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Over the last three years, Odesza‘s The Last Goodbye Tour has spanned 54 shows at 48 venues throughout North America, including headlining sets at festivals like Governor’s Ball and Bonnaroo.
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Tomorrow marks the beginning of its end. From July 4-6, Odesza will play the three finale shows of The Last Goodbye run at The Gorge Amphitheatre, the iconic venue roughly 150 miles southeast from the duo’s hometown of Seattle. 66,000 fans are expected over the three nights, and if things go according to plan, almost all of them will pass through an on-site installation the band has created as a tangible, extraordinary and this time truly final goodbye.
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Called Echoes, the installation is built from six 30-foot towers, 120 LED screens and loads of cutting-edge tech that will involve projection mapping and, naturally, sound. Made of brushed aluminum so the installation reflects sunlight by day, after dark Echoes comes to life with video content incorporating brand new visual content from the band, the epic three-year tour and which is also, says the project’s head of creative Steve Bramucci, “in part inspired by the fans.”
This eight-minute video loop will be synced with sound mixed by Odesza’s Harrison Mills and Clayton Knight. Known for the meticulous attention to detail they bring to their music and all elements of the Odesza universe, the pair have also been heavily involved in the design and execution of Echoes.
Their 10-minute soundscape is built from gentle ambient music mixed with voice notes left for the band by fans about what the Last Goodbye era has meant to them, with people offering comments reflecting on things like how they never felt comfortable dancing in public until seeing the show, how the music helped them deal with the loss of parents, grandparents, best friends and relationships, how attending shows expanded their friend group and how this chapter of Odesza generally contributed joy to their lives.
It’s a soundtrack with the power to make one tear up while listening to it at their office desk, and it’s thus likely to have high emotional impact when experienced by fans onsite at The Gorge. (For fans who can’t make it The Gorge, the final show on July 6 will be livestreamed on Veeps.)
The project is designed “to be experienced in the ramping-up period before a show or ramping down after a show,” says Bramucci, “but you can tell that Odesza is thinking people are going sit in here for a few minutes. They’re not just gonna race through, take a couple Instagrams and bounce.” Given crowd flow at The Gorge, Bramucci expects “97 to 98%” of attendees will pass through Echoes. (Another 3% will enter through the VIP area that doesn’t lead past the installation.)
The hope is that fans will indeed spend some time in a project that a global team has dedicated the last two months of their lives to creating. Echoes takes influence from a design originally built in Russia by Russian creative studio Setup, with a second creative studio, The Vessel, expanding on that design and project managing Echoes in the States. The Vessel’s operator Jenny Feterovich serves as Echoes’ creative director.
Meanwhile, Bramucci’s team at Uproxx was tasked with user experience, coordination and storytelling around the project, with a host of other companies involved with AV and scenic building. A 30-person crew has been on site since June 30, working around the clock to get Echoes up and functioning by the time doors open tomorrow at 5:00 p.m.
Echoes being built this week at The Gorge Amphitheatre
This challenge has been compounded by the logistics of working at The Gorge. “It’s literally in the middle of nowhere,” says The Vessel’s co-founder Jenny Feterovich. “We have to truck everything that’s going there, and there is no room for error, because you can’t run back to an office that’s three hours away to go get something. Preparation here is of utmost importance.”
The other major challenge is the weather — with the build teams preparing for possible high winds and assured heat, with temperatures during the build in the mid-80s and temperatures on show days forecasted to hit the 90s, and Saturday expected to reach 100 degrees.
Echoes was designed on PCs equipped with Snapdragon, a microchip from Qualcomm that uses predictive AI to anticipate a user’s movements, in order to shut down and reignite programs and save battery life. On-site, Snapdragon-powered PCs will be used to projection-map, troubleshoot and modify designs in real time, with the team also running visual and audio elements with Snapdragon PCs. Qualcomm also subsidized the project, with the hard costs totaling in the high six figures.
“We’ve found that there are a lot of synergies between Snapdragon technology and this genre of music,” says Qualcomm CEO Don McGuire. “EDM artists embrace innovation and are open to experimenting with technology and new tools, making them great partners.”
Ultimately though, all of the tech is intended to elicit an exclusively human response.
“If I see the face of even one fan who has a serious emotional connection to it, who’s like, ‘the aperture of my appreciation for music and what it means to connect to music has shifted because of this installation, then that’s the perfect win,” says Bramucci.
