"If the DMB concert in cancelled on Sunday, the hordes of dmbag fans roaming aimlessly thru NYC will be more dangerous than #irene" - DBTH

written for the screen by David Matthews

"Ticket holders for Saturday and Sunday are invited to attend the Friday, August 26th event at Governors Island. The Governor of New York has issued a state emergency, therefore the DMB Caravan events on Saturday, August 27th and Sunday, August 28th have been postponed. We will announce the new Caravan Governors Island dates as soon as they have been confirmed. We will continue to post updates to the Caravan website as they are confirmed."

There is of course temptation to be snarky here, but I do feel bad for all involved.

Like Chicago and Atlantic City, NYC & Washington will get iterations of the traveling festival with the extremely scary name (and headliner)...

"Dave Matthews Band Caravan" will come to New York City's Governors Island on August 26, 27 and 28 and The Gorge Amphitheatre in George, WA on September 2, 3 and 4. The events will feature a diverse lineup of musical talent performing on multiple stages during the day and a full set by headliners Dave Matthews Band each night. See below for ticket information.

In addition to Dave Matthews Band, the lineup for the Governors Island event will include Dispatch, The Roots, Gogol Bordello, Trombone Shorty & Orleans Avenue, Josh Ritter & the Royal City Band, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, Béla Fleck and the Flecktones, The Head and the Heart, Vieux Farka Touré, David Wax Museum and many more to be announced soon...."

At least the Flaming Lips, who play the NJ version of the fest, aren't on that lineup, because that gives hope that they'll announce their own real NYC show. "An online presale for the Governors Island event for members of the DMB Warehouse Fan Association will begin on Monday, April 25, at 10:00 AM ET at http://www.warehouse.davematthewsband.com/."

This is the second big Governors Island Fest to be announced this year. The other is the dance-oriented Governors Ball (Punk Island also returns this year).

More DMBC info below...

Continue reading "run & hide, Dave Matthews Band Caravan coming to NY (fest announces stops @ Governors Island & Washington's Gorge)"

"After a brief respite from the road, we're coming back to the good ole USofA. We've confirmed a two-week run of shows in the midwest and along the eastern seaboard in July. We're kicking things off on the weekend of July 8th-10th with a couple of festival performances... [and] then head east, including a return to Terminal 5 in New York City on July 14th." - Gomez

Though the full slate of dates for Gomez's US trek have yet to be revealed, tickets are currently on fan presale for their NYC show at Terminal 5 on July 14th. Tickets go on regular sale on Friday (4/15). The Gomez dates are in celebration of the band's new LP, Whatever's On Your Mind, due this June. The band is giving away a new track for the price of your email.

At least one date on Gomez's trek (Chicago) is part of the previously mentioned DMB Caravan (thats Dave Matthews Band, for rills), a touring festival that includes a bro party in Atlantic City from June 24 - 26th at Bader Field. Though Gomez isn't on board for the NJ stop, the three-day NJ festival will feature appearances from The Flaming Lips, Damien Marley, Ray LaMontagne, Bassnectar, Dr. Dog, Fitz & The Tantrums, The Budos Band and many, many others. Full lineup is at the DMB Caravan site, and AC tix are HERE.

Based on what is posted on the Flaming Lips' own tour page, and on the Dave Matthews festival site, it looks like the Lips will not be performing a full album in NJ, though it's confusing because they will be performing "Dark Side of the Moon" at the Chicago stop (which is the same weekend they perform "The Soft Bulletin" in the same city which is also confusing). Regardless, there are still no full album shows in NYC, or NYC dates at all.

Gomez dates below...

Continue reading "Gomez announce dates, The Flaming Lips playing Dave Matthews thing in NJ (but not performing a full album?)"

photos by Chris Graham

Happy Holidays! I take on more than I can handle. That results in a lot of unposted content. In the name of catching up, while also taking it easy during this final week of the year, here's some of that lost material.

Sporting a beard that complements the music he's making these days, Conor Oberst and his Mystic Valley Band closed down [Outside Lands' Day Two] Sutro Stage with songs that are more down-home than downtrodden. One highlight of the set was when he brought out Jenny Lewis to perform Rilo Kiley's "Portions for Foxes," though Oberst outdid himself in the end with a beautiful rendition of the sparse and gorgeous "Milk Thistle." [MTV]

Outside Lands, at SF's Golden Gate Park, ran for three days in August. The pictures here are from its second day, Saturday, August 19th, which featured Conor Oberst & the Mystic Family Band (with an appearance by Jenny Lewis), TV on the Radio, Deerhunter, Mars Volta, Bat for Lashes and Mastodon. (The reunited Os Mutantes also played but there's no pics of them; we did cover them at Webster Hall though.).

More pictures from Day Two, below...

