photos by Zachary Alex Stern

"Major Lazer was wicked last night at Terminal 5. Made me act like a fool." - Jake Shears

HARD PACKED Terminal 5 full of sweaty bodies on Saturday night (4/3). Pacifiers, bright colors and eyes rolling back into people's heads were in abundance. Skimpily outfitted dancers often decorated the stage at what was otherwise mostly a DJ show. Destructo opened the night (but Zach missed them). Then came Russia's Proxy followed by Portugal's always-fun and lively (and mc-led) Buraka Som Sistema. Headliners of the night were Boys Noize who actually kept visuals to a minimum, and Major Lazer (aka Diplo and Switch) who, like at SXSW, kept things over the top. In Austin they had one kind of monster. In NYC there was a dragon.

HARD's next NYC party takes place in an even larger venue this summer...

Global trendsetter & cultural icon M.I.A. will make her 2010 national stage debut at HARD NYC on Saturday, July 24th at the South Island Field on Governors Island. In conjunction with M.I.A.'s NEET Recordings label, confirmed performers for this two-stage festival include Sleigh Bells, Theophilus London, Skream, Benga, Ninjasonik, 12th Planet, Nguzunguzu, Borgore, Destructo & much much more TBA.

Continue reading "Major Lazer, Boys Noize, Buraka Som Sistema & Proxy @ Terminal 5 in (HARD) NYC - pics "

Tickets went on sale at midnight for May 20th and May 21st LCD Soundsystem shows at NYC's Terminal 5. A new song "Drunk Girls", ("the first single from the third and final LCD Soundsystem album. The as yet titled album is due out May 17th on DFA and Parlophone"), can be heard in the video below...

Continue reading "LCD Soundsystem announces NYC shows at Terminal 5, streaming new song "Drunk Girls" on YouTube"

Miike Snow @ SXSW 2010 (more by Dominick Mastrangelo)

Like Cocorosie, La Roux and Miike snow have both just added headlining NYC shows at the large Terminal 5. La Roux, whose last show in NYC was at Webster Hall, plays there on June 7th. Miike Snow, who just played SXSW and plays Webster Hall (and Music Hall of Williamsburg) this week, plays there on October 6th. Both shows go on sale Friday at noon.

Going on (pre)sale much sooner: Pretty Lights, RJD2 & Chiddy Bang at the venue on June 4th ("VIP ticket includes 4 hour open bar.").

Tickets just sold right out for Hole's NYC show at Terminal 5 (4/27), so they added a 2nd one (4/28). Tickets will go on sale any minute now are on sale.

Julian Casablancas @ T5 on January 15th (more by Natasha Ryan)

This has already come up in the comments, and has been posted on a few other sites. Just to be clear, Pollstar's venue ranking is measured in ticket sales. Terminal 5 sold the third most concert tickets of any "club venue" in the world in 2009. They were beat only by the 9:30 Club in DC and House of Blues in Boston (clubs who have more shows coming up in February than Terminal 5 has total on its schedule total right now). Pollstar writes...

When a New York City club that didn't exist three years ago showed up as No. 3 on the latest Top 100 Worldwide Club Venues, we had to take notice.

That's above names like The Fillmore, The Wiltern and every House of Blues in the country other than the one in Boston. It became a running joke in this office to ask, "What's Terminal 5?"

Of course, plenty of agents, artists and production crews are familiar with the venue by now. The 3,000-capacity facility opened in the New York island of Manhattan in the fall of 2007 and has become the new room for up-and-coming acts.

It is also the "next step" for Bowery Presents, which manages a series of well-known venues in the NYC area - the 250-capacity Mercury Lounge, the 500-capacity Bowery Ballroom, the 600-capacity Music Hall of Williamsburg and the 1,400-capacity Webster Hall.

Speaking of Terminal 5, tickets went on presale today for Sia and The Specials. The full list of 18 upcoming shows is at Ticketmaster (which recently confirmed they'd be merging with Bowery Presents' biggest competitor Live Nation).

