Setlist: Kelly Clarkson

Our thanks go out to Beverly Blu Eyes for this Kelly Clarkson setlist:

My Life Would Suck Without You
Behind These Hazel Eyes
I Forgive You
Dark Side
Walk Away
You Love Me
We Are Young
Already Gone
Don't You Wanna Stay
The Writer
Because of You
Breakaway
Catch My Breath
Since U Been Gone

Encore:

Never Again
Mr. Know It All
Miss Independent
What Doesn't Kill You

Setlist: Rod Stewart/Stevie Nicks

BPD member Teresa252 sends us this killer setlist from the duo's tour:

Rod

Love Train
Tonight's the Night
Havin' a Party
Passion
Young Turks
The First Cut Is The Deepest
You Wear It Well
Downtown Train
Reason To Believe
Forever Young
You're In My Heart
Sweet Little Rock & Roller
Rhythm of My Heart
Proud Mary
Have I Told You Lately
Hot Legs
Maggie May

Encore:
Da Ya Think I'm Sexy?

Stevie

Fall From Grace
Secret Love
If Anyone Falls
Dreams
Sorcerer
Gold Dust Woman
Stand Back
Rhiannon
Landslide
Edge of Seventeen

Encore:
Love Is

Member Review: Robert Plant

4 year BPD member Slash This writes to us:

Throughout the course of his 20-song set, Plant often looked at singer/guitarist Patty Griffin, guitarist Buddy Miller and multi-instrumentalist Darrell Scott and repeated the word "yeah" off microphone, sensing it was going to be what he called "another scintillating evening" from the opening notes of the opener Cindy, I’ll Marry You Someday.


For the most part he was correct, especially on slower, groove-riddled numbers like Angel Dance with Scott on mandolin.


While Miller, Griffin and Scott shone when taking the lead vocal on Trouble, Love Throw A Line and A Satisfied Mind respectively, Plant seemed to enjoy and excel in these still new musical waters on numbers like the fine Please Read The Letter and the winding, deliberate rendition of Richard Thompson's House Of Cards.


And Plant also managed to deftly saunter through material from his Led Zeppelin period by reworking and retooling many of those numbers. This was especially true of Ramble On and Houses Of The Holy, the latter with the Jimmy Page hook still audible but surrounded by a sweet, roots-y feel that got a standing ovation from many.


Also going over just as nicely was a Sun Studios-era rockabilly romp through Rock And Roll with drummer Marco Giovino finishing with the same drum intro the late John Bonham did on the original


It was obvious from the beginning fans wanted their Zeppelin fix, but like his choice to opt out of a reunion tour following the widely praised one-off 2007 London show, Plant does what he wants.


After a crawling version of Gallows Pole - far different from the original foot-stomper - Plant and company returned for a short encore that ended with all six doing an a cappella version of And We Bid You Goodnight.


After the show, Plant admitted to me that there had been a few miscues, particularly when his last hit Tall Cool One came across at best as average and Satan, Your Kingdom Must Come Down took a while to heat up. It wasn't that way for me. Overall, I felt that it was a very good night indeed.

Thanks for writing to us, Slash This.

If you've got a favorite artist or group that you'd like to hang with, you should sign up with BackstagePassDirect. 

Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks: HEART & SOUL TOUR

Rod Stewart and Stevie Nicks have announced that they have joined forces for one of the most anticipated musical events of the year, THE HEART & SOUL TOUR. Launching March 20, 2011 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, the tour will unite two of music’s most legendary forces for a series of arena concerts throughout the US. The tour will feature both artists performing all rock & roll sets from their incomparable catalogs of hits and backed by an incredible band of musicians and stage production.

Said Rod Stewart: “We haven’t yet begun rehearsals but I can already tell you this, with Stevie on board our audiences are in store for an evening of pure rock & roll music. I’m already thinking about which of my old favorites to bring back and vocally, I think we’ve both begun thinking about which songs might be great fun and well-suited for a duet or two.”

In a career spanning five decades, with an estimated 250 million album and single sales, Rod Stewart is a Rock and Roll Hall of Famer and indisputably one of the most successful performers of all time. He finished 2010 at the top of both the touring and album charts - highlighted by his critically-heralded, sold-out first run of concerts at The Colosseum in Las Vegas, a “Boxscore,” chart-topping, 33-date European summer tour which included 4 sold-out dates at London’s O2 Arena.

Throughout his prolific career, he’s garnered 16-Grammy nominations, including his current for “Best Traditional Pop Vocal Album," and sales of more than one million albums worldwide for his 2010 album FLY ME TO THE MOON…THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK, VOLUME V. In addition, Rod Stewart is set to release THE BEST OF…THE GREAT AMERICAN SONGBOOK available in stores February 1st, 2011 (J Records).

Stevie Nicks, Rock and Roll's reigning queen, will be releasing her highly anticipated new CD “IN: YOUR DREAMS” on May 3, 2011. The new album, her first album of new material in a decade, was co-produced by former Eurythmic Dave Stewart and Glen Ballard. The official release date of the first single, "Secret Love”, is February 3rd.

