Soulive’s third annual residency at Brooklyn Bowl, dubbed Bowlive III, kicks off tomorrow and runs through March 10. Luther Dickinson of the North Mississippi Allstars and Black Crowes has been added to the list of guests for tomorrow and Wednesday’s shows, while HT contributor Wyllys will DJ at the Bowl post show this Friday and Saturday.

If you can’t make it to Brooklyn for Bowlive III, you can watch any or all of the 10 performances through iClips Pay-Per-View webcasts. These will be live webcasts only, iClips will not offer replays.

ARTIST LINEUP:

T 2/28 John Scofield + Luther Dickinson
W 2/29 John Scofield + Luther Dickinson
R 3/1 Rahzel & Karl Denson + ?uestlove Bowlive Train
F 3/2 Karl Denson & Jennifer Hartswick
S 3/3 Marco Benevento & Jennifer Hartswick
T 3/6 Lettuce, Zach Deputy, Skerik, & Allen Stone
W 3/7 Lettuce, Skerik & Zach Deputy
R 3/8 Citizen Cope & Alice Smith, George Porter Jr. & Billy Martin +?uestlove
F 3/9 George Porter Jr.
S 3/10 TBA

OPENING ARTIST LINEUP:

R 3/1 Rahzel
F 3/2 Alecia Chakour Band
S 3/3 Nigel Hall Band
T 3/6 Zach Deputy
W 3/7 Zach Deputy
F 3/9 Nigel Hall & Alecia Chakour
S 3/10 The London Souls

Radiohead kicked off their World Tour tonight at the American Airlines Arena, where the band debuted songs both old and new in front of a capacity crowd. Augmented by drummer Clive Deamer, the Brits unveiled two brand new songs – Identikit and Cut a Hole. Meeting In The Aisle, an instrumental first released on the Airbag / How Am I Driving? EP in 1998, saw its live debut this evening.

[via @ChrisDuqueV]

Front man Thom Yorke mentioned that “every night is going to be different” late in the show, giving fans hope that this tour’s setlists will vary even more so than in the past.

Here’s the complete setlist via @radioheadlive…

Set: Bloom, The Daily Mail, Morning Mr. Magpie, Staircase, The National Anthem, Meeting In the Aisle, Kid A, The Gloaming, Codex, You and Whose Army?, Nude, Identikit, Lotus Flower, There There, Feral, Idioteque, Seperator

Encore 1: Airbag, Bodysnatchers, Cut a Hole*, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi
Encore 2: Give Up The Ghost, Reckoner, Karma Police

* – w/ Clive Deamer on Piano

The tour continues on Wednesday night at the St. Pete Times Arena in Tampa, Florida.

Plenty of videos have already surfaced of the tour opener. Here’s a few good ones…

Radiohead – Identikit

Radiohead – Meeting In The Aisle

Here’s another angle of Meeting In The Aisle

Radiohead – Meeting In The Aisle

Radiohead – Cut A Hole

Radiohead – Kid A

Radiohead – The Gloaming

Radiohead – Codex

Radiohead – There There

After spending three years at the kitschy Kutsher’s Country Club in the Catskills region of New York, organizers behind the highly successful All Tomorrow’s Parties last year decided to move their hipster friendly music and comedy festival, dubbed I’ll Be Your Mirror, to the site of another once thriving summer vacation destination – Asbury Park, New Jersey. For their second year at the Jersey shore, the fest will be headlined The Afghan Whigs, who will reunite for their first U.S. gigs in 13 years, with curating duties being handed off to the band’s lead singer Greg Dulli. Joining the soul-influenced rock act on the initial bill will be HT faves The Roots, Jose Gonzalez, Sharon Van Etten, Vetiver and comedian Louis C.K. ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror will take place from September 21-23 at a variety of venues around Asbury Park, with tickets on-sale now.

If you’re not into learning about the lineup for ATP’s I’ll Be Your Mirror, then maybe you’ll be interested in hitting one of these recently announced tours…

• Squeeze: April U.S. Tour (4/10 – 4/28)
• Styx/REO Speedwagon/Ted Nugent: Midwest Rock N’ Roll Express Tour (5/1 – 7/7)
• tUnE-yArDs: Summer World Tour (6/1 – 8/2)
• Mark Lanegan: Spring North American Tour (5/10 – 5/26)
• New Riders Of The Purple Sage: U.S. Tour (3/2 – 8/12)
• EOTO: Bass Invaders Tour (3/16 – 5/31)
• Drive-By Truckers: Spring Tour (3/9 – 4/21)
• Counting Crows: Spring Tour (3/9 – 5/5)
• ALO: May U.S. Tour (5/9 – 5/31)
• Horse Feathers: Spring Tour (3/16 – 6/3)
• Woods: Spring U.S. Tour (4/19 – 5/5)

Bruce Springsteen Week on NBC’s Late Night with Jimmy Fallon got off to rousing start yesterday as The Boss and the E Street Band performed two tunes off their soon-to-be-released album, Wrecking Ball. Laying waste to both the title track and the album’s first single, We Take Care of Our Own, Springsteen showed he’s still got gas left in the tank as he prepares to embark on a lengthy world tour.

