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In case your FOMO over missing Friendship 2024 wasn’t already intense enough, we’ve got fresh evidence of some of the fun that went down.
The party cruise, which transported roughly 4,000 attendees and artists from Miami to Belize and back again on Jan. 6-11, featured several “Dial-a-DJ” sets, for which artists took over an attendee’s private cabin for an intimate bash.
One of these mini parties featured the event’s surprise guest Rico Nasty along with Boys Noize, who together barreled into one of the rooms with a horde of party people behind them to play their techno take on The Kinks‘ 1964 classic “All Day and All of the Night.” Rico Nasty serves vocals such as “he undress me in the bedroom all day and all of the night” on the yet-to-be-titled update that’s due out this spring.
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The heaving private party then goes mobile, with Rico Nasty — wearing sunglasses and clutching a bottle of champagne — and Boys Noize leading a party caravan through the ship’s corridors as they follow DJ decks pulled on a rolling cart.
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The mayhem then lands in the lobby by the elevators, where the crowd grows in size — and enthusiasm — as passersby realize what ‘s going on.
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Friendship is the electronic music party cruise from Gary Richards, the longtime DJ and party promoter who launched the sailing bacchanal in 2018 and also founded HARD events. This year’s Friendship lineup featured Skrillex, Bob Moses, Chris Lake, Chris Lorenzo, J. Phlip, Todd Edwards, Nina Las Vegas, Rusko, Mr Carmack and a flurry of other stars.
“We had a lot of people in that room, and then we opened up the balcony,” Richards told Billboard of the Dial-A-DJ prototype parties on Friendship 2018. “Anywhere else where you had that many people in one room, the room would break. The fire marshal would be like ‘get the f— out of here.’”
Other 2024 Dial-A-DJ performers included Bob Moses, Mikey Lion b2b Lee Reynolds, VTSS, Mersiv, Justin Martin and Nala. The party also featured the first live performance of Skrillex and Boys Noize’s Dog Blood project since 2019.
The next Friendship voyage will sail from Miami to Belize Feb. 21-26, 2025. See exclusive photos from the latest voyage below.
Rico Nasty & Boys Noize on Friendship 2024
Glenjamn
Rico Nasty & Boys Noize on Friendship 2024
Glenjamn
Skrillex, Boys Noize & Gary Richards on Friendship 2024
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The world’s biggest electronic music festival, Tomorrowland, has released its 2024 lineup. As always, the festival will gather many of the world’s biggest dance music artists for the event, happening in Boom, Belgium, July 19-21 and 26-28.
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You’ll need a magnifying glass to read the lineup poster, which features artists including Swedish House Mafia, Tale of Us, Alesso, Amelie Lens, Bonobo, Dom Dolla, The Blessed Madonna, REZZ and Deadmau5 performing as REZZMAU5, David Guetta, Solomun b2b Four Tet, Eliza Rose and hundreds of other artists representing techno, hard techno, house, bass, EDM and most other varieties of electronic music.
Special events include Italian duo Tale of Us curating their own lineup at the Freedom stage on July 21 and July 28 — where performers will include Anyma, Argy, Chris Avantgarde, Kevin de Vries, MRAK, Olympe and more — and playing a mainstage show on July 27. Tale of Us’ Matteo Milleri will also perform o the mainstage for the first time on July 20 under with his Anyma project.
Amelie Lens’s EXHALE label will also curate a stage, with Lens also taking her style of techno to the festival mainstage.
Tomorrowland typically hosts 400,000 people over its two weekends, with organizers reporting that attendees come from 200 countries. The festival features 16 stages, along with expansive experiential areas, a sprawling campsite and other whimsical fun including a “Symphony of Unity” that fuses electronic and classical music and is composed especially for Tomorrowland.
The festival was founded by brothers Michiel and Many Beers in 2005.
See the Tomorrowland 2024 lineup below:
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Hollywood’s ever-evolving nightlife scene is about to expand again, with a new club, The Spotlight, set to open later this month.
Located in the heart of Hollywood at 1601 N. Cahuenga Blvd., the 2,700-square-foot space will have a 300-person capacity and feature genre-spanning musical performances in an elegant, dimly lit setting. See exclusive first look images of the venue below.