Confirmed dates:

Sun 03/20/11 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
Wed 03/23/11 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum
Thu 03/24/11 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena
Sat 03/26/11 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
Sun 03/27/11 Uncasville, CT Mohegan Sun Arena
Wed 03/30/11 Boston, MA TD Garden
Tue 04/05/11 Philadelphia, PA Wells Fargo Center
Sat 04/09/11 Chicago, IL United Center
Sun 04/10/11 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
Fri 04/15/11 Phoenix, AZ US Airways Center
Sat 04/16/11 Los Angeles, CA Hollywood Bowl

Requests for passes are already coming in. If you wait, you're late.

Visit BackstagePassDirect and request your member passes now.

More Justin Beiber Passes

Everyone's favorite 15 year old, Justin Beiber, has been performing to sellout crowds night after night on his My World tour. Backstage passes to his performances have been some of the most sought after this year.

Passes for June shows are already gone, but we are pleased to announce that we will be receiving a larger number of passes for his July and August appearances.

Here are the dates:

07/02/10 Moline, IL i wireless Center
07/03/10 Omaha, NE Qwest Center Omaha
07/05/10 Grand Prairie, TX Verizon Theatre At Grand Prairie
07/06/10 Tulsa, OK BOK Center
07/08/10 Broomfield, CO 1STBANK Center
07/10/10 West Valley City, UT The E Center
07/13/10 Everett, WA Comcast Arena At Everett
07/14/10 Portland, OR Rose Garden Arena
07/17/10 Oakland, CA Oracle Arena
07/18/10 Reno, NV Reno Events Center
07/20/10 Los Angeles, CA Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE
07/21/10 Paso Robles, CA Grandstand @ California Mid State Fair
07/24/10 Las Vegas, NV Planet Hollywood Theatre For The Performing Arts
07/25/10 Glendale, AZ Jobing.com Arena
07/28/10 Kansas City, MO Sprint Center
07/29/10 North Little Rock, AR Verizon Arena
07/31/10 Memphis, TN FedExForum
08/01/10 Lafayette, LA Cajundome
08/04/10 Orlando, FL Amway Arena
08/05/10 Sunrise, FL BankAtlantic Center
08/08/10 Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena
08/09/10 Duluth, GA The Arena At Gwinnett Center
08/11/10 Nashville, TN Bridgestone Arena
08/12/10 Indianapolis, IN Conseco Fieldhouse
08/14/10 Columbus, OH Schottenstein Center
08/15/10 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace Of Auburn Hills
08/25/10 Albany, NY Times Union Center
08/27/10 Providence, RI Dunkin' Donuts Center
08/28/10 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
08/29/10 Syracuse, NY New York State Fairgrounds
08/31/10 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena

If Justin is a must see for you, here's your chance. Join BackstagePassDirect and request your passes today.

Member Review: Them Crooked Vultures

BPD member Zepman4Ever logs in:

“This is the biggest show we’ve ever played and it means a lot to us,” singer, guitarist and former Queens Of The Stone Age architect Josh Homme told me prior to going out front to put out a roughly two-hour show. “It means a lot to us. We’re just four guys who wanted to play together, and here we are.” That's really it; they don't have to sell CDs and tickets, they're just having fun.

Aside from Homme, these “just four guys” happens to be Foo Fighters main man Dave Grohl on drums, touring guitarist Alain Johannes and Led Zeppelin bassist/keyboardist John Paul Jones.

And for most of the 15-song set, Them Crooked Vultures rampaged through a brand of ‘70s era-influenced hard rock that truly has to be seen to be appreciated. Whether watching Grohl punish himself physically as much as his battened-down drum kit numerous times or Jones shuffling around while keeping the groove, the band does not take any short cuts in achieving such an impressive sound.

TCV opened with the swampy hook of No One Loves Me & Neither Do I which had most on the floor bobbing along. Then, the group dished out Gunman before the “little dance number” Scumbag Blues reared its catchy head.

Part of the attraction of the band, though, is seeing both Homme and Grohl playing off of Jones, the elder statesman at 66. As Jones doled out a few quick bass lines during Scumbag Blues, Homme and Grohl both resembled kids in awe of meeting their rock hero for the first time.

Dead End Friends and especially the gear-shifting Elephants fared fine, but Highway 1, the first of two non-album tracks performed, didn’t quite match the intensity or bombast of the single New Fang or the tight Mind Eraser, No Chaser. But an ensuing effort with the title You Can’t Possibly Begin To Imagine was a surprise highlight. Here, the slow, seedy bluesy arrangement had Jones initially on fiddle while Homme fed off the crowd clapping along.

Regardless, Them Crooked Vultures held some of the best for last beginning with the lengthy Spinning In Daffodils that had Grohl looking like Animal from the Muppets with his rapid fills and rolls. Following the Zeppelin circa Physical Graffiti nugget Reptiles, the band closed things out with no encore but a fabulous, fatiguing Warsaw, a marathon-ish tune driven by some terrific playing.

Like Zeppelin, TCV is built from the ground up, with a monster rock rhythm section. But Homme's vocals and guitar charts are more innovative and playful like Clapton's Cream. It was thrilling to see the 60-something Jones playing as if he were a kid, the sexy Homme swaggering like a rock god, and, as always, Grohl as a frenzied blur behind the drum kit. The only time we saw his face was when he came up for air.