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – We Take Care of Our Own

Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band – Wrecking Ball

More than just plain ironic, it seemed fitting that the 2011 film, The Artist, would bring home the Best Picture honor from that outdated beast known as the Academy Awards. Who would have thought that a black and white film, bereft of dialogue, could garner such attention in the 21st century, the century of cynicism and hopelessness and a loss of faith in quality and timelessness?

While films are mired in the technology needed to create them in the modern cinematic era—whether it is IMAX 3-D, or Real 3-D, or 4-D, with its volley of objects thrown at the viewer, or furniture that creates mini-aftershocks, or THX sound, with its blitzkrieg of yakking medieval noises, or the ultimate 5-D experience where the viewer gets physically involved in a film, and shapes the outcome in a new and infinitely-plotted film for all time—the non-James Cameron crowd, wearing its proverbial anti-tech badges, wonders what else there is to view and hear and feel and experience and allow to invade the hearts and minds and souls of a gone generation.

Which is exactly the sort of thing that rubs me the wrong way. If anything, my little Hidden Flicks over the last few years have been a celebration of story over structure, and I sometimes got lost in those metaphysical columns without really understanding what drives a film—it is the visual motifs wedded with audio brilliance coupled with timeless characterizations, which make a piece of celluloid stand the test of time, not so much how it was made, or in what format. Technology drives these images, and it is technology, controlled and manipulated, that, ultimately, drives us, too, whether we want to continue riding this flat line to oblivion, or not.

Charlie Chaplin’s The Kid, made nearly a century before The Artist, 90 years to be exact, in 1921, was the Great Master’s first full-length film. The silent artist was taking a big risk on several fronts—his films had worked because they were funny, fast and brief. They had also worked because they had relied so heavily on his Tramp persona, without too much filler, or sidebar characters to muddy the comedic waters.

With The Kid, Chaplin cast the young Jackie Coogan to play an orphan, who is found by Chaplin’s Tramp character, and, subsequently, is raised to the age of 5 by the poverty-stricken gent, until obstacles are put in their collective path, conflict ensues and the film takes on an almost mythical tone with one of the most heartwarming series of scenes in cinema history.

The duo had remarkable chemistry, and their bond was tangible. What is most incredible about the film is that their love is so immediate, although not a single word is spoken. Sure, they speak; but in a silent film, all the dialogue is mere imagery, and not narrative fuel. They breathe together in an artistic way, and that was the first time Chaplin had allowed such a thing to dominate his canvas, let alone for a silent film that stretched out for an hour.

And, so, to see The Artist rewarded for its own silent romantic milestones is, indeed, quite a feat in 2011, and makes one feel that the art form still has a place for those that enjoy silent little hidden gems, whether they are hiding in plain sight, like the recent Best Picture, or hidden on a dusty shelf, waiting to be re-discovered again, like Chaplin’s immortal classic, The Kid.

- Randy Ray

• The Kid: Amazon / NetFlix
• Previously on Hidden Flick: Tale of Two Films

The Pitchfork Music Festival will return to Chicago’s Union Park on July 13 to 15 boasting an initial lineup that features headliners Vampire Weekend and Feist. In addition, Godspeed You! Black Emperor, Hot Chip, AraabMUZIK, A$AP Rocky, the Field, Liturgy, Kendrick Lamar, Grimes, Cloud Nothings, Tim Hecker, and Willis Earl Beal are also set to play the seminal indie publication’s seventh annual summer festival.

Three-day passes for last year’s festival sold out in one day, so if you’re looking to attend be sure to grab your tickets when they go on sale on March 9, at 12PM CT through the event’s website.

Pitchfork Music Festival 2012:

Vampire Weekend
Feist
Godspeed You! Black Emperor
Hot Chip
AraabMUZIK
A$AP Rocky
The Field
Liturgy
Kendrick Lamar
Grimes
Cloud Nothings
Tim Hecker
Willis Earl Beal

I am constantly scouring the internet for beta tests and new products that might be the next best thing. Often, I sign up for something and completely forget about it until the invite arrives. Other times, I can’t hardly wait to get the welcome invite. Such is the case with Republic Wireless which I have been patiently waiting for since November. Republic Wireless completely changes the rules for mobile phone companies and offers some extraordinary features including:

• No termination fees
• No contracts
• No overages
• No plans to choose from
• No caps and no tiers
• $19/month for both calls AND data

Yes, you read that last figure correctly. About 1/10 of what you’d pay to AT&T or other major carriers & perhaps less than half of what you’d expect from the discount carriers like MetroPCS. Most importantly, the major issue that many people have with their carrier is no longer a consideration: contracts and termination fees. This week, we’ll take a quick look at Republic Wireless, and of course, the way that they are able to offer these extraordinarily cheap rates.

Come March 22nd, Linsanity won’t be the only Asian sensation sweeping through Madison Square Garden. That marks the date that Japanese mega-stars L’Arc-en-Ciel – a band I’ve never actually heard of before, but apparently has sold over 40 million records and is celebrating their 20th anniversary together – become the first Japanese artists ever to headline the Garden. Here’s a clip of the band performing their song Honey in front of 100,000 people on their home turf back in Japan.

