Archive for the ‘Concert Wrap’ Category
Concert Wrap: Colbie Caillat, Aug. 24 @ AMP
Wednesday, August 25th, 2010
Colbie Caillat. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media
“Bubbly” is a hit song from Colbie Caillat, but it’s just as fitting when used as an adjective for the California popster.
In a brief, 70-minute set, Caillat and her backing band delivered a lathering of sugar-sweet pop about love and lust and everything in between. That hit song, for instance, talks about a love that makes her crinkle her nose and smile. Another popular tune, “Lucky,” originally performed with Jason Mraz, talks about being in love with your best friend.
It’s pretty harmless stuff, which is no doubt why the Arkansas Music Pavilion, where Caillat and her band performed on Tuesday night, was filled with Tween girls and the parents that brought them.
Tags: Arkansas Music Pavilion, Colbie Caillat, Justin Young
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Concert Wrap: Eli Young Band and Corey Smith, Aug. 20 @ AMP
Saturday, August 21st, 2010
Mike Eli, left, and Chris Thompson of the Eli Young Band
Friday night (Aug. 20) was a remarkable night at the Arkansas Music Pavilion. Not so much for the quality of the music, although it was plenty good.
No, this has to do with those hard-to-define qualities of star power and appeal and of palatability and commonality.
Perhaps, it’s better explained like this: I think you could walk down Dickson Street and ask three dozen people — and maybe even more — before you found one that knew either the Eli Young Band or Corey Smith, the two artists who topped the bill in a co-headlining performance at the AMP.
Corey Smith, left
But most of the 1,000 or so who showed up on a warm evening were not there to hear either of these band’s radio singles. They were there to sing every word to every song at the top of their lungs.
It’s even a more remarkable proposition because Smith, a 33-year-old Georgia native, doesn’t even have songs on the radio. Yet, he rarely got past the first chord of a new song without the crowd screaming at him in recognition.
Although Smith was the technically an opener, I’d argue he got the biggest responses of the night and that the bulk of the crowd was there to see him, considering how many people had exited the venue by the time the Eli Young Band finished their set just past 11 p.m. last night.
Fans of both were treated to exactly what they came to see: middle-of-the-road, country-tinged rock about girls and dirt roads and drinks that are cheap and plentiful.
Tags: Arkansas Music Pavilion, Corey Smith, Eli Young Band, Ingram Hill, Nirvana, Tom Petty
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Concert Wrap: Gary Allan, Aug. 13 @ The AMP
Saturday, August 14th, 2010
Gary Allan
Gary Allan‘s guitarist set the message early with what he wore.
It’s this: You can’t have a purely strictly country concert when one of the band members wears a kilt and combat boots.
Oh, sure, you can find Gary Allan on country radio stations, and he fits there as well as any of the other Top 40 county artists. You might even have to go to the ‘country’ bin at the local record store (or more likely, the ‘country’ section of iTunes) to find his music.
But what he does live is little short of a rock concert in its instrumentation, attitude and pacing. Allan has long existed on the fringes between the genres, and in a live structure, he fell more to the rock ’n’ roll side of that spectrum.
I never thought I’d say this, but I sure wish Gary Allan was a little more country.
Because when he decorated his loose jams about pain and heartache with pedal steel and fiddle, it took what was a pleasant but warm evening at the Arkansas Music Pavilion in Fayetteville on Friday (Aug. 13) night and cranked up the heat to smoldering.
Tags: Arkansas Music Pavilion, Gary Allan, Wade Bowen
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Concert Wrap: Ted Nugent, July 2 @ the AMP
Saturday, July 3rd, 2010
All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media
The Motor City Madman is plenty mad.
He’s upset with the government. He beckons for love for America. He swears a lot.
There are other definitions of mad, of course, such as “Feeling or showing strong liking or enthusiasm.
Ted Nugent was plenty mad by that definition, too. He strutted about the stage, singing, throwing down wild guitar licks and causing a Friday night crowd at the Arkansas Music Pavilion that likely exceeded 2,000 fans on a warm but pleasant Arkansas night to scream with abandon.
The servings of rock were plentiful, but there was more fat than needed.
Tags: Arkansas Music Pavilion, Ted Nugent, Val Halla
Posted in Concert Wrap, Music Industry News, NWA Music News | 1 Comment »
Concert Wrap: Grace Potter & The Nocturnals, June 25 @ Riverfront Blues Fest
Saturday, June 26th, 2010
Grace Potter. All photos by KEVIN KINDER, NWA Media
It was slight, but important.
In a night marked by her exuberance, Grace Potter looked a little bored singing “White Rabbit” during her band’s cover of the Jefferson Airplane tune that Potter’s Vermont-based quintet first recorded for the soundtrack to the recent adaptation of “Alice in Wonderland.”
It’s significant because most lead singers attempting to channel Grace Slick don’t have time to do anything but hold on for dear life, scream along and hope they are getting close.
That she can summon such power and tone so effortlessly should tell you a lot about Grace Potter, who was joined by her backing band The Nocturnals as the headliner of the Friday (June 25) night festivities at the Fort Smith Riverfront Blues Festival in downtown Fort Smith.
“White Rabbit,” was the shortest track offered by the band all evening, and the blistering pace there didn’t seem like much of an accident.
Grace Potter wanted to show off her own stuff: both in terms of songs and her limitless charisma. And those who stuck around for the end got quite a show.
Tags: Band of Heathens, Fort Smith Riverfront Blues Festival, Grace Potter, JJ Grey and Mofro, Wisebird
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