Naturally, Jones received loud cheers every time he soloed. When Homme introduced me to him in the back, he said "Dude, this is John-effing Paul Jones!" 'Nuff said.

Absolutely the best rock show I've seen in years. Them Crooked Vultures.............. Superband? You bet.

BPD, ohmigod, what can I say?

Nothing need be added, Zepman. You've said it all.

If you've never seen a show from the back, you haven't really lived. Change all that today with a membership to BackstagePassDirect.

Sonic Youth 2009 Tour

Sonic Youth started a brief trip last week to Austria and Germany, including a performance at 3001 in Dusseldorf in coordination with the art show Sensational Fix. Shows will be in Krems, Munich, and Dusseldorf. Then, Sonic Youth will make a brief return at the end of May to Europe. Shows will be in Malmo on May 27 and at the Siesta Festival on May 28. The opening of the Sensational Fix art show at The Museum of Malmo will be held on May 29. May 30 SY will perform at the Primavera festival in Barcelona. Just added to this trip: May 31 at the Kilbi Festival in Dudingen, Switzerland.

The Summer U.S. tour in support of their upcoming June 9 release, The Eternal, kicks off on June 28. Here's the complete lineup of venues:

June 28th – Chicago, IL – Vic Theater

June 29th – Royal Oak, MI – Royal Oak Music Theatre

July 2nd – Philadelphia, PA – Electric Factory

July 3rd – New York, NY – United Palace Theatre

July 6th – Washington, DC – 9:30 Club

July 8th – Richmond, VA – The National

July 10th – Knoxville, TN – Bijou Theater

July 11th – Nashville, TN – War Memorial

July 12th – Birmingham, AL – Sloss Furnaces

July 13th – Atlanta, GA – Variety Playhouse

July 15th – Dallas, TX – House of Blues

July 16th – Tulsa, OK – Cain’s

July 18th – Kansas City, MO – Uptown Theater

July 20th – Milwaukee, WI – Turner Hall

July 21st – Minneapolis, MN – First Ave

July 23rd – Boise, ID – Knitting Factory

July 25th – Seattle, WA – Capitol Hill Block Party

July 28th – Portland, OR – Roseland Ballroom

July 30th – Salt Lake City, UT – Twilight Music Fest

July 31st – Denver, CO – Ogden Theater

August 2nd – Oakland, CA – Fox Theater

Ever see a show from backstage? Wanna meet your favorite performers? BackstagePassDirect is your source for passes; join today.

Summer Fests

Despite the down economy, fans are still buying tickets to the big summer music festivals, lured by layaway programs and, in one case, a former Beatle.

This weekend, California's Coachella Music and Arts Festival kicks off the summer music festival season with some of the biggest names in the business—and they're all heading to a polo field southeast of Palm Springs.

In the 1990s, rock shows such as Ozzfest and Lilith Fair hopped between every metro amphitheater in the country, but some of today's most popular music festivals are multi-day concert events held in deserts, gorges and big-city parks.

Here are this year's Biggies:

Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival
Dates: April 17–19
Location: Indio, Calif. (146 miles east of Los Angeles)
Headliners: Paul McCartney, the Killers, the Cure, Morrissey, Paul Weller, Leonard Cohen

Stagecoach Country Music Festival
Dates: April 25–26
Location: Indio, Calif.
Headliners: Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Darius Rucker, Reba McEntire, Kid Rock, Kevin Costner

Sasquatch Music Festival at the Gorge
Dates: May 23–25
Location: George, Wash. (150 miles southeast of Seattle)
Headliners: Kings of Leon, Jane's Addiction, TV on the Radio, Nine Inch Nails, Ben Harper

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival
Dates: June 11–14
Location: Manchester, Tenn. (66 miles southeast of Nashville)
Headliners: Bruce Springsteen and the E-Street Band, Phish, Lucinda Williams, Snoop Dogg, MGMT

Rothbury Music and Arts Festival
Dates: July 2–5
Location: Rothbury, Mich. (200 miles west of Detroit)
Headliners: Bob Dylan and His Band, the Dead, Willie Nelson, Black Crowes, Ani DiFranco

Summerfest: The World's Largest Music Festival
Dates: June 25–July 5
Location: Milwaukee
Headliners: Bon Jovi, Conor Oberst, No Doubt, George Strait, Asher Roth, the Fray, Judas Priest

Essence Music Festival
Dates: July 3–5
Location: New Orleans Superdome
Headliners: Beyoncé, John Legend, Lionel Richie, Maxwell, Anita Baker, Al Green, Ne-Yo, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings

All Points West Music & Arts Festival
Dates: July 31–August 2
Location:Liberty State Park, N.J. (on the edge of New York Harbor, in the shadow of the Statue of Liberty)
Headliners: Coldplay, Beastie Boys, My Bloody Valentine, Tool, Echo & the Bunnymen, Yeah Yeah Yeahs

Lollapalooza
Dates: August 7–9
Location:Grant Park, Chicago
Headliners: TBA next week

Outside Lands
Dates: August 28–30
Location: Golden Gate Park, San Francisco
Headliners: Pearl Jam, Dave Matthews Band, Beastie Boys, Incubus, Black Eyed Peas, M.I.A., Jason Mraz, Ween

BackstagePassDirect has a limited number of backstage passes for these multi-day events. Make your requests early!

