Dave Mutaine picks his candidate (more by Dana (Distortion) Yavin)

Megadeth is currently on the road with Motorhead as part of Gigantour. The show came to The Theater at Madison Square Garden in NYC, and even more recently to the Aragon Ballroom in Chicago. Right before that they stopped in Canada and that's where MusicRadar caught up with frontman Dave Mustaine. Here's part of their chat:

Speaking of news, you were a correspondent for MTV during the 1992 presidential election. What's your take on US politics in 2012?

Dave: "I'm just hoping that whatever is in the White House next year is a Republican. I can't bear to watch what's happened to our great country. Everybody's got their head in the sand. Everybody in the industry is like, 'Oh, Obama's doing such a great job...' I don't think so. Not from what I see.

"Looking at the Republican candidates, I've got to tell you, I was floored the other day to see that Mitt Romney's five boys have a $100 million trust fund. Where does a guy make that much money? So there's some questions there. And watching Newt Gingrich, I was pretty excited for a while, but now he's just gone back to being that person that everybody said he was - that angry little man. I still like him, but I don't think I'd vote for him.

"Ron Paul... you know, I heard somebody say he was like insecticide - 98 percent of it's inert gases, but it's the two percent that's left that will kill you. What that means is that he'll make total sense for a while, and then he'll say something so way out that it negates everything else. I like the guy because he knows how to excite the youth of America and fill them in on some things. But when he says that we're like the Taliban... I'm sorry, Congressman Paul, but I'm nothing like the Taliban.

"Earlier in the election, I was completely oblivious as to who Rick Santorum was, but when the dude went home to be with his daughter when she was sick, that was very commendable. Also, just watching how he hasn't gotten into doing these horrible, horrible attack ads like Mitt Romney's done against Newt Gingrich, and then the volume at which Newt has gone back at Romney... You know, I think Santorum has some presidential qualities, and I'm hoping that if it does come down to it, we'll see a Republican in the White House... and that it's Rick Santorum."

Good thing there was no Megadeth in Obama's Spotify playlist which contains some of what you would expect like Wilco, Bruce Springsteen and Arcade Fire, and at least one "whoah!" aka a fairly small band from Portland who are signed to Knitting Factory Records and that is AgesandAges. Congrats to them! (though of course it should be noted that, to be more specific, the Spotify playlist "features picks by the campaign staff--including a few of President Obama's favorites." Check out the whole thing on Spotify.

Patti Smith at Escape to NY in August (more by Dana (distortion) Yavin)

Like she did last year and many years before that, Patti Smith and her band will ring in the new year in her hometown of NYC over the course of three nights at Bowery Ballroom (12/29, 12/30, 12/31). Tickets for all three shows go on sale Friday (11/18) at noon.

Patti is playing solo in NYC even sooner at the Metropolitan Museum of Art on December 2 with Jesse Smith and friends, "saluting Alfred Stieglitz and his circle, focusing on his collaborative relationship with Georgia O'Keeffe. Unfortunately, this show is sold out.

She is also one of the contributors to Q Magazine's tribute to U2's Achtung Baby, which was recently reissued in honor of its 20th anniversary, along with Jack White, Depeche Mode, Nine Inch Nails, and others. You check out the full tracklist and stream her cover of "Until the End of the World", alongside a list of all of her upcoming dates, below.

Continue reading "Patti Smith covered U2, announces New Year's shows (dates)"

photos by Greg Cristman

Last night, U2 arrived at New Jersey's New Meadowlands Stadium in a giant green-and-orange spaceship. At least that's what the nearly 100,000 people in attendance might have assumed upon first seeing the blinking, glowing, four-legged, 167 foot tall contraption straddling the area that otherwise serves as the Jets' and Giants' home turf.

More confusion may have ensued around half past nine when the base of the structure began to smoke furiously; shortly thereafter, David Bowie's 'Space Oddity' announced a countdown over the loudspeakers. At zero, the sound of live guitars cut through the heavy air and U2 charged onto the stage as the stadium heaved with applause. The band played for over two hours, rocking through hits like 'Beautiful Day' and 'Sunday, Bloody Sunday,' punctuated with shout-outs to Amnesty International and bits of banter by Bono.

