Bonnaroo 2012 Initial Artist Announcement

Feb 14, 2012 by Eggs

Bonnaroo went hard again this year with their initial artist announcement, and boy does it look like a good time! Leading the dance card at the 2012 Manchester, Tennessee festival are indie rock gods Radiohead, alt-rock monsters Red Hot Chili Peppers, jam titans Phish and legendary surf rockers The Beach Boys. If that isn’t enough to get you to Bonnaroo, they have a little bit of everything else on the line-up as well. For those fans of indie rock, Bon Iver, The Shins, Foster The People, Feist, tUnE-yArDs, Dawes, Delta Spirit and St. Vincent will be playing the festival. Hip-hop fans can rejoice as they’ll be enjoying sets from The Roots, BlackStar, Ludacris, Mac Miller, Childish Gambino and Yelawolf. The nighttime will be the right time with sets from Skrillex, Major Lazer, Flying Lotus and more. While the first years of the festival were predominantly focused on the jam scene, things have changed for the better (arguably, depending on who you talk to), but their is still a strong focus on jambands with two sets from the aforementioned Phish, and also performances from the likes of The Avett Brothers, Dispatch, The Word which features John Medeski, Robert Randolph and The North Mississippi Allstars, Umphrey’s McGee, Dumpstaphunk and ALO.

Check out the initial artist announcement after the jump.

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Big Easy Express

Feb 9, 2012 by Eggs

Last spring, we packed up and headed west for a one of a kind show featuring the likes of Mumford & Sons, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros and Old Crow Medicine Show. Entitled the Railroad Revival Tour, the three bands took an old-fashioned train from Oakland to New Orleans, making six stops along the way to perform shows. While some bigger stops were closer to us on the tour, we headed all the way to far west Texas, to the small liberal town of Marfa to catch the tour at a really cool outdoor venue called El Cosmico. It was by far one of the best concert experiences I’ve ever had, between my company, the venue, the ten-hour road trip and the bands involved, specifically the many collaborations throughout the show. After that magical performance, we all headed back to our real lives knowing that it would be quite some time before we could experience something just as cool as that.

Now, after almost a year, filmmaker Emmett Malloy will be debuting his take on the traveling festival with documentary featuring the entire week of the trip. The film will first screen next month at SXSW in Austin, TX, and while nothing has been announced about a widespread release, I have a good feeling you’ll be able to get your hands on it sometime soon. I can’t wait to check out all of the great footage that Malloy assuredly got along the way – between the many hours on the rails with nothing but their music, and the six incredible 3+ hour shows, I’m sure it will be stock full of gems. Check out the trailer.

In other news, the official website is quoted as saying, “We are currently planning the 2012 Railroad Revival Tour with a new lineup and some great surprises. Look for news about the second tour this coming January!” I can’t wait to see what they have up their sleeves for the 2012 edition. I highly doubt they can top last year, but I could also find myself very wrong once the line-up and train route comes out. Hopefully I’ll see you all there!

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Main Street Block Party In Photos

Feb 2, 2012 by Eggs

Last Saturday, we headed down towards what is informally known as “The Island” for the second annual Main Street Block Party. Taking place inside and out of the Continental Club, Big Top, The Mink and Natachees, tons of bands graced the stages throughout the entire day and night. We caught a great headlining set from What Made Milwaukee Famous which featured an on point cover of Paul McCartney’s “Let ‘Em In” as well as a host of new songs which will be released on their up-coming album. We also witnessed top notch sets from the likes of Tax The Wolf, The Literary Greats, Caddywhompus, Prairie Cadets, Chase Hamblin Band, Featherface, Poor Pilate, Empress Hotel, The League Of Extraordinary G’z and a bunch more. It was a pretty solid day of music full of new discoveries, plenty to drink and a bunch of friendly conversations. I had a really good time at this year’s event, and am looking forward to seeing how they can make itl even better next year.

I took a whole bunch of pictures and a few videos from the event, check them out after the jump.

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MUTEMATH @ House Of Blues

Jan 31, 2012 by Eggs

Last weekend was a great one for music, starting Thursday night at House Of Blues when Alt-Rockers MUTEMATH took the stage. I’d seen MUTEMATH once before when they performed at Voodoo a few years back, but among all of the other great acts playing that weekend, they weren’t one that stood out above the rest. Going into this show, especially with such an early start time, my hopes were not too high. Those low hopes were immediately diminished as soon as they walked in the front door of the venue with instruments in hand, headed through the crowd while playing before ultimately taking the stage from the very middle. As soon as they jumped into their first song, I was sold. I had the opportunity to photograph the band for the first three songs, and while the energy was super high as it usually is at the beginning, it didn’t let up one bit after I left the pit. Actually, for over two straight hours, the band never let up. I’m not sure how a band could go for so long with such high energy, but they managed to do it that night – and while this was the first night of their tour, I have a feeling this is how it is at every single show. They were on the stage, off the stage, in the crowd, on top of the crowd, on top of a drum in the crowd, on top of a glittery, light-up air mattress on the crowd, and just about everywhere else besides the balcony and the bathrooms. The music was great too – mixing elements of 90′s alternative, 00′s jambands, and 10′s indie-dance rock, MUTEMATH had people sweating the whole performance. I had a great time at this show, and I can rest assured knowing that a band this good is making a huge name for themselves because of their ability to put on a great show, both musically and theatrically.

I took a bunch of pictures and a few different videos which you can find after the jump.

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