Ben Harper and the Relentless 7

Hot on the heels of his killer performance at the "Change Begins Within" benefit in NYC with Paul and Ringo, Ben Harper has plugged his guitar back in and cranked up the amp for his new album White Lies For Dark Times. It's an 11-song set soaked with hard rock and the deep Delta blues. “It’s a sound I’ve been looking for and reaching for in my mind.”...................which means the album is more Cream than Jack Johnson, more “Faded” than “Steal My Kisses.”

But while there's more fuzz in the riffs and thunder in the beats, the lyrics are still quintessential Harper, singing, "It takes a hundred miles of love to heal a mile of pain" on "Shimmer and Shine."

In addition to being his heaviest offering, the album is also his first with the Relentless7 — guitarist Jason Mozersky, drummer Jordan Richardson and bassist Jesse Ingalls — the trio of Austin-based musicians previously worked on Harper's 2006 album Both Sides of the Gun. Harper said that he first heard Mozersky when a particularly insistent van driver blared a demo while carrying Harper to an Austin gig.

The release date for the album is May 5; the tour kicks off a few days before on the 2nd. Here are the dates and venues for May:

05/02/09 Atlanta, GA Variety Playhouse

05/04/09 Washington, DC 9:30 Club

05/05/09 New York, NY Webster Hall

05/08/09 Brooklyn, NY Music Hall Of Williamsburg

05/09/09 Philadelphia, PA Theatre Of The Living Arts

05/10/09 Boston, MA Paradise Rock Club

05/15/09 Detroit, MI St. Andrews Hall

05/16/09 Chicago, IL Vic Theatre

05/25/09 Quincy, WA Gorge Amphitheatre

05/27/09 San Francisco, CA The Fillmore

05/28/09 Los Angeles, CA The Wiltern

Backstage passes is what we do; nobody does it better. Become a member today at BackstagePassDirect.

Elton John and Billy Joel Face to Face......Again

Billy Joel and Elton John, the most successful and longest-running concert pairing in pop history, will reunite for their Face 2 Face tour next month.

Billy and Elton always open the concert with a series of duets, playing twin pianos and trading vocals. Each artist then performs a set with his own band. A grand finale brings the two superstars and their supporting musicians back together for a closing encore. This includes some of both Billy and Elton's greatest hits along with an unpredictable selection of rock and roll classics.

"The great thing about performing with Elton is that he is such a good piano player and that makes me have to dig deep to keep up with him, not to mention I've got the best seat in the house-only one piano away from Elton John!"

Dates:

Mon 03/02/09 Jacksonville, FL Jacksonville Veterans Mem. Arena

Thu 03/05/09 Tampa, FL St. Pete Times Forum

Sat 03/07/09 Charlotte, NC Time Warner Cable Arena

Tue 03/10/09 Cincinnati, OH U.S. Bank Arena

Sat 03/14/09 Atlanta, GA Philips Arena

Tue 03/17/09 Tulsa, OK BOK Center

Thu 03/19/09 Houston, TX Toyota Center

Sat 03/21/09 San Antonio, TX AT&T Center

Thu 03/26/09 Phoenix, AZ US Airways Center

Sat 03/28/09 Anaheim, CA Honda Center

Mon 03/30/09 Anaheim, CA Honda Center

Passes for these two won't last long. Become a BackstagePassDirect member and request your passes to see these two legends today!

Member Review: Metallica

JGrunge wrote to us:

I remember the day that I read about the Metallica passes on your blog. I went nuts. Two months later, there I am backstage and out of my mind.

The show opens with “Broken, Beat & Scarred.” Hetfield screams “This song is about you, and it’s about Metallica”.

“Show your scars,” .......................everyone is up and yelling “We die hard!"

The Mighty Met flowed seamlessly from Death Magnetic’s “The End of the Line” to Kill ‘Em All’s “The Four Horsemen” and played for a solid two hours without a break before a three-song encore. And when it seemed like they couldn’t possibly top the power of “The Day That Never Comes,” Hetfield rose from his knees slowly and smashed into the opening chords of “Master of Puppets,” the first part of a brutal two-front aural assault that featured “Battery” at the back end.

The setlist was heavy on material from Death Magnetic — six out of the ten total tracks from the album were played, and each one of them went over better than the previous one. It was obvious the boys took great pride in playing the new album. Alot of St. Anger and Load and Reload was AWOL, surely by design.

Hetfield's guitar was as crisp and devastating as ever, and Kirk Hammet’s notoriously sloppy soloing was unusually tight. Rob Trujillo’s thundering low-end bass and Lars Ulrich’s righteous double-bass drums drove the signature groove that sets Metallica apart from the overblown metal acts that have tried so hard to follow in their footsteps. The boys called up the house lights and turned the focus to the raucous crowd for a revelatory rendition of “Seek and Destroy” to finish the show. Black beach balls emblazoned with the iconic “MetallicA” logo rained from the ceiling as the veterans revived their thrash glory days. Two and a half hours later, their sound still echoed. Louder, faster, and harder than ever.

Do they belong in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Dumb question!

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John Legend Is On His Last Leg

.........................well, that's not completely accurate. Actually, John is currently on the last leg of his US tour which will end in early February before he kicks off his tour of Europe to support his dynamite CD Evolver.