'I'm a man of simple needs, just 200 trucks, 400 tons of equipment,' he said of the group's current tour. 'A work in progress.'...

...The group's [360] tour takes its name from the aforementioned structure that allows U2 to play stadiums 'in the round'; in other words, to open up thousands of seats that would ordinarily be behind a stage - and actually sell out 80,000-seat venues (or larger). The contraption is dismantled and trucked from city to city between shows along with all the group's equipment. As a result, U2 has been playing to average crowds of 96,000 people per night and grossing just shy of $10 million per show. By comparison, Bon Jovi, the second-highest earning musical act over the past year, drew an average of 34,000 fans and grossed $3.5 million per night. [Forbes]

The July 20, 2011 show was originally scheduled July 19, 2010, but was postponed due to Bono's back injury. U2 played some of the final shows at Giants Stadium in 2009 (also expensive 360 shows).

More pictures and the setlists from last night in NJ below....

Continue reading "U2 & Interpol played the new Meadownlands (pics, setlists)"

Bono realizes he needs new shoes @ Giants Stadium in 2009 (more by Tim Griffin)

StubHub, the world's largest ticket marketplace, is launching the Take Off Your Boots campaign to collect shoes for the charity Soles4Souls, and giving away tickets to the U2 360 Tour to those who participate. From May through July, StubHub with the help of Hard Rock Cafe, will host events in Denver, Los Angeles, Miami, New York City, Philadelphia, San Francisco and Seattle to collect new or gently used shoes. In exchange for donating a pair of shoes at these events, fans will receive a pair of U2 tickets.

Soles4Souls, a Nashville-based charity, collects shoes and distributes them to people in need. Since 2005, it has given more than 13 million pairs of new and gently worn shoes to people in over 125 countries.

"We are thrilled StubHub is making it easy for people in these cities to donate to our cause. We hope that as a result of the Take Off Your Boots campaign , Soles4Souls will be able to distribute thousands of pairs of shoes to those who are most in need," said Wayne Elsey, Founder and CEO of Soles4Souls.

There is a limit of one pair of U2 tickets per person donating a pair of shoes at the Take Off Your Boots events, while supplies last. Shoes must be gently used or new to be accepted.

The campaign is for U2's 360 Tour which hits Meadowlands Sports Complex in East Rutherford, NJ on July 20 with support from Interpol. Florence & the Machine also open part of the tour.

U2 played Glastonbury Festival this past weekend. Check out a video of that with their setlist and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "trade in your shoes for U2 tickets..."

Florence & The Machine at Terminal 5 (more by Chris La Putt)

"ARETHA TRIBUTE
Enough to put Aretha six feet under.
Note to Christina... SUBTLETY! And just because you're in the public eye that doesn't mean anybody wants to pay to see you. What planet are you living on? AND LOSE THE HAND!
As to why Florence and Martina were there...can you say DEMOGRAPHICS?
At least Jennifer Hudson can sing, even if she does look like a completely different person."
[Bob Lefsetz]

The NYC show comes during a run of summer shows that include other headlining performances and some gigs with U2 as part of their 360 Tour. All dates are listed below.

In the meantime, you can catch Florence Welch on the Oscars in a couple of weeks. She'll perform "If I Rise" from the 127 Hours soundtrack with composer AR Rahman . Video of last night's Grammys performance is below.

Speaking of U2 (who's Spiderman Broadway musical is getting hammered right now), tickets are still available for their show at the Meadowlands on Jul 20th with Interpol who also open a bunch other dates on the rescheduled tour.

Interpol are now on tour with School of Seven Bells and will play their headlining show at Radio City Music Hall this week (on 2/17). Tickets are still available. In March they head to Europe with Matthew Dear before returning to tour even more leading up to their run with U2. All dates for everyone and a video from the Grammys below...