It’s sort of a weird time to be Post Malone. On one hand, he’s coming off the two most-difficult, least-successful albums of his career — the last of which, 2023’s Austin, failed to even generate a single top 10 Billboard Hot 100 hit, marking a clear commercial low point for the pop-rap gold-spinner who was surpassed only by Drake in terms of consistent chart success for the second half of the 2010s. On the other hand, he’s already had two No. 1 hits this year, albeit both with co-stars (Taylor Swift and Morgan Wallen, respectively) whose radio and streaming clout currently easily eclipse his own. Further complicating things: The latter of those two No. 1s marks the beginning of his long-hyped full foray into country music, a genre he has some obvious spiritual kinship with, but only tangential musical relation.
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This was a lot to balance for Post Malone during his headlining set at day one of New York’s Governors Ball festival (now officially referred to as just “Gov Ball”) — or at least, it seems like it should have been. But instead of trying to thread the needle between his successful past, his muddier present and his uncertain future, Post decided to simplify things with Gov Ball setlist: He simply played the hits. And he’s got a lot of them: more than you may even remember, more than maybe seems possible for a guy who’s only been making ’em since 2015 and has been in a relatively fallow period for ’em since the decade turned. As far as streamlining strategies go, it was a pretty undeniable one.
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“My name is Austin Richard Post,” the singer-rapper introduced himself after his first two songs, “and I’m here to play some s–tty songs and get a little bit f–ked up while we do it.” Whether dismissing his signature hits as “s–tty” was a sign of residual bitterness over his heavier, more personal recent work not being received as warmly as his debauched early hits or just the artist not taking himself too seriously, it ended up not really mattering, since it became clear pretty quickly Post was not interested in relitigating anything about his career on the evening. Instead, he played one smash after another — from “Better Now” and “Wow” through “Circles” and “Congratulations” — while gleefully shimmying, screaming, two-stepping and stripping (his shirt, anyway) on stage, looking every bit the superstar he was at his commercial peak.
The question of a Post Malone gig has traditionally not been whether he’d seem like a star, but what kind of star would lead the way: rap star Post, rock star Post, pop star Post, or now even country star Post? In truth, he’s been all four for some time — well, the first three, anyway, with the fourth seemingly on its way. But if one was the most forward on Friday night, it was probably rock star Post, with the first two songs (and many subsequent cuts) both being introduced via the grungy riffs of guitarist Liv Slingerland, and more six-string-heavy (and just heavy period) borderline inclusions like Beerbongs and Bentleys‘ “Over Now” and Hollywood’s Bleeding’s “Take What You Want” making the cut. There was lots of growling and shredding; one time, Post threw up the devil horns while hunching his shoulders and he very briefly kinda even looked like Ronnie James Dio. At some point in the middle of the set, the mix of loud, chunking guitars with rapping — largely about being angry at girls — inspired me to write in my notes: Has Post Malone been nu-metal this whole time?
But if country star Post is indeed on the horizon, you would not have known it from his Gov Ball performance. Just a day after making a pair of surprise appearances at CMA Fest — including one alongside longtime Nashville fixture Blake Shelton, with the two even covering a George Jones song together — he did not bring out Shelton, or Wallen, or any guest to further shepherd his new country pivot. (Aside from a couple fans pulled out of the audience to assist on signature ballad “Stay,” there were no guests of any kind during Post’s performance, not even “Rockstar” buddy 21 Savage, who’ll perform at Gov Ball on Saturday.) No mention was made by Post of his recent sonic and geographical detour, nor did he try out any brand new or unreleased material from his rumored upcoming full length. If you didn’t know going into the set that Going Country was a thing Post was currently in the midst of doing, you probably didn’t come out of it knowing either.
There was still the one obvious clue, though you had to wait till the second song of the encore for it: “I Had Some Help,” the reigning No. 1 song in the country, did eventually make its appearance as the evening’s pentultimate track. (As for “Fortnight,” his other No. 1 of 2024, forget it — it’s one thing for Post to sing over a Morgan Wallen verse, but trying to approximate an entire Taylor Swift lead vocal on his own would’ve been potentially disastrous on multiple levels.) “Help” sounded fantastic, and the crowd went bananas for it, but aside from its placement in the setlist Post gave it no special treatment, no lead-in or extra emphasis or anything to make you think it was a particularly notable song than most in Friday’s setlist. The implication was clear: “Help” is a hit, but still just one of many for Posty, and no one player is bigger than the team in a Post Malone setlist.
More of a statement, however, was the choice of the encore’s final song: “Chemical,” the biggest song from Austin, whose No. 13 peak was still fairly underwhelming by his career standards. It was the only song performed from the 2023 album — he played four times as many from 2016 debut Stoney — but it landed just like any of his bigger, longer-established hits, sounding much fuller live than on record, and making for a perfectly resounding closing number for the evening. The suggestion seemed to be that Post had never really stopped making big singles in the first place — and that regardless of whether on a given day he might be presenting more as a pop star, rap star, rock star or country star, what he truly is and always will be first and foremost is a hitmaker.
