Photo: Webber/WireImage

There are drawbacks to performing an entire album live in concert — even for the Pixies, who unfurled 1989’s groundbreaking Doolittle on Wednesday in the first of three sold-out nights at the Hollywood Palladium. “You can’t skip it if you don’t like any of the songs,” bassist-singer-chatterbox Kim Deal noted onstage with a blissful grin. “You have to listen to all of them.”

The reunited Pixies began a nine-city U.S. Doolittle Tour this week in Los Angeles, marking the 20th anniversary of their alt-rock classic. Its intense mix of sonic dementia and soaring pop melody was brought to life in a 90-minute set filled out with memorable, if overlooked Pixies B sides from the same era, beginning with the heavy thump of “Dancing the Manta Ray,” the thrashing Spanish guitar of “Weird At My School” and the blistering, spooky surf sounds of “Bailey’s Walk.”

Before stepping onstage, the Pixies began with an unexpected screening of the 1929 surrealistic silent short Un chien andalou, with its notorious images of a sliced eyeball, severed hand, a man in nun’s clothing and other provocative visuals to warm a Pixie’s soul. It was directed by Luis Bunuel, the subject of the band’s raging “Debaser,” which opens Doolittle with a shriek of madness and release from singer-guitarist Black Francis: “Got me a movie / I want you to know/slicing up eyeballs . . .!” (more…)

Photo: Noam Galai
It was a chant that hadn’t been heard in Manhattan in more than two years, and it started a little after 9 p.m., as the anxious crowd who packed out the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom started growing more and more impatient: “EVAN-ES-SCENTS, EVAN-ES-SCENTS.” And though the last time Amy Lee floated across a stage George W. Bush was in office, you wouldn’t have been able to tell from the band’s adept, hard-charging performance.

But as the Evanescence frontwoman explained to the audience at last night’s extremely intimate secret concert, the one-off performance was quite necessary. After all, on November 8th, Evanescence will be performing before 40,000 screaming fans at the Maquinaria Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil, and the band needed a little limbering up before heading south. “Thanks for being our guinea pigs,” Lee joked to the mostly female crowd.

Check out our collection of Evanescence photos.

With Evanescence hard at work on the follow-up to 2006’s The Open Door, it’ll be another year before they’re back in New York, making last night’s concert a one-of-a-kind experience for the band’s rabid fans, who sold out the show in five minutes. (more…)

Photo: Gardner/Getty

“You don’t mind if I play a little music?” Lenny Kravitz asked as he closed the Voodoo Music Experience Sunday night in New Orleans. After a weekend of costume and spectacle, his two-hour set was almost old school in its focus on songs and musicianship.

Voodoo ‘09 in photos: Eminem, Kiss and more.

The show was a homecoming for Kravitz, who bought a house in New Orleans in 1991 after visiting to see Aretha Franklin play Jazz Fest. (He performed alongside the Queen of Soul Friday night at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary concert in New York.) Little in his two-hour show seemed specifically geared for a New Orleans audience until the encore, when he called local musician Trombone Shorty to the stage to rave up the extended encore of “Let Love Rule.”

Read about Eminem’s return to the stage at Voodoo fest.

The set was part of Kravitz’s 20th anniversary tour for Let Love Rule — an album he recently reexamined for Rolling Stone — but he didn’t make it halfway through the album. Instead, he sprinkled songs from his debut through a hits-oriented show that periodically stretched songs including “Believe” and “Blues for Sister Someone” into lengthy, funky jams that walked the fine line between exploratory and meandering. His only concession to showmanship as a bank of neon tubes on the back wall that evoked an American flag during “American Woman,” which marked him as a yang to the Flaming Lips’ yin. (more…)

Photo: Crothers/FilmMagic

Free breakfast has become a hotel staple, but how can Phish fans be sated while camping in the middle of the scorching California desert for Festival 8? A Sunday high-noon acoustic set with gratis coffee and donuts, shaped fittingly, like the number eight.

Check out photos from Festival 8.

Most of the 40,000 in attendance (many still buzzing about the band’s Halloween monster take on the Rolling Stones’ Exile On Main Street) straggled in to enjoy the band’s first-ever full-length unplugged set Sunday morning. The band — playing under eight red-and-black banners that hung from the lighting rig to the stage — kicked off with “Water in the Sky” and the chugging “Back on the Train.” Befitting the mellow mood, not to mention the punishing SoCal sun, fans dutifully obeyed singer-guitarist Trey Anastasio’s request to sit down because “we’re gonna play a lot of mellow tunes.” (more…)

Photo: Crothers/FilmMagic

Combining two of their most beloved traditions for the first time — the multi-day festival and the Halloween album “costume” — Phish got their rocks off at their Festival 8 in Indio, California, during the second of a three-day set with a crushing start-to-finish version of the Rolling Stones‘ classic Exile On Main Street. Just a day earlier, Stones frontman Mick Jagger took the stage himself 3,000 miles away, joining U2 at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame concert in New York.