Continue reading "Outside Lands 2009 - Day 2 pics (Conor Oberst, Jenny Lewis, TVOTR, Mastodon, Deerhunter, Mars Volta, Bat for Lashes)"

MSG photos & words by Jacob Blickenstaff, Columbia photos by Jens Schott Knudsen

Pete Seeger @ Columbia in April...

"Clearwater conducts innovative environmental programs, advocacy and celebrations in order to inspire and energize the next generation of environmental leaders.

Clearwater was founded in 1969 by music legend and environmental activist Pete Seeger." [Clearwater]

Pete Seeger's been busy lately, especially for someone who just celebrated his 90th birthday. The event for that occasion took place at Madison Square Garden on May 3rd, and is reviewed in full below, with pictures. A few weeks before that, on Earth Day (April 18th), Pete played a show at Columbia's Teachers College. Photos from that show are below too. Right after that he headed to New Orleans to perform at Jazz Fest. Prior to those, Seeger played the Clearwater benefit with Jeff Tweedy at Beacon High School on March 28th. We also recently noticed his name as the special guest on a show at Joe's Pub.

This summer Pete Seeger is scheduled to play the Newport Folk Festival (August 1st and 2nd), and will perform at his own Clearwater Festival, taking place in Croton-on-the-Hudson, NY this weekend (June 20th and 21st). The Clearwater Fest lineup includes Dr. Dog, A.C. Newman, Elvis Perkins in Dearland, Richie Havens, Old Crow Medicine Show, Alejandro Escovedo, Arlo Guthrie and others. Its full schedule is below. Tickets are still sale at the gate.

UPDATE: we can confirm that Pete played his scheduled Saturday morning Clearwater Fest performance "with kids" for those who braved the rain. Pete will perform again at the festival on Sunday afternoon with his grandson Tao Rodriguez-Seeger.

A review of Pete Seeger's 90th Birthday Celebration at MSG, and all above-mentioned photos, with the full Clearwater Festival lineup & schedule, below...

Continue reading "Clearwater Festival this weekend - full schedule ++ Pete Seeger pics (from his 90th birthday & Columbia University)"

photos by Graeme Flegenheimer

"From the moment you set foot inside the main gate at the Fair Grounds Race Course, the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival is like a music and food lover's "Choose Your Own Adventure" novel, with nearly every option inciting pure sonic and culinary bliss. A morning beignet in the Gospel Tent with Arthur Clayton & Purposely Anointed? A lazy afternoon perked up by some Crawfish Monica and the Drive-By Truckers joined by Booker T? How about a stroll to the Gentilly Stage for the sounds of Spoon and the Dirty Dozen horns, stopping for a quick bowl of gumbo along the way? Etta James and a Soft Shell Crab Po-Boy, anyone? All signs point to yes...

...Now in its 40th year, the 2009 edition of Jazz Fest continues to ramp up post-Hurricane Katrina, expanding to its full complement of 12 stages, up from nine last year, and seven days, up from six in recent years. The event's first of two weekends boasted music from nearly 200 acts, including the likes of Dave Matthews Band, Crescent City native Wynton Marsalis and his Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra, Joe Cocker, Erykah Badu, James Taylor, Earth Wind and Fire, Pete Seeger, Hugh Masekela, Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, Etta James and many more." [All About Jazz]

Jazz Fest ran from April 24-26 & April 30-May 3 at the Fair Grounds Race Course in New Orleans, LA. More pictures from the first weekend of the festival below...

Continue reading "a set of pictures from New Orleans Jazz Fest 2009 "

!!! is playing ACL 2009 (more by Chris Graham)

"The 2009 Austin City Limits Music Festival will showcase a diverse blend of acts both fresh and familiar at the eighth edition of the event in Zilker Park October 2-4. Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, and Beastie Boys are performing for the first time at the Festival, with Kings of Leon, Ben Harper and Relentless7, and Thievery Corporation returning to Zilker Park once again. John Legend, The Dead Weather, and The Levon Helm Band will also make their ACL Festival debut, while Austin's own Ghostland Observatory will no doubt deliver another memorable set for festival goers.

With over 130 artists on this year's bill, the list of acts awes at each note with the likes of Sonic Youth, Mos Def, Toadies, Flogging Molly, The B-52s, Lily Allen, Citizen Cope, Arctic Monkeys, The Decemberists, Coheed and Cambria, Andrew Bird, Girl Talk, and many more.

In the tradition of the TV show from which it was born, the Festival has always aimed to offer musical discovery for the fans. The 2009 lineup is rich with pop, country, folk, bluegrass, blues, reggae, indie rock, hip-hop, and gospel, to name a few, spanning cultures and countries from New Orleans to Venezuela to France."

The entire 2009 lineup is below...