SETLIST
Better NowWowZack and CodeinePsychoGoodbyesI Like You (A Happier Song)Jonestown (Interlude)Take What You WantOver NowRockstarStayI Fall ApartWrapped Around Your FingerCirclesToo YoungWhite IversonCongratulations
Encore:
SunflowerI Had Some HelpChemical
As music consumers increasingly demand sustainable options from businesses across the industry, AEG has struck a partnership that will bring a full-time reusable cup program to Los Angeles’ Crypto.com Arena and Peacock Theater, the company announced Tuesday (June 4). In collaboration with reusable serveware company r.World, which produces reusable items for large-scale gatherings, the venues […]
Cercle, the Paris-based production company known for putting on livestream DJ sets in far-flung locations, will take a touring show on the road in 2025.
Called Cercle Odyssey, the show will be built as a 360-degree panorama projection designed to create an immersive experience. The set-up will features a number of massive screens meant to envelope the audience, with these screens measuring roughly 40-feet high and 180-feet long, with high definition footage synchronized with the music.
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Hitting the road in 2015, the show will feature music and artists of all genres, with artists, dates and cities to be announced in the coming months. Cercle Odyssey videos will be overseen by Paris-based director Neels Castillon, the co-founder of Motion Palace, a creative studio that produces original content for brands, culture, and the arts. Focused on humanity, nature and beauty, the videos will be based on the story of Homer’s Odyssey and focus on the theme of returning home.
Cercle Odyssey is also designed to be a sustainable operation, with all of the sound, light and projection equipment used in each performance rented locally in each respective performance city. The company notes that by using 29 state-of-the-art projectors instead of traditional LED screens to illuminate the scenography, the show doesn’t necessitate the transport of a huge number of LED screens, thereby reducing the carbon emissions of transporting the show.
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Phones will be banned inside the performances, and guests will instead be given filmed content from the performance they attend.
“Cercle’s mission is and will always be to create unique stages for unique artists,” Cercle’s creative director Derek Barbolla tells Billboard. “We have just reached one billion views on our videos, we realized that many people want to experience Cercle, but traveling to Egypt or to the top of a mountain isn’t easy or feasible for everyone. With Cercle Odyssey, we’re bringing the experience closer to people’s homes, whilst continuing with our heritage site events”
Since launching in 2016, Cercle has produced 240 events in locations around the world including a Bolivian salt flat, the Eiffel Tower, a peak in the Alps and other locales including roughly 30 UNESCO World Heritage Sites. Participating artists have included Disclosure, Peggy Gou, Above & Beyond, Carlita, Amelie Lens, Hot Since 82 and many more.
Cercle Odyssey
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Much has changed in the 55 years since the The Stonewall Uprising — and Cynthia Erivo is ready to celebrate the progress we’ve made. In an announcement on Tuesday (May 21), LGBTQ+ advocacy group Pride Live announced Erivo as the official headliner for the Stonewall Day 2024 benefit concert, taking place Friday, June 28. The […]
Expanding into a two-day event to uplift Asian and AAPI artists, culture and connection, the 2024 MetaMoon Music Festival hits New York this fall with Henry Lau and Eric Nam as headliners, Billboard can exclusively reveal.
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Taking place at the Brooklyn Paramount on Sept. 27-28, the fest brings Lau and Nam together with rising stars Emei and SUNKIS, as well as unique educational opportunities in partnership with the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment at Long Island University. The one-day student conference, “The Summit: Rise of Asian Artists and their Global Fandom,” takes place on Friday, Sept. 27, with panel discussions and masterclasses by industry professionals to foster dialogue on Asian representation in the music industry as well as networking opportunities.
“The ethos of MetaMoon is to amplify Asian/AAPI talent on stage by giving underrepresented artists a consistent platform to perform in front of their fans in the U.S.,” Grace Chen, founder of MetaMoon Music Festival, tells Billboard. “Just as importantly, we want to empower Asian/AAPI voices behind the scenes, in the rooms where decisions are made and agendas are set. Our collaboration with the Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment equips students and the next generation of music executives with the access and insight, and hopefully inspiration, to show up and get involved.”
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Produced in collaboration with Live Nation, the pre-sale for the MetaMoon concert tickets begins on May 22 and goes on general sale via Ticketmaster on May 24. Registration for the Roc Nation School x MetaMoon Summit opens on Sept. 4.