Under pristine conditions at the Empire Polo Field and in front of a devoted Phish crowd of 40,000 fans, the Vermont foursome rollicked in Exile’s swamp blues and roadhouse country, extending several songs with their own jams, highlighted by a spacey interlude between “Ventilator Blues” into the gospel-esque “I Just Want to See His Face.” Special guests Sharon Jones and three horn players (one, trumpeter David Guy is a Dap King) added their own flourishes (horns to “Sweet Black Angel”), and each band member took lead vocal turns. Incredibly, four of the double album’s songs made their big-stage live debut —”Soul Survivor,” a scorching “Casino Boogie,” “Turd On the Run” and the flickering ballad “Let It Loose” — having never been performed by the Stones themselves. The set clocked in at nearly a 100 minutes, 33 more than the actual album. (more…)

Photo: Flanigan/FilmMagic
Trying to resolve Eminem’s contradictions is a loser’s game. How do you reconcile the artist who asked the men in the audience at Voodoo Music Experience in New Orleans Friday night to yell, “Fuck you, bitches” (and the women to answer, “Fuck you, assholes”) with the guy who encored with the encouraging “Lose Yourself”? The scabrous pop culture critic with the MC who penned murder fantasy “3 a.m.,” which opened the set with a bloody, Saw-like trailer? The audience at Voodoo didn’t try; they were just thrilled he was there.

See photos from the Voodoo Music Experience 2009

This year’s Halloween weekend festival includes Kiss, Jane’s Addiction, the Flaming Lips, Lenny Kravitz and Justice, who chain-smoked their way through a DJ set on a damp, biting Friday night. A downpour soaked the grounds of City Park and dropped the temperature 20 degrees, which cut down any walk-up traffic for one of Eminem’s only 2009 shows, but it didn’t hurt the gig. For the occasion, Eminem had a live band dressed in skeleton costumes that added muscle, particularly in the closing “Without Me.” To further beef up the sound, he was joined onstage by a hype-man throughout, and D12 for part of the show. He took time out to salute the late Proof, “the real leader of the group” in one of the set’s few tender moments. (more…)

Photo: Kane/WireImage

As the second night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary came to its climax, after nearly four hours of jaw-dropping musical collaborations, almost anything seemed possible. By this point Metallica had played with Ozzy Osbourne, Ray Davies and Lou Reed; Jeff Beck had jammed with Sting and Billy Gibbons; and U2 brought out Patti Smith, Bruce Springsteen and the Black Eyed Peas for their closing set. Yet, few people were prepared for what happened when U2 began playing the intro to “Gimme Shelter” with Will.i.am at the keyboard and Fergie recreating Merry Clayton’s apocalyptic vocal intro. Without a word of introduction by Bono, surprise guest Mick Jagger sprinted onstage as the capacity crowd at Madison Square Garden let out one of the loudest cheers I’ve ever heard.

Relive the Rock Hall’s second giant night in live photos.

The show began, as it did on night one, with Jerry Lee Lewis alone at the piano. This time he did “Great Balls of Fire” — concluding with the 74-year-old legend violently kicking over his piano stool. A short film about gospel and soul music preceded Aretha Franklin’s entrance, who looked radiant in a bright red dress. Backed by a huge band that featured her son Teddy on guitar and a horn section, Franklin’s set featured a cover of “New York, New York” and her 1970 hit “Don’t Play That Song (You Lied),” which she dedicated to the song’s co-writer, Ahmet Ertegun. Annie Lennox, who bowed down to Franklin as she took the stage, dueted on “Chain of Fools” and Lenny Kravitz joined the Queen of Soul for “Think.” An encore of “Respect” had the entire crowd singing “R-E-S-P-E-C-T.” (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

It was well past 1:00 a.m. when the first night of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame’s 25th anniversary celebration began winding down. For six hours, a capacity crowd at New York’s Madison Square Garden had been dancing in the aisles to a superstar lineup only the Hall of Fame could produce: Bruce Springsteen, Simon & Garfunkel, Stevie Wonder, Crosby, Stills and Nash, Dion, Sting, Bonnie Raitt, James Taylor, John Fogerty, Jackson Browne and many others. It seemed like Springsteen and surprise guest Billy Joel swapping verses on “Born to Run” was the finale, but then many of the night’s acts took the stage with the E Street Band and kicked into Jackie Wilson’s “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher And Higher.” Nobody seemed to want the party to end, curfews be damned.

