hello everybody. Welcome to the 23rd anniversary of Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1. It’s a great pleasure to present this to you.”
And from there, Scott took fans all the way back to day one, beginning with the double-platinum album’s opening tracks “Jilltro,” “Do You Remember” and “Exclusively.” Then, the first of several massive sing-alongs erupted as she segued into her first-charting single, “Gettin’ in the Way,” followed by her second single and first top 10 hit on Hot R&B/Hip-Hop Songs, “A Long Walk.” As Scott glided into the latter track’s fitting first verse (“You’re here / I’m pleased”), one fan shouted, “She’s not playing tonight!”
That jubilant fervor continued throughout the rest of the night as Scott lovingly wound her way through more standouts from her first album. These included “He Loves Me (Lyzel in E Flat),” which has become a Scott concert staple, “The Way,” “Honey Molasses,” “Love Rain,” “The Roots (Interlude),” “Slowly Surely” and “Watching Me.”
Watching and hearing Scott perform her breakthrough album, several realizations came to mind. First, her vocals are just as stunning as they were 23 years ago. The way she flexes those muscles on songs like “He Loves Me,” hitting operatic-type notes, still brings fans to their feet. Second, her insightful lyrics about life, love, relationships and self-empowerment are just as on-point as they were 23 years ago. She also possesses the innate ability to connect one-on-one with fans even while performing in front of thousands of them. Plus, she’s still having fun, as evidenced by the way she interacts with her backing band and three background singers, letting them do their thing as she does hers.
At one point during the show, as the conga player and the drummer laid down percolating solos, Scott exclaimed, “This is live music, MFs! There’s nothing MP3, ABC … none of that s—, about it.”
Warming up the crowd for Scott during an unseasonably chilly night were DJ Diamond Kuts and the Adam Blackstone Band. The latter brought out two special guests as well. Roc Nation artist Dixson performed covers of Bill Withers’ “Just the Two of Us” and D’Angelo’s “Untitled (How Does It Feel”), while Jon B delivered two of his hits, “Someone to Love” and “They Don’t Know.”
The next stop on the Who Is Jill Scott? Words and Sounds Vol. 1 anniversary tour is in Concord, Calif. on June 24.
Gorillaz‘s The Getaway 2023 tour will no longer take place, as the the virtual group have canceled the run of shows, the quartet announced Wednesday. The tour would have seen the band play four dates across the United States in Los Angeles, Austin, Chicago and Boston from Sept. 10 to 19, but on Wednesday, Ticketmaster […]
It’s time to add another one to the list! Keeping in line with cities that have already been graced by Taylor Swift’s blockbuster Eras Tour, Minneapolis, Minn., will be temporarily renamed “Swiftie-apolis” in honor of Swift’s two sold-out shows in the city. “We are embarking on what will be one of the most exciting weekends […]
When Australians woke to the news Wednesday morning (June 21) that Taylor Swift’s The Eras Tour would head Down Under next February, one detail jumped off the page – her two shows at the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
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Swift’s run opens with concerts Feb. 16 and 17, 2024 at the MCG, followed by dates at Sydney’s Accor Stadium on Feb. 23, 24 and 25.
The imposing stadium is the biggest of its kind in these parts, and has more history than a subscription to National Geographic. Built in 1853, the venue hosted the 1956 Olympic Games, and is used year-round. During the winter, it’s AFL and soccer, during the summer, cricket. And sometimes, concerts.
Few acts in the world can fill the MCG. Ed Sheeran can, and he did it twice during his visit to the Victorian capital in March for his The Mathematics Tour, setting a swag of national records.
The English pop superstar broke the Australian record for attendance at a ticketed concert with the first of those dates, with upwards of 105,000 tickets sold. The following night, he lifted the bar again when 109,500 Sheerios filled the stadium.
The combined attendance across those two shows, at almost 215,000, will take some beating, Billboard noted at the time.
Swift, with concerts at the same venue, over consecutive nights, could be the one to beat the record set by her bestie, Sheeran. Frontier Touring produced Sheeran’s tour of these parts, and is also behind Swift’s forthcoming trek.
As it stands, the two-city itinerary is a break from a typical Swift visit to Australia. Her last long haul, the Live Nation-produced Reputation Tour, visited stadiums in five cities across Australia and New Zealand in 2018, including Brisbane, Perth and Auckland.
TayTay’s return is bound to be a blockbuster; she smashes chart records here for a jolly.
Along the way, she became the first artist to simultaneously hold the No. 1 ARIA album, single and national airplay; and she has landed the most debuts in the top 10 of an ARIA Singles Chart with 9 of the top 10. Her most recent album, Midnights, was Swift’s 10th No. 1 album in Australia. Following its release last October, Midnight became the most streamed album in a week in ARIA history, while notching the biggest vinyl sales debut ever, selling over 10,000 vinyl units in week one.
American singer and actress Sabrina Carpenter is special guest artist on Swift’s tour of Australia.