Ahead of MetaMoon Music Festival 2024, Billboard sat down with headliner Henry Lau for 20 Questions to discuss his involvement in the show for his first-ever headlining slot in a U.S. festival, latest music developments and more.
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1. Where are you in the world right now, and what’s the setting like?
Right now, I’m traveling around everywhere so I tell my friends I’m like a stewardess. I’m currently in Korea. In a few weeks I’ll be going to, I don’t know, Paris. I was just in Thailand last week. It’s all over the world. But right now, I’m here in my studio/office/gym — there’s a whole entire gym area here.
2. You’re coming to the 2024 MetaMoon Music Festival for your first time headlining a U.S. festival. What can we expect?
This is the first time I can really show my stage and sing as much as I want for my fans who know that all my shows have a very unique stage. Because I don’t just go up and sing, there’s a lot of instruments and then there’s a lot of live recording, looping, I like to take a lot of props on stage and record them into songs. I’m really excited that people in America can see that from me for the first time. And, of course, mixing in classical music.
3. Is there any new music we’ll hear at MetaMoon?
I actually haven’t told anybody about this yet, but right around that time, I’ll probably be releasing a new single. I’ve already teased this with my fans very personally, but it’s a song called “Always Been You.”
4. You’ve teased your full-length album for a while now. What’s the status?
I have put the album on hold. I’ve already apologized personally to all my fans. But it is completed. It’s just that I have so many projects right now that when I release it, I have to—and my fans would appreciate it—promote it properly. I’m just waiting for the right timing; I just don’t know when that will be exactly.
5. You’ve spoken about representation in Hollywood in the past, and MetaMoon celebrates and highlights AAPI artists and culture. What’s the significance to you of being part of such an event?
I don’t really think of it. I’m there to perform music, right? There are no borders to music so I think I’m just so happy that I could perform in the States and and it could be a cross-cultural festival. That’s my opinion. For me, it’s music first — I’m not thinking that this represents anything like that.
6. You are so multifaceted in all your music inspirations, the languages you speak and sing in, or how you release music. What is your approach when you’re creating the music itself?
For every song, it’s totally different. The one really big element of my songs is not just the audio, but I think about how I will perform this onstage. For example, one of my latest singles was called “Moonlight.” I made that song and then had a different version where I used a loop station process performing on stage. And for the songs I’ll be performing at the festival this time, you will be able to see all of that. That’s one way I approach a lot of the songs. When you have too much going on in an audio track, it’s just too crazy, so I like to leave it for the performance. When you actually listen to my songs, those are probably the most basic versions.
7. if you could travel to any musical era, when and where would you go?
I used to think it would be the ’80s or ’90s because it feels like all the great melodies, the simple melodies, weren’t thought of back then. I used to think that way, but then you see the amazing pop music that comes out today, too — I’m not saying every song. But I think the earlier you go and when a new genre of music is being born, I’d say at the start of any musical era. If it’s the start of classical music, that’d be amazing.
But right now is a really great time for mixing different genres since there are so many amazing genres out there. And if you’re arguing that a genre has already matured, if you start mixing genres and mixing cultures, then the possibilities are limitless. And I think that’s where my role is now in the music field overall — I think that’s my purpose.
6. MetaMoon is not just about the concert, but there is a summit, panels, and other ways to help build the community and music-industry network. What will you bring to these events?
First of all, I’ve never done anything like this before, so I’ll usually just go up, perform and, you know, say hi. And that’s it. So this is something very, very new and I’m very excited to do it. I have no idea what it’s going to be about but I’m just excited to share what I’ve learnt. Maybe not everything I say will be the most correct, but it’s just my experience. I think I’ve gotten to an age — I’m pretty old now [Laughs] — where there are a lot of aspiring musicians, and I hope that my experiences can help give them a good idea of what to expect and what they need to work on in certain aspects. I’m just very excited to be sharing my story.
9. The Roc Nation School of Music, Sports & Entertainment at LIU is collaborating with MetaMoon for their “The Evolution of Asian Artists and their Global Fandom” summit. You also went to a music school. How significant are these opportunities?
I think the biggest benefit was meeting my peers and fellow musicians. At that time, there weren’t a lot of forums like this. Usually, these days in music school, they have a lot of guest speakers and successful musicians come up and share their stories. And I actually watch those now and look for them on Instagram or YouTube. It’s something that I wish I had when I was younger. I think it’s very, very important because there’s no textbook for music or the music business or guide to let people actually know these are the hard things that you have to deal with…I’ll do my part and I hope it helps because everybody’s story or way to success is very different. So, I think the more you listen, the more you hear these stories, the more you can apply it to yourself.