The full list of 100 venues (that report to Pollstar), along with some videos, below...

Continue reading "Terminal 5 is the #3 club in the world (in sales) "

photos by Natasha Ryan

Everything in Casablancas's long, hard year as a soloist has carried a steep learning curve, from touring by himself to getting the album into stores. For example, RCA is co-releasing his solo album, yet, he says, "they're not the label I signed with. The people change all the time. They're nice, they're cool, but honestly they don't do shit." So he did most of the work through Cult Records, the label he started for Phrazes and financed himself, and it didn't turn out much better. "You have all these dreams. I still like the plan, but it was executed terribly."

And then there's the Strokes. Theoretically, they are putting out a fourth album. "It's coming!" he says. [NY Mag]

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas, Tanlines & Telepathe @ Terminal 5 in NYC (night 2) - pics "

photos by Chris La Putt

"Ok, so in talking about the show with some old Strokes fan friends, people have express surprise at the fact that I enjoyed the show so much because...well, it's just not the same without all the other Strokes. To that point I say this: No, it's not The Strokes, but in my opinion, Julian is pretty much one of the best things about the band in the first place, so going to see a Julian Casablancas show is kinda like a Strokes show, but without all the other distractions.

That said, Julian's music is much different than the regular Strokes fare. I like to think his solo work is more pop-based, and a little bit more carefree than Strokes songs. I also think his lyrics are more playful, the song structure more complicated and interesting, and the imagery more vivid. Perhaps that's more of a reflection of his maturation as a songwriter than anything else, but any way you slice it, the solo stuff is great and you should be so lucky to see him perform it live.

The show last night wasn't as elaborate as the ones he did in his LA residency (you know, the one that he felt were a fiasco) which included set pieces, costume changes, and an intermission, but it was polished, smooth, and successful. He truly seemed like he was having fun, and the crowd was enjoying it.

He seemed relaxed and at ease with himself and the songs -- a very different energy than the one I remember when he plays with The Strokes. At Strokes shows, so much of the show is propelled by each of the band member's energy bouncing off and pushing one another forward. At a Julian Casablancas show it seems much more like Julian is puttering along, guiding his backup band, and the pace of the show with the slow and steady push of his own internal performance propeller." [The Modern Age]

Continue reading "Julian Casablancas, Telepathe & Tanlines @ Terminal 5 in NYC (night 1) - pics & setlist"

photos by Samantha Marble

"Gigantic LED screens lit the stage as Passion Pit took the stage with entrance music pounding through the speakers, an evolutionary gesture. The crowd, a mixture of hardened hipsters with their battle stories and tweens with tickets bought on parental credit cards, lost their collective minds in that cocktail of excitement and uncertain celebrity usually associated with mid-level professional athletes and reality television stars. Passion Pit, the kids from Boston with that independent EP turned Columbia Records LP, proved as magnanimous as confident in their pose, saying something unspoken like, "Dear 3,000 people, thanks for buying tickets to see us. Appreciate it. Now we're going to light this place up, okay?"" [32Ft/Second]

Passion Pit pictures from night one are HERE and pics of night one opener Rural Alberta Advantage are HERE.

Passion Pit has shows in Australia, New Zealand, Japan and Europe coming up, and they'll be back to tour North America with Mayer Hawthorne in late-March/April (no NYC dates yet). We already posted most of the dates. They are updated with more pictures from Sunday below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit played 3 nights @ T5 (Sunday w/ Tragedy) - pics & updated tour dates w/ Mayer Hawthorne "

photos by Vincent Cornelli

"It's been a lot of shows since SXSW [2009]," says [The RAA's lead singer, Nils Edenloff] with a chuckle, taking a few minutes to call from a Tim Horton's somewhere off the 401. "I think by the end of [2009] we might hit 100 shows. I'm hoping we hit 100 because that would be pretty cool to say."

Just add it to the band's list of milestones. In addition to the above, you can score a No. 1 on the Canadian college radio charts, inclusion on the bill for Vancouver's Cultural Olympiad this February and credit for writing the Prime Minister's (or maybe just his assistant's) favourite song of the moment, "Edmonton."

