I’ve spent much of the past hour rifling through year-end revenue statistics for amphitheaters, festivals, concerts and tours, trying to come up with a joke smart enough to make fun of the 138,322 people in New Jersey that made Bon Jovi’s 10-night run with My Chemical Romance, Daughtry and others the fourth highest-selling concert in the world this year. But my brain’s slow today, and the best I can do is plagiarize this hilarious Triumph the Insult Comic Dog video.
The craziest statistic from the industry this year, however, comes not from my sheets but from a note off the PR Newswire. You guys know The Police, right? They’re that trio from back in the day — one wears sleeveless tees and may or may not fuck for hours, one looks like a combo of Andy Dick and Ted Danson and the third guy, um, plays guitar (yeah, I got nuthin’ for Summers). These folks are already pretty rich, but now they’re swimming in raw sewage, and they love it.
The Police played 84 dates in 2007, certainly a hectic schedule for aging rockers. But the 84 dates on their global reunion tour translated into nearly 2.2 million tickets sold worldwide, and the band’s tour grossed nearly $243 million. And lord knows the trucks and planes and bank vaults are ready for another round of Cash Grab in 2008 as the band hits Japan, China, Australia and Europe. We can just read Sting’s mind now: Just a few more hundred million and I can go back to never speaking to these guys again. And pay me in Euros, yo!
But this begs the question: Can Zeppelin pull off the first $1 billion reunion?
Excuse the passive voice, but it’s best to say this plainly: The Allman Brothers Band is a much better group since the filming of their last concert DVD in 2003. We’ve been chomping at the bit for a recent show to make its way down the pike, and the waiting’s now over, thanks to JamCam Chronicles.
The nearly three-hour JamCam Episode 14: Wanee 2007 (click here for trailer) contains gorgeous footage of highlights from the rock-blues legends’ sets, as well as scorchers from their friends and family including Keller Williams, Rusted Root and The Radiators. We can’t think of a better stocking stuffer (besides Northern BBQ) for the Southern Rock fans in your life.
Episode 14 comes hot on the heels of JamCam’s 2-DVD set from JamCruise 5, their best release yet. The Wanee Episode marks the first time the Allman’s versions of Who To Believe and Good Morning Little Schoolgirl appear on DVD. Other standout tracks on the DVD include Oteil and the Peacemakers’ Thank You > Church Groove and a pair of full-length, Louisana-red-hot numbers from The Radiators. Bonus features include interviews with Allman spawns Devon Allman and Vaylor Trucks, as well as clips giving you a taste of what the Wanee Festival was all about.
It’s been a while since we’ve run an installment of Everybody Wins When We Plug Something And In Return They Offer Us Free Shit To Give Away contest, so here’s your chance to win one of three Wanee DVDs we are giving away. Just follow the rules below, and we’ll announce a winner late next week:
- To enter the contest leave a comment below telling us about your favorite Allman Brothers’ song in 50 words or less
- Your comment must be left by 11:59 PM EST on Monday December 24th
- Don’t be greedy, only one entry per person
- Three winners who follow the rules will be selected at random
- Winner receives one (1) copy of JamCam Episode 14: Wanee 2007
With Peter Frampton, Jackson Browne, Bruce Hornsby and Bernie Worrell taking a lead role at Warren Haynes’ 19th Annual Xmas Jam in lovely Ashevegas, we were a bit unsure whether this year’s charity proceeds would be headed for the Habitat for Humanity coffers as usual or whether they’d already been spent on gallons of prune juice and Oops I Crapped My Pants for the green room.
But our man on the scene tells us the aging rockers brought their best, and combined with Grace Potter, G. Love, Jerry Joseph, Eric McFadden and the most excellent host, the Xmas Jam didn’t disappoint in the slightest.
The hometown Citizen Times has provided plenty of videos and pictures in its yearly wrap-up and in a special Smasheville section, and you can already download most of the concert (see below), but we asked frequent HT commenter and first-time contributor Frank Sturges to put a bow on the Xmas Jam proceedings, and he and his crew gave out the following awards at a ceremony that took place at the Waldorf Astoria earlier today.
Set of the night: Peter Frampton
The joke’s easy, but Frampton really came alive. We got some Humble Pie, a blues jam with Warren, a Motown tune, and most importantly, the sickest one-two punch I’ve ever seen at an Xmas Jam to close the set. A huge Do You Feel Like We Do followed by While My Guitar Gently Weeps.
Read on for more awards, photos, setlists and downloads from Xmas Jam…
Our good friend Luke Sacks attended one of Neil Young’s New York concerts last Thursday, and he graciously filed the following front-line report…
Neil Young brought both halves of his genius to the United Palace Theater in New York City on Thursday night with the second of six acoustic/electric shows.