See the Rock Hall concerts’ most epic moments and special guests.

The evening began with a speech by Tom Hanks, whose production company is turning the two concerts into a four-hour HBO special that airs November 29th. “When we were confused, rock & roll gave us purpose,” he said. “Hail, hail rock & roll.” Jerry Lee Lewis then kicked into his 1957 hit “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin On” — a track he played at the first Hall of Fame induction ceremony in 1986. After a five-minute film highlighting American bands of the 1960s, Crosby, Stills and Nash began their set with “Woodstock,” which featured incredible guitar work by Stephen Stills. Other highlights of their 10-song set were “Almost Cut My Hair,” and the Buffalo Springfield classic “Rock and Roll Woman.”

CSN’s first guest was their longtime friend Bonnie Raitt, who Crosby called “my favorite singer in the whole world.” (more…)

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

The first of two massive Rock and Roll Hall of Fame 25th anniversary shows at Madison Square Garden isn’t even over yet, and the monumental moments just keep coming on the stage of the storied New York venue. [Update] After six hours — that’s right, six hours — Bruce Springsteen brought the show to an end with a soul throwdown on “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher.” Check back tomorrow for our full reports, but here’s a taste of the action (follow along in our Rock Hall Concerts photo gallery):

• Jerry Lee Lewis reminds the crowd of rock & roll’s ’50s roots by settling in at a white baby grand for “Whole Lotta Shakin’ Goin’ On.”

• Crosby, Stills and Nash add another layer of perfect harmony when James Taylor joins in on “Love the One You’re With.” The capper: one of many awe-inspiring guitar solos by Stephen Stills.

• Bonnie Raitt joins CSN for her own “Love Has No Pride,” and later tells the press, “To go back in my catalog and do something I rarely do live was angelic for me.” (more…)

Photo: Flanigan/FilmMagic
Rivers Cuomo loves his job. It wasn’t always so for the Weezer frontman, who was visibly wary of the spotlight in his earliest days on the Los Angeles music scene, even after he became a consistent craftsman of modern rock. But just weeks ahead of their newest album, Raditude, Weezer delivered a high-energy concert of flash and warmth at the Hollywood Palladium Saturday night, emerging onstage in resplendent white, hooded track suits, equal parts hip-hop and retirement colony, to thunder through 70 playful minutes of alt-rock and pop.

From the opening roar of “Hash Pipe,” Cuomo both toyed with and reveled in the frontman role, hopping in place or muttering in German before “Pork and Beans” and then punching the air to shout a defiant lyric: “I don’t give a hoot about what you think!” As the dreamy opening guitar from 1994’s “Undone – The Sweater Song” unfurled in the old dance hall, the singer lifted a slogan from his heroes in Kiss to announce: “You wanted the best? You got the best. Weezer!” (more…)

Photo: Brecheisen/WireImage

The 23rd Bridge School Benefit, the annual concert organized by Neil Young and his wife, Pegi, to raise money for the Northern California school for kids with severe speech and physical impairments cofounded by the latter, demonstrated how beautifully old can blend with the new this weekend. In addition to long-toothed fans and young ears sitting side by side on a beautiful Indian-summer Sunday in Mountain View at Shoreline Amphitheatre, new groups like Fleet Foxes could be heard mimicking old sounds, newish band Wolfmother showed off an even newer version of itself and the alt-rock vets in No Doubt proved that they’ve been reborn.

Bridge School ‘09 in photos: Gwen Stefani, Wolfmother, Sheryl Crow and more.

Following a pre-show performance by the Dennis Alley Wisdom Dancers, who then joined Young for his first version of “Comes A Time,” Mr. Gwen Stefani, a.k.a. Gavin Rossdale, got the nine-act, seven-and-a-half-hour show on the road with a set that included covers of Fleetwood Mac’s “Landslide” and Prince’s “Sometimes It Snows In April” as well as old Bush hits. Next up was frontman Andrew Stockdale and his reconfigured Wolfmother, which had no trouble keeping its energy level at 11 despite the Bridge School concert’s unofficial rule to go acoustic. Even the students, who sit on the stage during the show, felt the jolt from Australia’s answer to Led Zeppelin, with some of them seen rocking out in their wheelchairs.

Fleet Foxes wunderkind leader Robin Pecknold talked about sitting on the Shoreline lawn with his dad during the 2000 edition of Bridge School, then proceeded to give audience members their own great memories with a heavily harmonized set that included “Your Protector” and “Sun Giant.” The band’s timeless choral-folk sound has been compared to My Morning Jacket, whose Jim James arrived onstage next with his Monsters of Folk supergroup, which also features M. Ward and Bright Eyes’ Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis. (more…)

They weren’t billed as headliners on Saturday’s SmokeOut Festival, which rolled out pot-friendly acts like Method Man and Redman, Cheech & Chong, Kottonmouth Kings and hosts Cypress Hill, but there’s no doubt Sublime, featuring surviving members Eric Wilson and Bud Gaugh — with 21-year-old Rome Ramirez positioned where the late Brad Nowell once stood — were a major draw for the estimated 15,000 fans who trekked out to San Bernardino, California, this weekend.