Edenloff has a harder time ticking off his achievements from the last year. "It's funny because it feels like every step is a new high," he reflects. "When we first played New York [in January] at this little bar, Piano's, we felt like 'This is the most amazing thing ever.' I never thought anything would top that. And then SXSW, it was a crazy-amazing time down there, everything just went really well. And, you know, playing Alberta for the first time, if just feels like everything is getting better and better." [Dose.ca]

Continue reading "The Rural Alberta Advantage played Maxwell's, Mercury Lounge & Terminal 5 - pics & a setlist"

photos by Vincent Cornelli

"The reeling - passion pit. Rad stuff!" - Jonas Brothers

"I think the craziest photo I have--and actually my parents thought it was really amazing--we were at Glastonbury, I got to meet Bruce Springsteen, and being from New Jersey, he's like the town hero and icon, and like, I met him and hung out with him, and we took a picture together, and I was like, 'Holy crap, I can't believe that happened.' Of all places, we were in England, and I met Bruce Springsteen. Just crazy stuff like that. Things like, 'Hey I'm at my parents' now and two or three weeks ago I was in L.A. and we met the Jacksons, and it's like, what? That happened? That's weird.'"
[Jeff Apruzzese of Passion Pit to the Aquarian]

Continue reading "Passion Pit @ Terminal 5 in NYC (night 1) - pics "

by BBG

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.

The 10 for 10 tour featured somewhat different bands on different legs of the tour, but NYC featured the following in set order: War of Ages, The Ghost Inside, Crime In Stereo, Trapped Under Ice, Death Before Dishonor, This Is Hell, Vision, Terror, Poison The Well, and Madball.

Pictures from the July 10th show continued below...

Continue reading "Madball, Poison the Well & other bands @ Terminal 5 in NYC (the 10 for 10 tour) - pics "

Dr. Dog @ Prospect Park in June (more by Eric Townsend)

Dr. Dog's "July in Christmas" show at Brooklyn Bowl on December 11th is now sold out (though there are still tickets available to the show they play one day earlier in CT). After that, even though the band has tour dates that include a bunch of New York State in January and February, currently the next chance you'll have to see them in the NYC area will be on Saturday, May 15th (almost summer!) at Terminal 5. Also on the bill for that show are Deer Tick (who are currently in Europe). Tickets go on AmEx presale Wednesday, December 9th at 11am. General sale starts Friday, December 11th at noon.

All tour dates and Dr. Dog videos (the band ordered pizza for the crowd at their October 24th Philly show), below...

Continue reading "Dr Dog (pizza lovers) add NY show w/ Deer Tick +other dates"

words & photos by Andrew Frisicano

Sonic Youth and Dinosaur Jr. played Terminal 5 on Saturday, November 21st. Opening up for those established acts were synth-heads Cold Cave (who are Sonic Youth's label-mates on Matador Records).

Dinosaur Jr. went on promptly at 8:40pm and played a set that paired old and new with equal intensity. Farm single "Over It" stood strong along earlier tracks, like the enthusiastically offered You're Living All Over Me classics. Wedged toward the front half of the stage, their towering Marshall stacks were a nice stylistic if not totally practical touch to toughen up their softie-rock anthems. The band closed with good tidings - Lou announced that their next NYC appearances would be at Bowery Ballroom on January 16th and Music Hall of Williamsburg January 17th.

Sonic Youth played in front of artistic backdrops that lit gunpowder trails in brilliant colors. The songs came almost entirely from The Eternal, with brief Daydream Nation, Sister and EVOL interruptions. The new record has a kind of thorough consistency without any outright duds or sure singles, and live it was a similar experience. The total dissection of The Eternal wasn't totally unexpected, but it was a little uneventful (my soft spot for Rather Ripped was left untickled). When "Cross The Breeze" came as the first encore's second song, the crowd applauded in recognition for its intro that slow-built into a rapid climax.