Taking over the space formerly occupied by A/V Nightclub, The Spotlight will be operated by Framework. The Los Angeles-based production company is behind Hollywood’s nearby nightclub Sound and, in partnership with Goldenvoice, programs Coachella’s club-centric Yuma Tent. Framework was founded by Kobi Danan, who helped open and operate A/V from 2011-2013.
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The first round of musical programming for The Spotlight will be announced in the coming week.
Regarding The Spotlight’s programming, Danan tells Billboard that “One night, you can expect exceptional underplays, another, we transform into a platform to showcase emerging talent, but regardless of the night, our guests can expect consistency in the quality of programming all whole being encapsulated by an elevated customer experience. Our goal has always and will always be to revive Hollywood as the premier destination for music.”
While Sound is just a half-mile from The Spotlight, Danan says programming at the two clubs will be different, with Sound “built with a simple philosophy, to bring a novel and always-evolving electronic underground experience to nightlife in Hollywood. Electronic music, in all its varieties, is the true heart of what we do at Sound, and will continue to do.
“The Spotlight, on the other hand,” he continues, “is a space for versatility. At our core, we’re not just electronic dance music enthusiasts, we’re patrons of all things music, art, and culture. Having The Spotlight in our portfolio gives us the opportunity to diversify our programming, and lean into our passion for live music and fostering talent across the spectrum of every genre, while creating an intimate space for creativity in all forms to thrive.”
He adds that the club’s intimate setting is the “antithesis” to the projects in Framework’s existing portfolio.
The Spotlight has, Danan says, undergone “top to bottom aesthetic changes,” with the golden-toned lighting and curtain-draped walls recalling Hollywood’s golden era. The venue features a new stage featuring a custom DJ booth built on automatic hydraulics that can quickly transform the stage from DJ setup to live music seteup in seconds. For sound, The Spotlight was also refitted with custom L-acoustics and tuned to accommodate diverse programming.
The Spotlight is located in The Marion building, built in 1920 as a hotel. By the ’70s, the space had become a 24-hour gay bar called The Spotlight, with this new iteration paying homage to this Hollywood pedigree by returning it to its former name. The Spotlight also has the grandfathered license of the original spotlight, allowing the club to stay open until 6a.m.
The Spotlight in Los Angeles
Courtesy of Restless Media
The Spotlight in Los Angeles
Courtesy of Restless Media
The Spotlight in Los Angeles
Courtesy of Restless Media
The Spotlight in Los Angeles
Courtesy of Restless Media
The Spotlight in Los Angeles
Courtesy of Restless Media
Coachella has always flexed its muscle as one of the world’s most influential music festivals by booking big-name reunions and comeback shows that fans can’t see anywhere else. The desert fest hosted the reunion of Dr. Dre and Snoop Dogg (and the now-fabled 2Pac hologram) in 2012 and the return of Outkast in 2014. Prince […]
Three cheers for Dolly Parton! The superstar set tongues wagging and jaws dropping when she appeared at the Dallas Cowboys’ halftime show on Thanksgiving wearing a Dallas Cowboys cheerleaders outfit. Parton donned the squad’s trademark cropped blue top with a short white vest and tiny white shorts. Being Parton, she completed the look with pantyhose […]
The genie is officially out of the bottle: Pop superstar Christina Aguilera is heading back to Las Vegas. On Tuesday (Oct. 10), Aguilera exclusively announced with Billboard her new series of shows set to take place at the Voltaire Belle de Nuit at The Venetian Resort Las Vegas starting New Year’s Eve weekend. Taking place […]
P!nk suffers no fools, especially when they’re in the audience at her live shows. During her Summer Carnival tour stop in San Antonio on Monday (Sept. 25), the “Trustfall” singer proved yet again that she won’t hold back from clowning on concertgoers. In a fan-filmed TikTok clip, P!nk can be seen interacting with an attendee […]
Stand back — Stevie Nicks is hitting the road again in 2024.
The icon announced Monday (Sept. 25) that she would embark on her new Live in Concert headlining North American tour. Launching Feb. 10 in Atlantic City, N.J., the eight show run will make stops in New York, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana, Nebraska and Arkansas, before closing in Arlington, Texas, on March 9, featuring support from Billy Joel. See the complete list of dates below.
