Rock
Page: 111
Coldplay have invited a wide variety of special guests to join them on stage over the past year during their massive Music of the Sphere global tour. From Lupe Fiasco to Craig David, Chvches’ Lauren Mayberry and Bruce Springsteen to special segment during the show that takes place on a small satellite stage in the […]
After spending over three decades in the music business, progressive metal titan Dream Theater knows that its complex musical compositions — which have clocked running times exceeding 30 minutes — aren’t an easy sell. So the band long ago established itself as a road warrior, relying on fan loyalty and live performance for sustenance. After weathering the blow of the 2020 pandemic, the quintet resumed touring in February 2022. In April, the act had another highlight with its first Grammy Award win in the best metal performance category, for “The Alien” from its 2021 album A View From the Top of the World.
Explore
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
This June, Dream Theater launched its Dreamsonic tour, a 29-date North American trek featuring a multiact lineup that wraps July 26 in Phoenix. And though Dream Theater has presented its concerts in “an evening with” format longer than even co-founder/guitarist John Petrucci can remember, he promises “something different” on this outing while chatting with Billboard from Hollywood, Fla., where the band played the city’s Hard Rock Live Arena. Rounding out the bill on the inaugural jaunt are djent stylists Animals As Leaders and experimentalist Devin Townsend.
Once Dream Theater finishes Dreamsonic, Petrucci will return to the Sunshine State Aug. 3-6 for the fourth edition of his band camp, John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe. The W Hotel in Fort Lauderdale hosts the four-day stretch of master classes, concerts and jam sessions that boasts an all-star lineup of guitar instructors and encourages musicians from beginners to virtuosos to attend. According to johnpetruccisguitaruniverse.com, “The span of the players in this camp — stylistically, age, gender, nationality — represents a cross-section of the guitar community all in one spot.”
Below, Petrucci discusses the ideation and execution of Dreamsonic, plus future plans for the band and its new “traveling festival.”
What does the band aim to do with Dreamsonic?
What we we’re trying to do is something different from the usual sort of “an evening with” that we do during a normal tour cycle. We wanted to put together our own package that represented a cross-section of different bands in the prog metal genre, under that umbrella, and have it be a traveling, branded tour. In this case, we call it Dreamsonic so that we could bring this back at any time, at any place in the world, and have a different collection of bands.
Since we started, the genre has grown, and prog rock and prog metal have expanded to mean all these different things. So it’s kind of interesting how many bands are out there, but they’re doing slightly different things. And this inaugural run is a prime example of that because Animals As leaders and Devin Townsend and Dream Theater are all considered prog metal bands, but we’re all doing it in a very different way. That’s what this tour is all about.
How long has Dream Theater been doing “an evening with” format?
I’m not sure when we started that. It definitely has been some time now. The last couple of runs that we did, we did stray from that for the first time and took out a single opener on a run we did through Europe and in the U.S. But for the most part, we’ve been doing “an evening with” since I can remember now. There’s a couple reasons [for that]. One is that our fans really appreciate and want to see us in that context because there’s just so much material to dive into. And the second reason is because there’s so much material to dive into. Putting together a three-hour show is easy. There’s so much, and we have so many epics that take up a ton of time. So the challenge becomes, in this circumstance on the Dreamsonic tour, [that] we have to make our set an hour-and-a-half.
Why were Animals As Leaders and Devin Townsend chosen for this first run?
There’s a couple reasons with this type of thing, with all the bands on tour and so many different schedules that every band is in the midst of, whether they be in the studio or touring or doing festivals overseas. You come up with your list of bands that you’d like to see [on the bill], and then the next part is seeing which ones will coincide with the time period you’re looking at. Both Devin and Animals were looking to go out in the summer in the U.S., so that just worked out perfectly.
Are you following the prototype of any particular festival?