Continue reading "ACL (Austin City Limits) - 2009 festival lineup announcement"

Outside Lands Music & Arts Festival is taking place this year August 28th-30th at Golden Gate Park. Tickets for the fest go on Visa presale Wednesday, April 15th at 1pm ET, and general sale Sunday, April 19th at 1pm ET.

Like last year, the San Francisco fest shares a headliner with NJ's All Points West. In 2008, it was Radiohead. In 2009, it's the Beastie Boys.

Also on the schedule for the fest is the Dead Weather, Jack White's new band. Dead Weather plays its first show tonight (April 14th) at the Bowery Ballroom.

M.I.A., Ween, TVOTR, Mastodon, Os Mutantes, Extra Golden, Tom Jones, and many others are also playing. Full Outside Lands line-up and poster below....

Continue reading "Outside Lands 2009 festival lineup, Dead Weather tonight"

by Andrew Frisicano

St. Ann's Warehouse is hosting its spring benefit, "A Gala Evening with Philip Glass + Ira Glass," on Tuesday, April 28th. The pair will engage in the "World Premiere Performance of Glass on Glass, a one-time-only evening with cousins, composer Philip Glass and master storyteller, Ira Glass, host of public radio's This American Life."

Tickets for the event, which run in $150, $350, and $1,000 packages, are on sale now.

Another upcoming benefit, for the Children's Health Fund, features a performance by Willie Nelson (with CHF co-founder Paul Simon) on Wednesday, May 27th at the Sheraton New York Hotel and Tower. Hillary Rodham Clinton and other notables will be in attendance as well.

To reserve a spot for that event, contribute between $1000 and $100,000 to the CHF (thx rajohn for the tip).

Willie recently played at the Lincoln Center with Wynton Marsalis in February, and has a US tour coming up. The closest stop to NYC on that is a show at New Brunswick, NJ's State Theatre on Saturday, April 18th. Tickets are on sale. All dates below..

Philip Glass tracks "Prophecies" and "Pruitt Igoe" from Koyaanisqatsi were recently featured in The Watchmen, and PBS is in the middle of screening GLASS: A Portrait of Philip Glass in Twelve Parts, a 12-part doc on the composer as part of its American Masters series.

The night after the St. Ann's benefit, Wednesday, April 29th, Glass' work will be performed by Michael Riesman, director of the Philip Glass Ensemble, at new downtown venue The Greene Space. The music will be integrated into a radio theatre performance of The Invisible Man.

On May 17th, "Signal performs Philip Glass' Symphony No. 3 and Suite from The Hours with pianist Michael Riesman, conducted by Brad Lubman at (Le) Poisson Rouge in New York City." (Tickets are on sale.)

Part of Glass' Koyaanisqatsi, Willie Nelson's best-of compilation infomercial video, and tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Philip & Ira Glass; Willie Nelson, Paul Simon play benefits & other upcoming shows "

"The Roots will star as the [house] band on Late Night With Jimmy Fallon! ...Don't worry, The Legendary aren't completely hanging up their hats for the day jobby job - there's still plenty of weekends and TV-vacation time for touring. But now, in addition to their stunning live show, you'll get to watch ?uesto and co. kick it EVERY week night- what's better than that?? We've heard talks of special guests, potential skits, and other exciting surprises, but you'll just have to tune in for all that. And you know OKP will have all sorts of ex-ex-ex-cluuusives, in addition to keeping you up to date on all that's going on Fallon-wise. [Okayplayer, December 2008]

Late Night with Jimmy Fallon replaces Late Night with Conan O'Brien on NBC on March 2, 2009. Seeing as how the show is filmed here in NYC, that's where the Roots are going to have to live from now on. That means not much touring in their future. That also means lots of NYC shows....

The Roots are taking residency at Highline Ballroom in NYC, their new hometown. Entitled "The Jam", tickets are on sale for shows on March 5, March 19, March 23, March 31, April 14, April 21, May 4, May 13, May 18, May 26, June 2, June 10, June 16, and June 23. That's a lot of performances. And they each only cost $10. I'm also told there will be lots of varying special guests.

But that's not all: Questlove also has a residency of his own, entitled 'the fANtastic', at (Le) Poisson Rouge. That "will take place every Thursday night beginning March 26, 2009 at 11PM through May 28, 2009. Special guests to be announced weekly." Tickets are slightly more expensive than the full Roots show. You can buy them for March 26 HERE.

For more Questlove, you can hear him talk, TONIGHT, 2/11 @ 7pm, at 92YTribeca with Hot 97 DJ Peter Rosenberg.

AND: The Roots will appear at Carnegie Hall on March 16th. The show is entitled "Ask Your Mama! Music by Laura Karpman, on a text by Langston Hughes", and The Roots are one of many on this one's lineup. Tickets for that are at CarnegieHall.com.