Sometimes, you find love. Sometimes, love finds you. In the case of Bruce Hornsby’s solo shows, and how they eventually, and literally, led me to falling in love with my wife to be, Erin, you simply can’t make this stuff up. Having had one of our first dates at a solo Hornsby show in 2007 at the McCarter Theatre on the campus of Princeton University, I decided it would be a nice sneak away, date night to recapture the magic of five years ago this past Friday, with the same performer on the same stage.

If you’ve never seen Hornsby solo, let me just be crystal clear and say this: make sure you do so, immediately! The man is a true “talent,” to borrow the word used by my loving fiance at the show, a maestro of every genre from Americana to rock to blues to classical to anything and everything in between. Bruce solo shows feature just a man and his grand piano, playing anything he desires, while honoring the many requests scattered about the stage and yelled out by the audience, while inviting you in with his quick wit and humor that are as much a part of the show as his dancing digits.

As the lights dropped at the intimate venue, Hornsby strolled out from the side of the stage in jeans, a mock-turtleneck and black and white basketball sneaker – just another sign of a man who simply is what he is, and comfortable, albeit it quirky and jangly in his lanky frame. Opening with the main score to Red Hook Summer, a Spike Lee film due out this summer, which Hornsby composed, he wasted no time in segueing into a spell-binding fugue by a Russian composer that seemed more appropriate at a Carnegie Hall recital than a rock show.

The early portions of the 2+ hour set were easy and welcoming, as Bruce invited the sold out audience into a casual, relaxed, living room vibe with each passing note. Hornsby played songs such as Harbor Lights, the title track from his 1993 full-length album. Amongst anecdotes and quips, which drew genuine laughter and smiles from the audience, he completely juxtaposed the serious numbers with comical tunes such as The Dreaded Spoon – a song about an eating instrument which Bruce’s dad kept in the glove compartment to swipe ice cream from each of his children during trips to the local parlor rather than get his own.  (For the record, Bruce let us know he is still not over it). Or maybe it was Don of Dons, a song he wrote about Donald Trump which pokes fun at all aspects of the tycoon, which includes the lyrics “Now you know who I am/ Don Trump is who I am/ Oh the Don of Dons, the King of Kings/ A sub for the Great ‘I am’/ Now you know who I am/Don Trump is who I am/ and we all should agree, to pay homage to me!” Shakepseare, it is not. But vintage Hornsby, it certainly is.

As the show moved along at any pace that Hornsby wanted it to,  one of the single worst work and traffic days I’ve experienced melted off of my shoulders and out of my mind, like a an ice cream cone in the sweltering summer heat. Hornsby had the entire room tapping along to such classics as Talk of the Town, Valley Road, played “the way The Grateful Dead used to play it,” while at any moment he’d bring in a melody, nursery rhyme, or more typically, a classical bridge in almost every tune, before returning to the end of a song with grace and ease.

I was fully encapsulated by the pianist’s performance and enraptured throughout the set. Erin and I didn’t even need to speak a word, but we simply shared a glance, a smile or a touch of our hands, and the message was being provided loud and clear by Hornsby himself. This was particularly true in several instances, including a hymn from the aforementioned Red Hook Summer score, that he wrote with counterpart Chip DeMatteo, or Nobody There But Me, a song on the Tin Cup soundtrack that according to Hornsby, “six people bought” and one that has been played by Willie Nelson.

But, without a doubt the most magical moment of the evening–and one of the most unexpected and amazing of my entire life–came during the encore medley. As Hornsby returned just shy of 10:30PM, and remarked that the Princeton audience always gravitated more towards liking ballads than most of his audiences, he proceeded to start playing a tender Lost Soul before finding his way into such delicate territory it seemed almost too familiar, as if I had been here before. Well, it seems I had been, literally.

And then – IT happened.

Hornsby’s left hand hit a chord that resonated so deeply in mine and Erin’s minds, hearts and souls that we both instantaneously spun our heads towards one another, grabbed one another’s hand tightly enough to cut off circulation, almost in disbelief, and smiled, all while she began to cry. Bruce has started the Grateful Dead’s Standing on the Moon, one of Erin’s favorite songs of all time. The very song that Hornsby had encored with five years ago, in the same venue, on one of our first dates, washed over us like a tidal wave of emotions, memories and cleansed us of any thought that everything we had been through was in any way wrong.

“Standing on the moon
With nothing else to do
A lovely view of heaven
But I’d rather be with you”

Out of well over 1,500 live concerts in my life, I have only experienced moments like this a handful of times – and twice it’s been at Bruce Hornsby solo shows at Princeton’s McCarter Theatre. The Halcyon Days that the medley eventually wove to, and a closing King of the Hill did little to shake me out of the trance that I had been in for two hours, and especially from the encore. I obviously never saw Beethoven, Mozart or Bach live, but I honestly believe that a Bruce Hornsby solo show is the closest I will ever get.

Well, at least my wedding song is settled. Now, Bruce – are you available for cocktail hours?

Forecastle Festival’s 10th anniversary event, dubbed Forecastle X, will take place in Louisville, Kentucky’s Waterfront Park from July 13 – 15 boasting a lineup that features Wilco, Basnectar and local heroes My Morning Jacket as headliners. Also appearing at Forecastle X will be HT faves Beach House, Girl Talk, Andrew Bird, Galactic, Preservation Hall, Dr. Dog, Real Estate, Deer Tick and Neko Case.

My Morning Jacket will headline on the Saturday night of the event and have collaborated with producers on aspects of the festival. 3-Day Passes are currently available for $144.50 through the festival’s website. Single-Day tickets go on sale this Friday.

Here’s a look at the full lineup…

Nearly two decades ago, in the waning minutes of an otherwise unremarkable episode of Saturday Night Live, Sinead O’Connor set what to this day remains the high water mark for the self-immolation of a musical career. Standing alone in the middle of the stage, the bald-pated Irish siren belted out an a capella version of Bob Marley’s War. At the conclusion of the song, O’Connor unleashed a tsunami of controversy when she produced a photograph of Pope John Paul II in conjunction with the word “evil” and proceeded to rip it to shreds with an exhortation to “fight the real enemy.”

With that one gesture, O’Connor sabotaged her entire career, a not-so-insubstantial feat in a pre-Internet era where “going viral” was a term solely within the province of microbiologists. Two weeks later, at a concert to celebrate Bob Dylan’s 30th anniversary in the music business, a sold-out Madison Square Garden booed her off the stage. A fan base formed around a singer that voiced discontent with a whole generation would not condone a protest they did not support. They could forgive the perceived transgression of turning ones back upon the folk ideal but would not support the protest of a young Irish woman against the Catholic Church. Embodying Dylan’s convictions, O’Connor halted the band and returned the audience’s hostility with an angry a capella reprise of War before walking off stage and breaking down in tears into Kris Kristofferson’s arms. That one moment remains emblematic of O’Connor: she is a fierce warrior that will never back down from a challenge but underneath the brash, impervious exterior lies a heart that can easily be broken.

While she surely didn’t realize that career-wise, she was essentially a dead woman walking, O’Connor wasn’t entirely unprepared to be at the epicenter of this storm. The outspoken singer had already weathered the backlash of her refusal to perform at the Garden State Arts Center if the Jersey venue played the National Anthem before the show. Not only was O’Connor flogged publicly in every American news outlet, Frank Sinatra, O’Connor’s senior by more than 50 years, fueled the fire by stating he would like to kick her ass, a threat that helped inspire the classic SNL sketch The Sinatra Group. Offering up an explanation for her SNL stunt, O’Connor stated that she wanted to call attention to the systemic cover-up by the Catholic Church of widespread child abuse and molestation being committed within its institution. While history has not been kind to O’Connor’s actions, it has borne out the validity of her cause. In the summer of 2011, Enda Kenny, the Taoiseach of the Republic of Ireland (Prime Minister), seemed to channel O’Connor’s words on the floor of the Dail Eireann (the principal chamber of Irish parliament) when he vilified the Vatican and Roman Catholic Church for committing and condoning the abuse of generations of Irish children. That Sinead O’Connor tried saying the same thing nearly 20 years earlier was summarily and conveniently ignored.

O’Connor’s star has never shone as brightly as it did since she topped the charts with the Prince-penned Nothing Compares 2 U. In recent years, she has released, to little acclaim, albums containing her interpretation of traditional Irish songs as well as compendiums of reggae music. In 2005, she appeared at the Jammy Awards, only to apocryphally stop the band mid-song to remedy a perceived false start. For as much as O’Connor seemed out of touch with the musical world around her, with How About I Be Me (And You Be You), her strongest album since I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, she now seems acutely self-aware.

With the impending release of her new album, O’Connor returned to the United States for a pair of sold-out shows at New York City’s Highline Ballroom. Even though a bout of laryngitis postpones a meritorious discussion of whether her voice still possesses its majestic power, O’Connor exhibited a masterful control over her vocals, knowing exactly how restrain her delivery to get the maximum effect. What doesn’t need tabling is the realization that O’Connor has rediscovered her inner voice; V.I.P., I Had A Baby, 4th And Vine and the John Grant penned Queen Of Denmark from How About I Be Me standing as thinly veiled declarations of the angst, sadness and frustration bubbling within her soul. At a bare minimum, time surely hasn’t dulled O’Connor’s penchant for bluntly discoursing on things she thinks are fucked.

Still diminutive in stature and bearing a stubbled version of her signature hairless dome, O’Connor no longer presents as the Gaelic waif with the otherworldly voice. Rather, in the offerings of Three Babies and I Am Stretched On Your Grave from her 1990 release I Do Not Want What I Haven’t Got, it’s hard to escape the realization that two decades ago, O’Connor may simply have been an aged soul trapped inside a young body. Practically every song on Exile In Guyville, Liz Phair’s breakout feminist manifesto, has more of a connection to The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Last Days of Our Acquaintance than to anything on Exile On Main Street, the Stones album most-often linked to Phair’s debut effort.

Especially since she’s found Twitter, O’Connor remains viable tabloid fodder, receiving the publicity attendant with every comment that strays from the norm. Such is her cross to bear. For the first time in many years though, O’Connor’s giving people reason to talk about her music. Let’s enjoy this while it lasts.

