warehouse live

The winners of the pairs of tickets for tonight's Portugal. The Man, Port O' Brien and The Dig show are Tom So and Doug Page. Congrats guys!

We are excited to be giving away two pairs of tickets to see Portugal. The Man, Port O'Brien and The Dig at Houston's Warehouse Live on Thursday, March 4th. To win, all you have to do is leave a comment that includes both your full name and a way to contact you – an e-mail address or a telephone number in which you can receive text messages. I can't stress this enough: YOU CAN"T WIN UNLESS YOU LEAVE BOTH YOUR NAME AND CONTACT INFORMATION! This looks to be a pretty exciting show, as all three bands are quite good at what they do. I'm still yet to catch Portugal. The Man and The Dig live, but I know Port O'Brien bring it.

If you aren't feeling lucky, or have more people than a pair can sustain, feel free to pick up as many tickets as you need on Warehouse Live's Frontgate ticketing site. At $13.40 a ticket, that's only $4.47 a band. Hell of a deal if you ask me!

Thanks, as always, to The Messina Group, AEG Live and Warehouse Live, as well as all three bands, for allowing us to give away these tickets. Both winners will be announced at 2pm on Thursday, and will be posted to the site. We will also contact the winners via e-mail and/or text shortly thereafter.

Good luck!

I was extremely excited going into Thursday night's Yo La Tengo show, mostly because the first three times I've seen them were all excellent. The New Jersey trio which features the husband/wife duo of Ira Kaplan and Georgia Hubley and longstanding member James McNew, were last in Houston when they opened for My Morning Jacket before SXSW in 2008, so a return trip was well overdue. Their latest album Popular Songs was on full display during the 2-hour performance, but it was their steps back to the classic material and some interesting cover choices that really brought out YLT's true talent.

Read all about the show after the jump

The winner of the tickets for tomorrow night's G. Love & Special Sauce show is Erin Crowe. Your tickets will be waiting under your name at will call. Congrats!!

For the first time ever, we are excited to add a meet and greet to our list of giveaway's. Two bands are headed to Warehouse Live this week – New Found Glory on Thursday, February 4 and G. Love & Special Sauce on Saturday, February 6 – and we are excited about letting you have the chance to take in both performances for free. Also, we are looking forward to making some lucky fan's day by giving them the opportunity to meet New Found Glory before the show. All you have to do to win is leave a comment with what show you'd like to attend, as well as your full name and a way we can contact you if you get chosen (e-mail or telephone number). YOU CAN'T WIN IF YOU DON'T LEAVE A WAY FOR US TO CONTACT YOU! We will be announcing the winners on Thursday for New Found Glory, and on Friday for G. Love, so be available those days in order to not lose out.

We hope to incorporate several more of these meet and greets into our repertoire, and couldn't do it without the regular support from The Messina Group, AEG Live and Warehouse Live. If you are interested in going to these shows, but have a social phobia that disallows you to meet your favorite artists, feel free to purchase tickets at WL's ticketing pages for each show: New Found Glory and G. Love & Special Sauce.

We are giving away 2 pairs of tickets to see Yo La Tengo at Warehouse Live on Thursday, January 28th. Columbus, OH lo-fi indie rockers Times New Viking will also be on hand to hold down the supporting duties of the evening. YLT are headed to Houston in support of their most recent kick-ass album Popular Songs, and should rock the stage in Warehouse Live's Ballroom for a solid couple of hours. All you have to do to win is leave a comment below with your full name and either a valid e-mail address or telephone number in which you can receive text messages. It's that simple. If you do not leave a way to contact you, you can't win, so follow the rules damnit! We'll announce the winners the day of the show, both on the website, as well as through e-mail or text. This should be a freaking great show, as it was quite a treat the last time Yo La Tengo were in Houston. That show is the reason I'm in love with the band in the first place. What would be sweeter than seeing it for free? I can't think of much...

If you don't think you're feeling lucky, or have a bigger group than a pair of tickets can sustain, feel free to purchase as many as you'd like at Warehouse Live's official ticketing site for the event. $20 is still not too bad for such an incredible band.

To be completely honest with you, the main reason I went to Metric at Warehouse Live was not because of my love for the band – heck, I really had never heard them before that night – rather it was my infatuation with lead singer Emily Haines. She's sexy. Dead sexy. Like, I want to do extremely naughty things with her. Too far? Her vocal work on the Broken Social Scene classic "Anthem's for a Seventeen Year Old Girl" can not be matched, so despite never really hearing a Metric tune, I was pretty sure I'd like them. I arrived late to a barrage of noise as I opened the double doors leading into Warehouse Live's Ballroom. Metric was full on into their third or fourth song which was a heavy mix of dance music and almost punk rock. I wasn't expecting such an intense sound coming from Metric, but I was immediately pleased with the outcome. Haines leaped and bounded across the stage in her golden mini-dress with an endless amount of energy that would make even Sonic the Hedgehog tired. Her polished band of darkly dressed players, including drummer Joules Scott-Key, guitarist James Shaw and bassist Josh Winstead, never missed a beat throughout the lengthy set of dance-infused pop and indie-rock. With all the energy emitted by Haines and the rest of the band via the music, the crowd seemed to swell with each gradual shift in tempo and rhythm. For a Monday night show, Houston definitely showed its numbers by filling the Ballroom all the way back to the soundboard. Who knew Metric had such a grandiose following? Especially in Space City...

