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Katy Perry | California | Review | Pics

August 27, 2011 in 06, 10, 11, 2, 2010, 2011, 25, 28, 8/14, a, ACL, acoustic, after, age, all, Also, am, amphitheatre, an, and, Are, around, as, at, attempt, Ball, ban, band, bands, beach, big, black, blue, bowl, Britney, brown, Burn, but, ca, california, cart, center, classic, classic rock, close, college, community, COMPLETE, concert, covers, cream, Creatures, Crowd, dance, dancing, Day, Day., effects, en, end, eq, Eve, fall, FEAT, fee, fi, final, fire, First, Foam, FOR, friday, From, front, garden, gin, great, Guitar, hampton, Hershey, hi, high, home, Hood, ice, in, into, is, IT, IX, Jackson, jam, Jay, Jay-Z, jersey, Jimmy, key, las, Last, late, Led, let, life, light, Like, LITTLE, live, live music, long, lot, love, MA, machine, Made, Main, mass, MI, Michael, michael jackson, mix, Much, Music, My, nc, New, News, night, no, ny, of, on, one, op, out, PA, page, Park, Part, party, Paul, Phish, photos, pimpin, player, Pop, pro, Pt, rad, radio, radiohead, rain, read, rock, row, rs, Sand, santa, SC, scent, sci, second, set, show, Shows, So, song, SPAC, spears, St, Stab, stage, start, story, tab, That, the, theatre, Thriller, times, to, todd, Too, tools, tour, Trip, two, us, USA, va, vegas, venue, Video, view, vt, WA, water, Way, we, with, words, years, You, Your | No comments

Words & Images by: L. Paul Mann

Katy Perry :: 08.13.11-08.14.11 :: Santa Barbara Bowl :: Santa Barbara, CA

Jump right to the huge gallery of Katy pics from Santa Barbara here!

Katy Perry @ SB Bowl 2011 by L. Paul Mann

Mega pop princess Katy Perry came home to Santa Barbara to play two sold out shows at the Santa Barbara Bowl. It was no accident that the venue was the smallest on her current massive national tour. Fueled by the enormous success of her second album, Teenage Dream, which is the first pop album to produce five chart topping hit songs since Michael Jackson’s Thriller, the pop singer brought her enormous set to the little amphitheatre for the biggest show the Bowl has ever seen. The former local resident, (from Goleta specifically), has maintained strong ties to the community where she grew up. The local crowd consisted of a diverse age demographic, made up largely of young teen, preteen and girls as young as toddlers, but also well represented by young adults and parents.

The show was an almost insidious, paradoxical mix of a childhood fairytale world and an overt sexual performance full of innuendo, sort of like Pee Wee Herman doing a show on Viagra. The show unfolded as a massive cartoon fairytale, featuring a giant 3-paneled 3D video background telling a fantasy story starring Katy and a cast of cartoon creatures. Periodically she would emerge in real life and play a song roughly related to the storyline. In addition to the massive props onstage, extravagant lighting and special effects, an army of dancers, and an impressive backing rock ensemble created an overwhelming rock spectacle, rivaling the biggest classic rock shows like Pink Floyd’s original Wall tour.

Katy Perry @ SB Bowl 2011 by L. Paul Mann

For Waking Up In Vegas, dancers dressed as showgirls, a human slot machine and Elvis Presley emerged. Perry showered the crowd with Katy Perry coins at the end of the song. Innuendo went out the window for her risque performance of Peacock, where she sings, I want your peacock, cock, draped in feathers worn by dancers dressed as peacocks. She strutted about the stage in a skimpy costume complete with tail feathers as two male trapeze artists performed high above. Then, Perry was joined by two boys she picked from the audience, Santa Barbara boys Jake and Jimmy, who Perry sneaked kisses to, then got pecks on the cheek from before she sang I Kissed a Girl. She had one of the boys strip off his shirt, looking a bit like The Situation from Jersey Shore. As young girls screamed and danced to the catchy song, two female dancers mimed a make-out session while Perry disappeared offstage for one of her endless costume changes.

