Rock
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The flames, the double kick drums blast beats, the headless Mario Antoinettes, the opera singer on a giant boat. There was nothing about French heavy metal band Gojira‘s set during Friday’s glittering opening ceremony for the 2024 Summer Olympics that you could have predicted from the first hard rock band to ever take the stage […]
New York City in 1978 was a very different place. The city had nearly gone bankrupt only three years earlier and it still felt uncertain, edgy and threatening. But it was exploding with musical creativity, from the Bowery to the Bronx.
For an ambitious young musician, Bronx-born and raised on Long Island, coming off the most successful album of his career, it was time to come in from the suburbs and claim the city as his own.
On Dec. 14, 1978, Billy Joel made his debut at Madison Square Garden.
Flash forward almost exactly 35 years to December 2013. That was when Joel, along with his longtime agent Dennis Arfa and Garden officials, came up with the audacious plan for the singer to perform a monthly residency at the arena — which would continue, he said then, “for as long as there’s demand.”
Onstage at the Garden on Thursday (July 25), Joel, 75, declared “It’s time.” In a joyous, raucous, moving night of music and memories, Billy Joel played his 150th show at Madison Square Garden and the finale of his unprecedented decade-long residency. He recalled the many milestones of his live career — one of the first acts to play Yankee Stadium and the “last play” at Shea Stadium; performing in Berlin before the Wall fell down, in the Soviet Union, in Havana, Cuba and at the Colosseum in Rome.
“But out of all of them,” said Joel, “this is the best!”
To be sure, the demand to see Joel at the Garden has never slackened; on Thursday the place was packed to the rafters — where, of course banners hang proclaiming Joel’s MSG records: most consecutive performances by any artist and most lifetime performances by any artist. Jimmy Fallon joined Joel to raise the new “150 Performances” banner Thursday night. (Axl Rose was Joel’s second guest, later in the evening).
Over the past decade, the Garden reports, Joel has sold more than 1.9 million tickets to these shows to fans from all 50 states and more than 120 countries. But make no mistake; this was a hometown crowd, cheering the local references in Joel’s powerhouse, customary show opener “Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway).”
Here are 10 of the greatest moments from the finale of Joel’s MSG residency
Today I Am Your Champion — Still
The Foo Fighters came to play on a picture-perfect Thursday night (July 25) in Cincinnati on the latest date of their Everything or Nothing At All summer stadium tour. After rocking warm-ups from Wolfgang Van Halen’s WVH and Akron, OH-native Chrissie Hynde’s Pretenders, the veteran band charged onto the stage at Great American Ball Park and got right to work with the one-two punch of “All My Life” and “No Son of Mine,” with the latter meandering through digressions into Black Sabbath’s “Paranoid” and Metallica’s “Enter Sandman.”
The hit-packed set touched on all the classics that fans — lead singer/guitarist Dave Grohl kept shouting out the group’s “OG” day ones throughout the night — were there for, including “The Pretender,” “Breakout,” and “My Hero,” in addition to an extended band introduction bit that included various members flashing their style on covers of songs by the Beastie Boys, Ramones and Nine Inch Nails.
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But the moment that likely swelled the hearts of the crossover areas in the rock and roll/baseball Venn diagram was when lead guitarist Chris Shiflett came out for the encore wearing a red “Cincinnati Invented Hustle” t-shirt that he’d picked up that day to show his support for the city’s disgraced hit king.
The choice was even more apt considering that HBO dropped its new four-part documentary series about baseball’s all-time hits leader this week, Charlie Hustle & The Matter of Pete Rose, which touches on Rose’s illustrious career, as well as the betting scandal that resulted in the former Cincinnati Reds player and manager’s lifetime ban from the game and the Baseball Hall of Fame; Rose’s nickname as a player was Charlie Hustle in reference to his tenacious style of play.
Shiflett made sure the fans who filled the Reds’ home stadium got a glimpse at his homage to their beloved, tarnished local legend, swinging his guitar to the side a few times during the emotional, roiling encore tribute to Grohl’s late educator mother, Virginia, “The Teacher” to make sure they got the wink-wink reference; check out fan footage of the song, and the shirt, here. The show also featured the band’s nightly tribute to late drummer Taylor Hawkins, “Aurora,” with Grohl noting that it was Taylor’s favorite Foo Fighters song.