Besides the front row, which seemed packed with younger fans ("I am SO HAPPY" one screamed several times when the band took the stage), those on the outskirts of the totally packed Terminal 5 carried an expression of casual interest. But not for a lack of trying from the band. The theatrics were there - when Daydream's "Silver Rocket" came on, Thurston flew unchained to the floor while beating and prodding his guitar - as were the shout-outs. Thurston gave it up to NYC a few times in the night. He sent the crowd off with the line "See you on the streets."

You can see Sonic Youth at Music Hall of Williamsburg on Tuesday, November 24th (with Talk Normal) or Wed, Nov. 25th (with Jemina Pearl).

More pictures and the SY setlist are below....

Continue reading "Dinosaur Jr. played Terminal 5 w/ Sonic Youth (pics, setlist), playing Bowery Ballroom & MHOW (2010 tour dates)"

photos by Paul Birman

"Thank you for the greatest show you've ever seen!" screamed electronica goddess Merrill Nisker, aka Peaches, before stepping off the stage Saturday night at Terminal 5. Never one for modesty, the 43-year-old former elementary school teacher known for her provocative performances, explicit lyrics, and all around bad-ass allure, put on a great show with Brooklyn's Jessica 6 and Philly's self-proclaimed "hottest-muthafucka-on-the-whole-damn-block" Amanda Blank. Backed by her Berlin-based band Sweet Machine, Peaches' set and double encore were a sexually-charged gender-bending spectacular that featured all of her classics. The crowd went wild for numbers like "Operate," "Boys Wanna Be Her," and, of course, feel-good, sing-along hit "Fuck the Pain Away." She also rocked an array of colorful costumes that would put Lady Gaga to shame, and for her final song, "Set it Off," she wore a revealing nude bodysuit and a ghetto fab chain. "New York is the most open-mided city," she teased, before encouraging the audience with a chant of "shirts come off, shirts, shirts come off!" Lo and behold, shirts came off." [Paper]

Continue reading "Peaches, Amanda Blank & Jessica 6 @ Terminal 5, NYC - pics "

Cold War Kids are headlining Terminal 5 on January 29th. Tickets are now on American Express presale.

Matisyahu does his annual Hanukkah run of shows with various openers (Kevin Devine, Rana, Dub Trio, etc) at Webster Hall and Music Hall of Williamsburg this year. Tickets for all dates are on sale.

Tickets are now on American Express pre-sale for the third Passion Pit show at Terminal 5

Tickets are on American Express pre-sale (@ noon) for the just-added Wolfmother / Heartless Bastards show at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Tickets are still available for tonight's Raise the Roof show (10/28) at Music Hall of Williamsburg with Nada Surf, They Might Be Giants & Charles Bissell.

Screaming Females @ Above the Auto Parts Store, Oct 24 (more by Leia Jospe)

Screaming Females are headed out on tour with Arctic Monkeys this December, and they've just added an extra NYC show to that tour. Before their previously planned Friday, December 11th show at Terminal 5 (now sold out), they'll play the venue on Thursday, Dec. 10th. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 30th at noon.

Passion Pit just added an extra show at the big NYC venue today too, except for them it was their third.

Screaming Females just played Above the Auto Parts Store on Saturday (10/24). A pair of videos from their Sept. 26th Death By Audio show are below...

Continue reading "Arctic Monkeys & Screaming Females add 2nd T5 show"

Passion Pit @ boat cruise in May (more by Tim Griffin)

Passion Pit have added a third (!!) straight night, January 10th, to their Terminal 5 run. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 30th at 11am.

Their shows at the venue on January 8th (with Rural Alberta Advantage) and Jan. 9th are both sold out.

Passion Pit were nominated for a Q Award this year, though they didn't win at last night's ceremony in London (where Amy Winehouse debuted her new boobs). A list of who did win with a video of Passion Pit at the event, and updated tour dates, below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit add 3rd NYC Terminal 5 show, were at Q Awards"

photos by Fresh Bread

Team Avett

The Avett Brothers are on tour and played a show at the big Terminal 5 on Saturday night (10/17). More pictures from that show, below...

