Beck kept things simple at the launch of his 2008 North American tour at the Grand Sierra Theatre in Reno, Nevada, on Thursday night. No marionettes, no Flaming Lips, no flaming guitars or leaf-blowers, but just the full range and restlessness of his music and a minimum of special effects, with a packed set-list stretching from the early ’90s and up to his new album, Modern Guilt.

Beck arrived onstage with blond hair down to his shoulders and slid right into the tense groove of “Devil’s Haircut” as he and his four-piece band unleashed a quick succession of recent tunes: the funky, rumbling “Nausea” and a frantic “Timebomb.” Things slowed down long enough for Beck to play several moments of raw, gutbucket slide guitar, leading into the opening of “Loser,” the twangy post-modern blues rant that launched his career back in 1994.

Among the newest songs was “Gamma Ray,” with its go-go beat and Beck’s jittery lyrics on melting icecaps and “smokestack lightning out my window.” (more…)

Hope springs eternal in King Crimson freaks. Just before the band’s second encore last night at the Nokia Theater in New York, a guy in the row behind me announced excitedly, “I’ve waited thirty-four years for ‘Schizoid Man.’” He didn’t get it. King Crimson, now celebrating their fortieth anniversary, ended the first of four small-room shows here by not playing the most obvious encore: the fuzz-and-fury beast “21st Century Schizoid Man,” from the group’s 1969 debut album, In the Court of the Crimson King. It has, in fact, been a rare sighting for decades — I’ve only seen them play it once, in Philadelphia in 1974, sandwiched on a bill between the Kinks and Peter Frampton.

But King Crimson, from the start, were never stable enough to get nostalgic — they had been through more than half a dozen lineups when founding guitarist Robert Fripp first disbanded the group in the mid-Seventies — and the current band comes with its own set of changes: (more…)

On Friday (8/8/08), 88 drummers played for 88 minutes at the La Brea Tar Pits in Los Angeles and in Brooklyn, New York, on the Williamsburg waterfront in an annual project that was this year titled “88 BoaDrum.” Lead by the Japanese psych-rock band Boredoms, the drummers played full drum kits arranged in a spiral formation. Onstage in L.A., Boredoms were the spiral’s center. I was drummer 56, on the outer shell of the spiral, and the 88 minutes were a blur. (more…)

When two of the singers who most define the genre are in the house, calling a tour featuring Judas Priest, Black Sabbath, and Motorhead the “Metal Masters Tour” doesn’t have even a hint of hyperbole.

The ashen skies threatened to open at any moment at Long Island’s Jones Beach Theater on Sunday, but even though lightning crackled in the distance during Judas Priest’s night-closing set, the evening remained dry. The band only pulled out one song from this year’s Nostradamus, so the rest of the set was dedicated to the glory days of yore. Apart from the old standbys (”Breaking the Law,” “Metal Gods,” “Hell Bent for Leather”), the deeper cuts provided some of the evening’s finer moments, especially a thunderous rendition of “Dissident Aggressor” and “Hell Patrol,” an unjustly forgotten number from the Painkiller album.

Though the ticket read “Heaven and Hell,” a Ronnie James Dio-fronted Black Sabbath is still Black Sabbath. (more…)

Sure, Trey Anastasio unveiled a couple of new songs and dusted off a couple of old Phish favorites (”Gotta Jiboo,” “Sand” and “Bug”) at last night’s comeback show with his Trey Anastasio Band at the tiny Williamsburg Music Hall in Brooklyn, New York. But the highlight of his show came during the mellowest point of the night. During the breezy ballad “Drifting,” Anastasio crooned, “I’ve been drifting for years at sea/ But now you’ve come along to rescue me.” Never has that sentiment rang truer: after getting arrested for drug possession in upstate New York in 2006 and subsequently entering court-ordered rehab, Anastasio looked happy and healthy last night as he delivered a lively two-and-a-half hour set to hundreds of adoring fans (including one dude who sported a hockey jersey emblazoned with Anastasio’s name on the back). (more…)

As the final notes of “Next To You” filled the Madison Square Garden air in New York tonight, Stewart Copeland, Andy Summers and Sting held hands and took one final bow as the Police. Someone dressed as an obese opera singer took the stage behind them, and the fat lady literally sang as the Looney Tunes music began playing. As Sting did a goofy dance, Porky Pig spoke: “Obley, obley, obley… That’s all folks.” Sting strode up to the mike as his bandmates began walking offstage. “Madison Square Garden!” he yelled. “Center of the city, center of the world! Goodnight!” Thus marked the end of the 150th and final gig of the Police’s 15-month reunion/farewell tour in which they played to 3.7 million people — and made nearly $386 million.