The Rose shout-out was just one of a handful of nods to the band’s ties to the Buckeye state during the raucous show that ran for nearly three hours and found the band veering from near speed metal tempos to a touching solo acoustic segment in which Grohl strummed an acoustic guitar for a hushed “Under You.” Earlier in the show, Grohl noted that he’d grown up in Warren, OH before moving to Virginia, and also referenced the fact that bassist Nate Mendel’s wife is from the Queen City. “He married a Cincinnati girl,” Grohl said. “Fellas, if you want to find a good girl, you come to Cincinnati.”
Machine Gun Kelly and Jelly Roll get some serious help from their significant others in the emotional video for their new team-up, “Lonely Road.” In the Sam Cahill-directed clip for the song that pays homage to John Denver’s iconic 1971 hit “Take Me Home, Country Roads,” KellyRoll — as they’ve dubbed themselves — are joined by MGK’s girlfriend, actress Megan Fox, and Jelly’s wife, Bunnie Xo, who both have prominent roles in the tear-in-your-beer storyline.
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KellyRoll play a pair of old pals struggling to provide for their families in the visual that opens with the duo clad in all black at a funeral before jumping to footage of the pair grinding away at an auto shop in matching tan jumpsuits. “I probably could’ve saved us/ But instead I let us crash/ Cuz I don’t trust no one to love me back,” MGK sings while strumming an acoustic guitar. “But she say I do/ And this is not the place for you.”
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As the past due notices continue to pile up, we see MGK kiss one-time fiancé Fox’s swelling belly and Jelly Roll standing in a field singing about using alcohol on the road to fill the hole of loneliness he feels when he’s thousands of miles from his love. “Will our home ever be the same/ I hear the devil wears Prada, but I couldn’t read the tags/ And your horns started showing when I see you mad,” he sings as he and Bunnie console each other after receiving a letter confirming an infertility diagnosis.
The storylines are particularly poignant and personal for both men, as Jelly revealed last month that Bunnie, 44, is undergoing IVF as they try to conceive their first child together and in November, mother of three Fox opened up about the “very difficult” miscarriage she suffered with MGK.
After the two couples share a quiet home meal together, MGK tries to rope Jelly into a scheme to make some quick money, a road the “Save Me” country star says he can’t go down anymore. Following one more shot of MGK kissing Fox’s stomach, the rapper-turned-rocker-turned-country crooner hops on his motorcycle and pulls off a bank heist that ends with his arrest as he’s kissing his love and their unborn child goodbye one last time.
Cut to eight month later and Jelly, Bunnie and Fox are all cooing over the baby, who MGK kisses through the glass in the prison visiting room.
The long and winding road to “Lonely Road” has taken more than two years, with MGK recently saying that the duo have been working on the track over “2 years, 8 different studios, 4 different countries, [and] changed the key 4 times.”
Watch the “Lonely Road” video below.
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Queens of the Stone Age were forced to cancel another string of summer tour dates on Friday (July 26) due to singer Josh Homme’s unspecified medical treatment. After scotching eight European dates in June when the band announced that Homme had to immediately return to the U.S. for “emergency surgery,” the rockers announced the latest […]
Billy Joel crashed his historic Madison Square Garden residency run to a close on Thursday (July 25) with a sold-out gig marking his record-setting 150th show at the storied New York arena. After serving up such classics as “New York State of Mind,” “The Entertainer,” “Allentown” and “The Downeaster Alexa,” Joel invited Guns N’ Roses singer Axl Rose out for a mini-set of covers and duets.
Wearing a Las Vegas-worthy sequin-covered sparkly sport coat, black jeans and shirt and dark shades, Rose came out mid-show to croon his iconic take on Wings’ James Bond theme “Live and Let Die,” with Joel tinkling the ivories as Rose stalked the stage, tossing off wailing high notes and stomping his foot to the song’s staccato stabs.
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Joel busted protocol and stepped up from his piano to strap on an electric guitar as the two also jammed on a cover of AC/DC’s “Highway to Hell. Though it seems out of character, the cover was wholly appropriate since Rose filled-in for ailing AC/DC singer Brian Johnson on the hard rockers’ 2016 tour and Joel and Rose have collaborated on the song before, including at Billy’s 2017 Dodger Stadium show in Los Angeles.
After Joel, 75, rolled through a run of other classics — “Only the Good Die Young,” “Scenes From An Italian Restaurant,” “Piano Man,” “We Didn’t Start the Fire,” “Uptown Girl” and “Big Shot” — Rose was back for the big finale: a duet on Joel’s 1980s Glass Houses burner “You May Be Right.”