You can catch an amazing JL performance and interview on NPR's World Cafe program this Friday, Jan. 9th. National Public Radio’s World Cafe can be heard on nearly 200 stations nationwide. You can find your local station and broadcast time by scrolling to the bottom & choosing your state under "Find a Program Broadcast Time" at the following link:

http://www.npr.org/templates/stations/schedule/?prgId=39

…or worldwide you can listen online to the WXPN/Philadelphia stream Monday through Friday, 2pm to 4pm Eastern Standard Time by going to:

http://www.xpn.org/listen-live/listen-live

Here's the remainder of John's schedule for the next month:

01/16/09 La Jolla, CA RIMAC Arena

01/17/09 Indio, CA Fantasy Springs Resort Casino & Special Events Ctr.

01/22/09 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre At Grand Prairie

01/23/09 Austin, TX Bass Concert Hall

01/24/09 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater

01/26/09 Nashville, TN Ryman Auditorium

01/28/09 Orlando, FL Bob Carr Perf. Arts Centre

01/29/09 Clearwater, FL Ruth Eckerd Hall

01/30/09 Miami Beach, FL Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theater

01/31/09 Miami Beach, FL Fillmore Miami Beach At Jackie Gleason Theater

02/02/09 Jacksonville, FL Florida Theatre

02/03/09 Atlanta, GA Fox Theatre

02/05/09 New York, NY Radio City Music Hall

02/06/09 Mashantucket, CT MGM Grand Theater

02/07/09 Atlantic City, NJ Borgata Hotel, Casino & Spa / Event Ctr.

Meet John and see the show from the unique perspective of backstage. Visit BackstagePassDirect for complete details.

Cool, but still hot

The cooler weather isn’t chilling the hottest artists and groups on tour!

No matter what your musical preference:

• AC/DC
• Britney Spears
• Coldplay
• John Legend
• Jonas Brothers
• Madonna
• Metallica
• Motley Crue
• New Kids on the Block
• Oasis
• The Eagles
• Tina Turner
• Usher

if you'd like to meet and hang out with your favorites, BackstagePassDirect can put you backstage for an experience like you've never had before. Join us today!

The Killers Kill

We'll cut right to it.........................

The Killers new album "Day and Age" may not only be their best album, but it may also be one of the best of all of 2008.

Here's track-by-track coverage:

Losing Touch
A rousing Bowie-like groove driven by honking saxophones and ping-ponging keyboards that kicks things into high gear. Brandon Flowers' voice is smooth and full as he intones "You made your home/ and you made your way back home/ like a roving vagabond, I'm losing touch." Dave Keuning makes his presence felt with a soaring guitar lead.

Human
A gentle, phased, clicky guitar riff opens this gorgeous nod to the gentle side of '80s new wave. "Cut the cord/ are we human/ my sign is virtual/and my hands are cold/ are we human, or are we dancer?" Flowers asks in a plaintive, melancholy manner. Then the song gallops off into a Cure-meets-U2 arena shaker.

Spaceman
Shades of Queen grace this piston-pumping, fast-paced rocker. A perfect driving song - big drums, big hooks, and a wall of sound.

Joy Ride
The best Bryan Ferry song that Bryan Ferry never wrote. A sensuous, funky beat punctuated by Stones-like sax, biting guitars that tear through the choruses and a melody that hooks you on the first listen. The middle-eight is breathtaking. In fact, the entire band seems to grow more energized as the song progresses. Fun stuff.

A Dustland Fairytale
After a delicate keyboard intro, Brandon Flowers' vocals are appropriately fragile. But as the song swells, with jabbing cellos that seque into a double-time rage, he opens both his heart and his throat. This is a large-canvas narrative with a sound to back it up. Flowers' literary chops are developing in an exciting way.

This Is Your Life
African tribal chanting and harpsichord are strange musical bedfellows, but they spin a magical web on this spacey yet thumping track. Dave Keuning's echo-laden guitar combines with Flowers' barbiturate voice for an overall effect that is spellbinding.

I Can't Stay
A delicious Caribbean beat propels this stunner that features sax, harp and a gently strummed acoustic guitar. A song to sit back and drift away to until a dramatic middle-eight makes you bolt upright and go, "Wow!" Steel drums ride the song out in smashing style.

Neon Tiger
With little fanfare, this mid-tempo grinder gets going and doesn't let up. The instrumentation is perhaps the sparest we've heard yet from The Killers, but the middle section is a marvel of dramatic intensity.

The World We Live In
Melodrama that isn't overwrought or cloying is tricky to pull off. But Flowers' heavily affected, double-tracked voice is a thing of strange beauty here. He's developed into a world-class vocalist, full of passion and searching for the kind of truths that only the finest singer-songwriters can. Although the band provides gutsy support, Flowers owns this untamed monster.

Goodnight, Travel Well
Just as U2 concluded their arguable masterpiece, Achtung Baby!, with a descent into darkness on Love Is Blindness, here too, The Killers bring the curtain down with a seven-minute ride into a nocturnal dreamland. Forlorn and ominous, Flowers sings, "The universe is standing still/and there's nothing I can say/ there's nothing we can do now…nothing we can do now." Get ready for a crushing crescendo in which he's on the floor, begging "Stay!/ don't leave me/ the stars can't wait for you!" Drummer Ronnie Vannucci lets loose with a flurry of crashing cymbals that'll leave you breathless and wondering, it is still night or have we reached the dawn?

