Live Review: Hall, Oates & Christmas in Atlantic City
December 10, 2011 – It’s been five years since the release of the first and only Christmas effort from rock ‘n’ soulers Daryl Hall and John Oates. “Home for Christmas” was the title of that album. But for this duo, Atlantic City’s Borgata casino is pretty much home. “Oh man, we love this place,” Daryl [...]
Live Review: In Las Vegas, Barry Manilow Exudes Music and Passion
October 9, 2011 – A historic looking theatre. Thousands of red glow sticks are in the air. In the distance, a fan screams out with pure anticipation. A shadowy figure emerges and suddenly his name explodes in white letters behind him. He’s a bona fide music legend who owns the very stage he walks on [...]
Live Review: Journey, Foreigner, and Night Ranger Steal the Spotlight in Vegas
October 8, 2011 – On any given night, there are hundreds of shows to be seen on the expansive and expensive Las Vegas Strip. But this past Saturday night, there was one show that turned heads and left hoards more stammered than jackpot winners. This shock and awe could only mean one thing – Journey, [...]
Live Review: Winnipeg Rock City: a Homecoming Bachman & Turner and a Scorching Paul Rodgers
September 24, 2011 – There’s a new citizenship test required for all Canadian citizens. It’s called the Bachman & Turner test. If you can’t help Randy Bachman finish the famous blue collar verses of “Takin’ Care of Business”, you just aren’t Canadian. (You get up every mornin’….) Answer: “from the alarm clock’s warning, take the [...]
Live Review: Thousands Swoon for Taylor Swift at Verizon Center
August 3, 2011 – Few stars can pack Washington, DC’s 20,000 seat Verizon Center for one night. But Taylor Swift can – for two nights. Her second performance at the filled arena on Wednesday night was not much different from the night before. One could imagine the old rows of fans being rolled away, and [...]
Live Review: Ke$ha Flashes Glitter and Fluorescent Lipstick on ‘Get Sleazy’ Launch
July 26, 2011 – Let’s be honest for just a moment. $ay that Ke$ha is playing a concert in your town on a night you’re free. Whether you’ll admit it or not, you want to go, and it would be foolish to deny it. You want to go and see the girl who has become [...]
Live Review: McDonald and Scaggs Unite Timeless Voices
July 19, 2011 – Imagine the husky, soulful Michael McDonald crooning right next to a clean-as-honey Boz Scaggs. The union of two voices like no other, distinct and captivating. But you could check your imagination at the door at Baltimore’s Pier Six Pavilion on Tuesday night. The two greats joined forces for a night of [...]
Live Review: Ted Nugent Better Than Ever with St. Holmes in Baltimore
July 23, 2011 – “No shit, Balitmore. No shit.” says Ted Nugent as he starts his show with a maniacal guitar solo at the intimate Rams Head Live on Saturday night. He wears a hunting vest and hat, and he’s got that insane twinkle in his eye that we’ve all come to recognize as pure, [...]
Live Review: On a Mission to Rock, Mötley Crüe and Poison Put Feud Aside
July 16, 2011 – Mötley Crüe and Poison are the biggest and baddest bands ever to walk the face of the earth, according to their own descriptions. They were born on the sleazy streets of Los Angeles’ Sunset Strip about five years apart in the early 1980s. They attracted millions of rabid fans around the [...]
Live Review: Quirky and Funny, Todd Rundgren Delights His Fans
June 28, 2011 – Underrated isn’t the right word to describe the multi-talented American music legend Todd Rundgren. To those who’ve listened to his vast collection of albums over a storied career of 40 years, he’s a rock hero like no other. Rather, underexposed is the right way to put it. Never being the “radio [...]
Live Review: Rock ‘N’ Roll Legend Eddie Money Lively As Ever
July 3, 2011 – Inside Eddie Money’s tour bus before his gig at the Heritage Fair in Dundalk, Maryland, he’s warming up for the concert in his own way. He’s been playing shows since 1977. There aren’t any vocal warm-ups anymore, or stage nerves. To get himself primed up, all he has to do is [...]
Live Review: Styx and Yes Launch Summer Tour on 4th of July
July 4, 2011 – There are a few different ways to celebrate America’s birthday. You can watch a fireworks display, attend a reading of the Declaration of Independence, or rock your heart out with two of the greatest progressive rock bands in history. Styx and Yes were on tap for the latter option at 102.9 [...]