The epic MSG run, during which Joel has sold nearly two million tickets, began on Jan. 14, 2014 and was eased into the history books with some help from Tonight Show host Jimmy Fallon, who ran onstage to mark the moment when a blue banner reading “Billy Joel 150: Most Lifetime Performances by Any Artist” was unfurled in the rafters.
Joel — who released his first new pop song in 17 years, “Turn the Lights Back On” in February — is not nearly done, with stadiums shows in the UK, Cleveland, St. Louis, Los Angeles, San Antonio and Las Vegas keeping him on the road through November.
Watch fan video of the Rose and Joel performances below.
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After a record 10-week rule on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 chart by Tommy Richman’s “Million Dollar Baby,” the tally has its first new No. 1 since May: Blood Orange’s “Champagne Coast” jumps to the top of the list dated July 27.
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The TikTok Billboard Top 50 is a weekly ranking of the most popular songs on TikTok in the United States based on creations, video views and user engagement. The latest chart reflects activity July 15-21. Activity on TikTok is not included in Billboard charts except for the TikTok Billboard Top 50.
“Champagne Coast,” originally released in 2011 as part of Blood Orange’s (real name Dev Hynes) album of the same year, Coastal Grooves, started at No. 46 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50 dated July 6 and has experienced a meteoric rise since, vaulting to No. 21 and then to No. 5 prior to its coronation.
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Multiple trends have highlighted the upsurge of “Champagne Coast.” One features creators uploading videos to the prompt “did we get rich?” or “did we hit the lottery?” in response to their younger self, and another argues that the uploader will stay single until the sound when they look into a prospective lover’s eyes sounds like “Champagne Coast.”
Concurrent with its TikTok Billboard Top 50 rule, “Champagne Coast” makes its first non-TikTok-based Billboard charts, paced by its No. 15 debut on the Hot Alternative Songs survey. In the week ending July 18, the tune earned 3.6 million official U.S. streams, up 17%, according to Luminate.
“Million Dollar Baby” falls to No. 2 on the TikTok Billboard Top 50, ensuring that its now-12-week history on the chart has found it go no lower than the top two, while LeoStayTrill and Mr Reload It’s “Pink Lemonade (Str8 Reload)” lifts 4-3, a new peak.
“Pink Lemonade” is mostly driven by lip-synch videos to the song, which was released in May. It boasts 1.5 million streams in the week ending July 18, up 4%.
BlackMayo’s “Jus’ Know” and Ian’s “Magic Johnson” round out the top five, followed by the week’s top debut in 2KE and 808iuli’s “X-Slide,” which bows at No. 6.
“X-Slide,” the uploads of which on TikTok are led by its ultra-slowed version (though its standard version has gotten significant play as well), is highlighted on TikTok by workout and fitness videos, as well as clips from video games and anime.
Three other songs hit the chart’s top 10 for the first time: Sevdaliza, Pabllo Vittar and Yseult’s “Alibi,” Clairo’s “Juna” and Charli XCX’s “Apple” round out the top 10 at Nos. 8-10, respectively.
“Alibi” has been paced by a dance trend on TikTok, one that began in the spring but has taken off in recent weeks. “Juna,” meanwhile, bows at No. 9 not long after the song’s July 12 premiere as part of Clairo’s new album, Charm; along with lip-synch clips and other general content, an underlying trend featuring the tune plays off its “you know me” verse with a photo explaining all of the user’s favorites and interests.
As for “Apple,” the song from Charli XCX’s much-talked-about 2024 album Brat has also benefited from a dance trend. It’s risen each week on Billboard’s Hot Dance/Electronic Songs chart since its debut on June 22 at No. 25, hitting a new peak of No. 7 on the latest tally thanks to 4.2 million streams in the week ending July 18, a boost of 55%.
See the full TikTok Billboard Top 50 here. You can also tune in each Friday to SiriusXM’s TikTok Radio (channel 4) to hear the premiere of the chart’s top 10 countdown at 3 p.m. ET, with reruns heard throughout the week.
Canadians have each others’ backs!
Nickelback shared a video on Tuesday (July 23) defending the upcoming Deadpool & Wolverine film from any hate. In the clip, all four members of the band rock Deadpool and Wolverine masks, though they soon decide that the costumes are too itchy and unmask themselves.
“We’re Nickelback, experts in navigating irrational hate in the face of tremendous success,” the band’s frontman Chad Kroeger tells the camera. “We have an important preemptive message for anyone thinking of criticizing the film Deadpool & Wolverine or Ryan Reynolds.”