The first 11 songs of the show were just Young, surrounded by a ring of acoustic guitars and flanked by pianos on each side of the stage. He wandered between the three instruments and poured his heart into classics like Harvest and After the Gold Rush, as well as the buried treasure Ambulance Blues.
Photo by GRW95
Playing in front of a rustic-themed set-up with random letters, numbers and lights, Young wailed on his harmonica and filled the venue with his lone acoustic guitar.
Read on for more of Luke’s review, a live video of Cinnamon Girl from the run and some downloadable NYC torrents…
Mike Greenhaus certainly looks Jewish, and for his gig as a Relix and Jambands.com scribe he’s been asking a whole lotta people the Four Questions. Only this ain’t for Passover; he’s been surveying musicians, managers, writers and many others for his multi-part year-end review. So what does some lowly yuckster blogger have to say about 2007? Find out in Set 2 of Greenhaus’ Auld Lang Syne effort (fourth man down), or read on after the jump for my silly excerpted answers.
One of the best things to come out of Amy Winehouse’s downward spiral (besides Schadenfreude, of course) is that Sharon Jones got the Dap-Kings back. The Lovely Miss Jones heads out on the road early next year for a series of club dates backed by Daptone’s house band. The current first lady of soul starts her tour on land and at sea as part of Jam Cruise 6, before heading into the heartland.
For a nice taste of Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings, you can stream Friday night’s show thanks to WXPN. And now let’s check in on some others…
For this cold Monday — and just when was the last time that December was such a wintry month? — we present this warm set of acoustic music. And this cocoa.
Sorry, no cocoa. But a great Cassidy from 1980 opens this download, followed by The Slip doing Predicting the Rain from 2006. It’s not entirely acoustic, but Marc Friedman has a killer bass solo tucked in there. Next up is a pretty stunning rendition of Almost Cut My Hair from a CN&Y show from 1972, and an early Heart of Saturday Night from Mr. Tom Waits. To cap it all off, we’ve got Gov’t Mule doing Low Spark of High-Heeled Boys in ‘99 — ‘nuff said.
When bands team up with Web 2.0 companies, they usually come up with some lame gimmick to convince their fans to join their service. But kudos to Tea Leaf Green and Eventful for teaming up to create a contest that’s actually beneficial to their supporters. TLG fans who sign up for Eventful will have a chance to “demand” where the band plays an upcoming show. The city that gets the most demands gets a Tea Leaf show, including an opening set by acoustic alter ego Coffee Bean Brown. While Las Vegas is currently winning, our vote goes to Jena, Louisiana. They totally need to Address that Community.
Let’s start the week with the best link dump this side of Zelda:
Finally, we think we may have stumbled across the lineup for next year’s Vineland Festival. The show poster follows after the jump…
Some good news this weekend from the MMW and Levon Helm camps “In support of MMW’s highly anticipated children’s album ‘Let’s Go Everywhere’, John Billy & Chris will perform a special Kid’s Ramble at Levon Helm Studios on January 12th. Later in the evening, MMW will perform a second show as part of The Midnight Ramble Sessions for The Levon Helm Band.” Worlds colliding. Yahtzee.
In other news, I spent the hours between 8:30 am and 4 pm today at a bar near my apartment, throwing back Bloody Marys, Bud Lights and Bagels while watching both Liverpool and the Jets go down like a fat chick at a keg party. Such is life, a losing Sunday, but a winner of a day. Anyway, enough of this thought; here’s a small sample of the week that was here at Hidden Track…
The writer’s strike is starting to seriously cramp our style. How many times can you watch the same reruns from Dave and Jay over and over? We love watching new acts make their late-night debuts, but now rockers are forced to book appearances on such fluff as The Morning Show with Mike and Juliet. It’s a tough weekend for music on the ol’ boob tube, but we still managed to pick a few gems for ya…
Friday [all times Eastern]:
- Scotty Moore and his Rock and Roll Hall of Famer friends pay tribute to Elvis Presley [Rave HD 7:00 PM]
- VH-1 Classic runs a marathon of Heavy: The Story of Metal [8:00 PM - Midnight]
- Catch a rerun of Shiny Toy Guns’ appearance on Late Night with Conan O’Brien [NBC 12:35 AM]
Saturday:
- John Mayer returns for his second appearance on Austin City Limits [PBS check local listings]
- Saturday Night Live: The Best of Chris Farley features Paul McCartney’s hilarious appearance on Farley’s faux tv show [NBC 9:30 PM]
- Re-live Metallica’s glory days on When Metallica Ruled The World [VH-1 Classic 11:30 PM]
Sunday:
