popwreckoning updates |  |
- $20 Beyonce tickets. Mmhmm.
- Under Cover - The T-Pain Experience
- The Decemberists with Blind Pilot @ The Uptown, Kansas City
| Posted: 28 May 2009 09:47 AM PDT In order to make her concerts affordable to all of her fans, superstar Beyoncé set aside 1,000 seats for each of her North American shows for the special-value price of $20. The final 1,000 specially-priced $20 tickets for each of Beyoncé’s North American concerts (exclusing the Las Vegas residency) will be made available to the public tomorrow, Friday, May 29 and can be purchased through TicketMaster. Though, expect to pay upwards of $35 considering TicketMaster is infamous for surcharge rape. Currently touring Europe, Beyoncé is bringing her 2009 “I AM…” World Tour to North America this summer with a series of full-length concerts beginning at New York’s Madison Square Garden in June and ending with a four-night residency at Encore at Wynn Las Vegas July 30-August 2. Overwhelming demand for premium packages and general tickets for the shows have made the “I AM…” tour one of the fastest selling concert events of the year. A second Madison Square Garden concert date has been added in New York City on June 22. All dates below. Beyoncé is co-sponsoring food drives along her tour itinerary as part of the Show Your Helping Hand initiative, a national hunger relief campaign created by General Mills' Hamburger Helper® in partnership with Beyoncé and her Survivor Foundation. The campaign goal is to help Feeding America deliver more than 3.5 million meals to local food banks. Consumers can get involved in the effort by submitting codes on specially marked boxes of Hamburger Helper®, by donating non-perishable food items at Beyoncé's concerts in select cities across the U.S., or by donating money at www.showyourhelpinghand.com. The “I AM…” world tour production showcases the music and film superstar like you’ve never seen her. Beyoncé’s extraordinary all-female band joins her again to perform musical hits, classics, and surprises in a newly-created high-tech state-of-the-art concert environment. Winners of Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies” Video Dance contest will see themselves on-screen during one of the centerpiece sections of the “I AM…” extravaganza. Tour Dates:  Related Posts |
| Under Cover - The T-Pain Experience Posted: 28 May 2009 09:19 AM PDT Auto-tune. Konvict Music. Buying shawty a drank. Such is the life of the inimitable T-Pain. In case you’ve been living under a rock, he’s one of the hottest acts in today’s hip hop and R&B scene and it seems like every track these days has a “featuring T-Pain” next to it. Whether he’s helping Kanye West win a Grammy award for “Good Life” or enjoying a self-parody on a boat with Andy Samberg, T-Pain’s ubiquitous grill is one that always makes me smile. Welcome back, readers. I present… Under Cover - The T-Pain Experience. .“Buy You A Drank (Shawty Snappin’)” featuring Yung Joc (original 2007) .Jesse McCartney cover .“Can’t Believe It” featuring Lil Wayne (original 2008) .Jojo cover  Related Posts |
| The Decemberists with Blind Pilot @ The Uptown, Kansas City Posted: 28 May 2009 07:00 AM PDT Outside the Uptown Theatre, it looked like the Pacific Northwest as a blanket of cold, misty rain enshrouded the town. Inside the Uptown Theatre, it was about to sound like the Pacific Northwest as Portland’s finest was preparing to take the stage. The weather, a possible nuisance to those at the outdoor NIN/Jane’s Addiction concert across town, was just the finishing touch for the setting of the Decemberists‘ tour. Blind Pilot, a harmonious indie folk group along the lines of the Fleet Foxes and Avett Brothers, opened. The group has ranged in size from two members to 10 on stage, but tonight they settled on a more modest quintet. This allowed them to maintain the soft textures of their music that often forced listeners to lean in to catch their every word, yet it gave them a loud, instrumental fullness that seemed to channel Arcade Fire. Kate Claborn’s vocals complimented lead singer Israel Nebeker perfectly, but the instruments made this group special. A portable accordion/organ, an upright bass, a banjo, and a ukulele added to the traditional guitars and drums.
Set List: Green lights bounced off of the crinkly, lace-like backdrop for the Decemberists as fog crept across the stage. This was one of the simplest stage set ups a major act has used in a long time, but it served its purpose of transferring the audience into the mystical story told on the concept album The Hazards of Love. As the music to “Prelude” filled the venue, members of the Decemberists began to take their places on stage, the lights catching them and casting large shadows on the walls. The tension mounted and it seemed to promise that hearing Hazards of Love would be cool and a great idea. Unfortunately, this was not to be the case and it wasn’t until the second half of the set when the band broke out some older songs that it actually got interesting.. For those unfamiliar with the Decemberists’ latest work, The Hazards of Love is a concept album that tells the story of a woman named Margaret who falls in love with a shape-shifter. A jealous forest queen creates some drama. The album featured several guest singers such as Becky Stark of Lavender Diamond, Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond, and Jim James of My Morning Jacket. Stark and Worden joined the band on this tour. Stark, playing the more innocent Margaret donned a white dress and used loose arm gestures as she floated about the stage singing her part. Her wistful performance was good, but rather blase. It was much easier to root for Worden in the role of the jealous queen as she swaggered around the stage, sharply twisting her torso and busting out huge vocals. Like many stories, Hazards of Love is structured with an introductory phase that introduces characters and themes, an action-packed middle section, and then a milder denouement that gives resolution. Here in lies the problem with the live performance of this: the introduction dragged and the denouement started too soon. Also, the actual group of the Decemberists seems to take a backseat to the story and the role of the two women, which may work on record, but live, people paid to see the Decemberists. Finally, without stage banter from the band, the story was too dry too take altogether like that. Instrumentally, they were tight, but it was just a bit of an endurance challenge for a live show. After a very long break, the Decemberists (minus guests) returned to the stage and returned to their true form. No longer playing characters from Hazards of Love, they were free to act like themselves and this meant banter and crowd interaction, which are some of the most endearing features of the band. Only the Decemberists can take the time and make a ridiculous joke sound cool. At one point during a guitar change, drummer John Moen asked, “What did the pig put on to soothe his cut paw?…Oinkment!” Singer Colin Meloy bantered back, “How did he cut it?” “He was in the barnyard horsing around,” retorted Moen. This sort or repartee was what was missing during the first half of the set. At another point, Meloy managed to divide the crowd into sections to sing a bit of Billy Liar. The balcony section showed some exceptional bass singing skills. They also teased the audience with “Dracula’s Daughter” before “O Valencia”, saying that eEvery band likes to play their best songs. We like to be unconventional and play our worst.” The set ended with Worden and Stark returning for a silly, but great cover of Heart’s “Crazy on You”. While all this was fun, the band pulled out all the stops for the encore performance of “A Cautionary Tale”. As the gypsy-like tale began on stage with Meloy, the rest of the group formed a marching band through the audience on the floor. From here, Meloy set the scene and divided the room into the British versus the Arabians. He encouraged audience members to get up on each other’s soldiers for the battle. Just as quickly as Meloy began the battle, he ended it with a dreaded meteor crash and the band marched back out. This control of the crowd is the sort of role playing that Meloy does best and it proves why he is one of the best showman’s in the business. The fantastic encore almost made it so the performance of Hazards of Love was a forgotten memory. Almost. Thus, for this tour, it is downright Dickensian. It was the best of times, it was the worst of times. The Decemberists rocked, but they also bored. I’d say go late if you are going to an upcoming show, but then you would miss the fantastic Blind Pilot, so the slow parts might just have to be the time to schedule bathroom or beer breaks.
Set List:
 Photos by: Joshua Hammond Related Posts |
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