You know, I’ve been calling it a festival, but I guess when you imagine a festival, you picture a weekend and there’s many bands over the course of that weekend, and it’s just in one spot … Years ago, we did Dave Mustaine’s Gigantour … It’s in the vein of that, where there’s a bunch of bands and it’s a traveling tour, so I’m not sure what the technical word for it is when it travels like that. So I’m calling it a festival. (Laughs.) A traveling festival.
It’s early days, but do you hope to expand the lineup in the future?
Yeah, definitely. This is the type of thing where we can embark on this at any point, whether it be [for] an album touring cycle or whether it be during some downtime or whatever. This is the inaugural run; we decided to do it in the U.S., but we could really bring this anywhere: Europe, Asia, South America. And as far as the lineup, I think the beauty of this is that, again, there are so many bands that we know of … some that have been around for a while, some that are super young, that are doing this type of thing in their own way, and that’s the beauty of it. We can put together endless combinations of groups that would present a great, entertaining, really cool show packed with music, but still be diverse and different enough in the style of the bands.
Is it more difficult to launch an endeavor like this in this tough economy than when you typically go on the road?
Well, everything is more difficult now, just across the board, so I guess the short answer is yes. But everybody is experiencing the same thing, so it’s something that you navigate the best that you could. And we’re cognizant as well [about] what is happening in the economy and how many tours are out post-COVID-19 shutdown. We’re conscious of ticket prices and trying to make these events not too crazy and somewhat affordable. All the challenges that are out there, with venues and gas prices and equipment and rentals and trucks and crew — I mean, every band is facing the same thing, so you just sort of deal with it and you have a team together, hopefully, that knows how to manage and negotiate these things in the best way that you can, which we do. We have a very, very strong team.
Do you have any dates on the books for Dreamsonic once the tour is done?
No, this will be the end of the tour cycle for us. We’ve been touring for quite a while now in support of A View From the Top of the World, which is the latest Dream Theater record … Dreamsonic will actually be the last touring that we’ll do for 2023, and at some point, we’ll move on to working on a new record.
Do you anticipate doing Dreamsonic annually, or will it go out when it feels right?
I think it’s when we feel it’s the right time to do it. Annually is a little tough because sometimes we’re in the studio a certain year, or we’re back to “an evening with” and supporting the record in that format. So I think this is going to be the type of thing that when the timing feels right, then we’ll do it. But I think the important thing with the inaugural run was really getting all the infrastructure and everything in place, and building and establishing a brand so it’s something we could take out in the future. And hopefully, when people hear that name, Dreamsonic, they’ll know it’s going to be a showcase of some of the best prog metal in the world.
At the end of the night, do members from all three bands do any type of jam together?
Yes, we do, actually. I look forward to it every night for the encore. We play the song “The Spirit Carries On” from [1999’s Metropolis Pt. 2: Scenes From a Memory] album, which is such a Dream Theater fan favorite. It’s such a great moment in the show regardless, but we kick it up a notch by having Devin and a couple of guys from his band, and [Tosin] Abasi comes out from Animals. Everyone’s standing up smiling, crying, singing and it just creates this great [moment of] camaraderie. That’s been something that we’re all really enjoying so much.
Anything else that you care to add?
This isn’t so much a Dream Theater thing, it’s more of a me thing that I’m really looking forward to. At the end of this tour, about a week later, I host a guitar camp. It’s called John Petrucci’s Guitar Universe.
[This year’s lineup includes] Tosin Abasi from Animals. Fredrik Akesson, who’s the guitar player in Opeth. Lari Basilio, she’s a Brazilian guitar player, kind plays more of a fusion style. Ola Englund, who’s a Swedish sort of YouTuber guy. Guthrie Govan, who is just one of the craziest and most amazing guitar players on the planet. Tim Henson and Scott LePage, they’re in a band called Polyphia, which is another band that would be under that prog flag that would be great on a Dreamsonic tour. Aaron Marshall is in a band called Intervals. My wife, Rena Petrucci, she’s in a band called Mainstreak, and she’s a guest artist. Plini, who’s from Australia, writes some incredible instrumental music. Jason Richardson, another shredder. Joscho Stephan, who’s a gypsy-jazz guy from Germany, and then Zakk Wylde, who of course, we all know. I think there’s only 10 slots left. So I don’t know when this [article] is going to come out, but if people are interested, they better act on it. (Laughs.)