Continue reading "Florence & the Machine playing Summerstage, touring w/ U2 before Interpol do (2011 tour dates)"

today in NYC
* Whiplash @ UCB
* Chicha Libre @ Barbes
* Eszter Balint @ Barbes
* Federico Aubele @ Joe's Pub
* The Godfathers @ Santos Party House
* Hot Tub with Kurt and Kristen @ Littlefield
* The Syd Straw Heartwreck Show @ Southpaw
* Abe Vigoda (Radio Happy Hour) @ Le Poisson Rouge
* Tony Scherr Trio, Norman Vladimir @ The Living Room
* Theophilus London, PO PO, New Look @ Music Hall of Williamsburg
* 3rd Annual Anti V-day Riot Gurrl Cover Band Show @ Death By Audio
* Controlled Bleeding, Syphilitic Lust, Occultation, Skull @ Lit Lounge
* Vieux Farka Toure, Ramble Tamble, Invisible Familiars, Very Fresh @ Zebulon
* Jim Campilongo Electric Trio, Stephan Crump, Tony Mason @ The Living Room
* Kyp Malone Valentine's Day Party w/ Chica Vas, Hiro Kone, Grey Gersten @ Glasslands
* Genghis Barbie, Stumblebum Brass Band, Raya Brass Band, Frank London @ Mercury Lounge

The Spiderman musical is having a rough time. In related news, the dude who plays Spiderman is in the band Carney who are playing Bowery Ballroom tonight. Acutally all of Carney play in the musical that was written by U2 who Carney are opening for, along with Arcade Fire, at their show in New Brunswick, Canada on July 30, 2011.

Arcade Fire won "Album of the Year" at the Grammys.

LCD Soundsystem are on the Colbert Report tonight.

A video of Little Scream playing "The Heron and The Fox", below...

Video of Cee-Lo's Grammy performance below...

What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Monday? (Valentine's Day)"

Live Nation Entertainment announced today that the U2 360° tour dates in the US, which were recently postponed due to Bono's emergency back surgery, have all been rescheduled for Spring/Summer 2011 with all tickets being valid at the rescheduled performances.

The 2010 European tour, which has not been affected, begins as scheduled on August 6th in Turin.

U2's manager Paul McGuinness thanked fans for their ongoing support, "We're delighted the dates are rescheduled and in all the same venues we originally planned to play. It hasn't been easy to accomplish this and I'd like to thank the managers of the many venues and sports teams across North America and Live Nation Global Touring for their help and cooperation in making this complex new plan possible. Above all we want to thank the U2 fans for bearing with us. They're the best and the band wants to get back to where they belong, surrounded by their audience."

Continue reading "U2 reschedules dates (2011 Tour Dates) "

The Wellmont show is one of two upcoming NJ shows that Interpol will play this summer, and is part of a larger tour that is now announced in full. All dates and the "Lights" video, below...

Continue reading "Interpol announce more tour dates & release 'Lights' video "

Good day to you all.

Unfortunately, due to the postponement of the upcoming U2 US dates, Interpol has had to rework its summer tour schedule.

With the exception of four shows, we have had to cancel our announced dates. Shows in Rochester, Buffalo, Pittsburgh, and Allentown will be happening. The rest of the shows will be rescheduled. If you have purchased tickets for a cancelled date, please contact the "point of purchase" and get a full refund.

We lament the change in plans, apologize for the inconvenience, and assure you that we'll do you right - when the time is right and the light is nice.

Interpol (via/via)

U2360 (more by Tim Griffin)

"Tour promoters Live Nation have confirmed that the 16 U2360° shows from Salt Lake City on June 3rd, through to New Jersey's Meadowlands Stadium on July 19th, will be rescheduled for 2011.

U2 tour producer/promoter Arthur Fogel, CEO of Live Nation Global Touring, said, 'Although we understand the disappointment to U2 fans, first and foremost comes the recovery of Bono.'

Additional details on rescheduled dates will follow shortly and fans are encouraged to hold on to their tickets. We'll have all the information on U2.com as soon as it's confirmed." [U2]

Bono (more by Tim Griffin)

U2 has postponed the first date of its world tour because of a back injury suffered by singer Bono.

The June 3 concert scheduled in Salt Lake City was the continental kick-off for this leg of the band's U2 360 tour.
But future cancellations or postponements remain a possibility, depending on Bono's recovery.

Bono underwent emergency surgery today in a hospital in Munich, Germany, and must recover there for a few days. He was injured during a rehearsal. [Chicao Sun Times]

Interpol, who recently released a new song from their new record, have announced that Carlos D has left the band. Their letter and all tour dates below...

