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Fall Out Boy
Through July 2nd
Tickets: $17-$40
Openers: The Academy Is . . . , +44, Paul Wall
Until recently, Fall Out Boy's summer concerts were no-frills Warped Tour sets, but now the Chicago foursome is headlining a flashy minifestival of its own, complete with pyro, jumbo video screens, a Michael Jackson cover and three opening acts. "It's the single biggest show we've ever done," says bassist Pete Wentz. "If something goes wrong, it's not like somebody's out of tune -- it's like, 'Somebody got hit by a pyro and might be dead!' "
Any fond summer-concert memories?
I saw Jimmy Buffett when I was eight years old, and my dad let me
drink a beer. I've seen Warped Tour forever. I remember going when
New Found Glory was on at the same time as Green Day, and running
in between the two stages.
How did "Beat It" make it into your set
list?
I have an obsession with Michael Jackson. The only movie I'll watch
lately is Moonwalker, which is ridiculous. "Beat It" seemed like a
song that would be cool and that we could do our own take on. It's
pretty sweet; everyone does some dance moves and whatnot. I'm sure
we'll get dressed up for it one day too, costumewise.
What's the best part of the show?
My favorite would be when Patrick [Stump] plays "Golden" on piano
by himself. I experience it from offstage, but it seems really
poignant.
Do you snack during that break?
I could, but it's like halftime of a soccer game, and at halftime
you don't really get snacks. You get orange slices at halftime, and
at the end of the game you get a chewy, crunchy granola bar and a
Capri Sun.
Fergie
Through July 24th
Opener: Rooney
"I'm so stoked!" says Fergie about her first-ever solo tour. Before the Black Eyed Pea and platinum-selling pop star headed off to blast through songs from her hit album, The Dutchess, she talked with Rolling Stone about her rock & roll jones and essential snack foods.
What are you up to right now?
I'm at home. I got, like, locksmiths and blinds installers coming.
Taking care of small stuff, you know?
So what's up with your summer tour? Is it going to be a
big, choreographed show?
It'll be a mixture. I have four dancers and choreographed parts.
But I am definitely keeping a rock element. I just remade
"Barracuda" for the Shrek 3 soundtrack. Two of my vocal
idols are Axl Rose and Robert Plant, and you hear them in that
song. If I could, I'd crowd-surf every night, but I think I'd end
up naked with all my clothes ripped off.
So you have a band playing with you,
right?
Yeah, they're like family. I feel comfortable with them. They know
my range [laughs].
Are any special guests going to pop up?
I love the guests on my album. Ludacris came onstage with me in San
Diego, and Will.i.am of course is always around. If someone's in
town, hopefully they'll show up. Come onstage and do your
thing!
What keeps your energy up?
It's all about green juice from Trader Joe's -- it's spinach,
celery and kale. No sugar!
For the taste or the vitamins?
It's all about the vitamins. But I also love Pirate's Booty. That's
a weakness of mine.
Marilyn Manson &
Slayer
July 25th-September 1st
Tickets: $49
"It's two completely different audiences," says Manson of his cross-country run of amphitheaters and arenas with thrash-metal gods Slayer. "I'm really interested to see what happens when they combine. Hopefully, it's not anything that will give me nosebleeds ? unless it's related to narcotics." Expect Slayer, riding the lightning of 2006's Christ Illusion (which debuted in the Top Five, a first for the band), to offer cuts from throughout their twenty-five-year career. "And I just want everyone to be happy and have fun," says Manson, who plans to road-test songs from his killer comeback disc, Eat Me, Drink Me. "Like Bobby McFerrin."
Jimmy
Buffett
Through September 20th
Tickets $33-$226
Buffett has already started this summer's Bama Breeze Tour, the twenty-ninth since the singer, 60, released mainstays "Margaritaville" and "Cheeseburger in Paradise." His shows typically have all the suspense of a North Korean election, and that's the way the Parrotheads like it. Year after year, they turn out to hear the "Big Eight" -- the major hits Buffett plays at every show -- and make like sharks during "Fins."
Do you ever get sick of the hits?
You have to give people what they want. I'm not out there to make
statements. I'm descended from court jesters, not theologians, and
I just go out there to entertain. Joseph Campbell said, "If you
have a really great old car, and it keeps running, you may want to
change the paint and seat covers, but you don't want to sell the
car."
Anything new this year?
We went to [Caribbean island] Anguilla and did a show in March, and
I said, "Let's find ten songs of mine we haven't done in twenty
years." We shot a video of that show that's going to be out in
December. There are songs out of that batch, like "Domino College,"
that are working really well in the show.
Any chance the new material could displace any of the
"Big Eight"?
On the last tour, we didn't play "Why Don't We Get Drunk and
Screw," which is one of the eight. It was an accident, because I
plugged some stuff in, and when I finished the show, I went, "Oh,
my God, we didn't do 'Get Drunk and Screw,' " which you figure in
Texas is a must. Well, nobody yelled or threw anything, so we
didn't do it the whole tour.
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The Police
Through November 11th
Tickets: $60-$250
Opener: Fiction Plane
The Police -- singer-bassist-songwriter Sting, drummer Stewart Copeland and guitarist Andy Summers -- opened their first world tour in twenty-three years on May 27th in Vancouver. The set list is virtually all hits and crowd favorites, plus a dynamic version of the 1983 B side "Murder by Numbers." There is also a surprising omission, at least for now: "Bring on the Night," from 1979's Reggatta de Blanc. "I fucking love the way we're doing it," says Copeland. "But it ain't working for Sting."
After not playing together for so long, how hard is it
to avoid falling into old bad habits?
We are totally full of bad habits that we've had to work hard to
weed out. My worst is that I speed up. I have a complicated sense
of rhythm and decoration. If I don't hear it, I fill it. I have to
prune that. For other members of the band, similar sacrifices have
to be made. And it's been difficult, harder than any of us thought,
to do that -- to give things up.
Have you changed any arrangements substantially from the
original records?
There are songs where I have another drum set -- timpani, bells,
cool stuff -- and I've programmed rhythms, created loops. We're
playing live, but it's like a new version of the band. It really
excites us. And I can sense that if Sting ends up writing a new
song or gets to thinking about how to use this band to create new
music, it will be this kind of thing that inspires him rather than
rearranging "Roxanne."
With Genesis, Crowded House and Smashing Pumpkins out
there, the Police picked a crowded year to hit the road
again.
No, we picked a less crowded year. We're not thinking in terms of
reunions. We're competing with the biggest acts in the world. Last
year, it was the Rolling Stones and Madonna. We get to be the
dinosaur of this year.
True
Colors
June 8th-June 30th
Tickets: $21.00 - $205.50
Line-up: Cyndi Lauper, Erasure, Debbie Harry, The Gossip, The
Dresden Dolls
When "True Colors" hit the top of the charts in 1986 Cyndi Lauper starting to get a stream of letters from gay fans deeply moved by the songs message of acceptance. "Basically every letter I opened talked to me about True Colors and how it gave them the strength to continue," Lauper says. "I thought at that moment if there was something I could do, I would do it." It took two decades, but this summer Cyndi Lauper is rounding up friends Debbie Harry, The Gossip, Dresden Dolls, Erasure and Margaret Cho for a fifteen city tour to raise awareness of gay rights and raise money for the Human Rights Council and the Matthew Shepherd Foundation. Check your local listings: Rufus Wainwright, The Indigo Girls and Rosie O?Donnell will stop by for select dates. Lauper says she's especially psyched to bring the tour to Red States ? and that she's not afraid of protestors. "They're welcome," she says. "They'll get an erase hate bracelet at the door just like everybody else."
The
Decemberists
June 17th-July 22nd
Tickets: $20-$105
Opener: Band of Horses
The Decemberists will turn their charming chamber-pop tunes into full-blown symphonies when they hit the road in June. Conductor Sean O'Loughlin (who has worked with Belle and Sebastian) is touring with the Portland, Oregon, band, which will team up with local orchestras in five cities, including L.A. and Atlanta. "A lot of our songs have what we call fake indie orchestras, where we overlay string upon string upon string," says Decemberists frontman Colin Meloy. "This will be a new adventure for us."
The White
Stripes
June 17th-July 31st
Tickets: $30-$50
Singer-guitarist Jack White and drummer Meg White are heading way off the beaten track on the White Stripes' first tour in two years. They will play shows in the far north of Canada as well as at Bonnaroo, Madison Square Garden and a blues festival -- a first for the Stripes -- in Ottawa. "A lot of people don't know that we have anything to do with the blues," says Jack. "But every time we sing or play a note, that's the root of it -- the blues."
After the Raconteurs, how does it feel going back to the
power of two?
The Raconteurs are more of a conventional band. I play a guitar
solo, and the other guys keep going behind it. In the White
Stripes, I play rhythm and lead at the same time. I constantly keep
the show going. And there is an intensity between Meg and I that I
can't comprehend at times. I know it pushes me to do better, to do
more than I would. I've got that vibe in my brain: "I got to keep
it going."
How will you arrange songs from Icky Thump for the
stage? In "I'm Slowly Turning Into You," there's organ and glam
guitar. Which will you play live?
Some nights I'll play it on organ, some nights on guitar. Or some
nights I'll play one with one hand and one with the other [laughs].
The good thing about the White Stripes is we get to decide when and
where to break our own rules.
The tour includes unusual stops like Montana and Alaska
-- and the Yukon Territory, which is way uptown.
We're playing the last sixteen states we haven't been to yet, and
we're playing every province and territory in Canada. We've never
done a tour of Canada, even after all these years.
And the White Stripes are headlining at the Garden for
the first time.
I don't even know what the Garden looks like -- I'm not from New
York [laughs]. I never imagined the White Stripes, a two-piece
band, could play that place. It's unbelievable.
Bob
Dylan
June 22nd-september 16th
Tickets: $25-$137
When Dylan walked onstage in Stockholm in March, he did something
he hadn't done at his concerts in nearly four years: He played the
guitar. After seven songs, he sauntered back to his keyboard (his
instrument of choice since 2004), but the trend continued through
the rest of his European tour -- and it's likely Dylan will keep it
up when he kicks off his summer with a two-night stand at the
Borgata casino in Atlantic City. But like all things Dylan, you
never know.
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Kelly Clarkson
July 7th-September 29th Tickets: $37-$105 Opener: Mat Kearney
It's no secret that Clarkson clashed with her record label during the making of her new, harder-rocking album, My December, which she wrote almost entirely on her own. But the original American Idol winner says the conflict is just going to make for better shows this summer. "I'm pretty much gonna rock it out," says Clarkson. " 'Cause it's just like, 'Damn, I had to work so hard for y'all to even hear this song!' "
How much were you thinking about live performance as you
created this album?
It's definitely more of a touring album. There's stuff that we can
really rock out to, and then there's intimate moments that will be
so pretty 'cause we're bringing strings and horns out.
Do you still sing your first single, "A Moment Like
This"?
I haven't sang that one in a while, just because we sang it for,
like, three tours, then I changed it up and did kind of a punk
version of it.
Will you do some new covers?
We're probably gonna do a country cover in the Southern states, mix
it up a little bit. Maybe Willie Nelson in Texas and maybe some
Prince up North. We're trying to think of some different things to
do all over the place.
Do you still perform barefoot? I know that was your
thing for a while.
That's been my thing forever. There's only special occasions when I
wear shoes. And even when I sang on the Grammys, I was barefoot. I
cannot stand wearing shoes when I sing.
Why?
I love feeling, like, the vibrations in my feet? I don't know!
Dave Matthews
Band
July 7th-October 2nd
Tickets: $25-$65
Openers Umphrey's McGee, Robert Randolph
After the Dave Matthews Band play the Live Earth festival at Giants Stadium on July 7th, they'll kick off a summer stretch of U.S. amphitheater dates, including a pair of tour-closing blowouts at the Hollywood Bowl. Matthews, who is expecting his third child any minute, is psyched to bring along his wife and kids. "I'll take my family on the road for as long as they'll have me," he says.
What's going on with the new DMB album?
We have so many ideas, but they haven't found a comfort zone. None
of it's bad, but there's nothing that grabs us yet. So we said,
"It's not working now," and everyone agreed. We're not forcing
things.
What one DMB song are you most excited about dragging
out of the vaults this summer?
We played it a couple times last summer, but I'd like to play "The
Last Stop" [from 1998's Before These Crowded Streets]
enough times that it becomes second nature. That's the bastard I
wanna bring out.
How are your barbecuing skills?
I like to barbecue, but I'll tell you the truth: It's a lot of
fucking pressure. I can't handle the pressure.
What will be your summer libation?
There's a lot of Scots who would murder me for it, but you take a
mediocre scotch -- not a shit one, we're not talking about Virginia
Gentleman -- fill a big glass with ice, pour a little scotch in the
bottom, and fill the rest with water. I can drink them from morning
to night, and they keep me on a nice, comfy level.