Toad the Wet Sprocket had “the most audacious” idea when they were asked to participate in a collection of Kiss cover songs. “We knew we were not going to out-rock anybody,” recalls singer Glen Phillips on Billboard’s Behind the Setlist podcast. “And so the idea was to just make fun of ourselves and do it as if it were like a young life campfire song. Turn it into a waltz. Just make it, like, distressingly Toad-sounding.”
Explore
See latest videos, charts and news
See latest videos, charts and news
Rising to prominence in the days of college radio in the early ‘90s, Toad the Wet Sprocket defied the musical trend of the day — the grunge movement that spawned Nirvana, Alice In Chains and Soundgarden — to score a pair of platinum albums, Fear and Dulcinea, filled with hooky songs featuring with melodic counterplay. The Santa Barbara, Calif.-based band had more in common with the acoustic-driven music they’ve covered live — Crowded House and Indigo Girls — than the heavy, raw rock music that dominated rock radio and rose high on the Billboard 200 album chart.
Lending its distinctive sound to a classic rock standard was a stroke of genius, though. Toad the Wet Sprocket’s version of “Rock and Roll All Nite” for the 1994 compilation Kiss My Ass: Classic Kiss Regrooved is arguably the most memorable recording on a collection that features such luminaries as Garth Brooks (“Hard Luck Woman”), Lenny Kravitz and Stevie Wonder (“Deuce”), Anthrax (“She”) and Gin Blossoms (“Christine Sixteen”).
“[Kiss bass player] Gene Simmons loved it,” Phillips boasts.
“He has gone on the record as saying it’s not only his favorite song on that album, but it’s one of his top 10 favorite recordings ever,” adds bassist Dean Dinning.
“Rock and Roll All Nite” has never been in heavy rotation on the band’s set lists — one performance at The Metro in Chicago in 1994 can be found on YouTube — but one performance stands out in the band members’ minds. “Jon Bon Jovi actually came on stage with us at a big radio show in New York at Madison Square Garden and sang that with us,” recalls Phillips.
Even for a band that had just put two songs — “Walk on the Ocean” and “All I Want” — into the top 20 of the Billboard Hot 100 chart, sharing the stage with the “Living on a Prayer” singer was surreal. “It was so strange to be out there,” says Phillips. “On the one hand, I feel like, man, we’re playing Madison Square Garden. This is cool. We’re winning! We’re doing all right here! And he walked on stage and it was, like, goosebumps.” Phillips recreates the roar of the crowd like a burst of white noise or, as Dinning describes it, a jet engine. “It was like, Oh, that’s how it feels to be a real rockstar,” Phillips says.
As for the performance of the 1975 Kiss classic, Dinning thinks it was well received. “It’s not really fair to judge because Jon Bon Jovi was on stage with us, but it seemed like the crowd reaction was good,” he jokes.
After an eight-year break from recording, Toad the Wet Sprocket released a new studio album, Starting Now, in 2021, followed by a bonus version of the greatest hits collection All You Want. The 19-track compilation includes an unreleased version of the track “Best of Me” from Starting Now that originally featured the legendary Michael McDonald on backing vocals. The 2023 version of “Best of Me” is the original, McDonald-less version.
“This is the band version of the song that almost went on the record,” says Dinning. “It’s nice to bring the song back to the sound of just of just the band without the guest. It was it was a track that we hadn’t released yet and it’s a great song and the version is great. And so we made it the single off this new All You Want project.”
Listen to the entire interview with Phillips and Dinning at Behind the Setlist on Spotify, Apple Podcasts, iHeart, Amazon Music or Audible.