All but one of the new shows is being produced by Live Nation. Tickets for the first seven shows on the run go on sale this Friday, Sept. 29, with tickets for the Arlington show going on sale at a later date.
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These just-announced shows come on the tail of Nicks’ current North American headlining tour, which will feature 15 shows across the United States from now until mid-December.
This past July, Nicks released Complete Studio Albums & Rarities, a 10-CD set combining each of Nicks’ solo studio albums with a new compilation of hard-to-find tracks. Four of Nicks’ albums — Rock a Little (1985), The Other Side of the Mirror (1989), Street Angel (1994), and Trouble in Shangri-La (2001) — were newly remastered from their analog masters for this new release.
Stevie Nicks Live in Concert 2024 North American Tour Dates
Sat. Feb. 10: Atlantic City, N.J. — Mark G Etess Arena
Wed. Feb. 14: Belmont Park, N.Y. — UBS Arena
Wed. Feb. 21: Greenville, S.C. — Bon Secours Wellness Arena
Sat. Feb. 24: Hollywood, Fla. — Hard Rock Live
Wed. Feb. 28: New Orleans, La. — Smoothie King Center
Sun. Mar. 3: Omaha, Neb. — CHI Health Center
Wed. Mar. 6: North Little Rock, Ark. — Simmons Bank Arena
Sat. Mar. 9: Arlington, Texas — AT&T Stadium
Stevie Nicks
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When Floating Points was recording with Pharoah Sanders in the summer of 2019, he was moving quickly. Possibly too fast.
“I didn’t have very much time to work with Pharoah,” says the British producer born Sam Shepherd, “and so I felt this pressure to just constantly be delivering music.”
But Sanders — the legendary tenor saxophonist who rose to prominence in the ’60s playing with John Coltrane, Alice Coltrane and other greats while also distinguishing himself as a luminary of the spiritual jazz movement — put his foot on the metaphorical brakes during those 10 days making music at Sargent Recorders, a studio in Los Angeles’ Historic Filipinotown neighborhood.
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“He was just calming, slowing everything down,” Shepherd recalls. “He was like, ‘Let’s just listen to this,’ and we’d sit there and listen to the whole thing. And then we’d listen to it again, then again. Three hours would pass and we’d just be listening and listening.”
It wasn’t the speed at which Shepherd — an electronic musician accustomed to the pace of the internet — was used to working. Working with Sanders, more than 40 years Shepherd’s senior, felt like a throwback to the era when there was only so much recording tape available.
“We’d sit and listen,” Shepherd continues, “Then Pharoah would be like, ‘I’m just gonna go into the booth and play this phrase over this thing.’ He’d go in there having had listened to it for a few hours and just play something so succinct and meaningful. He knows it so well that he’s embodied it. It’s not like he’s searching while he’s playing, he’s done all that. He doesn’t need to search on his instrument, he’s done the searching within himself.”
This contemplative, unhurried workflow resulted in Promises, the 2021 collaborative album from Floating Points and Sanders, along with the London Symphony Orchestra. Clocking in at 46 minutes and composed of nine movements, Promises is leisurely, deep and often fairly mystic, with the Philharmonic adding moments of climactic grandeur and Sanders’ playing serving as the sonic and spiritual center, his signature tone offering moments of elegance and cacophony.
Released on Luaka Bop, the label founded by David Byrne in 1988, Promises earned wide and high-brow acclaim, getting glowing reviews from The New York Times, The New Yorker — who called it “a remarkably intimate experience — and earning a 9.0 rating from Pitchfork. The album spent three weeks on Top Albums Sales, where it reached No. 32 in April of 2021.
“It took me by surprise,” Shepherd says of this success. “We originally pressed very few vinyl copies, because we thought this was a relatively niche, jazz/classical crossover record. It connected more than we’d imagined. I’d say, ‘Pharoah, you know, people really like this record.’ He’s like, ‘Oh, yeah?’ And I’d be like, ‘No, people really like this record, Pharoah.’”