The night didn’t begin so smoothly. As opposed to the standard opener of “Message in a Bottle,” the band began with a dreadful cover of Cream’s “Sunshine of Your Love.” It was nice to pay homage to another famously embattled trio who also ended a series of recent reunion gigs at Madison Square Garden, but classic rock covers clearly aren’t their forte. Things picked up quickly when the New York City Police Marching Band took the stage and pounded away “Tusk”-style on “Message in a Bottle.” (more…)

Metal is rarely a red-carpet institution, but the Hard Rock Cafe in New York’s Times Square rolled it out last night for a party celebrating local radio personality Eddie Trunk’s 25th anniversary in broadcasting. Members of Black Sabbath, Anthrax and Twisted Sister, comedians Jim Norton and Jim Breuer and former New York Met Mike Piazza paid tribute to the longtime metal advocate, followed by a performance from the evening’s house band, Judas Priest. Decked out in street clothes and toning down the theatrics, Rob Halford and Co. delivered a quick, hits-packed show to an invite-only crowd. The relaxed atmosphere didn’t call for a “leave it all on the stage” level of performance, but happy takes on songs like “Electric Eye” and “Breaking the Law” made the band’s 50-minute set a thing of glee. (more…)

Jim James was everywhere at the Newport Folk Festival in Rhode Island over the weekend. My Morning Jacket’s bearded leader caught Brian Wilson’s headlining set Friday (James said later he was disappointed Wilson didn’t play “Merry Christmas Satan”); strolled along the Newport harbor Saturday morning virtually unnoticed with a white lei around his neck; and sat in during She & Him’s set Saturday afternoon for a duet with Zooey Deschanel before performing a set of his own that conjured up the spirits of Folk Festivals past — Bob Dylan’s groundbreaking 1965 electric set not entirely out of mind. James switched between acoustic guitar and a duct-taped synth, which he used to create a demented drum machine loop for his last song, then packed up and abruptly left the stage as if he had to catch a train. (Unlike Dylan, the crowd did not boo him for it.)

Earlier, the skies opened up over the main stage during Trey Anastasio’s solo set (more…)

“I guess a little rain suits you,” said Bruce Springsteen to the Gillette Stadium crowd, just before launching into “Tunnel of Love” on Saturday night in Foxborough, Massachusetts. After a rousing opening six songs, it was the first time that the Boss took a moment to talk to the rain-soaked crowd. Just before his scheduled start time, a pseudo-Nor’Easter had rocked the Patriots’ home field, causing Bruce and the E Street Band to take the stage almost two hours late.

But there was no dampness to be found in either the crowd’s spirits or the band’s chops. After three triumphant nights at Giants Stadium, the band faithfully replicated its formula of hits and deep cuts, including the handwritten requests of “Does This Bus Stop At 82nd Street?” and “Little Latin Lupe Lu,” not played by E Street since 1977.

Bruce was up to his usual playfulness. (more…)

Midway through last night’s Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band concert at Giants Stadium, Bruce held up a sign from an audience member that read “Play ‘Incident on 57th Street’ for your old, bald fans.” He was seconds away from complying when another sign caught his eye. “Ooh, that’s a good one — let’s do that instead,” he said, before blasting into “Blinded by the Light.” Such last-second decisions were the norm during Springsteen’s three-night stand at the venue, where he played to sold-out crowds of 55,000 fans a night — many holding up gigantic homemade signs like they were at Wrestlemania. The overall effect made night felt like a gigantic Jersey house party.