Live Review: The Guess Who Tears It Up in Dundalk
July 2, 2011 – If there’s any catalog in rock music that’s impossible to play too much, it’s that of The Guess Who. They were rock innovators, penning songs that have not only withstood the test of time, but grown stronger with time. That’s why seeing the band perform today is such a treat. Original [...]
Live Review: Camden Gets Rattled as Def Leppard and Heart Reclaim Arena Swagger
June 26, 2011 – There was a deceiving calmness in the air at Camden, New Jersey’s Susquehanna Bank Center on a cool Sunday night as fans anxiously waited in their seats for the main attraction. Before the lights went out, all that could be seen was a dormant looking lighting and LCD rig atop a [...]
Live Review: Filling Baltimore’s M&T Stadium, U2 Sends Chills and Embraces Hype
June 22, 2011 – It was a mega-concert nearly two years in the making. But if you asked any of the 75,000 U2 fans at M&T Bank Stadium on Wednesday night, the electrifying and chill-inducing spectacle that the band had to offer was well worth the wait. Their voices formed a deafening wall of sound [...]
Live Review: Monkees Bring Plenty of Laughs and Hits on Reunion Tour
June 19, 2011 – It’s not often that roaring bouts of laughter are heard at a concert. But it’s what the Monkees have come to expect ever since their TV show launched in the 1960s and was subsequently immortalized by reruns. Today Davy Jones, Mickey Dolenz, and Peter Tork may not be young anymore, but [...]
Live Review: Smooth as Ever, Hall & Oates Prowl the Borgata
June 17, 2011 – “Oh oh oh oh!” is what Daryl Hall yells to cue the signature bass line of 1982′s classic “Maneater”. Hall & Oates have been opening their concerts with this song for countless years, but it never loses its power, and nor do they. When watching and listening, the fact that Hall [...]
Live Review: Patti LaBelle Doesn’t Need Shoes, or a Microphone
June 14, 2011 – Expectations can make or break a concert. Expect a stellar performance, and you’ll be disappointed by a mediocre one. For a Patti LaBelle concert, one might expect a laid-back but still pleasing rendition of R&B and pop hits from the 67-year-old singer. Shattered were those expectations on Tuesday night at the [...]
Live Review: On a Cold and Misty Night on Long Island, Hall & Oates Heat It Up
June 11, 2011 – Some musicians are able to effortlessly create an explosion of energy with their mere presence on stage. Daryl Hall & John Oates are those kind of musicians. It was a long, cold and misty night on Long Island at the Jones Beach Amphitheater when that explosion started. It was somewhat gradual, [...]
Live Review: Glee! in DC: Like the Show, Only Way Louder
June 9, 2011 – There is screaming at a concert, and then there is screaming at a Glee! Live! concert. Nothing can quite compare to 15,000 Gleeks letting their lungs loose at the show they’ve waited an entire season to see up close and personal. It’s a good thing the cast is up for the [...]
Live Review: On 30th Anniversary Tour, Go-Gos Throw a Punk Pop Party
June 10, 2011 – When you think about it, the Go-Gos have accomplished quite a feat. Through hit records and hard times alike, the same five girls have stuck together and are still getting a kick out of playing on stage with one another. On a Friday night at the Wolf Trap in Virginia, Belinda [...]
Live Review: Years May Pass, But Frankie Valli’s Voice Remains Unchanged
June 8, 2011 – Lots has changed since the 1960s, but there are some things that have refused to change. You can still see a movie at a drive-in theater, and to this day you can still go to a concert and hear Frankie Valli’s famous falsetto. At 77, Valli is an American icon whose [...]
Live Review: Rihanna’s Opening Night Becomes a Flirtatious Escapade
June 4, 2011 – There was strutting on a moving catwalk, there were military cannons, fireworks, a flurry of backup dancers, grinding on a moving platform, and there was a crowd of 13,000 fans screaming for more. It was opening night of Rihanna‘s LOUD Tour in Baltimore. Hot of the success of her smash hit [...]
Live Review: Good Old Fashioned Rock N’ Roll from Creedence Clearwater Revisited and Three Dog Night
June 3, 2011 – “Do you think you’ll still be on stage 40 years from now?” Original Creedence Clearwater Revisited members Stu Cook and Doug Clifford might have laughed at that question in 1968. And it’s a likely bet that Three Dog Night vocalists Danny Hutton and Cory Wells would have scoffed at it too. [...]