Continue reading "The Avett Brothers @ Terminal 5 in NYC - pics "

Peter Bjorn and John @ Webster Hall in April (more by Tim Griffin)


Oops! Peter Bjorn and John's November 10th Terminal 5 show has been moved down to the smaller Webster Hall one day earlier (November 9th). El Perro Del Mar and Brooklyn (via Japan)'s The Suzan open the show. All T5 tix will be honored, and some are still on sale too.

El Perro Del Mar was supposed to play Joe's Pub on November 9th, so that was also canceled with this change.

The Suzan...

"was formed by two Japanese girls, RIE(Guitar) and SAORI(Vocal) in the summer of 2003. They had been sicking and tired of recent Japanese POP idol music. So they decided to produce their own songs and bring the movement and revolution to the music scene of not only Japan but also the world by their sound."

Continue reading "Peter Bjorn & John's Terminal 5 show moved to Webster Hall -- The Suzan opening, playing Fool's Gold CMJ (flyer)"

I just heard that Passion Pit added a second Terminal 5 show (1/9) after selling out the first one (1/8). Opener on the 2nd show TBA. Tickets on sale soon.

photos by Eric Townsend

"Beth Ditto started singing from somewhere in the ether, and when she finally set foot on stage, the crowd went berserk...but quickly reigned themselves in so as not to miss a single second of Bethtastic vocal goodness. The band's universally loved frontwoman sported a new shorter 'do in Kool-Aid red or Sunkist orange (depending on the lighting), She wore form-fitting black, knee-length dress covered in silvery glitter sparkles that shimmered as she shimmied around the stage to the beat, giving the impression that Beth Ditto is not the centre of the universe, but the universe itself...and we mere mortals are all just playing at her game." [I Was at the Show]

Continue reading "Gossip @ Terminal 5 in NYC - pics & video "

Zero 7 has announced details of their upcoming North American tour, their first in more than three years. The trek - which celebrates the British duo's new album, "YEAH GHOST" - will launch on November 26th...

Zero 7's live show features singer Eska (who appears on "YEAH GHOST") and folk collaborator Olivia Chaney as well as long time band members Eddie Stevens, Robin Mullarkey and Tom Skinner.

"YEAH GHOST," available [since Sept. 29th] at all physical and digital retailers, sees Zero 7 - aka Sam Hardaker and Henry Binns - embarking on their brightest and boldest outing to date....

..."Pop Art Blue wins the vocal prize with Martha Tilston's folky whisper, though you can't help yearning for the lost voice of longtime collaborator Sia Furler. This is especially the case when Binns takes to the microphone for the first time on Zinedine Zidane homage, Everything Up (Zizou). It takes style to deliver lines like: "Murakami would have told you so / If you catch him will you let me know? / Bobbing apples in the studio / Aikido, Aikido-si-do." Oh dear...

The evident stylistic disparity is disappointing because variety is obviously well within the boys' grasp. Sleeper is a genuinely unsettling and vibrant slice of M.I.A.-like electro insanity, while the closing All Of Us takes its own sweet time to build from tribal bump to blissful comedown anthem, and is all the better for it.

But too much here is either unchallenging and stuck in the late 90s, or too jarring to allow the album to flow. Maybe Zero 7's time has truly passed...." [BBC]

Continue reading "Zero 7 - new album & 2009 Tour Dates (Terminal 5) "

Passion Pit @ Central Park Summerstage (gohingplaces)

"This whole summer - the past three months - have been all festivals," said Passion Pit bassist Jeff Apruzzese. "So I feel like I'm finally getting used to it and now it's over."

So, was this exhausting, rainy weekend worth it?

It was for Passion Pit who said they would "love" to play at ACL again.

"Definitely [we would come back]," said keyboard player and guitarist for Passion Pit Ian Hultquist. "Hopefully when we come back it will be more relaxed and not super intense like it was today." [the battalion]

Opening the T5 show is a Canadian band who also got their NYC start at Pianos, and who is headlining their own show at Bowery Ballroom this Wednesday night (Oct 7). I'm talking about The Rural Alberta Advantage. Tickets are still on sale. Kittens Ablaze and The Lovely Feathers are the openers.