Ozzfest
July 12th-august 30th
Tickets: Free
Totally free for the first time, Ozzfest has transformed from a glossy extravaganza of metal's biggest names to a Warped-style festival starring hungry young bands such as Lamb of God, Lordi, Behemoth and Hatebreed. "Musical snobs can go fuck themselves, for all I care," Sharon Osbourne says. "We wanted younger, cutting-edge bands who want an audience." Ozzy himself will headline the show, playing half of his new album, Black Rain, plus older solo stuff and a few obscure Black Sabbath songs.
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The Allman Brothers Band
July 31st-September 2nd
Tickets: $20-$66
Opener: Robert Randolph
During their recent residency at New York's Beacon Theatre, the Southern-rock kings tested some surprising new material for their summer tour, including covers of Miles Davis' "In a Silent Way" and Led Zeppelin's "Dazed and Confused." "The band is taking more liberties, both in the super-improvisational realm and in tipping the hat to bands that were rolling when the Allman Brothers were first going," says guitarist Derek Trucks. "Gregg [Allman] and the original guys are much more comfortable in their skin and with the legacy of the band."
Velvet
Revolver
August 4th-October
Tickets: TBD
Opener: Alice in Chains
"I'm the epitome of a teenage rock fan," says Slash, who'll hit the interstates with Velvet Revolver in August to promote their killer new disc, Libertad. "The whole circus aspect of it has always turned me on. I love touring. I don't give a fuck if it's in the summer or the dead of winter."
Billy Idol told me that sweating in leather pants leaves
your legs black. Does that happen to you?
Yeah. The ultimate combination is leather, extreme heat, alcohol
and drugs. You sweat in those leather pants and jacket, and your
whole body is like black ink. But that's how I dress, rain or
shine.
What music do you bring on the road?
I used to carry a stereo around in a road case on wheels. It was
two feet by four feet and three feet high, and it had drawers full
of CDs: the Stones, Zeppelin, Cream, Albert King, B.B. King, AC/DC,
Albert Collins and Jeff Beck. The roadies had to roll it into my
hotel room, but at least they knew where the party was later. Now I
got an iPod loaded with everything from ZZ Top to fuckin' Disney
soundtracks.
How many axes do you take on the road?
There's my main ax [his signature Gibson Les Paul] and a backup,
guitars that have different tunings, a double-neck and a backup,
Fly guitars, tremolo guitars. I'd say fourteen.
Your birthday is July 23rd. How do you like to celebrate
on the road?
I like to pretend it's not happening. I don't like to have a lot of
attention, unless I'm onstage.
Genesis
September 7th-october 13th
Tickets: $57-$352
Last October, Phil Collins bumped into John Mayer backstage at a charity event in Las Vegas. "He said, 'It's fantastic Genesis is getting back together,' " Collins recalls. "It struck me that people like John Mayer, who you would never suspect of being a Genesis fan, were interested in coming to see us." There must be millions who share Mayer's dark secret, because Genesis are selling out stadiums across Europe and America.
Wasn't this originally going to be a reunion of the
Peter Gabriel-era Genesis?
The original five members of the group got together in a hotel room
in Glasgow a couple of years ago. It was interesting to see
everybody thirty years on. I was still the joker, Pete was still
indecisive, Steve [Hackett] was still dark. Everybody had assumed
their old positions, and I think that may have sounded a warning
bell to Peter. After he and Steve left, I said, "Do you fancy just
doing the three-piece thing?"
Have any songs not made it past
rehearsal?
That happened with "Abacab," which I'm sure everyone expects us to
do. Halfway through the first verse, I said, "I don't really want
to sing this. I don't know what it's about."
How much drumming are you doing?
Quite a lot. I'm stuck behind a kit playing songs I haven't played
for twenty-five years, so I had an awful lot of work to do. It's
slowly coming back.
What's the main difference between touring in the
Seventies and touring now?
As the stage lights tilt and hit the audience, we get blinded by
the reflection off all the eyeglasses and balding pates.
Beastie
Boys
Dates: TBD
Tickets: TBD
"The plan is, we're actually going to do two different shows," says B-Boy Adam Yauch, whose group is about to release the new, all-instrumental The Mix-Up. "Some will be more like a regular show and some based around our instruments." So in addition to the full B-Boy bouillabaisse, Yauch, Adam Horovitz and Mike Diamond will play more intimate theater performances, jamming on cuts from their new album as well as gems from The In Sound From Way Out. Though the full lineup of dates isn't concrete, "we're talking about Madison Square Garden, Shea Stadium, wherever," says Horovitz, who is probably lying about one of those venues.