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Kroeger then begins listing off the film franchise’s list of accomplishments, including that the first two Deadpool films grossed more than $1.5 billion at the box office, and accolades including two Critics Choice Awards, four MTV Movie & TV Awards, one GLAAD Award, a People’s Choice Award, two Teen Choice Awards and many more.
“As for Mr. Ryan Reynolds, just look at this photograph,” Kroeger adds, before the screen flashes to a photo of the Deadpool star as Nickelback’s 2005 hit “Photograph” begins to play. “That is a beautiful Canadian man right there.”
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Upon seeing the clip, Reynolds was overjoyed. “My god. I love those guys,” he said in response.
Nickelback’s video was a hilarious parody of a 2018 Once Upon a Deadpool teaser, in which Reynolds’ Deadpool vehemently defends the rock band after someone likened the Marvel franchise to “if the Beatles were produced by Nickelback. It’s music, but it sucks.”
“I’ve had it with all this Nickelback hating. You think that makes you cool with the cool kids in school?” Deadpool angrily says in response, before listing off Nickelback’s array of accomplishments, including selling 50 million albums worldwide, and an array of nominations and awards.
Watch the original video below. Deadpool & Wolverine hits theaters on Friday (July 26).
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07/24/2024
His choices of onstage friends and cover versions made his decade-long MSG run a celebration of pop music history.
07/24/2024
Phish’s Trey Anastasio has 17 years of sobriety under his belt and in late 2023 he paid it forward by opening a residential recovery program, Divided Sky, in his native Vermont with the caseworker who helped him after a 2006 arrest for heroin possession and DWI.
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According to People, the 46-bed facility in Ludlow, VT is a “nonclinical, abstinence-based center that follows the 12-step program” and costs $7,500 for a 30 day stay; financial aid is available for those in need. “I’ve seen people in dire situations come back from this. It’s never too late to have hope,” Anastasio, 59, told the magazine. “Families can be saved.”
The facility’s model is based on The Minnesota recovery center The Retreat, which does not put patients through detox, which Anastasio said helps to keep the cost down. “So basically, you know you’re a drug addict, you’re an alcoholic when you walk in the door. If you need to do detox, we are connected in the local Vermont sober community with places where we would send you to a medical facility to detox,” he said. “Some people need longer than others. There’s a staff that assesses the condition that your loved one is in, and some people would come 20, 30 days, other people might need 90. It’s based on your individual situation. Some people might need longer and that’s perfectly fine.”
Anastasio developed an addiction to OxyContin in 2000 after first taking the prescription painkiller following dental surgery. Within four year, though, the married father of two adult daughters said, “I lost my band, then I almost lost my family,” in reference the substance issues that forced Phish into a two-year hiatus (2000-2002) that led to a reunion and then to another break in 2004 that lasted until 2008. “Drinking and drugging, for me it was a slow death of isolation.”
Anastasio got professional help after a Dec. 15, 2006 arrest in upstate New York on drug and DWI charges. “The minute I got arrested, I was relieved,” he said, adding that when he was handcuffed he “knew it was over.” At the time, prosecutors said Anastasio was arrested for weaving down a rural road near the Vermont border and was facing felony drug possession charges after police found hydrocodone, as well as misdemeanor drug possession charges for heroin, oxycodone and the anti-anxiety drug alprazolam (also known as Xanax).
The jam band leader and solo star pleaded guilty in April 2007 to a felony drug charge and avoided jail time in a plea agreement in which the more serious charges were dropped and he agreed to enter a 14-month drug court program in which he attended meetings and did court-ordered community service. According to People he hasn’t touched drugs or drink since.
Divided Sky’s program director is Melanie Gulde, who served as Anastasio’s caseworker at the time. “She saved my life,” Anastasio said of Gulde. “She’s a badass, but she’s also very loving.” Anastasio began raising the funds to open Divided Sky in 2020 via his “Beacon Jams” residency shows at the Beacon Theatre in New York.
“I hope people take away the fact that humans are resilient. Recovery is the greatest gift we can give ourselves,” said Gulde. “Divided Sky came about as Trey’s desire to give back on a bigger scale. I have had countless people tell me that Trey has been an inspiration for their own recovery. We must do the work, and that is exactly what he does.”
In addition to his ongoing touring and recording with Phish — who recently released their 16th studio album, Evolve — Anastasio has released a dozen albums, including 2022’s Mercy.
If you or someone you know is struggling with substance abuse, please contact the SAMHSA helpline at 1-800-662-HELP.