All dates below...

Continue reading "Passion Pit playing Terminal 5 w/ Rural Alberta Advantage who headline Bowery on Wednesday - 2009 Tour Dates"

photos by Kurt Christensen

"...Sunny Day Real Estate about to take stage at Terminal 5. Been waiting 10 years for this show." - Kevin Vasconcellos

"terminal 5 with my favorite season. never heard of sunny day real estate but they're pretty decent." - Dan Colonna

"...last nights Sunny Day Real Estate show at Terminal 5? Most amazing show I've been to in ages" - soynutz7

"The band was flawless and all the hits from both "Diary" and "LP2" were represented with amazing tenacity and one of the best sets I have seen in recent years. After they played the new song from the set, I yelled "10 more". Interesting note as of course I was wearing my Washed Up Emo logo shirt and at one point Jeremy looks up at the 2nd level and he squints, what feels like reads my shirt then laughs as he starts back into a verse. Was there a giant blow up of Pete Wentz's ego? Not sure but my point had been made, the crowd was washed up and old but we are here Sunny Day Real Estate and we aren't going away.
After a pleasant turn of events, I got to meet all the members of the band and some quality time was had. In those moments I learned and will share with some that will be helpful for this blog and hope you find exciting.

- They consider emo a bad word and use it as an insult.
- Possible recording of a new album is a GOOD possibility when they get back from tour.
- They wanted to end with "Days Were Golden" as on the "How it Feels Tour..." but no dice.
- Dan from SDRE heard me yell "10 more" and agrees with me that the vibe is so good now it could happen!
- Dan also approves of WashedUpEmo.com and wants it to continue for its good work on education on his band and others like it.

Nuff said, I pretty much take that as if President Obama said it to me. I take your challenge Mr. Dan (was in Dashboard Confessional for a hot minute) Hoerner and will continue my fight against all that has been ruined with this genre, all that has been put in neon lights, tight pants and keyboards.

Take back the loud/soft dynamic, take back the screaming and heartfelt lyrics and TAKE BACK what is rightfully ours. Sunny Day Real Estate are back and God help me but I think we are making progress." [WashedUpEmo.com]

Continue reading "Sunny Day Real Estate played Terminal 5 in NYC w/ The Jealous Sound - pics, video & setlist"

The Gaslight Anthem @ Sasquatach 2009 (more by Chris Graham)

"[Murder by Death] is great, and they were so different from the other bands on the bill, it really stood out as a fresh performance. Turla told a story about being in San Francisco to open for The Pogues, and how he was driving around with Shane McGowan, drinking port, and looking for a salsa bar. "Just imagine that man salsa dancing." Imagine, indeed. A highlight of their set was when Turla did a solo performance of "Bang Bang (My Baby Shot Me Down)," the oft covered Cher classic. This was evocative mood music, and it evoked a mood of "these people are cool" throughout the whole building.

The Gaslight Anthem entered the stage to a recording of Bo Diddley's "I'm a Man" and then blasted right into their set opener, "High Lonesome." The Gaslight Anthem are often lumped in as a punk band with a serious Springsteen influence, but I think this sells them short. Brian Fallon, the lead singer, used to be in a band called This Charming Man, and this duality where there is love for both the lyrical style of Bruce Springsteen, and also the sound of classic British pop makes for a great combination. You can't listen to "Old White Lincoln" without immediately hearing The Cure. But when he sings about America, cars, girls, and dreams, you hear the words of Springsteen's New Jersey." Spinning Platters]

Tickets to the NYC show are still on sale, AND I have two pairs to give away, AND I have Gaslight prizes for eight more people after that. Details, tour poster and dates below....

Continue reading "The Gaslight Anthem / Murder By Death now on tour --- win Terminal 5 tickets, colored vinyl, a t-shirt"