Continue reading "Carlos D leaves Interpol (who have some shows coming up)"

Brooklyn Bowl continues to twist typical concert venue conventions, offering a screening of U2 3D (the first ever live-action digital 3D film, originally released in 2008) on St. Patrick's Day, Wednesday, March 17th at four screenings - 5PM, 7:30PM, 10PM and midnight.

Doors will open at 3PM. Admission is free. 3D glasses will be priced at $5. Bowling will be free throughout the day starting at 3PM. Minimum four people per lane in two-hour blocks. - Brooklyn Bowl

Continue reading "3D U2 movie screenings @ Brooklyn Bowl on St. Patrick's Day"

today in NYC
* Misstallica @ Mercury Lounge
* Roky Erickson, The Fleshtones @ Southpaw
* Joseph Arthur, Charlie Mars @ City Winery
* The Detroit Cobras, The Swinging Neckbreakers @ Maxwell's
* Andy Butler (Hercules & Love Affair) DJ set @ Webster Hall

Above picture is Roky Erickson @ ACL 2008 (more by Kyle Dean Reinford). He played Maxwell's last night, is at Southpaw tonight, and then is back at Maxwell's on Saturday.

Hello 2010. What else?

Continue reading "What's going on Friday? (New Year's Day)"

Beast @ CMJ 2009 (more by Chris La Putt)

Lady Gaga was nominated five times. Considering her rocket to fame over the last year, many were expecting more for her. But at least the contests are going to be really interesting: Beyoncé, [Taylor] Swift and Lady Gaga are going head to head in three of the most important categories: album, record and song of the year. Will one of them sweep, or will the lady vote be split?

One of the usual complaints about the Grammys is that it over-rewards older, established, familiar acts at the expense of newer, fresher ones. MGMT, the Brooklyn synth-rock duo, was nominated for best new artist, a big coup although not unexpected. But some of the shoulda-been names that have been circulated and Tweeted: Grizzly Bear, another acclaimed Brooklyn group; Regina Spektor, a young New York songwriter who started in the underground and has found some mainstream popularity; Diane Birch, a young soul-style singer, just the revivalist type the Grammys usually adore; and the Decemberists, an alt-folk-rock band from Portland, Ore., that released an ambitious concept album this year. [NY Times]

One surprise (for me anyway) came this year in the video category. Montreal's Beast were nominated for "Mr. Hurricane". That video with a list of some of the other nominees, below...

Continue reading "Beast's 'Mr. Hurricane' video & other 2009 Grammy nominees "

The December issue of Q Magazine is an 'Artists Of The Century' special edition, covering all of the acts that the fine staff of the good ship Q feel are the most important of the century so far. As befitting a special edition of the UK best selling music monthly requires a special cover was commissioned world renowned photographer John Wright has spent over a year shooting 34 artists to fit on triple fold out cover.

The issue is packed to the gills with pieces written by Russell Brand on Noel Gallagher, Glastonbury founder Michael Eavis on Coldplay and Queens Of The Stone Age frontman Josh Homme on The Arctic Monkeys. In addition it also includes exclusive interviews and photos from the likes of Amy Winehouse, Dizzee Rascal, U2, Dave Grohl, Lily Allen, Rihanna, Sir Paul McCartney, Billie Joe Armstrong of Green Day, Brandon Flowers from The Killers, Elbow's Guy Garvey, Pink, Muse's Matt Bellamy, Murdoc from Gorillaz, The Kings Of Leon, Mark Ronson, Mika, Nick Cave, Robert Plant, Florence Welch, Gary Lightbody of Snow Patrol and Tom Chaplin of Keane.

Continue reading "Q Magazine's Top Albums of 2009 "

B.B. King is playing United Palace Theatre in NYC on February 12th. Tickets are now on Live Nation Presale (password = record) and Citi Cardmember presale. General sale starts Saturday at 10am.

United Palace is also the location of this Friday's Monsters of Folk show for which tickets are still on sale.

Twisted Sister holiday shows are now a yearly tradition. They return to Nokia Theatre in Times Square on December 6th. Tickets are on sale.

Nokia Theatre is also where DOOM and Mos Def are playing on January 30th. Tickets are on AmEx Presale (@ 10am).