EIGHTH NOTES

With the Galactic horns serving as a substitute for his distinctive guitar at the New Orleans collective’s recent show with Corey Glover at Terminal 5 (covered on this very site), Living Colour’s Vernon Reid was free to join DJ Leon Lamont and Akim Funk Buddha at Dixon Place for a presentation of his multimedia creation, Artificial Afrika. Mixing elements of performance art, dance, ambient soundscapes, visual imagery, Gil Scott-Heron quality social commentary and Mystery Science Theater 3000, Artificial Afrika contemplates the connection between African-Americans and Africa. In exploring the semiotics of race and racism amidst the search for an understanding of one’s cultural identity, Reid returns to themes that have run through his work since well before his Living Colour days. Artificial Afrika chooses to raise questions rather than offer answers, providing food for thought rather than bromides and platitudes. It might be politically correct to claim that Reid’s performance piece transcends race. However, it wouldn’t be a wholly accurate statement. Notwithstanding that different cultural demographics will have different responses, Reid remains one of the more thought-provoking artists and Artificial Afrika is a worthy addition to his canon.

At last year’s South By Southwest Festival in Austin, Texas, crowds descended upon free shows by The Strokes and Kanye West like the bugs from Starship Troopers. When Auditorium Shores reached its capacity, fans prevented from entering burst into The Star Spangled Banner in response to being denied entry to a public park . . . and then pretty much broke down the gates. Addressing the issue at this year’s SXSW, admission to an unannounced location for an intimate March 15 performance by keynote speaker Bruce Springsteen (and The E Street Band) will be parsed out in a random drawing to badge holders and certain wristband bearers. While this solution manages to be both elitist and egalitarian in one fell swoop, it also may be the first step towards assuring that a Who-like stampede never dominates a SXSW headline.

While we’ve known Phish would tour this summer since December, the when and where of Phish Summer Tour 2012 has been unconfirmed until now. Phish has just revealed their plans for the 19-show first leg, which kicks off on June 7 at the DCU Center in Worcester and runs through a three-night stand at SPAC on July 6 – 8.

This tour finds the quartet returning to a number sheds they generally hit each summer but skipped in 2011, namely Deer Creek, Alpine Valley, Jones Beach and SPAC. Atlantic City’s Bader Field is the newcomer to the pack and will host its first Phish shows on June 15 – 17. CID Entertaiment is offering travel packages, long distance shuttles and hotel deals for these shows.

According to a press release, additional summer dates will be announced this spring.

Here’s the full list of tour dates announced today…

June 7 and 8 – DCU Center, Worcester Massachusetts
June 10 – Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Manchester Tennessee
June 15, 16 and 17 – Bader Field, Atlantic City New Jersey
June 19 and 20 – nTelos Pavilion, Portsmouth Virginia
June 22 – Riverbend Music Center, Cincinnati Ohio
June 23 – First Niagara Pavilion, Burgettstown Pennslyvania
June 24 – Blossom Music Center, Cuyahoga Falls Ohio
June 28 and 29 – Klipsch Music Center, Noblesville Indiana
June 30 and July 1 – Alpine Valley, E. Troy Wisconsin
July 3 and 4 – Nikon at Jones Beach Theater, Wantagh New York
July 6, 7 and 8 – Saratoga Performing Arts Center, Saratoga Springs, NY

A pre-order lottery for tickets to every show on the band’s docket has started via Music Today and you can put your entry in through March 12 at 11:59AM ET. Once again Phish has offered different prices for pavilion seats and for lawn seats at these summer sheds. While face for lawns is $45, pavilion seats will go for $60. The public onsales are set to take place on March 16 and 17.

Phish Summer Tour 2012 Announcement from Phish on Vimeo.

Here’s a look at the venues Phish will play during the first leg of the tour…

DCU Center

[CC-BY-SA-3.0  /PVMOutside at Wikipedia]

Capacity: 15,000

Previously at the DCU Center:  12 Shows – 12/31/1993, 12/28/1995, 12/29/1995, 11/28/1997, 11/29/1997, 11/30/1997, 11/27/1998, 11/28/1998, 11/29/1998, 02/26/2003, 12/27/2010, 12/28/2010,

Seating Chart:

[All Seating Charts via Ticketmaster.com]

Skinny: A rare set of indoor summer shows, this marks Phish’s first gigs at the venue formerly known as The Centrum since a two-night run that kicked off the 2010-2011 New Year’s Run. An important show in Phish history took place at the mid-sized arena on December 31, 1993, a sold-out performance during which footage was shot for the Down With Disease video that debuted on MTV the next spring. A mini-tradition of a three-night Thanksgiving Weekend at The Centrum was established in 1997 and 1998. A February 26, 2003 show at the venue saw the band dip into each member’s solo repertoires for a song a piece.

Bader Field

[Photo of DMB Caravan @ Bader Field by Jeremy Gordon]

Capacity: Estimated at 60,000 / DMB Caravan Drew 72,000 Total Over Three Days

Previously at Bader Field: N/A

DMB Caravan Site Map:

[via DMBNews.net]

Skinny: Phish returns to Atlantic City less than two years after a three-night stand at Boardwalk Hall which marked the band’s first-ever shows in the Jersey Shore city. AC is filled with hotels and motels of all shapes and sizes, giving fans many options. Bader Field was first used as a venue for one of the four DMB Caravan events last summer and will be back in action the weekend following Phish’s appearance when Metallica headlines and curates the Orion + More Fest.

nTelos Pavilion

[Photo by Kenny Pusey for Hidden Track]

Capacity: 6,500

Previously at nTelos Pavilion:  2 Shows – 06/15/2010, 06/19/2011,

Seating Chart:

Skinny: The smallest venue on this tour, Phish first visited the nTelos Pavilion in 2010 and clearly liked it enough to come back the next two summers. Tickets were hard to score leading up to the 2010 show, but in ample supply the day of the concert. That situation repeated itself in 2011. A memorable 2011 performance took place on Father’s Day and opened with a Harpua that featured the band members’ fathers.