Before they head off for a huge Euro-tour in early February, the boys will be showcasing all their latest material at these venues:

1/17 Denver, CO Magness Arena
1/19 Minneapolis, MN Northrop Auditorium
1/20 Chicago, IL UIC Pavilion
1/22 Ypsilanti, MI EMU Convocation Ctr.
1/23 Toronto, ON Air Canada Centre
1/25 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
1/26 Boston, MA Agganis Arena at Boston University
1/28 Fairfax, VA Patriot Center
1/29 North Myrtle Beach, SC House Of Blues
1/30 Atlanta, GA Boisfeuillet Jones Civic Center
1/31 Nashville, TN Grand Ole Opry House
2/2 Houston, TX Verizon Wireless Theater
2/3 Austin, TX Frank Erwin Center
2/4 Grand Prairie, TX Nokia Theatre At Grand Prairie

Meet and greet the band and see the show from the unique perspective of backstage. Visit BackstagePassDirect for complete details.

Member Review: Bob Dylan

BPD member RoyBoy wrote:

For years, Dylan has been known to keep to himself during shows, often only speaking between songs in order to introduce his band members. But on this special night, Dylan spoke.

"I was born in 1941," he said in his scratchy voice. "That was the year they bombed Pearl Harbor. I've been living in darkness ever since."

He turned back to his keyboard and led the band in an almost unrecognizable rendition of "Blowin' in the Wind." Dylan opted to keep his voice low and sparse throughout most of his set, as he half-sang, half-coughed the words into the microphone, but at the end of "Blowin' in the Wind" he strained his voice to hit the high register of the original melody and held onto the words in the chorus as long as he could. When his voice couldn't bear any more, he picked up his harmonica and practically skipped to the center of the stage. Dylan was in to it, and it only served to further ignite the fired-up crowd.

As the sold-out audience rose to its feet, Dylan and his bandmates lined up at the front of the stage to take a bow. In his tight tuxedo pants and white wide-brimmed hat, Dylan danced around like a marionette doll, waving his pointer fingers in the air like guns. It was surprisingly charismatic and endearing moment, and it had the whole room roaring.

The set list:

Cat's in the Well
The Times They Are A-Changin'
Summer Days
This Wheel's on Fire
Tangled Up in Blue
Masters of War
Stuck Inside of Mobile With the Memphis Blues Again
John Brown
Beyond the Horizon
Highway 61 Revisited
Shooting Star (with Dylan on guitar -- another rarity)
It's All Right Ma (I'm Only Bleeding)
Under the Red Sky
Thunder on the Mountain
Ain't Talkin'

Encore:
Like a Rolling Stone
Blowin' in the Wind

As unbelievable as this will sound, I arrived late and almost didn't get to meet Dylan at all. Am I stupid or what?

I did get to watch the show from backstage and that was a real hoot. Dylan apparently had someplace to be after the show, so I pretty much only got to shake his hand and tell him how much he meant to me before he was whisked away.

That'll have to be good enough for this idiot!

Don't be an idiot..............Join BackstagePassDirect today and experience what so many other satisfied members like RoyBoy experience.

Get Attracted to Metallica's Death Magnet

Death Magnetic may very well be Metallica's best album in 17 years. The bashing and hammering is reminiscent of their late-80s insanity, making Rick Rubin a perfect fit for the proceedings.

The first conspicuous thing about the record is that the songs are lengthy and colossal. There are two tracks over the eight-minute-mark and all of them exceed five minutes. And for the first time since …And Justice For All, there’s an instrumental cut.

A heartbeat starts things off unhurriedly on “That Was Just Your Life,” a haunting song with a nice slow guitar build and an ear-splitting preface that explodes in about six different directions to formulate a proper thrash stunner. Lars Ulrich keeps a feverish velocity and James Hetfield’s vocals tear through it. The breathless pace is a solid warning of what is to come.

“The End of the Line” continues the Metallica song structure that coats the album, launching an extended introduction that leads into a weighty jam of Kirk Hammett and Hetfield guitars. It has a great “live” feel, as though the track was cut in one take with illimitable energy prevailing over the proceedings. Watch for Hammett’s searing solo, too.

Robert Trujillo’s bass accentuates the deafening intro to “Broken, Beat, & Scarred.” The tune’s riff is the showstopper as it cuts through the air like a blade through tissue and gives the song another rhythm above Ulrich’s clattering milieu. Heavy as it is, it’s actually strangely funky and harmonious too. And Hetfield’s “What don’t kill ya make ya more strong” lyrics make the whole thing kind of…optimistic?

“The Day That Never Comes” is the first single from Death Magnetic and begins with a beautiful pair of guitars articulating something miraculous over a foundation that hearkens back to the band’s best days. Many people have said that the song is evocative of “One.” It is certainly a dazzling track and features one hell of a beguiling chorus and a deadly solo.

Bass takes the lead again on “All Nightmare Long,” a crunching piece that frightens and excites all at once. The thrash riffing and low rumble carries through to Hetfield’s grunts. And then the song really takes off, going into Guitar Hero territory with maddening riffs worthy of legend. It is truly one of Death Magnetic’s most magnificent cuts.