Hey, it’s harder than it looks having such amazing hair! But as far as Chrissy Teigen is concerned, her newborn son’s locks are ready to rock, and she’s got photos and videos to prove it. In an adorable clip the Cravings cookbook author shared on Instagram late Wednesday (June 28), the little boy is swaddled […]
Billy Joel’s “We Didn’t Start the Fire” was the No. 1 song on the Billboard Hot 100 the week that Taylor Swift was born in December 1989. Now, Swift gets a name-check in Fall Out Boy’s smart cover of the song released Wednesday (June 28).
Joel’s track was a cascade of news and pop-culture headlines from the middle of the 20th Century to 1989. Fall Out Boy updated the tune with a similar jumble of news and tabloid references from 1989 to the present. Swift is mentioned in tandem with Kanye West, who shared a moment at the 2009 MTV Video Music Awards that will live in awards show infamy.
Other music names and moments that are chronicled in the fast-moving new cover include three icons who have died since 1989 – Kurt Cobain, Michael Jackson and Prince – plus Woodstock ’99, Fyre Fest, Black Parade and this provocative assertion: “YouTube killed MTV.”
Other pop-culture references include Harry Potter, Twilight, Robert Downey Jr. in Iron Man, Michael Keaton in Batman, Steven Spielberg, Stranger Things, Avatar, SpongeBob SquarePants, Pokemon and MySpace.
Fall Out Boy structured the song the same way Joel did, steadily building in intensity. Where Joel built to the dramatic line “JFK blown away/ What else do I have to say?,” Fall Out Boy built to “World Trade/ second plane/ What else do I have to say?” Indeed, 9/11 is probably the most stunning historical event since 1989, just as President Kennedy’s assassination was for the previous time frame.
Where Joel sang “Rock and roll/ the cola wars/I can’t take it anymore,” Fall out Boy offers “Bush v. Gore/ I can’t take it anymore.”
The most memorable coupling in the new song may be “Trump gets impeached twice/ Polar bears got no ice.”
Joel’s original version reached No. 1 on Dec. 9, 1989, dethroning Milli Vanilli’s pre-scandal smash “Blame It on the Rain.” It held the top position for two weeks before being dethroned by Phil Collins’ “Another Day in Paradise.”
Joel performed the song on the 32nd Annual Grammy Awards in February 1990, where it received three high-profile nominations – record and song of the year and best pop male vocal performance.
But Joel has been critical of the song, noting it is one of the few songs he has ever written where he wrote the lyrics first and then put them to music. In 1993, when discussing the song with documentary filmmaker David Horn, Joel said, “It’s really not much of a song … If you take the melody by itself, terrible. Like a dentist drill.”
There have been several parodies and takeoffs of the song, including The Simpsons’ parody “They’ll Never Stop the Simpsons” at the end of the 2002 “Gump Roast” episode.
Pop band Milo Greene performed the song in June 2013 for The A.V. Club‘s A.V. Undercover series.
In 2019, the cast of Avengers: Endgame recapped the entire Marvel franchise by singing their own superhero version of the song on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon. The elaborate sequence involved stars Robert Downey Jr., Chris Hemsworth, Chris Evans, Jeremy Renner, Don Cheadle, Mark Ruffalo, Paul Rudd, Danai Gurira, Karen Gillan and Brie Larson.
Fall Out Boy has written the vast majority of their 20 Hot 100 hits, but the group had a big hit in 2008 with a cover version of Jackson’s “Beat It,” which featured John Mayer. (The song reached No. 18 on the Hot 100 in April 2008, 14 months before Jackson’s shocking death at age 50.)
Fall Out Boy is currently on their So Much for (Tour) Dust global headline tour, in support of its eighth studio album, So Much (for) Stardust, which became the group’s seventh album to reach the top 10 on the Billboard 200. The band has topped that chart four times with Infinity on High (2007), Save Rock and Roll (2013), American Beauty/American Psycho (2015) and MANIA (2018).