Riverbend Music Center

[Photo via TravelPod]

Capacity: 20,500

Previously at Riverbend: 2 Shows =  09/20/2000, 06/05/2011

Seating Chart:

Skinny: A huge shed in the Cincinnati area that opened in 1984, the Riverbend Music Center is a scenic venue located on the banks of the Ohio River. Phish first performed at Riverbend on September 20, 2000 and last summer’s stop marked the quartet’s first return trip.

First Niagara Pavilion

[Photo via Mr. Miner's Phish Thoughts]

Capacity: 23,000

Previously at First Niagara Pavilion: 6 Shows = 08/13/1997, 08/11/1998, 07/21/1999, 07/07/2000, 07/29/2003, 06/18/2009

Seating Map:

Skinny: After three years, Phish will return to the Pittsburgh-area amphitheater where they’ve played a total of six shows. Originally known as Star Lake Amphitheatre, Phish first played Burgettstown on August 13, 1997 and treated fans to a one-time-only cover at that show (Elton John’s Amoreena) and subsequent performances in 1998 (Bob Marley’s Trenchtown Rock), 1999 (Pavement’s Gold Soundz) and 2003 (Elvin Bishop’s Fooled Around and Fell in Love). Burgettstown is located approximately 30 miles from downtown Pittsburgh.

Blossom Music Center

[Photo by Joe Ringus for Hidden Track]

Capacity: 19,263

Previously at Blossom: 5 Shows – 07/31/1992 (Opening for Santana), 06/20/1995, 06/12/2010, 06/04/2011

Seating Chart:

Skinny: Phish returned to this Cleveland-area shed in 2010 and 2011 after a layoff of nearly a decade. Both of the recent performances were outstanding as the band treated fans to a barn-burner in 2010 that included the only version of Look Out, Cleveland to date and the debut of Instant Karma! as well as a heavenly take on Backwards Down The Number Line. Last year’s scorcher included the famed “When Harry Met Sally” segment and a ridiculous Possum that segued into the debut of Steam.

Klipsch Music Center

[via Klipsch Music Center]

Capacity: 24,000

Previously at Klipsch Music Center: 20 Shows = 06/19/1995, 08/12/1996, 08/13/1996, 08/10/1997, 08/11/1997, 08/02/1998, 08/03/1998, 07/25/1999, 07/26/1999, 07/10/2000, 07/11/2000, 07/12/2000, 07/21/2003, 07/22/2003, 07/23/2003, 06/23/2004, 06/24/2004, 06/19/2009, 08/12/2010, 08/13/2010

Seating Map:

Skinny: Yet another venue with a new name since Phish’s last visit, this Indianapolis-area shed was originally named Deer Creek and was known as Verizon Wireless Music Center until this past November. Phish has played a total of 20 gigs at Deer Creek with the first one taking place on June 19, 1995. The area around the venue was filled with cornfields back then and in more recent years suburbia continues to sprawl towards and into Noblesville. Last summer was the first time the band didn’t hit Deer Creek on one of their summer jaunts since they made their debut at the venue.

Alpine Valley

Capacity: 37,000

Previously at Alpine Valley Music Theater: 13 Shows – 08/10/1996, 08/09/1997, 08/01/1998, 07/24/1999, 07/08/2000, 07/18/2003, 07/19/2003, 06/25/2004, 06/26/2004, 06/20/2009, 06/21/2009, 08/14/2010, 08/15/2010

Seating Chart:

Skinny: Here’s another venue that Phish has hit every summer they’ve played shows with the exception of 2011. The group first played the huge amphitheatre on a ski slope in 1996. Memorable performances include a quadruple encore on July 24, 1999 and the shows that led to the release of Live Phish Vol. 5 (July 8, 2000) and Phish – Alpine Valley 2010 (August 14 and 15, 2010).

Nikon at Jones Beach Theater

[CC-BY-SA-3.0/R. Sullivan at Wikipedia]

Capacity: 15,000

Previously at Nikon  at Jones Beach Theater: 11 Shows – 07/12/1992, 07/24/1992, 07/23/1993, 07/15/1994, 06/28/1995, 06/29/1995, 06/02/2009, 06/04/2009, 06/05/2009, 08/17/2010, 08/18/2010

Seating Chart:

Skinny: From a set at H.O.R.D.E. on July 12, 1992 through a two-night stand that brought Summer Tour 2010 to an end, Phish has played a total of 11 shows at Jones Beach. Located approximately 35 miles from Times Square, Jones Beach went Phish-less from a two-night stand in 1995 through a three-night run at the start of Summer Tour 2009. Though the group came back the next summer for the aforementioned Summer Tour 2010 closers, at which a fan leaped from the venue’s balcony, they did not play Jones Beach last summer. Bear in mind this venue is located in a State Park and patroled vigorously by rangers.