Some tickets went back on sale for the upcoming Pixies shows at Hammerstein Ballroom.

Hammerstein Ballroom is where Phoenix and Passion Pit are playing on December 2nd. Tickets are on Internet Presale (password = 1019RXP) (@ 10am).

Tickets are now on U2.com presale for the U2 show at "New Meadowlands Stadium" in July. General sale starts Monday at 10am.

Tickets are on AmEx presale (@ 11am) for the Levon Helm / Okkervil River show coming up at Terminal 5.

The Mary Onettes kicked off a tour of the USA last night (10/3) in Boston. Tonight (10/4) they play their first of three NYC shows. It's at Union Hall. Blacklist opens. Tickets probably available at the door.

Bruce Springsteen & Tom Morello @ MSG (BMoreSweet)

U2 closed the second night of the MSG Rock & Roll Hall of Fame shows on October 30th. At the first (10/29), it was Bruce Springsteen & Billy Joel (before one big group sing on Jackie Wilson's "Higher and Higher")...

After "Badlands" much of the drained audience began leaving and then rushed back to their seats when Billy Joel sat down at the piano and launched into "You May Be Right," "Only The Good Die Young" and "New York State Of Mind." (The pair were uniting the kindred spirits of New Jersey and Long Island, Springsteen explained.) "Higher and Higher" wrapped up the night. The official set list had the show ending at 11:36:55 (yes, they thought they had it down to the exact second), but the final notes rang out at 1:31 a.m. Six straight hours of music, and that was just the first of two nights. [Rolling Stone]

HBO will be airing four hours of highlights on Thanksgiving weekend.
(November 29th at 8PM ET).

Bruce's current tour wraps up November 22nd in Buffalo. He was at Giants Stadium earlier this fall, playing the last concerts ever there. U2 also played the venue for two nights in September, and will be back in Jersey in 2010 as part of their just-announced tour.

Set lists for the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame shows are below...

Continue reading "Rock & Roll Hall of Fame hosted 2 very long shows @ MSG (setlists), will air on HBO Thanksgiving weekend"

U2 @ Giants Stadium (more by Tim Griffin)

U2's multi-leg, multi-year 360° tour continues into 2010 with a new set of dates and a new set of stadiums. After playing some of the last shows in Giants Stadium in 2009 (Bruce Springsteen played the very last), U2 will return to Jersey next summer to play one of the first shows at the new Meadowlands stadium on July 19th. Bon Jovi will play the very first concerts at the new stadium in May.

Pre-sales through U2.com begin on Tuesday at 10am (11/3).

"With a cylindrical video system of interlocking LED panels, and a steel structure rising 150 feet from the floor over a massive stage with rotating bridges, the band has truly created an intimate 360º experience for concert goers. In keeping with the concept that this tour is more about a unique staging configuration with excellent sight-lines, tickets for the U2 360° 2010 tour will once again be scaled so that 85 percent of the tickets are priced at less than $95.00, general admission floor tickets at $55.00 and at least 10,000 tickets per venue priced at $30.00."

Continue reading "U2 announce 2010 tour dates (New Meadowlands Stadium)"

"One Band, One Stage -- Tune in for U2's live global webcast from the Rose Bowl - October 25th @ 8:30 p.m. (PT)" (11:30 Eastern)

Gavin & Courtney @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Rufus, Scarlett & Gavin @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Gavin & U2 @ Carnegie Hall (aphrodite-in-nyc)

Sunday, October 4th was the "Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday & Friends" show at Carnegie Hall. The whole night was a benefit for (RED), a charity directed toward AIDS in Africa.

The night's advertised guests included Laurie Anderson, Antony, Elizabeth Ashley, Bono, Adam Clayton, Andrea Corr, The Edge, Flo & Eddie, Joel Grey, Bill Frisell, Guggi, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Patrick McCabe, Maria McKee, Shane MacGowan, Eric Mingus, Larry Mullen, Jr., JG Thirlwell, Lydia Lunch, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright and Chloe Webb. A few others who appeared were Lady Gaga, Fred Armisen as Prince, and Lou Reed, The night had a strong collaborative atmosphere to say the least...