Wait, it's not over yet: The Roots are opening for the Dave Matthews Band at Madison Square Garden on April 14th, and then at the IZOD Center in East Rutherford, NJ one day after that.

Jimmy Fallon and the Roots star in the series of videos below...

Continue reading "Jimmy Fallon's house band THE ROOTS - 14 NYC shows @ Highline, 1 @ MSG, a Questlove LPR residency + Carnegie Hall"

As Conan points out, Radiohead are one of the "most environmentally conscious bands in the world." They just aren't as 'green' as Jack Johnson (or Dave Matthews or Pearl Jam) (according to Billboard)....

Continue reading "Jack Johnson is greener than Radiohead"

Video from last night's episode of Saturday Night Live below.....

Continue reading "Jack Johnson/Dave Matthews/John Mayer - SNL spoof (video)"

Wetlands, RIP

Archival footage, soundboard recordings and the work of a dozen digital animators help to relate the story of celebrated Tribeca nightclub Wetlands Preserve, which fostered the music of the Dave Matthews Band, Phish and Ben Harper while simultaneously supporting a social and environmental activism center from February 1989 through September 2001.

The documentary is opening at Cinema Village in NYC on March 14th, and at Laemmle's Grande in LA on March 28th. More info, trailer & pics at the "Wetlands Preserved: The Story of an Activist Rock Club" website, and a related video & even more info, below...

Continue reading "Wetlands Preserved - the NYC venue documentary"

Continue reading "The Police & Elvis Costello - 2008 Tour Dates"

Menomena @ Paradise Rock Club - Boston, MA - 11/9/07 (CRED)

the lead singer of Illinois came out during their set, put a styrofoam container on his head with a banana peel sticking out of his mouth and wrote "MENOMENA" on his chest. yeah...[jberg]

* Dave Hill is @ UCB
* Ida plays Knitting Factory
* Mike Doughty is playing Joe's Pub
* Tiny Vipers is playing Union Hall
* Malajube is headlining Bowery Ballroom
* Japanther is doing their Dinosaur 3-D show @ PS122
* Travis Morrison, Georgie James & Aqueduct are @ Knitting Factory
* Electric Six and The Willowz are playing Music Hall
* Scotland Yard Gospel Choir are playing Sound Fix
* Moby, some of Spank Rock and Tommie Sunshine are DJing Hiro
* This is the first show Going.com is selling tickets for

Radiohead's labelmate Mike Doughty is playing a show at Joe's Pub tonight and tomorrow. That seems fitting until you remember that the ex-Soul Coughing frontman kind of blew up since being taken under Dave Matthews' wing (or at least that's how I think of it). Both shows are sold out. Luckily (for those who aren't embarrassed to go to a show that is even remotely associated with Dave Matthews), I have a pair of tickets to give away to tomorrow's show. To win, e-mail BVCONTESTS@HOTMAIL.COM (subject: Doughty), let me know what the last show you saw was, and include your first and last name. I'll pick one winner randomly tonight, and contact them. Mike's new album Golden Delicious will be released by ATO Records on Feb 19th 2008. A new song is streaming at his MySpace, and more tour dates are at his site.

What else?

SARATOGA SPRINGS -- Police are investigating reports a 15-year-old was sexually assaulted Tuesday at Saratoga Performing Arts Center during a Dave Matthews Band concert, marking the second time in two years that security during the popular band's visit has been questioned.

The concert promoter, Live Nation, and SPAC, which is inside Saratoga Spa State Park, are working with authorities to figure out what happened at the concert att by more than 25,000. [timesunion]

And speaking of Dave Matthews, here's the latest news on Farm Aid:

On Sunday, September 9 at Randall’s Island in New York City, Gregg Allman will perform a special acoustic set with Willie Nelson and Dave Matthews, Farm Aid announced today. The unique musical collaboration will add to the stellar lineup at Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival, the organization’s first New York concert event.

Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds, Gregg Allman, The Allman Brothers Band, Counting Crows, Matisyahu, Guster, The Derek Trucks Band, Warren Haynes, Supersuckers, The Ditty Bops and Montgomery Gentry are scheduled to perform at Farm Aid 2007: A HOMEGROWN Festival. Willie Nelson, Neil Young, John Mellencamp, Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds and The Allman Brothers Band are scheduled to play full festival sets.

Tickets are on sale. And speaking of beards, Shooter Jennings is playing Bowery Ballroom, and ZZ Top just added a 2nd show at NYC's Beacon Theatre in September. All tour dates below....

Continue reading "Man assaults girl @ Dave Matthews concert, Farm Aid updates, Shooter Jennings & ZZ Top Tour Dates"