“Cyanide” is a rousing track with melodious undercurrents and a breakneck pace, with Ulrich cheerfully pounding away on the snare behind the wall of sound.

Piano and strings break the din at the start of “The Unforgiven III,” a song that winds in symphonic care and explodes with passion. Hetfield’s vocals are marvellous and he glides over the polished guitars with precision and ache, guiding the cut through its tempo changes with his imperfect singing style.

“The Judas Kiss” roars to life with a lattice of classical guitar and balls-to-the-wall rumbling, as the introduction cranks into high gear and revs through eight minutes of remorseless immensity.

The instrumental “Suicide & Redemption” is a seamlessly-composed track that lets Trujillo take over for moments at a time. The riffs are faultless and the almost-10-minute journey is fucking epic. The tempo changes, the slick production, and the astronomical percussion are mind-shatteringly amazing.

The shortest tune on the album finishes off Death Magnetic in rapid-fire style. “My Apocalypse” is a livid song that blasts away full-tempo for five minutes without stopping for a piss break. It’s the perfect closer to an incredible thrash metal record from the masters.

It’s safe to say that Metallica is back. They'll be touring the U.S. through Feb 1 when when they then take off for an extended tour of Europe. So, catch'em while you can at these venues in '09:

1/12/2009 Milwaukee, WI Bradley Center
1/13/2009 Detroit, MI Joe Louis Arena
1/15/2009 Washington, DC Verizon Center
1/17/2009 Philadelphia, PA The Wachovia Center
1/18/2009 Boston, MA TD Banknorth Garden
1/26/2009 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
1/27/2009 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
1/29/2009 Uniondale, NY Nassau Veterans Memorial Coliseum
1/31/2009 Newark, NJ Prudential Center
2/1/2009 Newark, NJ Prudential Center

Don't forget, all passes are first-come, first-served. So don't delay. Order yours today and get up close to Metallica. Visit BackstagePassDirect.

Member Review: Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers

Sweet Steph sent this to us:

Let me begin by just saying how awesome being backstage was. The show is completely different from back there. I can't thank BPD enough.

Everybody from Tom himself to Mike Campbell to Benmont Tench to the crew were all super friendly. If that wasn't enough, there was the added bonus of meeting rock icon Steve Winwood who was opening the show. Ohmigod!!!

Early on in the gig, Tom uttered words rarely heard at his shows: “You probably don’t know this next one.” The band then launched into the super obscure 1999 Europe-only B side “Sweet William.” The bluesy, organ-heavy number was a clear indication this wasn’t going to be the typical nothing-but-the-hits Petty show he’s done on recent tours. With no new album to support, Petty was free to drag out the gems.

This doesn’t mean he avoided his massive arsenal of hits. The show began with a 1-2-3-4-5 punch of “You Wreck Me,” “Last Dance With Mary Jane,” “I Won’t Back Down,” “Even The Losers” and “Free Fallin’.” Nearly anyone else would save a song like the latter — which is so tailor made for arenas even the beer guys and ushers were singing along — but Petty has such a huge stable of war horses he could bust it out early with no problem. Rarities soon followed, such as the Traveling Wilburys’ “End of the Line,” which featured a few Heartbreakers subbing in for Petty’s absent bandmates and the Full Moon Fever track “A Face in the Crowd.”

The Heartbreakers are one of the greatest backing bands out there. Any song is immeasurably enhanced by their playing, particularly from Mike on guitar and Benmont on keyboards. It’s no wonder they get so much session work when Petty is off the road.

The night wrapped up with the hit parade of “Learning to Fly,” “Don’t Come Around Here No More,” “Refugee” and the inevitable encore of “American Girl.” He’s probably played that song at every concert for over 30 years, but he still does it with intense passion and it still can make an arena full of drunk middle-aged white people jump up and down like nothing short of “Born to Run.”

Petty still insists that the days of long tours are coming to an end. This is a song he's also been playing for quite some time now; we'll see.

Here's the entire set list:

1. “You Wreck Me”
2. “Mary Jane’s Last Dance”
3. “I Won’t Back Down”
4. “Even the Losers”
5. “Free Falling”
6. “Cabin Down Below”
7. “Sweet William”
8. “End of the Line”
9. “Can’t Find My Way Home”
10. “Gimme Some Loving”
11. “Saving Grace”
12. “Face in the Crowd”
13. “Honey Bee”
14. “You Don’t Know How It Feels”
15. “Learning to Fly”
16. “Don’t Come Around Here No More”
17. “Refugee”

Encore:

1. “Runnin’ Down a Dream”
2. “Mystic Eyes”
3. “American Girl”

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Neil Young Still Rockin'

Neil Young is one of rock and roll’s greatest songwriters and performers. In a career that extends back to his mid-Sixties roots as a coffeehouse folkie in his native Canada, this principled and unpredictable maverick has pursued an often winding course across the rock and roll landscape. He’s been a cult hero, a chart-topping rock star, and all things in-between, remaining true to his restless muse all the while. At various times, Young has delved into folk, country, garage-rock and grunge. His biggest album, Harvest (1972) , apotheosized the laid-back singer/songwriter genre he helped invent. By contrast, Rust Never Sleeps (1979), Young’s second-best seller, was a loud, brawling masterpiece whose title track, an homage to Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols, contained the oft-quoted line “Better to burn out than it is to rust.”