10. I want to give you your flowers for your place as such a unique musician in pop music. Do you see yourself having a role in shaping or changing perceptions of popular music?
I used to think that I came from a unique background, but I’m coming to realize there are so many more people who are similar to me background-wise. I have a lot of people that come up to me like, “Hey, I also learned piano, I also learned violin,” “I’m living in Canada, but I don’t have anything to do with K-pop, what do I do?” [or] “How did you do that?” Everyone from my hometown is almost identical to me background-wise. I think I have a role to let people know that it is possible. I hadn’t a probability of like 0.01% of this happening to me, but then there were certain steps I took and I think that maybe it’s my role to share that with people.
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11. Looking wider, what are your hopes or aspirations in representing kids from your hometown who might want to pursue a similar path?
Right now, I’m just focused on giving all my fans the best music possible, the best stages and the best content. Before COVID, I was planning on a tour and that’s something I still want to do in the near future. And through that, they can see what is possible. But what’s different about America, compared to performing in Asia which I usually do 99% of the time, is I think in the States, they can recognize that I’m more similar to them. So, I think that one main difference when I’m performing or working in the States, it’s like, “Hey, he’s one of us and he’s doing this.” I think similar to Eric [Nam] as well. I’m very happy to let people know that things are possible.
12. You and Eric Nam are both headlining MetaMoon Music Festival together. Are you friends?
At the start of our careers, we were both on different shows and came up together. Sometimes, I would be on shows where he was the MC; I would watch it later and be like, “Whoa, he was there with me.” We basically grew up together and we came up very, very similarly from a similar background.
13. Fans have also watched you grow in your acting career. Do you have a movie that always makes you smile?
To be honest, I don’t watch many movies. I don’t have much time. I watch movies when I feel like I need to be lifted up — movies that show somebody going through a harder time than me or any movie following any genius. What’s that movie with Russell Crowe being a mathematician? A Beautiful Mind. Yes, that’s a beautiful movie. So when I watch movies like that, it’s like, “Ooh, they went through so much; what I’m going through is actually nothing.”
14. If you don’t mind sharing, what was a hard time you went through recently and how did you overcome it?
There’s everything. Just even preparing for one stage, people see me play a lot of instruments. I record things up on stage, and [with] every little thing I do, I’m the one directing it. I make all my equipment, I make custom instruments for myself, and I do all the mixing for everything that’s recorded. If the stage performance is 30 minutes, I will spend at least five days just doing technical things: dealing with lighting, visual effects, all the LEDs, all the logos, everything. I have a habit of trying to do everything. It gets stressful when you’re dealing with that and under a tight timeline. There’s just a lot of that but what I like to show people are not the hardships.
15. You shared that you recently went to Nashville and met with the members of OneRepublic. What is the importance of traveling for music to you and did anything come from this trip?
I was actually on a journey to explore music and explore myself. This could be a whole separate interview, but in short, it was to find the best way to combine classical violin and pop music. The perfect place for that is actually country music because, if you think about it, violin is in maybe 50% of country music. So I went to the birthplace of country music, explored that, and we actually came up with something amazing. It’s all in that new album, all the new concepts, something the world’s never heard. Concept-wise, it would be “country x K-pop x violin.” That’s the reason why I’m putting off the album and waiting for the correct timing because I believe so much in this project.
16. What’s something you learned in Nashville?
I actually didn’t know, but the fiddle is violin — it’s the same thing, it’s just the way you play it. So, I actually learned how to fiddle. When you pull out a violin in Nashville, everybody plays it, so it was kind of shocking. Hopefully, if we can get one of those songs done before the festival, that would actually be really cool…maybe there’s a chance of me performing…you just gave me an idea.
17. You grew up in a musical family. What do your parents think of what you’re doing today?
Well, in the very beginning, they were against it. Sending your kid off away from home to become a singer doesn’t sound too promising, you know? But I decided to take the risk and I convinced them to let me do it. And I haven’t been doing so bad. Ever since then, they’ve been supportive. I think what’s really important for an artist, or anyone, is that the people around you support you. And I know not everybody has supporting families, bu it’s really important to build the people around you. I was thinking how that’s something really important through this forum that maybe some people who don’t have enough support can meet other people there.
18. Do you have a proudest moment of your career so far?
No, I actually don’t. I’m the type that I ask my company to remove all my trophies and awards that they like to put on display and stuff. I don’t look at those and feel satisfied; I’m not that type. Of course, I’m very thankful but I don’t think about those kinds of things. I just think about what I’m going to be doing tomorrow, what I’m going to be doing next month, when I’m going to perform at the MetaMoon Festival.