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As the pandemic waned, the two artists — Shepherd in the U.K. and Sanders in Los Angeles — along with their respective teams, discussed doing a one-time only live performance of Promises. The Hollywood Bowl was selected as the venue, and Shepherd booked a flight to Los Angeles to meet with Sanders and make plans. Then, the week Shepherd was supposed to get on the plane, Sanders died, passing away on Sept. 24, 2022 at the age of 81. A cause of death was not given.
“So it was very much a long period of of quiet,” Shepherd says of what happened next. “Then conversations about doing it started to get bounced around again… It took me awhile to warm up to the idea.”
But Shepherd did, eventually, warm. So tomorrow (Sept. 20), almost a year to the day after Sanders’ passing, Shepherd will perform the first and likely only live performance of Promises at the Hollywood Bowl.
Speaking to Billboard on the phone from the Burbank studio hosting rehearsals for the show, Shepherd — enthusiastic, thoughtful and completely affable in conversation — allows that doing it without Sanders being around to give it his blessing “feels a little heavy for me. I haven’t vocalized it, I don’t even think I fully understand it. It’s not a normal thing for a musician to collaborate on a project with someone, and that person is no longer around.”
Without the mythic figure at the center of the project, Shepherd has instead assembled a sort of musical league of legends formed from friends, family and frequent collaborators.
Clearly the most crucial element in designing the performance was figuring out who would play Sanders’ part. Luckily, this answer was also obviou:. British saxophonist Shabaka Hutchings is a mutual friend of Sanders and Shepherd’s, who played in Shepherd’s first band and is a person who, Shepherd says, “Pharoah was a great admirer of.” While there’s demand to tour Promises, Shepherd says it simply isn’t possible, given that Hutchings is planning to put down his sax to focus on the flute shortly after the show.
Also in the band: electronic artist Kara-Lis Coverdale, “who every time I hear her play is just the most innovative, interesting electronic music I’ve heard in in my life.” Hinako Omori — “another amazing composer I’ve known for years in London” — will play the celesta. John Escreet, “one of the greatest pianists I’ve ever heard” will keyboard and synthesizer. Jeffrey Makinson, the organist at the U.K.’s towering Lincoln Cathedral and also Shepherds’ brother-in-law, will play an electric organ. Lara Serafin, who transcribed the previously unwritten down Promises into sheet music and “knows the piece better than anyone on a forensic level” will play electronics. Four Tet and Caribou — frequent Floating Points collaborators and also Shepherds’ “bezzie mates,” will play piano and electronics, respectively.
“They get the record because they were there when I was mixing it,” Shepherd says of these two producers and pals. “They were really part of the whole process of it all coming together — and they know me and I know them, and I know how they play.”
The show will be conducted by Los Angeles favorite Miguel Atwood Ferguson, who will guide the band, members of the L.A. Studio Symphony String Orchestra and special guests the Sun Ra Arkestra, with whom Sanders played with throughout his career.
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Surveying the gear laid out in the rehearsal space, Shepherd says Promises is, in a way, quite simple, rooted in four looping chords. “On a technical level, everyone can play their parts.”
As such, rehearsals are more about maintaining morale while also getting to the essence of what makes the piece “kind of magical, I guess,” says Shepherd. “That’s something I’ve got to find again from the beginning.” When asked if he knows how he’s going to do that, he answers, “No, I don’t,” with a laugh.
But then Shepherd, who also has a PhD in neuroscience and epigenetics and first connected with Sanders after Sanders heard his smart, spacial 2015 electronic album Elaenia, weighs the question for a minute. He returns to the recording sessions with Sanders, when Sanders would request that they just sit back and listen to the music.
“That sort of calmness and listening more intently is something I need to try and impart on [this] big group by sort of saying, ‘We need to slow it all down, we need to not feel like this is tedious or not getting anywhere, because it is getting somewhere, it’s just that we’ve got to give our patience to this project as well,’” he relates. “That’s something Pharoah taught me, definitely, patience in listening.”
(He adds that, in his own fast-paced fervor, he recorded enough music with Sanders to make another two albums — but says there is no plans to complete or release these projects. Sanders’ 1977 album Pharoah was re-released this week via Luaka Bop.)
