photos by Kurt Christensen

"So me, Riff, and Elyse saw Soundgarden at Jones Beach. It was an awesome show! The whole band can still fucking rip." - veganaction

It was a generational mix of fans as old classic rock loving men mixed with metal heads, Gen X and Gen Y'ers as the 90's came back alive and everyone remembered when grunge was king. Opening with "Searching with my Good Eye Closed," Chris Cornell, Kim Thayil, Matt Cameron, Ben Shepherd reinvoked the power and thunder that fans have loved them for all these years. It was a trip down memory lane as the band are reintroducing themselves with their back catalogue of singles, B-sides and very deep early cuts and in a set list that appealed to the casual listener to the hardcore fan, Soundgarden were not ready to play any of the new material they have been working on and they didn't need to, they stuck to the working wheel of high octane, dark and murky rock and roll. "Jones Beach, sorry for the wait! We got some new songs but you won't hear any tonight, this is an old song" a bearded Chris Cornell told the crowd right before kicking into "Jesus Christ Pose" -[Officially a Yuppie]

Soundgarden played two NYC area shows over the weekend with Coheed & Cambria. They hit July 8th at Prudential Center in Newark and July 9th at Nikon at Jones Beach Theatre in Wantagh, NY. Their set consisted mainly of material off Louder Than Love, Badmotorfinger, and Superunknown, with a few other cuts as well. The above review and photos in this post come from Jones Beach. We also have setlists and videos from both below.

Last night, Sunday night (7/10), Coheed & Cambria opened for Soundgarden at the Comcast Center in Mansfield, Mass, but without their bassist who was arrested at the venue for robbing a pharmacy earlier that day!

Soundgarden is currently touring the east coast, and will play upcoming dates in Phildelphia and Atlantic City (with Mars Volta) in the coming days. Full tour schedule (which now includes a headlining appearance at Voodoo in New Orleans), with more pictures (though none of Coheed), videos and setlists below...

Continue reading "Soundgarden played Jones Beach & the Prudential Center (pics, setlists & videos)"

photos by Chris La Putt

After a 10-year hiatus from the North American concert stage, Sade came. She sang. She danced. She looked radiant. She conquered.

With the hypnotic sound of her elegant, alluring pipes unfolding in serene sonic tapestries of neo-soul, jazz and pop, the 52-year-old Nigerian-born, British-raised Helen Folasade Adu (aka Sade) first seduced music lovers in 1984 with "Diamond Life." And despite more than 25 years passing since her stellar debut, this sexy, exotic chanteuse with the silky, smooth operator voice and cool Anglo-soul is as entrancing as ever, as evident throughout her two-hour, 22-song set Wednesday night at TD Garden that included plenty of highlights, as well as a one-song encore. [Telegram]

Sade & John Legends's ongoing tour hit Nassau Coliseum on 6/21,
Izod Center on 6/24, and the Prudential Center on 6/25. Pictures from the latter, the setlists from all three NYC-area shows, and a just-released video for new song "Love is Found" from Sade's 'Ultimate Collection' (out now), below...

Continue reading "Sade continues on tour, played Nassau, Izod & Prudential (pics, setlists & a new video)"

photos by Eric M. Townsend, word by Black Bubblegum

Metallica played three NYC area shows in a row this past weekend, the final stops on their Death Magnetic US tour including Nassau Coliseum on 1/29 and a two night stay at the Prudential Center in beautiful Newark, NJ (on 1/31 and 2/1, the latter coinciding with the Superbowl). Machine Head and The Sword supported on all three nights, with The Sword adding a show at Bowery Ballroom on 1/30. The Metallica pics are from 1/31, I attended the 2/1 show.

I headed into the doors of the Prudential Center right around 6:45, settling into my GA "seats" (the floor) a few moments before The Sword hit the stage. My early arrival gave me a few moments to thoroughly inspect the unique "in the round" set-up. Placed in the center of the arena floor, with six mics positioned at various parts of the stage, members of the band were within ten feet of me at times, and on the opposite side at others. Overhead, seven sheet metal "coffins" the size of a Cadillacs containing lighting rigs and lasers rotated up and down and in a circular motion. On stage, located behind a short wall of amps was a line of pyro.... I guess James didn't learn his lesson? Later on, we would learn that Lars Ulrich's kit was also on a swivel. Low-budget, this show was not.

The Sword took the stage at 7PM, playing a shortened 25+ minute set and drawing from both of their Kemado releases. The Austin crew were simple and effective and it was truly surreal to see the band on THAT stage as opposed to the last time I saw them (Bowery Ballroom in 2007).

Machine Head were next, and even if I wanted to hear them (I didn't), I wouldn't have been able to. The mix was absolutely abhorrent, and if it wasn't for the metal-requisite whammy pedal, I probably wouldnt have been able to hear ANY guitars. My life-long Metallica fan friend commented:

"Those dudes are straight up corny".

Mostly. That said, the masses in Affliction/Don Ed Hardy tees, mohawks, and mock wallet chains were contented. Thankfully, guitarist/vocalist Rob Flynn is a good showman, spraying water about and leading the crowd in chants of "Ma-sheen-head" and "Machine-fuckin-head". At least he, unlike the music, held my interest.

Metallica took the stage a shade after 9PM, emerging with their usual intro music, "The Ecstasy of Gold" from Ennio Morricone's The Good, the Bad, and The Ugly soundtrack. Kicking off with "That Was Just Your Life" from the new LP, Death Magnetic, the band was accompanied a laser-light show of epic proportions.... Daft Punk is jealous. Although the concentration was on Death Magnetic material (six songs in total), the band did dip into the classics ("Master of Puppets, "Welcome Home (Sanitarium)", "Blackened", Seek & Destroy"), the records that propelled them to the top ("Enter Sandman", "Nothing Else Matters"), and deeper fan favorites (a cover of "Die Die My Darling" by the Misfits, "Breadfan" by Budgie) over the course of the evening.

As a fan of the Cliff Burton & Justice era of Metallica, I would say this show was alot like a Jerry Bruckheimer film: loud, lots of explosions, an obscene amount of special effects, a little something for everyone, a touch on the dumb side, but big time entertainment.

More pictures from 1/31 and setlists for all three shows below...

Continue reading "Metallica @ Prudential Center - pics, a review, three setlists"

When the new Prudential Center arena opens in downtown Newark next month, the city - which spent $210 million in taxpayer dollars on the project - will not be getting one of the arena's 76 luxury suites.

Some city council members are irate, saying the city deserves one of the boxes that are being sold for $225,000 apiece. Newark could use it to host guests, children or other dignitaries, the council members say. The issue, they say, symbolizes the bum deal the city has cut with the New Jersey Devils over the arena.

Some council members say they'll boycott opening night - Oct. 25 when Bon Jovi performs.

"To me, the height of disrespect is the city of Newark has put into the project $210 million - which is the baseline - and the Devils have not given us a box," Council President Mildred Crump said. "They're dissing us at a level that's disrespectful." [NJ.COM]

Dissing you? nice.

The Prudential Center (nicknamed "The Rock") is an 18,000-seat multi-purpose arena being built in Newark, New Jersey for the New Jersey Devils of the National Hockey League.....The arena will open on October 25, 2007 with a series of concerts by New Jersey rock group Bon Jovi, featuring a star-studded lineup of opening acts, including Big & Rich, Gretchen Wilson, Daughtry, The All-American Rejects and New Jersey's own My Chemical Romance. The first two concerts will be followed by the first Devils home game on October 27 against the Ottawa Senators, who were the Devils' last opponent at Continental Airlines Arena. [Wikipedia]