19. That’s interesting because you said your first celebrity crush was Christina Aguiler. She’s said she puts away her Grammys and awards when recording. But you said you liked her because she was not only pretty but talented. What draws you to an artist?
I actually totally forgot that I said that, but now that you’re saying it and I’m like, “Yeah, that’s actually true.” First, I think talent is very important and, until very recently, I only looked at talent. What I’m actually finding that I’m drawn to these days is the character of the artist. If you wanted to be just an artist, you should release music and not come onto the screen. But if you decide now to be in the media, to even show your face or let people know who you are, then you have a responsibility of also leading people in a good direction — not doing, you know, stupid shit. One thing that’s really inspiring to me when I see an artist is when they’re 360 [degrees], the whole picture of what they’re doing and what kind of energy they’re bringing to people. I think that’s something that also really draws me into them. Before, when there was less social media, it wouldn’t be that important; you could get by with just having art or your music because there were no platforms to constantly show your personality.
20. What’s your relationship like with social media as an artist?
For me, Instagram is just a way of communication between me and my fans. I don’t like to put my entire life up there and I’m very careful with what I want to put up. But I’ve done so many silly things on TV and everything that I have very little to hide from my fans. So, there’s no certain image for me to upkeep or anything — I can put up a picture of me looking horrible and it wouldn’t be so much of a shock to my fans because they’ve already seen everything they have to see of me. I’m more lucky in that aspect, but I’m still not the type to put up my whole life on Instagram. I would say everything I’m doing is all for the fans.
Tickets to MetaMoon Music Festival 2024 are available via Ticketmaster.
Live event production and rehearsal studio Rock Lititz and development firm Al. Neyer have teamed to open a 55-acre Nashville entertainment rehearsal and production campus, Rock Nashville, in 2025.
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The deal will include 44 acres of development over a 55-acre site in Nashville’s Whites Creek neighborhood. The Rock Nashville campus will include three buildings with more than 515,000 square feet of sound stages as well as creative offices and production facilities in various sizes with the capacity to support various production specifications for live shows, from local bands to A-list artists. The campus will include resources for performers and 13 band and production studio rehearsal spaces ranging from club/theater sizes to amphitheater, arena and stadium-scale (including one space up to 95 feet tall to replicate venues of that size), as well as set storage, backline rental, artist relation offices and a community cafe.
The campus is expected to become home to nearly 35 companies, including rehearsal studio complex SoundCheck, which had a hand in designing Rock Nashville and helped spearhead the strategic partnership between the team at Rock Lititz and Al. Neyer. SoundCheck will move from its current home on Cowan Street in Nashville, where it has been located for over three decades. Additionally, Clair Global, which provides live production spaces, systems integration and audio solutions, will be located at the new campus.
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Groundbreaking for the new facility occurred in mid-April, and construction is expected to be completed in Fall of 2025. Rock Nashville is expected to be home to 400 employees, and 85 employees at support businesses.
“As a full-service developer, we’re thrilled to be involved in the design, construction, and development of the future of Music City and live entertainment. As we continue to invest in the growing market of Nashville, this is our first foray into the entertainment world. We couldn’t imagine a more perfect operating partner to bring a new offering to the Nashville market alongside,” said Patrick Poole, Nashville Market Leader for Al. Neyer, in a statement.
“As we approach ten years since Rock Lititz opened its doors, we’ve been eager to find the next space and partner for expanding our support for the live entertainment industry. This unique and hard-working community thrives with access to specialized training, mentoring, and resources to help create custom live experiences for audiences worldwide. It is with great excitement that we’ve identified Nashville and Al. Neyer as the right city and partner. We are passionate about growing this network, and Nashville is the perfect location to join with other industry leaders to create something special,” added Andrea Shirk, Rock Lititz President and CEO, in a statement.
“SoundCheck has been part of the Nashville entertainment community for over 30 years, and we couldn’t be more excited to make Rock Nashville our new home,” said Soundcheck GM Kindal Jumper. “As Music City continues to grow as a premier destination for all genres of music, the campus’s state-of-the-art facilities will allow Soundcheck to meet the growing needs of today’s acts, ensuring the highest caliber production experience for artists and crews from Broadway to Bridgestone.
Rock Lititz was founded in 2000 by Troy Clair, owner of Clair Global, and Adam Davis, CEO of the TAIT Group. The Rock Lititz campus in Pennsylvania opened in 2014 and is home to more than 40 companies that support the live entertainment space.
While Madonna‘s globe-spanning tour is meant to be a “Celebration,” the singer took a moment on Tuesday night (April 9) to have a serious conversation with her fans about one of the worst shootings in American history.
