British prog-rockers Pink Floyd visited just two American cities with the original tour for 1979 double album “The Wall” before pulling the plug on a venture that proved too costly. But local fans finally got to witness one of rock’s most celebrated operas Saturday night as chief architect Roger Waters presented his magnum opus to a packed Tacoma Dome.
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The usual speculation about what could go wrong for Stone Temple Pilots was greatly amplified after the reunited band postponed several tour dates in September following bizarre behavior from embattled front man Scott Weiland. Surprise!
But Weiland made it to Kent’s Showare Center Wednesday night, along with drummer Eric Kretz and the brothers DeLeo, Dean and Robert on guitar and bass respectively. Weiland looked pretty dapper, in fact, in tailored coat and tie. He didn’t ramble incoherently or otherwise seem under the influence, reserving most of his minimal banter for calling out the new cuts from the self-titled album (starting with that one that blatantly rips of Nirvana.) And the guy didn’t appear to be lip-syncing, as alleged after another tour mishap this year. I was looking and listening for it, and a pitchy delivery on “Still Remains” suggested authenticity.
Nope, there were no train wrecks in Kent as STP delivered grunge era hits to a sparse but enthusiastic crowd. Click the more button for a set lists and a few more shots I snapped during the band’s set.
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It’s hard to believe Alice in Chains v. 2.0 has been around for half a decade now. And on Friday, the resurgent Seattle metal gods returned home for the third time in just over a year, an event that market the latest phase in their improbable comeback.
In 2005, the band’s surviving members resurfaced for a star-studded South Asian tsunami benefit at Seattle rock club, the Premier (a venue since renamed Showbox SoDo.) Later that year, they tapped singer-guitarist William DuVall to fill in for fallen front man Layne Staley, who died in 2002 of an apparent drug overdose.
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Adam Lambert wound down the U.S. leg of his GlamNation tour at the Puyallup Fair & Events Center Tuesday night, with 7,800-plus cheering on two of the hottest “American Idol” grads – also opener Allison Iraheta – since that guy from Federal Way was on the show. (Speaking of which, he’ll be at the Fair on Sunday and I’ll be posting interview audio here soon, by the way. But I digress.)
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It was the year’s most anxiously awaited pop happening Saturday night when more than 20,000 “little monsters” converged on the Tacoma Dome to witness the spectacle of Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball Tour.
“Little monsters” being the 24-year-old pop phenomenon’s pet name for her followers, many of which wholeheartedly embraced her message of tolerance and individuality with flamboyant, sometimes gender-bending fashion – face paint, vividly hued wigs, aluminum cans used as curlers, corsets and fishnet stockings (photo gallery here.)
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By Keegan Prosser
Staff writer
I remember the days of pop music like they were yesterday. There I am, sitting in my living room, when mom walks in and tells me about some song she heard on the radio.
“It’s by this group called Boys in the Backyard,” she said.
Oh mother, how dare you call them that.
Yes, I admit. I was the 12-year-old who loved everything pop and found no embarrassment in writing “Mrs. AJ McLean” all over my school notebooks.
I even attended the “Black & Blue” concert in 2001.
So, when E.J. offered me the chance to cover last night’s Backstreet Boys “This Is Us” concert at the ShoWare Center in Kent, I had only this response:
“Hell yes.”
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Toby Keith Saturday night at White River Amphitheatre (photos by Keegan Prosser).
By Keegan Prosser
Staff writer
A patchwork of pickup trucks masked the parking lot at White River Amphitheatre Saturday night for Toby Keith’s American Ride tour.
In addition to headliner Keith, the show featured country-cohorts James Otto and Trace Adkins.
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How big of a Beatles freak is Debbie Cafazzo, my bud over on the TNT’s education beat? She flew down to San Francisco last weekend to check out Paul McCartney at the Bay Area’s AT&T Park. She even wrote a little something up to share with all her fellow fanatics out there.
By Debbie Cafazzo
Staff writer
I am still recovering from my 24-hour Paul McCartney experience.
No… it wasn’t THAT kind of experience. Although a woman of a certain age never abandons hope!
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Tool is one of the strangest, most inspiring anomalies in pop music today. The “thinking man’s metal band,” as they’re called, crafts songs that are brazenly weird, cerebral and arty. They eschew trends, instead packing albums with sprawling prog-rock epics that have more in common with Rush and King Crimson than anything trendy on top 40 radio today. And they take their own sweet time between albums, having produced just four proper full-lengths in 18 years.
Yet, in the fickle world of pop, they’ve remained staples of MTV and mainstream radio since grunge was king. Hey, how’d that happen? And based on Saturday night’s appearance at KeyArena, Tool may be more respected and relevant than ever.
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Metallica’s done it. Wynonna’s done it. Even gangsta rapper Ice T has resorted to that most pretentious of pop clichés, going symphonic. So color me jaded when Sting announced his tour with the Queen’s Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra and his intent to give his hits the classical treatment. A related album, “Symphonicities,” is also reportedly on the way.
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