Halfway into the show, Perry paused to play an acoustic set at the edge of the stage, which extended into the audience, reminiscent to a similar set-up Shakira had at the Bowl last year. Flanked by two acoustic guitar players and a couple of back up singers sitting on stools, she played a set that she dubbed Katyoke. She spent an extended amount of time reminiscing about her youth in Santa Barbara and all the places she used to frequent. Her long diatribe included memories of a concert where she recalled playing guitar and singing for change or sometimes an avocado or her favorite Santa Barbara pistachios as a 13-year-old at the local farmers market, sneaking into the Bowl without paying for her second-ever concert to see Radiohead, and hanging out on Del Playa Drive out by UCSB, even though she never went to college. The local establishment to benefit most from her shout-outs was probably the trendy little retro nightclub Wild Cat Lounge. The nightclub, voted the hottest dance club in Santa Barbara for the last decade, has become her favorite local watering hole. She actually kept her word and ended up there on Sunday night after the show. The karaoke segment featured Perry singing some of her favorite covers with acoustic accompaniment: Rihanna’sOnly Girl (In the World), Jay-Z’s Big Pimpin’, Willow Smith’s Whip My Hair and, a big hit with the youngest people in the crowd, Rebecca Black’s Friday. The acoustic set closed with Perry’s own Thinking of You, which started with her alone with a sparkly acoustic guitar and some amazing heart-shaped foam puffs that floated up to the heavens.

Katy Perry @ SB Bowl 2011 by L. Paul Mann

Then the show exploded back to life with ever more fantastic special effects. For the hit song Hot N Cold, Perry wore her trademark blue wig and changed dresses as if by magic. For Pearl, Perry wore a sparkly silver dress and was raised 35-feet on a platform in the middle of the stage while acrobats twirled high above her. For Not Like The Movies, she sat on a swing with flower-decorated ropes that was raised up in front of a movie screen showing cartoons. The concert had a storyline based on Perry’s attempt to find her purple cat Kitty Purry, with campy movie clips keeping the story moving. Things got even more surreal after she took a bite from a magic brownie from the naughty mimes who danced during Ur So Gay. This led to Perry dressed as (or transformed into?) a cat for Circle the Drain and the biggest laser light show ever witnessed at the Bowl for E.T. She ended up falling in love with the Baker’s Boy, who sold her a cupcake.

By the final two songs – Perry’s uplifting Firework and the disco party anthem California Gurls, for which Perry wore her Hershey’s Kisses top and was joined by dancing gingerbread men – there was so much going on in the venue it was hard comprehend the whole event. From the back of the venue, giant beach balls were launched around the crowd, and Perry sprayed the people in front with a set of high powered soapsuds guns, drenching many in the crowd.

Katy Perry may not have the best voice in rock, sometimes singing off-key or cracking her voice, and she will never threaten Shakira with her limited white girl dancing skills, but it is great to see a pop star giving everything she has to bring to the stage, imperfections and all, instead of a Britney Spears mime experience. Perry has come a long way in her confidence and stage presence since her last show in Santa Barbara a few years ago. She has also evolved light years from the little high school girl with blonde, straight hair in a plain white Easter dress performing religious songs on Easter Sunday at the courthouse sunken gardens for thousands of locals, including her ordained parents, over a decade ago. Santa Barbara now has to share their hometown hero, who has become the biggest selling pop star since Michael Jackson in his heyday.

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8/14/11 – Katy Perry @ Santa Barbara Bowl (Santa Barbara, CA) View Photos

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Widespread Panic | Halloween | Review | Pics

November 5, 2010 in 10, 11, 2000, 2010, 25, 31, 31st, 99, a, after, Again, age, all, Also, American, an, and, arena, around, as, at, Ball, band, Bass, big, black, blue, boot, Burn, ca, can, center, Character, chris, City, classic, classic rock, close, Closer, concert, concerts, covers, dave, David, Day, down, Drop, Drums, en, Encore, end, Enjoy, Entertainment, Eve, FEAT, fee, festival, fi, fire, First, fish, fool, FOR, four, frank, Free, friday, From, front, Funk, gain, Genesis, get, Good, Guitar, hall, halloween, Heads, hi, high, home, Hood, in, interview, IT, jam, John, Joy, Keys, las, Last, late, Led, led Zeppelin, light, live, live music, logic, long, lot, love, MA, machine, Main, Melt, MI, Music, nc, New, News, night, NJ, no, ny, October, of, on, one, op, Open, out, PA, page, Park, Part, Phish, photos, pimpin, plant, pro, psychedelic, rad, rage, read, reverb, rift, rock, roll, row, run, SC, sci, second, set, Shine, show, skies, song, SPAC, Split, stage, start, street, studio, tab, Talking, That, the, times, to, tone, Too, tools, tour, Train, two, view, Walk, war, waves, Way, we, with, years, You, Zeppelin | No comments