Several of his more modest-selling titles - for example, Tonight’s the Night, Comes a Time and Trans - contain some of his most trenchant performances. It is typical of Young that he followed his most polished and popular album, Harvest, with one of his most raw and uncommercial, Time Fades Away. While he’s avoided sticking to one style for very long, the unifying factors throughout Young’s peripatetic musical journey have been his unmistakable voice, his raw and expressive guitar playing, and his consummate songwriting skill.

Passes are still available to members for these shows:

Sun 12/07/08 Auburn Hills, MI The Palace at Auburn Hills
Tue 12/09/08 Rosemont, IL Allstate Arena
Fri 12/12/08 Philadelphia, PA The Wachovia Spectrum
Sat 12/13/08 Worcester, MA DCU Center
Mon 12/15/08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena
Tue 12/16/08 New York, NY Madison Square Garden Arena

Don't forget, all passes are first-come, first-served. So don't delay. Order yours today and get up close and personal with a true legend. Visit BackstagePassDirect.

Member Review: Jack Johnson

BPD member Stella Rose wrote:

Everything that you see about Jack Johnson when he is onstage is the same in the back. When I was introduced to him, he greeted me warmly and sat with me asking questions about myself and the music that I liked. Then, he took me around and introduced me to his crew. I couldn't believe that all of this was going on when he was due onstage in fifteen minutes. Talk about laid back!

Johnson opened with “Do You Remember” from In Between Dreams, and, like the clapping crowd, remained upbeat through the entire night. One thing about Jack Johnson: he could be singing an upbeat melody or a slow, heart felt love song, and he always looks and sounds the same - standing there in the middle of the stage with a guitar (or a ukulele, which he used for “Breakdown”) slightly swaying and smiling. On stage he sounds just as good as when he’s in the studio, which makes for a more than pleasant listening experience, even if the tempo never seems to change. Even his latest album, Sleep Through the Static, which a lot of the night’s set list was from, has alot of similarities to his first album, Brushfire Fairytales.

Jack frequently digressed about some of his environmental causes, or simply applauded the fact that the stage was littered with clothes thrown up from the front rows (“We appreciate the nakedness and the clothes'). The highlight of the show was when pianist Zach Gill joined Jack on stage to play that end of the night, sing along, Bob Dylan/Band classic, “I Shall be Released.”

For his encore he came back with Gill and finished properly, unleashing his two love songs that have now become staples at every wedding: “Angel”, from Sleep Through the Static, and “Better Together”, from In Between Dreams. Oddly enough he also squeezed in a song about loving Jesus that sounded like it came directly from Bible camp. If it was anybody else but Jack I’d have to accuse them of trying to brainwash the audience, but given the fact that he donates one percent of all his revenue to charity and the concert was used as a platform to raise money for and awareness of environmental causes, you can only love the guy for being so positive.

And just so I don't forget, props to BackstagePassDirect for making this all happen for me. I will never forget it.

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Member Review: David Byrne

Member "Big Bob" Dancer wrote us:

.............................It's a little crazy for David Byrne to conduct a "Songs of David Byrne and Brian Eno Tour" without Brian Eno, but that didn't stop the maestro.

IMHO, Byrne's periodic sessions with Eno have resulted in many of his finest moments, from the pair's prophetic 1981 collaboration, My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, to, most notably, the trilogy of 1978-1980 Eno-produced masterpieces by Talking Heads, a run of albums that evolved the band's nervous new wave into muscular, worldly funk.

Though the impetus of the tour is Byrne and Eno's cordial new record, Everything That Happens Will Happen Today (hear it at http://www.everythingthathappens.com/index.html), David offered up one hell of a set list. Too, it wasn't surprising that it was the Talking Heads standards that most fired up the crowd.

After a energetic and prolonged standing ovation for an early performance of "Houses in Motion," the audience remained on its feet, migrating toward the aisles where designated dancing spaces had been set up. Silver and wiry, but otherwise showing few signs of his 56 years, Byrne did his share of dancing, too, assisted not only by his three backup singers but also by a trio of pretty young dancers. The trio's golly-gee choreography could have been ripped straight from the High School Musical playbook (save, perhaps, for a bizarre accompaniment that turned "My Big Hands" from Byrne's 1981 solo suite The Catherine Wheel into a sort of balletic re-imagination of the "Thriller" zombie dance). The dancers added undeniable momentum to Byrne's already hard-driving show.

Everything That Happens is perhaps his most wide-eyed album yet, and it's therefore only fitting that he should promote it with such a open and upbeat tour.

There were 3 encores:

Encore #1:
“Take Me to the River”
“The Great Curve”

Encore #2:
“Air”
“Burning Down the House”

Encore #3:
“Everything that Happens will Happen Today”

What can I say about being backstage? It was my first time ever, and it was totally mind-blowing. First off, meeting Byrne was a dream come true. He was cordial and friendly and endured my gawking at him like a love-struck schoolgirl.

To see everything that really goes in to putting a show like this together gave me a brand new appreciation for live performance as a genre. Man, there are a lot of people back there working their asses off.

Thank you BPD for making this happen.

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