Saratoga Performing Arts Center

[CC-BY-SA-3.0/Matt H. Wade at Wikipedia]

Capacity: 25,100

Previously at SPAC: 9 Shows – 07/27/1992, 07/10/1994, 06/26/1995, 06/19/2004, 06/20/2004, 08/16/2009, 06/19/2010, 06/20/2010

Seating Chart:

The Skinny: Opened in 1966, Saratoga Performing Arts Center, aka SPAC, sits in the middle of Saratoga Spa State Park in Saratoga Springs, New York. Phish made their first visit to SPAC as an opening act for Santana on July 27, 1992. They came back for a headlining gig on July 10, 1994 and then another show the following summer (June 26, 1995). Nearly nine years later Phish finally returned to SPAC for an epic two-night stand on June 19 and 20, 2004. As with Deer Creek, Alpine and Jones Beach, the quartet has played this venue in 2009 and 2010 and not in 2011.

HT faves Fleet Foxes frontman Robin Pecknold has quit Twitter. Both his @rpecknold and @oldrobinaccount personal feeds have been deleted. The @FleetFoxes account is still up and running, but the last tweet came on Feb. 21.

Fleet Foxes recently announced the departure of drummer and vocalist J. Tillman, who has launched a solo project, Father John Misty.

Folks. The band isn’t over at all. Going cold case for a little while, but not over. We worked at this and we’re proud of it.

Wednesday, January 25, 2012 8:40 pm via Twitter for iPhoneReplyRetweetFavorite

@fleetfoxes

Fleet Foxes

Tillman’s exit isn’t the only change Pecknold is adapting to. The recent Portland transplant from Seattle apparently ended a longtime relationship with a woman. Before deleting his Twitter account, Pecknold tweeted a note about being single for the first time in several years and posted the song below, Olivia, In A Separate Bed.

This image also apparently shows a recently cleanly shaven Pecknold, who appears to have ditched his trademark scraggly beard.

Pecknold’s tweeting was always top notch and favorite follow of @Hidden_Track, we hope he comes back to land of 140 characters sooner than later.

HT faves Soulive kicked off their third annual residency at Brooklyn Bowl, a 10-show run dubbed Bowlive III, last night in New York City, where they welcomed guest guitarists John Scofield and Luther Dickinson (NMAS, Black Crowes) as well as Royal Family Records labelmate Nigel Hall.

[All photos by Phrazz]

Photographer Nick “Phrazz” Fitanides and videographer MKDevo were on hand at yesterday’s performance and their work gives a taste of Night One as well as what we can expect moving forward.

Soulive w/ Luther Dickinson – Hip Hug Her

IClips.net webcast last night’s show and will webcast all 10 Bowlive III performances.

Here’s more photos from Phrazz and videos from MKDevo…

 The Setlist

Soulive w/ John Scofield and Nigel Hall – I’ll Love You More Than You’ll Ever Know

[Luther Dickinson]

Soulive & John Scofield -Tabasco 

[Nigel Hall and John Scofield w/ Soulive]

John Scofield w/ Soulive – What You See Is What You Get

When we share a festival lineup announcement, we usually list the headliners and then a number of bands which we consider “HT faves,” i.e. groups we’ve spent a lot of “ink” covering over the past few years. This year’s Newport Folk Festival the initial lineup is filled with a ridiculous amount of HT faves so this next sentence will be quite long. Joining headliners My Morning Jacket, Jackson Browne and Conor Oberst will be HT faves Iron & Wine, Dawes, Deer Tick, Punch Brothers, Preservation Hall Jazz Band, TuNe-YarDs, Gary Clark Jr., Alabama Shakes, Blind Pilot, Charles Bradley and the Extraordinaires and Carl Broemel. Each of these bands and about a dozen more will descend upon gorgeous Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island on July 28 and 29.

Event organizers have done a fantastic job putting together a lineup chock full of bands who embody the festival’s historic past. My Morning Jacket front man Jim James will do double duty as he’ll appear with MMJ as well as his New Multitudes project with Jay Farrar, Will Johnson and Anders Parker. Young upstarts Gary Clark Jr. and Alabama Shakes will make their first Newport Folk Festival appearances and we bet it won’t be their last.

Here’s a look at the full initial lineup announcement…

Saturday July 28

My Morning Jacket / Iron & Wine / Patty Griffin / Guthrie Family Reunion / Dawes / Deer Tick / City & Colour / Preservation Hall Jazz Band / Alabama Shakes / Sharon Van Etten / Blind Pilot / First Aid Kid / Brown Bird / Jonny Corndawg / Spirit Family Reunion / Robert Ellie / Frank Franfield / The Apache Relay / Honeyhoney / Sleepy Man Banjo Boys / Elizabeth Mitchell & You Are My Flower

Sunday July 29

Jackson Browne / Conor Oberst / The Head & The Heart / Punch Brother / Tallest Man On Earth / tUnE-yArDs / Tom Morello: The Nightwatchman / Trampled By Turtles / Charles Bradley & His Extraordinaires / Gary Clark Jr. / Of Monsters And Men / New Multitudes f. Jay Farrar, Will Johnson, Anders Parker & Yim Yames / Sara Watkins / Jonathan Wilson / Deep Dark Woods / Carl Broemel / Ben Sollee / Spider John Koerner & His Rag Tag Boys / Joel Rafael / Joe Flectch & The Wrong Reasons / The Kossy Sisters / Berklee City Music Choir

Look for more acts to be announced in the coming months. Two-day passes for Newport Folk are on sale now and one-day tickets will be available this morning at 10AM via the event’s website and Ticketmaster.com. Last year’s fest sold out two weeks ahead of the event.