Words by: Frank Etheridge | Images by: Ian Rawn

Widespread Panic :: 10.31.10 :: UNO Lakefront Arena :: New Orleans, LA

WSP Fan Love by Ian Rawn

In a town where truth often out-freaks fiction, the serendipitous convergence of football, festivals and fun the last weekend of October in New Orleans – coupled with warm, gorgeous weather and clear skies – proved why this is the best American city to celebrate Halloween. Elegant yet decadent, gothic yet Catholic, the City of New Orleans thrives within its paradoxes, particularly during All Hallows’ Eve. Bustling with traffic and ringing with cash-register sales, NOLA on October 31st could not have provided a better backdrop for NBC’s primetime coverage of a game between the last two Super Bowl champs, the Saints and Steelers, with a circuses-not-bread feast that also featured countless celebrations, live music 24/7, the Voodoo Experience, and a Mardi Gras-scale parade.

Commenting on his city’s capacity – on merits of its haunted vibe, love of costumes and penchant for excess – to corner the Halloween market, parade organizer and float creator extraordinaire Blaine Kern told the Times-Picayune: “Everybody should want to come here for HalloweenRight now, Halloween is a $6 billion industry. In five to six years, I see it being $100 billion.”

Such unchecked optimism is only buoyed by Voodoo inking a deal to remain in a resurgent City Park through 2019, meaning dependable, significant revenue for a public green space doggedly recovering from Katrina (i.e. having planted 4,000 trees to replace the 2,000 lost in the storm). Peering back toward the genesis of all this spooky synergy, Voodoo founder Steve Rehage has acknowledged in interviews that Widespread Panic‘s annual NOLAweek run, and the profitable need to create 72 hours of entertainment to nourish the carnival surrounding its concerts, really started it all.

The Georgia-based band returned for a tradition that began 13 years ago, brewing its own perfect storm along the southern shores of Lake Pontchartrain with this trifecta of goodies in its gumbo: A tour-closer. In New Orleans. On Halloween.

Entering a stage of sublime, subdued decor evoking bayou hoodoo with graves, Spanish moss and palmetto shrubs, WSP bassist Dave Schools was greeted with a roaring response to his big pimpin’ white suit. “You know when you say, ‘Trick or treat,’ you know the answer is going to be trick,” Schools said.

Tricking, treating and tripping the light fantastic, Widespread Panic then commenced four face-melting hours of music and delivered an A+ performance worthy of placement on the pedestal with such NOLAween gems as 1998 and 2000.

Jimmy Herring by Ian Rawn

While a sinister, yet sensuous, reverb hung in the UNO Lakefront Arena rafters all night, the first set kicked off with a nod to Ozzy Osbourne, who was performing just a few miles south down Bayou St. John at Voodoo, with a cover of Black Sabbath’s “Fairies Wear Boots.” A rollicking “Big Wooly Mammoth” followed, this now-rare number showing John “JoJo” Hermann (dressed as Jason from the Friday the 13th movies) in fine form and the audience mercifully restrained in tossing just a few benign lighters as JoJo sang, “Somebody throw me a fire / So we can burn New Orleans down.” “BWM” segued into a musical space of spun cohesion, an abstract weirdness giving way to definite riff on Iron Butterfly’s “In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida.” Jamming this into “Worry” and through “Machine >Barstools,” Panic kept the mood dark and intense, but then switched gears with “Visiting Day,” a long-standing staple that’s been reworked into a upbeat, catchy tune on the latest album, Dirty Side Down.