I had a great time shooting Ms. Haines in all her sparkly glory, so feel free to check out my photos from the show after the jump.

I wasn't going to write anything up on Deer Tick's opening set for Neko Case at Warehouse Live, mainly because my photos were already used in the Houston Press Rocks Off review of the show, but after looking through my photo set on Flickr, I decided I wanted to post them here on BoT. I'm not going to go into detail about the show, as Craig Hlavaty over at the Press did a good job with that already, so go check out his review if you want to know how the performance was. Otherwise, take a look at my shots after the jump.

Note from the baconator: Everybody flash your electronic devil horns at our newest contributor: Démian “Waffles” Lieck. He’s my favorite metal-head and he’ll probably be yours too after you check out his excellent review. I’ll absolutely cosign on his opinion on Baroness; be sure to check them out if you’re into music and have eardrums calibrated to handle the heavier end of the spectrum. Stay tuned to BoT for more of his informed-and-entertaining metal coverage in the future!

Tuesday night made my third go-round with the Savannah, Georgia-spawned progressive-sludge-southern-metal, hyphen-inducing quartet Baroness. The band is fresh off the release of their sophomore effort, Blue Record. Their much-anticipated follow-up to Red Album was recorded right here in Texas and has been met with much critical praise. Check out the rest of my review along with some of Eggs’ pics after the jump.

If you've ever seen the movie Once, than you know who The Swell Season are, but if you haven't, there's a good chance you probably don't. The Oscar award-winning duo is made up of Glen Hansard, front-man of Irish rock group The Frames, and Marketa Irglova, a Czech singer-songwriter who performs predominantly on piano. They write some of the most inspirational folk music I've heard in quite some time, and a live performance by the duo is unlike any other. I first caught them live at Austin City Limits last year, and left their show glowing from its genius. They were the first act I've ever witnessed that have made being in an over-sized festival crowd feel like you were in a much smaller, more intimate venue. Hansard has a certain way of involving the crowd that makes them feel more like they are performing the set with them, rather than just being a witness. Their set was definitely a sight to see, but was too short at forty-five minutes amongst all the other great bands playing that day at ACL. Fortunately it wasn't too long before The Swell Season hit the road again, this time in support of their latest release, Strict Joy. They found themselves back in Texas at Houston's Warehouse Live for a headlining set featuring up-and-coming singer-songwriter Rachael Yamagata filling the support slot.

Read all about the show, browse my photos and watch a host of videos after the jump.

New Orleans funksters Galactic brought their live show back to Houston's Warehouse Live with vibraphone extraordinaire Mike Dillon and his Go-Go Jungle in tow. Galactic always brings a pretty great live offering, even after seeing them as many times as I have at festivals and tour stops over the past decade. They freshen things up every couple of years by adding and dispensing of different members including vocalists, MC's and horn players. Their current incarnation features the original five members – Stanton Moore on drums, Ben Ellmen on saxophone, Robert Mercurio on bass, Rich Vogel on organ and Jeff Raines on guitar – and additional support on trombone and vocals for this tour by former Rebirth Brass Band player Corey Henry. They rely heavily on the two horns to front the band, but the true funkiest moments come when the other four lock into a groove. After an intriguing opening set of his own, vibraphonist Mike Dillon stepped up with Galactic to lay down some serious licks. The matching of Moore and Dillon was almost too much talent in the percussion section to handle, but their skills gelled nicely. The set rapped up with a nice round of hip-hop, closing with the title track to their funk/rap fusion album, From The Corner To The Block. A quick instrumental encore closed out the night, giving us a good preview of what to expect on their new back-to-the-roots LP, Ya Ka May, that will be in stores on February 9, 2010.

I brought the camera along, so feel free to browse my shots after the jump.

Congratulations to Hala Dahler, who will be seeing Metric and Band Of Skulls tonight at Warehouse Live courtesy of Breakfast On Tour, Warehouse Live, The Messina Group and AEG Live. Thanks to everyone for participating – if I had it my way, you'd all be winners! We will be giving away plenty of tickets in the coming weeks, so stay tuned to Breakfast On Tour for your chance to win!

We are giving away a pair of tickets to see Metric and Band Of Skulls at Houston's Warehouse Live on November 30, 2009. All you have to do to win is leave a comment with your full name and an e-mail address and/or telephone number where we can get a hold of you. YOU MUST LEAVE YOUR CONTACT INFORMATION TO WIN. We will choose a winner the day of the show, so make sure you're available Monday afternoon. Feel free to tell us why you really want the tickets – I'll likely award brownie points for the most creative answers!

If you're not into the idea of possibly missing the show, or have some extra cash lying around, feel free to purchase some tickets. For more info about the show, check out Warehouse Live's show description page.

As always, I'd like to thank Warehouse Live, The Messina Group and AEG Live for allowing us to give so many tickets away. You guys all kick some serious ass!