The band’s tour launched with a sold-out hometown show at Wrigley Field in Chicago, and continues Wednesday in Dallas, along with stops in Phoenix, San Diego and two sold-out stadium shows in Los Angeles at BMO Stadium (formerly Banc of California Stadium) on July 2-3. For all tour dates and details, visit Fall Out Boy’s website.
Queens of the Stone Age launches atop all four of Billboard’s rock albums charts with In Times New Roman…, which begins at No. 1 on the Top Rock & Alternative Albums, Top Rock Albums, Top Alternative Albums and Top Hard Rock Albums surveys dated July 1. The set begins with 40,000 equivalent album units earned […]
In protest of the recent influx in anti-LGBTQ bills passed in Tennessee, Phoebe Bridgers, Lucy Dacus and Julien Baker dressed in flamboyant drag queen-inspired looks at their Boygenius concert in Nashville Sunday (June 25) — where they also led the crowd in a “F–k Bill Lee” chant aimed at the state’s polarizing governor.
As the indie rock supergroup kicked off the show — which happened to be held during the city’s Pride Month celebrations — ecstatic screams could be heard throughout the Great Lawn in Centennial Park upon the crowd’s realization that “The Boys” had drastically departed from their usual suit and tie stage uniforms. With each of them wearing colorful, over-the-top makeup, Bridgers took the stage in a spider-webbed leotard and teased-to-the-heavens hair, Dacus in a bejeweled Gogo dress with a red leather harness and Baker in a purple Elvis-esque suit.
Even the band’s crew looked dashing in gender-bending clothing, with both a cameraman and a male stagehand sporting sundresses.
Later, Baker — whose home state is Tennessee — paused the show to take aim at Gov. Lee, who earlier this year signed controversial laws banning minors from receiving gender-affirming care and preventing drag queens from performing in certain public spaces. “Today I’m so grateful for my life, not because I get to stand onstage with my best friends … but because I’m content with the person that I am,” she said. “I have a lot of anger for the people that have made me feel small, and feel erased.”
“And I’ve found it’s a really powerful and humiliating tool to make those people f–k off,” the musician continued. “I would like you to scream so loud that Gov. Lee can hear you.”
“Can we say ‘F–k Bill Lee’ on three?” Bridgers then proposed, before leading a countdown that ended with thousands of voices screaming “F–k Bill Lee!”
Boygenius was formed in 2018 by the three soloists, each of whom identifies as queer. Days before releasing their debut album as a group, The Record, in March, Bridgers, Dacus and Baker spoke out against Tennessee’s discriminatory legislation in an interview with Them.
“The government being actually actively trying to kill the coolest people is something I think about every day,” Bridgers told the publication at the time. “It’s so overwhelming how different the world would be if the AIDS epidemic had never happened. It’s so overwhelming to me, to my exact world, everything that I value. And –”
“All the lost potential,” Dacus added.
“If all of the David Wojnarowiczes and Leslie Feinbergs of the world did all of that suffering for me not to live in a world where I can be so f–king gay on a big stage and have a whole bunch of other gay people here for me and it’d be joy, then it was in vain,” Baker agreed in the interview. “The joy is the living amends that you do for your community as a performer.”
See photos and videos of Boygenius in drag below:
Metallica’s “72 Seasons” becomes the band’s second song from its album of the same name to crown Billboard’s Mainstream Rock Airplay chart, rising to No. 1 on the July 1-dated tally. Explore Explore See latest videos, charts and news See latest videos, charts and news “72 Seasons” becomes Metallica’s 12th career No. 1 on Mainstream […]
Rest assured, Rod Stewart does not have any plans to give up rock n’ roll for good. On Wednesday (June 21), the icon cleared up rumors regarding his retirement from the genre, in light of his recent statements that he wanted “to leave the rock ‘n’ roll stuff behind, for a while” in an interview […]
As the music industry continues to grapple with the popularity and advancement of AI, some find themselves trying to figure out how to ethically incorporate artificial intelligence into their work. Earlier this month, when music titan Paul McCartney shared that he would be implementing AI in this process of finishing a new as-yet-untitled Beatles song, […]