During her final show in Miami, Fla., Madonna delivered an emotional speech to her fans in honor of the victims of the 2016 shooting at Pulse nightclub, the second-deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history. “I want to remind you that we have not all been so lucky,” Madonna said somberly to her audience, according to a fan-captured video. “I want to draw attention to that moment because nightclubs and music and dance are what bring us together. They shouldn’t be places or things that we do that bring us sadness and tragedy and murder and death and pain and suffering and trauma.”
Along with paying tribute to the 49 people killed in the attack, the legendary pop star also shared her support for the LGBTQ+ community, saying, “I will always stand for the gays, because the gays have always stood for me.”
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“That was the biggest terrorist attack in America after 9/11,” she said. “People getting together to dance in a club that was inclusive and full of love. It was Latin Night, people were dancing to Latin music, and some motherf–ker came in there with two guns and started shooting at people.”
Madonna went on to share that she invited survivors and their families, as well as the families of those who did not survive to attend her show that night, calling out a few of their names and thanking them for attending. In the middle of her speech, her voice began to crack with emotion. “I make dance music. My job is to bring people together, to make people dance, to make people happy, to not judge,” she said. “This s–t is not supposed to happen. Don’t forget about it.”
It’s far from the first time Madonna has honored victims and heroes during her Celebration Tour. When her trek stopped at New York City’s Madison Square Garden in January, the pop icon shared the stories of Ellen Matzer and Valery Hughes, two New York nurses who treated and advocated for AIDS/HIV patients at the height of the epidemic the 1980s.
Watch the fan-captured video of Madonna’s speech below:
As a leader in a new generation of K-pop acts, IVE‘s Show What I Have world tour boasted a wholly appropriate name for which the girl group delivered an electric, emotional finale to its U.S. leg in Newark.
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For the sold-out crowd at the massive Prudential Center arena, IVE brought their hit singles — which includes eight entries on the Billboard Global 200 to date — b-side tracks and cover performances to life via heavily conceptual staging for each of the 24 setlist songs interwoven with frequent commentary from the group and video interludes.
Highlights of the night included the theatrical umbrella routine recalling “Singing in the Rain” for “Mine” and the haunting visuals accompanying horror-themed stages for “Hypnosis” and “My Satisfaction.” While IVE’s signature flowy choreography spotlighted in deep cuts like “Blue Blood” and “Heroine,” the crowd’s fervent chanting during hits “Love Dive” and “Kitsch” underscored the fervor and dedication of IVE’s fans — affectionately known as DIVE — even when making their New Jersey debut.
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As a special treat for fans, the IVE members split into duos and solo performances to pay homage to diverse artists, with covers ranging from Ariana Grande to Indonesian singer-songwriter NIKI and English crooner Richard Sanderson. While the inclusion of covers by Spice Girls (Rei and Gaeul performed “Wannabe”) and IVE’s new Columbia Records label mate Little Mix (where Yujin and Leeseo duetted on “Woman Like Me”) were astute in aligning themselves as the next global girl group, the performances acted more of a reminder that IVE has already carved out a distinct identity and color as the prom queens of K-pop and isn’t so easily able to adopt other personas in the pop sphere.
But beyond the polished performances and elaborate stage production, the IVE members’ raw emotions might have left the strongest impression during Show What I Have.
Early into the show, IVE leader An Yujin became visibly emotional and cried while singing their fan-dedicated power ballad, “Shine With Me.” After the crowd cheered her through the performance and the group checked in with her, the 20-year-old assured everyone she was fine and laughed while pointing the blame to the track’s lyrics written by Jang Wonyoung — followed by an adorable apology from Wonyoung.
The heartfelt sincerity returned at the show’s end when the sextet gave their final messages to the crowd.
“Even though our languages are different, just seeing how you guys are so focused on our songs, connecting and enjoying with us, is really cool,” Gaeul pointed out. “I couldn’t imagine all these seats filled up like this. I’m really touched.” Liz added that IVE is now “more than just family; we are not able to separate from each other.”
In a moment rarely seen among top K-pop performers, Yujin sincerely opened up about regaining her self-esteem thanks to the tour and her group.
“Recently, I kind of lost my confidence,” the star, with six years in the industry, shared through voice cracks and tears with Leeseo holding her hand. “I thought, ‘Maybe I cannot do it?’ before I came here. But the first day in L.A., I got so much energy and love from DIVEs there that I’m getting more confident. I promised a lot to myself before I came here. I can’t say exactly what I promised but I think I did it all — I did everything I promised to myself… it was really precious time.” Capped off by Yujin’s heartfelt thanks and promise to return, Liz quickly led the girls into a group hug on stage, encapsulating IVE’s essence of the night in gratitude towards fans and one another.
