Live Bands and Gigs

For the longest time, Asia was not usually considered a preferred destination for music artists and bands who are traveling on their world tours. But over the last few years the tides seem to have changed. More and more artists are coming over, even those that are not popular in the mainstream.
One of the countries that seem to be enjoying a lot of visits from various artists in the last few years is Singapore. The small country is getting many visits from many bands and music artists that it is slowly becoming the music concert capital of the region. The good thing is that the prices of tickets in Singapore are relatively affordable, a big reason why many people from other countries in the region actually visit Singapore to watch these acts.

Both of the videos by Maroon 5 for This Love and She Will Be Loved contained very steamy and extended sex scenes. Both of them starred Levine and his escapades with Kelly McKee and Kelly Preston. The first steamy MV, This Love, used creative camera angles to avoid exposing the private parts. For more conservative markets, another version of the video was produced, this time where a stream of computer generated flower petals covered up the more than steamy scenes.

Another video, Wake Up Call, also contained explicit materials and was also presented as a trailer for a fictional NC-17 movie.

Three of the 5 members of Maroon 5 have already known each other ever since Junior High. While they were attending Brentwood School, Adam Levine and Jesse Carmichael teamed with Mickey Madden and Ryan Dusick to form Kara’s Flowers. At that time, it was a garage/grunge band that played its first gig at the Whisky a Go Go. Their first gig was on September 16, 1995. In 2001, Valentine joined the band and the name was officially changed to Maroon 5.

The band’s debut album contained mostly inspired materials by Levine who had a tumultuous relationship with his ex-girlfriend, Jane. The name of the album was such because the band felt “…like it was the most honest statement we could make with the title.”

In April 2008, Apologize, video of the remixed version garnered more than 52 million views. Sadly, the user took it down and it has left the most played list. However, the 1st music video released in Youtube is the 5th most watched, garnering an almost 50 million views. Together, the two videos have had more than 100 million viewers, a staggering number indeed.

The remixed version was featured in Timbaland’s new album, Shock Value. A major contribution to the song’s overall success, the remixed version included a more upbeat mood using a sampled drum machine, a slightly different beat, and a sampled backing vocal.

Two month long Up in Arms Tour will see the band Switchfoot in several locations. Below are some of the sites they will perform in.

The band will play in Texas during the 27th and 29th of March in Laurie Auditorium and in the Crockett Street Outdoors.
Tulsa, Oklahoma’s The Other Side is their next venue on the 28th.
Followed by a performance in the House of Blues, New Orleans, LA 30th of March.
End of March will see them at Ft Walton Beach’s The Swamp in Florida.
South Carolina will play host to them on the 2nd and 3rd of April, at Aiken and Myrtle Beach respectively.

In 2008, March 17, Jon Foreman of the band Switchfoot had recently put up an entry on his MySpace blog stating that he was a big fan of CS Lewis and he was currently tracking a song that could or could not be used for the next Narnia movie.

Confirmed in April 2 the same year, Foreman announced before, around March 22, that the title of the song would be “This is Home”. The book itself inspired Foreman after he had re-read it to write the song for the film. In his own words, he said he was always taken by CS Lewis’ ability to write about the bittersweet beauty in this world.

Blink-182, an American trio, known for their catchy, simple melodies and lyrical toilet humor, was originally formed in 1992 in Poway, San Diego, California by Tom DeLonge and Scott Raynor and recruited Mark Hoppus. In 1998, midway through a U.S. tour, Raynor left the band for undisclosed reasons. With him leaving, Travis Barker joined the band. DeLonge left the group in early 2005, with the band presenting it as an “indefinite hiatus”, but DeLonge went on to play alternative rock in a band called Angels & Airwaves, while Hoppus and Barker continued in a similar genre with their band +44.

The Police, as part of their reunion tour, will be performing at an outdoor show to be held at Stormont Castle in Belfast this summer, with June 20th as the target date. The venue boasts of beautiful grounds that can accommodate as much as 35,000 fans. The event will not only proclaim to the world that North Ireland is open for business but also an exciting and vibrant place to be. It will be beneficial to its economy particularly the tourism industry.

The group has announced that once they’re done touring they will break up again, no more tours, no more albums, and that would be it for them.

Radiohead, an alternative rock band from Oxfordshire, England, will have a North American tour this coming May. The opening performance for the group will be Liars, a Los Angeles band.

The dates and venues to be visited on the first segment of its upcoming tour are:

May 5 2008 Cruzan Amphitheatre   West Palm Beach, Florida

May 6 2008 Ford Amphitheatre   Tampa, Florida

May 8 2008 Lakewood Amphitheatre  Atlanta, Georgia

May 9 2008 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre Charlotte, North Carolina

May 11 2008 Nissan Pavilion at Stone Ridge Bristow, Virginia

May 14 2008 Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre St Louis, Missouri

May 17 2008 Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion Houston, Texas

May 18 2008 Superpages.com Center  Dallas, Texas

Myles Heskett, Chris Ross and Andrew Stockdale, known collectively as Wolfmother, write all their songs while playing drums, bass/keyboards, and guitar/vocals respectively. They jammed and finally went public in 2004. Their debut album was released in April 2006 and as of late November 2007, it was certified gold in the United States.

Wolfmother has been identified as being influenced by the’70s rock band, Black Sabbath, but they lists their influences to include mostly ’60s groups: Pink Floyd, The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix; and newer acts: The Avalanches, Radiohead, The White Stripes. Andrew Stockdale also cites The Doors as a major influence, one of his favorite bands growing up.