It was only the band’s second stage appearance in the 13 years since Nowell died of a heroin overdose, and before Ramirez strummed the first chord, the performance was fraught with controversy. As Rolling Stone reported, days earlier, representatives for Nowell’s estate filed suit against Wilson, Gaugh and Ramirez, citing trademark infringement for using the band’s moniker on the SmokeOut lineup. In a statement released October 21st, the estate declared, “It was Brad’s expressed intention that no one use the name Sublime in any group that did not include him, and Brad even registered the trademark ‘Sublime’ under his own name.” But a District Court judge allowed the show to go on, and Wilson and Gaugh shot back with their own missive, which read, “While we all mourn the passing of our brother and bandmate Bradley Nowell some 13 years ago, Sublime still has a strong message of hope and love… Brad’s heirs apparently do not share this vision.”

Fortunately, it seemed the fans, many who were too young to have experienced Sublime while Nowell was alive, remained blissfully unaware of the drama, and as the threesome hit the stage in the early afternoon, the crowd welcomed them back with open minds and hearts. (more…)

For Echo & The Bunnymen, arrogance is the elixir of inspiration — it’s almost like egomania is the drug that makes them dream, leading them into states of dementia, delirium, and — if they’re lucky — musical splendor. When the post-punk sex mystics played a rare intimate small-club date at New York’s Mercury Lounge on Saturday night, Ian McCulloch was definitely his awesomely arrogant self, never removing his shades, rambling in his thick Liverpool brogue. It was a glorious show, in part because McCulloch knew he had the crowd in his paw. In the middle of “Rescue,” he began a rant as the band vamped behind him, then instructed them, “Quiet down — this is a speech. If I play my cards right it might be a soliloquy. Can anyone spell soliloquy?” It was that kind of gig.

Coasting on their excellent new album The Fountain, the Bunnymen had confidence to spare, although they only touched on the album briefly with “Think I Need It Too.” (Mac’s introduction to that one was, “I can’t remember what’s next — aaaaah, this one’s a classic!”) (more…)

Photograph by Autumn De Wilde
Monsters of Folk played a monster-sized set last night at L.A.’s Greek Theatre, running through 35 songs in just under three hours — with no opener and no intermission — in support of the indie-rock supergroup’s self-titled debut, which came out about a month ago. The Monsters comprise My Morning Jacket frontman Jim James; singer-songwriter (and She & Him guy) M. Ward; and Conor Oberst and Mike Mogis, both of Bright Eyes, and at the Greek the band’s set alternated Monsters of Folk cuts with material from each member’s respective catalog. Simply put, if you ever wind up in a game of Name That Tune with one of these dudes, come prepared.

Backed up on drums by Will Johnson of Centro-matic, the four musicians traded instrumental duties throughout the concert, with Mogis serving as something of a secret-weapon utility man: He laid some high-lonesome pedal steel on the Gram Parsons-ish “The Right Place,” peeled off an insanely fast mandolin lick in Ward’s “To Save Me” and even got busy on the triangle during “Slow Down Jo.” James funked up “Whole Lotta Losin’ ” with a killer fuzz-bass freak-out, while Ward picked out a dizzying Leo Kottke-style solo in a jazz-folk take on his “One Hundred Million Years.” Oberst stuck to guitar for most of the evening but ventured behind the keyboard several times, most memorably during “His Master’s Voice,” which closed the show on a mournful avant-gospel note. (more…)

Photo: Ken Grand-Pierre
“It’s a lot of new music,” said Them Crooked Vultures frontman Josh Homme onstage at the Roseland Ballroom for the New York debut of his supergroup with Dave Grohl and John Paul Jones last night. “It’s not often you get to hear a bunch of music that you have no idea what’s gonna happen.”

Supergroups supergallery: Cream, Audioslave and more.

Debuting in public seems like a coup in the age of instant leaks and message board spoilers. And Them Crooked Vultures got nothing short of a hero’s welcome for a show where the only material anyone knew was from spotty camera phone YouTubes and exactly 137 seconds of studio music floating around. They packed the enormous Roseland on name alone with tickets that went for $54.50; they sold tons of merch without a single leaked song to their name; they had a father and son team already running around in matching Them Crooked Vultures T-shirts.

Check out photos of Them Crooked Vultures and more acts from Austin City Limits. (more…)