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Given the mysterious, ineffable nature of Promises‘ magic, I ask Shepherd how he’ll know if the show was a success. He thinks about it, then refers to the album’s “Movement 8,” which closes with a minute of silence before the orchestra comes back in for the climax.
“That’s going to be a pinnacle moment for me — if that silence is really silent in the Bowl, and all you hear is the noise of some of the stage gear and buzzing through the speakers,” he shares. “If I’ve gotten a little corner of this noisey-ass American city just to be quiet, and ten or twelve or fifteen thousand people are sitting there together quietly because the previous 40 minutes of music has just brought them to this place… I would feel that’s a big moment.”
One can argue that having people sitting in slowed-down stillness would be what Sanders would have wanted to happen, too.
The opening of a new 2,500-seat venue in the Inland Empire caught many by surprise earlier this year, but the signs of things to come had been in plain sight for months. Since January, those driving along the Southland’s busy interstates, freeways and thoroughfares have all cruised past a bombardment of billboards promoting shows by Missy Elliott, Janet Jackson, Dave Matthews Band, The Killers and Ed Sheeran.
These acts could easily sell out celebrated Los Angeles venues like The Hollywood Bowl or the Dolby Theater, but instead have elected to play a small theater 65 miles east in Highland, Calif., on land owned by the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, one of California’s wealthiest tribal groups.
The billboard advertising campaign is part of an ambitious national marketing plan to promote the 20-year-old casino following a $750 million upgrade, a name change to Yaamava’ Resort & Casino in Highland (it was formerly called San Manuel Casino) and a first of its kind exclusive booking agreement with Live Nation Southern California aiming to bring 100 shows per year to state-of-the-art venue.
Yaamava’ Theater
Solaiman Fazel
The campaign is designed to be “something that gains much greater national recognition” says Drew Dixon, Yaamava’s vp of entertainment, “something that’s not just a play for these artists, but a tour destination where they want us to be part of something larger that they’re creating.”
Yaamava’ is already well on its way, as the largest of a half-dozen Southern California tribal casinos that are serving as the gateway for artists to access new audiences and lucrative guarantees in California’s fast-growing regions like Sacramento, East San Diego and Palm Springs/Coachella Valley. The location of Yaamava’ and other Southern California tribal casinos makes them convenient tour stops when routing acts to or from Los Angeles, with these facilities just far enough outside the city that they don’t run into too much red tape around L.A. radius clauses.
Tribal gaming in California is a $10 billion business, formally legalized by voters in 2000 after years of operating under a patchwork of local ordinances and supportive rulings of the U.S. Supreme Court. Proposition 1A legalized the operation of slot machines and card games like blackjack, poker and pai gow on tribal land, often in areas outside of San Francisco and Los Angeles that went on to explode in growth throughout the decades that followed. Southern and Northern California, according to a source familiar, are now the most competitive regions for tribal gaming in the U.S. alongside the Atlantic City/Philadelphia area.
As a result, California’s tribal groups are now among some of the richest in the country, with some properties generating hundreds of millions of dollars per year in revenue. While tribal groups are not required to disclose income, a 2004 agreement between then-Gov. Arnold Schwarzeneggar and the United Auburn Indian Community estimated the tribe’s Thunder Valley Casino in Lincoln, the third largest tribal gaming property in the state — about 30 minutes outside Sacramento — generated $350 million a year in revenue from its 3,000 slot machines. It’s a safe bet Yaamava’ is making even more as California’s largest tribal gaming casino with 6,500 slots. And its ownership group, the San Manuel Band of Mission Indians, is expanding outside the state: In April 2022, the tribal group purchased the Palms Hotel and Casino in Las Vegas for $650 million.
With access to millions in capital and a year-round need to draw customers, it’s no surprise that tribal gaming executives believe music and live entertainment can help drive more traffic to tribal casinos. But money alone isn’t enough, explains Seth Shoames, a former UTA agent who now runs his own company Day After Day Productions, which represents Ludacris (who opened for Jackson at her Yaamava’ performance), Staind frontman Aaron Lewis, Brian Wilson and Wayne Newton, and also owns Billy Brill’s Billy Alan Productions with Danny Wimmer Presents in a deal funded by Ron Burkle’s Yucaipa Companies and now books talent on behalf of the company’s casino clients.