The general on-sale starts Friday, June 30, and pre-sales open from Wednesday, June 28; VIP packages will be available from Monday, June 26.
Taylor Swift’s 2024 Australian dates:
Feb. 16 — Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)Feb. 17 — Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG)Feb. 23 — Accor Stadium, SydneyFeb. 24 — Accor Stadium, SydneyFeb. 25 — Accor Stadium, Sydney
The Soul Rebels with Big Freedia. Butcher Brown, Digable Planets, Ledisi and the West Coast Get Down featuring Leon Bridges and Raphael Saadiq. Shoutouts to Father’s Day, Juneteenth, hip-hop’s 50thanniversary, Black Music Month and Pride Month. There was something for everyone during the second day of the annual Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival (June 18).
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“You love music like I do; you want every dribbling drop of it,” said festival host Arsenio Hall in his welcome remarks. “I will be the ringmaster of the circle of jazz artists today … And there’s just one rule. Leave all of your troubles behind and have a musical picnic like no other.”
And the Bowl’s full house did just that, beginning with youth act the LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) Beyond the Bell All District Jazz Big Band with special guest Charlie Young. Then giving inspirational music a different twist was Andrew Gouché and Prayze Connection. Nicknamed “the godfather of gospel bass,” Grammy winner Gouché — who has played for Mary Mary, Michael Jackson and Aretha Franklin — first led the band in a mellow, moving take on “The Lord’s Prayer.” Then the group, which included Gouché’s nephew Davion Farris, segued into several other songs, including the Clark Sisters’ classic “You Brought the Sunshine” and covers of two songs recorded by gospel star Fred Hammond, “Let the Praise Begin” and “Blessed,” featuring special guests Eric Dawkins (with a dance assist from the Cardinal Divas of the SC Drum Line) and another Gouché nephew, D Smoke, respectively.
During the late afternoon phase of the festival, jazz and world music aficionados were treated to invigorating sets by Richmond, Virginia, quintet Butcher Brown and Boukman Eksperyans. The latter held court with their fresh, percolating fusion of jazz, hip-hop, soul, funk and R&B on songs like “Frontline” and “It Was Me.” Among the eight selections performed by Grammy-nominated Haitian group Boukman Eksperyans during its crowd-pleasing set were “Jou Nou Revolte Granbwa Ile,” “Kalfou O!” and “Tan Bou.”
Big Freedia performs at the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival on June 18, 2023.
New Orleans brass band The Soul Rebels then took the crowd to the next level with its unique brand of soul, funk, R&B, rock, pop and jazz. Raising the high-energy bar with the raucous “Turn It Up” and “Rebel Rock,” the ensemble turned the volume all the way up when bounce music master Big Freedia hit the stage — and got her twerk on — for a noteworthy three-song set: “I Heard,” “N. O. Bounce” and “Gin in My System.”
Thirty years have elapsed since Digable Planets released its gold-certified debut album Reachin’ (A New Refutation of Time and Space). But the warm Bowl reception given to the rap trio made it seem like it was only yesterday when the album’s first single, “Rebirth of Slick (Cool Like Dat)” became a Billboard Hot 100 top 15 hit and won the group a Grammy for best rap performance. Before closing their appearance with that song and a standing ovation, Digable Planets worked their way through other first-album tracks “Where I’m From,” “Escapism (Getting’ Free)” and “Nickel Bags,” plus “It’s Good to Be Here,” “Cool Breezes” and “Graffiti” — and proved it has lost none of its enduring magic.
Ledisi performs at the Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival on June 18, 2023.
Mathew Imaging/LA Phil
Ledisi and her versatile four-octave soprano kept the captivated audience in constant cheer-and-applaud mode during her 45-minute appearance. Performance standouts included “Add to Me,” the colorful scat-accented “Alright” (“It’s a jazz fest so you’ve got to have some scatting”), the autobiographical “Pieces of Me,” latest single “I Need to Know” and the searing ballad “Anything for You,” which won the singer-songwriter a Grammy for best traditional R&B performance in 2021.
The collective West Coast Get Down, with founder and jazz saxophonist Kamasi Washington, closed the festival along with Grammy-winning special guests Leon Bridges and Raphael Saadiq. Bridges’ set with the band featured a well-received three-song medley: “Born Again,” “Bad Bad News” and “Kings and Queens.” An effervescent Saadiq rocked the stage with his bass guitar on “You’re the One That I Like,” “The Sun” and “Skyy, Can You Feel Me.”
The 2023 Hollywood Bowl Jazz Festival was curated by Washington and jazz icon Herbie Hancock. On opening day (June 17), host Hall welcomed performers St. Paul and The Broken Bones, Poncho Sanchez, Bell Biv DeVoe, Herbie Hancock Institute of Jazz Performance Ensemble at UCLA, Washington and Samara Joy, a double Grammy winner this year for best jazz vocal album and best new artist.