As the concert closed with the massive finale track of their debut English single, “All Night,” IVE left the crowd with an indelibly upbeat mark by unexpectedly singing the song’s refrain an additional seven times — begging the sound team to “please” play it one more after six — before officially exiting. With today’s announcement of their new EP, IVE SWITCH, out at the end of April, the promise of future performances and shared moments confirms that this is hardly a farewell but a preview of more for them to show ahead.
Read on for exclusive photos from IVE’s Show What I Have concert at Newark’s Prudential Center, as well as reflections from the tour at its conclusion for Billboard readers.
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Aysia Marotta/Photos provided by Starship Entertainment
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Aysia Marotta/Photos provided by Starship Entertainment
JANG WONYOUNG: “Despite not having officially debuted in the U.S before our world tour, I came with half excitement and half worry whether big venues like The Forum, where famous overseas artists have performed, would be filled. But starting from L.A., seeing the venue packed with DIVE enjoying our songs and dances gave me such great energy. It felt like we were able to finish the U.S tour well with strength all the way to our last stop.”
GAEUL: “It was so much fun to be able to perform in front of our DIVE here in the U.S., their energy was great. They were so loud — it gave us so much inspiration. We are so thankful for all the love and support from our fans.”
LIZ: “I was so happy to visit cities I’ve never been to before. One of my favorite moments besides seeing all our DIVE in America was meeting Anne Hathaway at the Atlanta Hawks game. It was our first basketball game and we loved it!”
LEESEO: “It feels wonderful to perform on stage in front of our U.S. DIVE, to try many delicious foods in the U.S, and to create precious memories with my sisters!”
REI: “The members and I made so many amazing memories on the U.S. leg of our tour. It is truly something we will never forget.”
AN YUJIN: “I’m so happy that I got to meet so many DIVEs through our world tour. I can’t wait to come back to the U.S. for Lollapalooza. It’s an honor to be able to perform there as our first U.S. festival – we will come back with a stage that could surprise you!”
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Aysia Marotta/Photos provided by Starship Entertainment
French electronic duo AIR will bring audiences to space this fall during a North American tour honoring the 25-year anniversary of their beloved 1998 debut, Moon Safari.
The pair, Nicolas Godin and Jean-Benoît Dunckel, will play the album in its entirety during the 19-date tour, which starts Sept. 25 in Vancouver and ends Oct. 30 in Austin, Texas. See the complete schedule below.
Presale tickets go on sale March 7 at 10 a.m. local time, with general tickets on sale 10 a.m. local time on March 8. The tour will hit largely 2,000- to 5,000-capacity venues and follows AIR’s current sold-out European tour behind the anniversary. The tour announcement follows last Friday’s release of a demo version of Moon Safari‘s “New Stars in the Sky.”
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Released in January 1998, the album marked a breakout moment for the electronica genre and earned wide critical acclaim.
While making it, Godin says that “my obsession was to do something timeless, so I focused very hard not to put things in the music production that would date the album. And during the process, many times we felt we were visited by something magic, we felt blessed during some takes; and also when I was listening to the radio, I couldn’t figure how people were making hit singles. It was not in my skills so if you can’t make a hit, the best other option is to make a classic.”
“Before we decided to do this tour, we went to a rehearsal room for three days to see if it was technically possible to perform the entire album,” Godin continues, “and as soon as we started to play the first notes of ‘Kelly Watch the Stars’ or ‘La Femme d’Argent,’ we had a thrill.”
The tour will not feature Moon Safari vocalist Beth Hirsch, who helped forge the album’s dreamy, sexy atmosphere on “All I Need” and “You Make It Easy.” But Dunckel says the pair has “made some arrangements to deliver the soul of these tracks” through their use of a vocoder. “I think that the new arrangements are working on stage,” he continues. “We feel the singer singing without her singing.”
Reflecting on the album’s legacy, Godin says the soothing nature of the album is another reason it’s endured. “We are extremely blessed to have recorded this music, and to be able to share it with the audience so long after its release is a gift of life for us,” he says. “In these troubled times, it’s a nice time capsule from the last century when we were more innocent and optimistic.”
“I think this album is a little bit medicinal,” Dunckel adds. “It heals people’s wounds. Like the wounds I had at the time we made it. That’s what melancholic music does to you isn’t it? The melancholia into the music swallows the listener’s melancholia because the musician and the listener are talking to each other as in a therapy conversation or in a dream.”
Of the original tour behind the album, Dunckel recalls realizing the album “was really working when we toured in the U.S., and in Spain. People were really enjoying the shows and they were so happy to see us for real. I felt it in the audience voices.”
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