When Magic tour began last September each night was a carefully planned out, two-hour show with little room for surprises. As it winds down nearly a year later, much has changed. Many of the Magic songs have been dropped, and the show regularly stretches well past the three-hour mark. (more…)

After a headling slot at Pemberton on Friday night, Nine Inch Nails kicked off their North American tour with a 21st-century marriage of old-school showmanship and bleeding-edge technology on Saturday. With a crack four-piece band in tow — including NIN stage vets Robin Finck on guitar and Josh Freese on drums — an adrenalized, finely-coifed Trent Reznor tore through a two-hour set that leaned heavily on new material and included several choice classics.

• Photos: Nine Inch Nails’ “Lights In the Sky” Tour Launches in Seattle

As noted in the tour preview, at least half the show featured the band sandwiched between mesh LED curtains alternating evocative visuals, from falling rain to grainy static to an apocalyptic cityscape. The more obscured the band was by special effects, the more a detached, post-YouTube voyeurism haunted the performance.

About an hour in, a solid backdrop descended at the front of the stage and the band — now a four-piece, minus keyboardist Alessandro Cortini — stepped in front of it. (more…)

Rare is the tour capable of both gobbling up the allowance money of teens and inflating the credit card balances of grown-ups, but the double-bill of ’90s rockers Counting Crows and 21st-century superstars Maroon 5 seems poised to empty pockets of khakis and short shorts alike all summer long.

The Friday night tour launch at Virginia Beach’s Verizon Wireless Amphitheater brought out tons of children in Maroon 5 gear accompanied by parents wearing Counting Crows t-shirts. Both demographics were eager to see their favorite Adam: Levine, in the case of the kids, Duritz for the adults.

Maroon 5 performed all of the hits the kiddies love, including “Harder to Breathe” and “This Love” from their 2002 debut Songs About Jane and “If I Never See Your Face Again” from last year’s It Won’t Be Soon Before Long. However, the group did manage a few concessions to mature attendees: “The Sun” included a snippet of Sly and the Family Stone’s “If You Want Me to Stay” and a cover of Chris Isaak’s “Wicked Game” queued up “She Will Be Loved.”

After a mini-exodus of the youngsters, Counting Crows dug into their most melancholy material (”A Long December,” “Colorblind”), with sunnier bits such as “Mr. Jones” and “Hanginaround” mixed in. (more…)

“I heard some of you have been here since Tuesday!” Miley Cyrus announced candidly to the Today crowd this morning. “I didn’t even start practicing yet then!”

The 15-year old was referring to the hundreds — if not thousands — who spent the last three days camping out in New York City’s Rockefeller Center to ensure a good spot for themselves during Cyrus’ four-song set.

Over 13,000 people filled the pavilion by 8:30 this morning, making it not only the biggest concert in the morning show’s history, but the first time 48th street had to be closed to accommodate a concert. (more…)

“You guys all look so great and you sound so great too!” gushed actress
Zooey Deschanel (the titular “She”) to a smitten audience at the Opera House in Toronto, opening their premiere North American tour. “So do you!” shouted one concertgoer in return.

Whether you were lost in Deschanel’s baby blues or not, original songs like “Black Hole” and “Change Is Hard” boasted a rootsy, alt-country flavor, relayed by an experienced band that includes
Lavender Diamond’s Becky Stark. But there’s also a “Him” involved in this equation: (more…)

Last night at L.A.’s 280-capacity Largo,
Randy Newman performed the entirety of his excellent Harps and Angels (due in stores August 5th) for a VIP-packed crowd that included
Mandy Moore, Jason Schwartzman and ex-That Dog frontwoman Anna Waronker, whose dad Lenny co-produced Harps with Mitchell Froom. “It never hurts to start with a religious tune,” Newman said by way of introduction after opening the show with the album’s title track, in which an unbeliever takes a memorable trip to heaven.

Harps contains no shortage of Newman’s trademark social satire: He got big laughs from Largo’s limousine-liberal contingent with “A Few Words in Defense of Our Country,” which puts Dubya’s foibles in perspective by comparing them to Hitler’s and Stalin’s, and the Sondheim-esque “A Piece of the Pie,” whose gentle
John Mellencamp dig Newman said he hoped wouldn’t offend the heartland rocker. (more…)