A scarecrow for the evening, guitarist Jimmy Herring tuned up to playfully strum the bluesy twang that opens Muddy Waters’ “You’re Gonna Miss Me.” Herring’s interplay with JoJo, combined with Bell’s enjoyment in singing the blues, made this cover shine. Many WSP fans perhaps overextend logic when trying to decipher hidden themes in the Halloween cover selections, but it’s impossible not to tie this to recent rumor and innuendo that the band, marking its 25th anniversary in 2011, will possibly be on hiatus after next year.

Oozing into a melt preceding JB’s rap in “Diner,” the light show, superb all weekend, transformed UNO into a Dali-esque landscape – waves of purple and red cresting above the crowd; kaleidoscopic rainbows covering the floor audience; green floral arrangements twirling behind the band. Evoking departed friend Vic Chestnutt, JB whispered lyrics from his “Sewing Machine”: “I wanna be a vampire on HalloweenMama makes the cape on the sewing machinesewing machinesewing machineSEWIN’ MACHINE!”

John Bell by Ian Rawn

Split down the middle between his typical rock-star garb and flowing women’s clothing and a wig, Bell jumpstarted the second set by belting out the best sing-along about sexual ambiguity: The Kinks’ “Lola.” Another highlight came with the thick, percussive madness led by Schools and percussionist Domingo “Sunny” Ortiz that moved into “Rock.”

“Now it’s on,” Schools prophesized as longtime Panic friends and collaborators the Dirty Dozen Brass Band took the stage for covers of the Talking Heads’ “Swamp” (debuted on this stage by WSP and DDBB on 10.31.98) and Bill Withers’ sexy romp “Use Me.” Trumpeter Efrem “E.T.” Towns masterfully blew his horn to psychedelic heights, a cherry on top of seeing these two legendary bands share the same stage in New Orleans once again, reveling in their pure bond and joyous musical compatibility.

Opting not for the usual classic rock anthem and paying homage to a contemporary band younger in age, Panic’s next cover was The Black Keys’ “Strange Times,” a rocker perfect for WSP in tone and muscle, though dragged out too long here. The wistful, blissful “Jack” reeled the madness back in before the band pummeled the hard-rocking “All Time Low” to the point that Schools’ pants fell down around his ankles. Not missing a beat, the Notorious DAS kept rocking in his drawers, bounding about the amps behind his rig. To close the set, JB caressed the mic, nailing the harmonica intro to Led Zeppelin’s “Bring It On Home” before Herring teed off on its hallmark Jimmy Page riff, knocking that sum-a- bitch out of the park.

With an encore 32 minutes long, Panic pushed 1 a.m. with the DDBB joining them for “Christmas Katie” (which they performed on for the Til the Medicine Takes studio version), followed by a monster “Superstition,” which the two bands also first debuted on this stage together in 1998. A funktastic, though a bit meandering, as it clocked in over 11-minutes, take on Stevie could only by topped by Panic’s paean to all things New Orleans, “Fishwater.” Halfway during this closer, someone must have flipped Schools’ insanity switch, as a thump of the thumb turned this version into a jaw-dropping monster, while JB’s free-verse “God bless, New Orleans” wail dotted the show’s exclamation point.

While Widespread Panic’s annual NOLAween run is undoubtedly an engine of economic development in New Orleans’ drive to carve its slice of the pumpkin pie, who knows if this lucrative tradition will be counted in Caesar’s kingdom. Or is the truth found in the lyrics to “Jack”: “Where the fools go, the rich don’t mind.” Perhaps NOLAween is best destined to continue its drift outside of the quantified, existing in a realm of freaks, geeks, light shows and adults as Sesame Street characters that digs deeper than the wallet as it walks, erect and proud, on the march through consciousness evolution.