“It’s all about how artist and casino can align,” says Shoames, noting that artists can benefit from being exposed to “millions of people in the casino’s database” that the artist might otherwise not have access to through email blasts and social media.
Booking big talent comes at a cost — and often casinos are willing to overpay for talent for strategic purposes, says Shoames. On May 13, for example, Missy Elliot performed at Yaamava’ Theater a week after playing Live Nation’s Friends and Lovers festival in Las Vegas — her only two shows of the year. For Missy Elliot, the Yaamava’ show was a chance to create a more intimate follow up experience; for the casino, the show was a chance to make a statement about Yaamava’ being the host site for unique experience in an intimate setting and worth paying a premium for. A source close to the matter estimates that Janet Jackson was paid $2 million for her June 14 Yaamava’ show and that Andrea Bocelli’s May 18 performance earned the singer between $2-3 million — fees that would exceed ticket sales for the venue.
Concert tickets at Yaamava’ do run higher than average, with tickets for Lionel Richie’s Sept. 16 show at Yaamava’ starting at $250 and going up to $1,050 plus fees. Meanwhile, tickets for Richie’s Sept. 15 show at the Kia Forum in Los Angeles top out at about $250. (A representative for Yaamava’ declined to comment on artist fees or ticket pricing.)
Besides underplays with major acts that boost a casino’s visibility, tribal leaders typically expect concerts to pay for themselves. “Twenty or 30 years ago, [shows at] casinos were a loss leader, but that’s no longer the case,” says Brill, who serves as a talent buyer at Thunder Mountain Casino and the Agua Caliente Casinos’ three locations in Rancho Mirage, Palm Springs and Cathedral City. “In Agua [Caliente’s] case, we want to make money on each show.”
Yaamava’s efforts are designed to attract younger crowds, developing a new generation of gamers while also serving as a convenient alternative to Las Vegas. Yaamava Theater was built with this younger demographic in mind, with its massive 3,800 square foot stage aiming to attract bigger and larger shows like its inaugural April 14 concert by Red Hot Chili Peppers, who performed a private show for Tribal members, journalists and other invited guests. The Black Crowes performed Yaamava Theater’s first public concert in late May.
Yaamava’ Theater
Solaiman Fazel
The property’s partnership with Live Nation helps facilitate the booking of some of its larger acts, which over the next few months include Ed Sheeran, Lionel Richie, The Killers, Kali Uchis and a co-headlining set from Nas and Wu-Tang Clan. Dixon, a former market general manager for Live Nation, also spent 12 years running nightclubs and restaurants in Las Vegas and directs a staff with both casino and music industry backgrounds.
“Yamaava’ is making a substantial effort to rebrand themselves,” says UTA music agent Darius Sabet, who specializes in national casino booking for the agency. “That was obviously a strategic decision that they made, and I believe it’s starting to pay off for them in big ways.”
Monica Reeves who books shows for the three Agua Caliente locations says Yaamava’s upgrades have brought “stronger competitiveness” to the market, with new competition also coming from Acrisure Arena, a 10,000-capacity venue that opened in the Coachella Valley this past December and whose upcoming concerts include ODESZA, Sting, KISS and Madonna.
While all this competition is “great” for artists, says Sabet, the casinos are also competing for the crowds to come see them. Friday and Saturday concerts are most attractive for these properties, given that the fans who come for such events are more likely to stay the entire weekend, not only spending money at the concert, but on rooms, slots, blackjack, food, drinks, spa treatments, steak dinners and other add-ons. That’s a shift from past strategies when many of these casinos did the bulk of their business Monday through Thursday, at which point many locals would decamp to Vegas for the weekend.
Back in this era, performances at the former San Manuel would happen in a bingo hall that was converted into a concert space for shows. With this showroom shut down for years amid the remodel, Yaamava’ “wanted to come back to the market like a boss, and they are,” says Michael Scafuto, CEO of M&M Group, that bought entertainment for San Manuel before the remodel.
“The local casino market is getting to be a brute battle as most of the So Cal Properties are all fighting for the same guests and players,” Scafuto adds. “[Yaamava’] needs to ensure they appeal to SoCal guests and players, so they are dominating the market with a huge brand campaign that involves major stars.”