Rufus Wainwright, Scarlett Johansson and Saturday Night Live's Fred Armisen joined Friday for the come-hither cartoon "Mr. Pussy," from Friday's 1995 album, Shag Tobacco. (Armisen came out dressed to the purple nines -- as Prince.) Friday and falsetto-soul singer Antony duetted on a pair of ballads, including a Memphis-brass-soaked reading of "He Got What He Wanted" from Friday's 1989 solo debut, Each Man Kills the Thing He Loves. Friday and Virgin Prunes devotee Courtney Love were just on the right side of out-of-control in a pounding version of Magazine's "The Light Pours Out of Me." Queen of the post-punk furies Lydia Lunch played the same half of the night as Lady Gaga (who came out in next to nothing -- she made Love look demure). And a metal-machine-noise assault by Laurie Anderson (violin), John Zorn (saxophone) and Lou Reed (guitar distortion) eventually resolved into the Velvet Underground's "Sweet Jane" with Friday, Bono and a cheerfully pickled Shane McGowan of the Pogues trading verses.

Bono was not just passing through between stadiums. He, the Edge, Adam Clayton and Larry Mullen Jr. were on and off stage half a dozen times; U2's Friday covers included "I Want to Live" (done with techno drive and Joshua Tree-like space) and the crusted-glam bomb "King of Trash." Bono also took a solo spot, turning on his Irish Sinatra for the Shag Tobacco elegy "The Last Song I'll Ever Sing." The Edge's brother, guitarist Richard Evans, joined Friday and singer Guggi in a mostly-intact Virgin Prunes reunion (the group broke up in 1987). Their overlapping vocal harangue in "Sweethome Under White Clouds," with JG Thirwell of Foetus guesting as a third voice, sounded like the Beastie Boys at the End of Days. [Rolling Stone]

Continue reading "Gavin Friday & friends (U2, Courtney Love, Lady Gaga, Antony, Lou Reed, Rufus Waniwright, and many, many more) played Carnegie Hall (videos & stuff) "

photos by Tim Griffin

"This [U2] concert [at Giants Stadium] was originally scheduled for 25 September 2009 and was only announced after strong ticket sales for the show on the 24th of September. It was moved to the 23rd so that the stadium would be free to host a rescheduled New York Jets game.

During Muse's opening set, frontman Matthew Bellamy plays a snippet of U2's The Fly at the start of Uprising.

U2 change the setlist position of No Line On The Horizon: previously always second in the 360° Tour setlist, it is played tenth while Magnificent slots in at second. Breathe returns as the opener after missing the previous gig entirely. Unknown Caller misses a 360° Tour gig for only the third time. It's Bruce Springsteen's birthday, and although he does not join U2 on stage, the band play a medley of his song She's The One and their own Desire early in the main set; due to technical limitations, Desire is listed as a snippet. This is Desire's first appearance on the second leg, nearly two months since it was last played." [U2 Gigs]

NY Times adds that, ""Walk On" was dedicated to Aung San Suu Kyi, the opposition leader and Nobel Peace Prize laureate who has long been under house arrest in Myanmar, and dozens of her supporters paraded onstage with her photograph."

The Star Ledger says, "It was the biggest concert in the stadium's history. More than 82,000 tickets were sold, and though an attendance figure was not immediately available, it didn't look like there were many empty seats."

82,000 tickets should help U2 come close to paying for what the concert actually costs to put on (though nothing about it will help pay back what it's doing to the environment... 200 trucks... 82,000 commuters...)

Speaking of commuters...

It went from cheers to jeers for throngs U2 fans as they tried to make their way to and from last night's concert at Giants Stadium -- and many warned those headed to the final show tonight to be prepared to wait at the train station.

Some New Jersey Transit riders say they waited for up to two hours for a train and that it turned a wonderful night into a nightmare.

Concertgoer Andrea Giantonio tells 1010 WINS what should have been a 20 minute trip home to Hoboken took over two hours.

NJT officials say there were plenty of trains, but there were too few ticket machines to accommodate the throngs of people.

Continue reading "U2 played Giants Stadium - pics, reviews, the setlist & lots of angry people stuck waiting in train stations"

Billboard: So you feel good about the live part of U2's business?