For the past two years jam stalwarts moe. held their annual moe.down festivals at Gelston Castle Estate in Mohawk, New York following ten years at the event’s original home – Snow Ridge in Turin, New York. Today, the band has announced that moe.down will return to Snow Ridge this summer.

[Photo by Jeremy Gordon]

In another big change, moe.down won’t take place on Labor Day Weekend in 2012. Moe.down 13 will be held on Aug. 10 – 12 with moe. scheduled to play six sets over the course of the weekend. Look for a lineup announcement in the next few weeks. Early-bird tickets go on sale March 5 at Noon ET.

The King of Limbs World Tour continued last night at the St. Pete Times Forum in Tampa, Florida, where Radiohead mixed it up a bit by performing six songs which weren’t played at the tour opener in Miami on Monday night. Little By Little, Pyramid Song, Street Spirit, Myxomatosis, All I Need and Everything In Its Right Place all saw action last night.

[via @LeoMalaFama]

On the other side of things, Kid A, The National Anthem, Codex, The Gloaming, Airbag, Cut A Hole and You And Whose Army all were performed in Miami but not in Tampa. Thom Yorke introduced the unreleased KoL era track The Daily Mail by saying, “This one is for the bankers who think it’s OK to make money off other people’s despair.”

Radiohead – Pyramid Song

Here’s the full setlist…

Set: Bloom, Little By Little, Staircase, Weird Fishes/Arpeggi, Morning Mr Magpie, Meeting In The Aisle, Pyramid Song, Nude, Identikit, Lotus Flower, There There, Feral, Idioteque, The Daily Mail, Bodysnatchers, Reckoner

Encore: Separator, All I Need, Myxomatosis, True Love Waits/Everything In Its Right Place

Encore2: Give up The Ghost, Karma Police, Street Spirit [fade out]

[via AtEaseWeb.com]

Next up for Radiohead is a show at Philips Arena in Atlanta this evening.

Slated for May 19 and 20, Bonnaroo creators Superfly Presents will bring both bands and food vendors to Brooklyn’s Prospect Park for an event dubbed The Great GoogaMooga. Billed as “A Theme Park of Food and Drink,” The Great GoogaMooga will feature 65 food vendors, 35 brewers, and 25 winemakers, plus over a dozen bands according to the folks at Grub Street.

As of now, just which vendors and bands will participate is unknown. Sign up for the event’s mailing list to find out who will play and serve food come May. We’ll be sure to bring you complete coverage of this food-meets-music fest over the coming months.

Back in 1998, UK folkie Billy Bragg teamed up with up and coming alt.country act Wilco, to write and record new songs culled together from a treasure trove of previous unheard and unrecorded Woody Guthrie lyrics. Called Mermaid Avenue, for the street that Guthrie and his family lived on in Coney Island, the recording sessions yielded enough material to be spread across two albums, that were released two years apart, and feature a number of songs that both Bragg and Wilco still perform in concert.

With Guthrie’s centennial birthday being celebrated all throughout 2012, its no surprise that the sessions for these HT approved albums are being revisited, and will be released as four-disc box set. On April 21, Nonesuch Records will release Mermaid Avenue: The Complete Sessions, which will include the original two volumes of Mermaid Avenue, a third volume with 17 previously unreleased recordings from those sessions, plus the 1999 documentary on the sessions, Man in the Sand, as well as a 48-page booklet with new liner notes by Nora Guthrie. Mermaid Avenue, Volume III, will also be made available digitally, separate from the box set.

• List Time: 9 Rock Songs From The 1960s About Superheroes
• Robert Plant to debut his new band the Sensational Space Shifters this July
• Cover Alert: Alabama Shakes tackle Led Zeppelin
• MMJ front man Jim James is working on a solo album to be released this year
• Download This: Loose Fur – St. Anne’s Warehouse, Brooklyn, NY – 2002-12-06
• Tenacious D release more details about their third studio album Rize of the Fenix

Finally, earlier this year the Brooklyn Academy Of Music announced that they would be turning over the keys to the building to The National’s Aaron and Bryce Dessner to curate a music festival this spring dubbed Crossing Brooklyn Ferry, after a Walt Whitman poem. The three-day fest, which is set to take place from May 3 – 5, will utilize all three spaces within the building and be headlined by The Walkman, St. Vincent and Beruit, and will features sets from the likes of Sharon Van Etten, The Antlers, Caveman, Atlas Sound and more. Three-day passes will run you $110 , and will go-sale to the public on March 6, with individual day-passes going on-sale on March 12, for $45.

This evening at 9PM ET myself and fellow HT contributors Wade Ellis Wilby and Eric Wyman will host a listening party and discussion called Game Tapes Forum on Turntable.FM in which we’ll listen to and talk about the second set of Phish’s performance at Deer Creek on July 10, 2000. The aim of Game Tapes is to check out unheralded sets of Phish from the past that often get overshadowed (often for good reason) by the shows played in the days before or after. Join us in this room to participate.