Setlist
Set I: Fairies Wear Boots > Big Wooly Mammoth > Inagoddadavida Jam > Worry, Machine > Barstools And Dreamers, Visiting Day, You’re Gonna Miss Me, Disco > Diner > Porch Song
Set II: Lola, Pilgrims > Tall Boy > Rock, *Swamp > *Use Me, Strange Times > Drums > **The Other One Jam > Jack, All Time Low, ***Bring It On Home
E: *Christmas Katie, *Superstition > *Fishwater

Notes
* with Members Of The Dirty Dozen Brass Band
** with Terrence Higgins From The Dirty Dozen Brass Band On Percussion
*** with John Bell on harmonica

Continue reading for the full gallery of photos from Widespread NOLAween 2010…

10/31/10 – Widespread Panic @ UNO Lakefront Arena (New Orleans, LA) View Photos

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The New Deal | Philly | Review | Pics | Video

October 5, 2010 in 09, 10, 11, 12, 2009, 2010, 25, 30, a, age, all, American, an, and, as, at, balance, band, Bass, ca, can, center, concert, dance, Day, down, en, Encore, end, epic, Eve, fee, fi, final, First, Free, friday, From, Genre, get, Good, hd, hi, high, in, IT, jam, las, Last, Led, Like, live, live band, live music, MA, machine, massachusetts, MD, MI, moon, Music, nc, New, News, night, no, of, on, op, PA, philadelphia, Phish, photos, pimpin, pro, rock, roll, row, sci, second, set, show, song, sound, SPAC, stage, state, tab, the, times, to, tone, tour, two, Valley, view, Walk, Way, we, with, years, You, Your | No comments

Words & Images by: Jake Krolick

The New Deal :: 09.24.10 :: Electric Factory :: Philadelphia, PA

Jamie Shields by Jake Krolick

There is a music documentary that came out in 2009 called The Heart is a Drum Machine. It contains a scene in which a drummer pontificates about how the music that we connect with stems from the rhythm of our heartbeat. With that notion in mind, consider The New Deal’s drummer Darren Shearer. Whether you watch him play or simply interact with him, he epitomizes that quote as enthusiasm spills out of his internal metronome and blasts to your ears via his drum kit. The Electric Factory found Shearer, bassist Dan Kurtz and keyboard wiz Jamie Shields doing what they’ve done best over the past 12 years – dominating their own live electronic genre. The audience synced themselves to the pulse coming from the stage and the Electric Factory was alive. This new living, breathing, thriving organism – whose purpose may have had a deeper meaning – was, for the time being, solely a dance machine.

The New Deal invited Bay Area hip-hop legend Lyrics Born and his band to open their Pennsylvania and Massachusetts shows. Pimping his soon-to-be-released album As You Were, the Japanese-American rapper Tsutomu “Tom” Shimura ripped through several older songs before getting frustrated with the buzzing crowd anxious to shake-ass. I dug his freestyle joint with shout outs to our cheese steak city, but apparently, I was in the minority. When he debuted his new single, “Lies X 3,” as much of the crowd stayed fairly lackluster. From all accounts the Northampton show the next evening fared better, but it was a tough pill to swallow for a rowdy Philadelphia crowd.

The New Deal rescheduled this show several times before finally making it happen. Despite the other electronic show going down in Philadelphia’s navy yard, tND pulled a decent-sized crowd and rocked the Factory until 1:45 a.m. with two sets and a speedy encore. Having just released a new record, Live: Toronto 7.16.2009, Shearer, Kurtz and Shields were in outstanding moods as they embarked on a 21 show romp through the States.

The first set was dominated with jams, while some serious alien sounds emerged from Shields’ keyboards. His crafty, non-looped playing combined with the key changes they were doing early on made for a spirited first set. To be honest, I’m not sure they played one “song” save for a set-ending epic version of “Octobong.”

This didn’t change during the second set as Kurtz let his fingers do the walking through a wicked “Moonscraper” jam and what sounded like “Gone, Gone, Gone.” All three musicians have mastered the ability to construct moments in the music that fluctuate on strict command from low to high. If you examined the topography of Friday’s music, its horizon line was dominated by a roller coaster of peaks and valleys. This style has come to define what is somewhat-instinctive-yet-subconsciously awesome about their performances. Their music forces you to anticipate the building-driving moments and lash out in fits of dance and arm pumping.

By the show’s encore – a speedy version of “VL Tone” – the Electric Factory was in shambles. As the trio bounced notes off the walls, I realized how powerful the anticipation of a sound is as an element of music. The New Deal excel at stirring this kind of hungry desire in audiences, offering just the right balance of foreplay and release, like a good live band should.

9/24/10 – The New Deal @ Electric Factory (Philadelphia, PA) View Photos

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