U2's manager, Paul McGuinness: Absolutely, because in a way there's a memory in the audience. They've always known that when you come to a U2 show -- even when we were doing theaters -- we would do as much production as we could afford. Once we got into arenas, we loved it -- we always played in the round in the arenas -- so this seems natural to be in the round in the stadiums.

The engineering problems are enormous and costly. We had to find a way for it to be aesthetic and figure out a way of doing video. That cylindrical screen we have -- that didn't exist, we had to get somebody to invent that. We had to design this four-legged thing (the claw) -- and build three of them.

Billboard: How long will it take to get into the black?

McGuinness: When do we hit the break-even point? We haven't hit it yet. But we will sometime between now and the end of this leg.

Billboard: So next year is gravy?

McGuinness: Not exactly gravy, because whether we're playing or not, the overhead is about $750,000 daily. That's just to have the crew on payroll, to rent the trucks, all that. There's about 200 trucks. Each stage is 37 trucks, so you're up to nearly 120 there. And then the universal production is another 50-odd trucks, and there are merchandise trucks and catering trucks.

Bono and The Edge will be back in NYC on October 4th for a benefit at Carnegie Hall. All U2 dats below...

Continue reading "U2's expensive 360 show reaches NJ (tonight & Thursday)"

Bono and Gavin Friday (U2Log)

On October 4 at New York City's legendary Carnegie Hall, (RED) unites a world-class line up of artists for a special (RED)NIGHTS concert "Hal Willner Presents: An Evening with Gavin Friday and Friends." The star-studded evening will feature Laurie Anderson, Antony, Elizabeth Ashley, Bono, Adam Clayton, Andrea Corr, The Edge, Flo & Eddie, Joel Grey, Bill Frisell, Guggi, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Lydia Lunch, Patrick McCabe, Maria McKee, Shane MacGowan, Eric Mingus, Larry Mullen, Jr., JG Thirlwell, Martha Wainwright, Rufus Wainwright, Chloe Webb, plus special guests. Tickets for the event will go on sale beginning Wednesday, September 16 at 11AM EST via CarnegieCharge at 212-247-7800, carnegiehall.org and the box office. As is the case with every (RED)NIGHTS show, a portion of the proceeds from the concert will go directly to the Global Fund. For more information, please visit www.joinred.com/rednights or www.gavinfriday.com.

Longtime friends and professional collaborators, Willner and Friday came together to bring the concert to life and raise awareness of (RED)™'s mission. Friday, a childhood friend of Bono, is an Irish singer, composer and painter and founding member of the gothic rock group The Virgin Prunes. Willner has produced albums for Marianne Faithfull, Lou Reed, William S. Burroughs and Allen Ginsberg, yet is perhaps best known for assembling tribute albums and live events saluting Leonard Cohen, Thelonius Monk, Tim Buckley, Edgar Allen Poe and Marquis de Sade.

Willner said, "This unique evening is a celebration of Gavin and a gathering of friends and amazing musicians. We're all proud to partner with (RED) to help fight AIDS in Africa." "It's an honor to be a part of this (RED)NIGHT because I know the money generated will go directly to people who need it," added Friday.

Lydia Lunch also performs one day earlier with her band Teenage Jesus and the Jerks at Music Hall of Williamsburg.

Rufus and Martha Wainwright are appearing with their father Loudon at Highline Ballroom in NYC TONIGHT (9/15).

The Carnegie Hall event poster with more information below...

Continue reading "a new Hal Willner / Gavin Friday show @ Carnegie w/ Antony, Bono, The Edge, Scarlett Johansson, Courtney Love, Rufus Wainwright & MANY OTHERS!"

Hello, this is Ticketmaster Customer Service with an important alert for your upcoming event.

U2 360° Tour, scheduled at the Giants Stadium on Friday, September 25, 2009, at 7:00PM, has been rescheduled. The new date is Wednesday, September 23, 2009, at 7:00PM. The U2 performance on Thursday, September 24th will proceed as scheduled. The change was necessitated by the rescheduling of the New York Jets football game later that week. We regret the inconvenience to U2 fans.

Original tickets will be honored for the new date. If needed you may obtain a refund by following the instructions below for your applicable delivery method.