Music Blog
Rested, invested, and road-tested, Teddy Geiger returned to Water Street Music Hall to pack the club side with adoring fans Friday, January 6. Geiger's fan base has grown up, as I spied a lot more heels and make-up in the audience than his previous teen-idol status might have implied.
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The year 2012... Christ, if I thought I'd live this long I would've taken better care of myself - my ears, anyway. All the bands I've loved over the years come to bed with me at night in the form an incessant ringing in my ears. This week, the
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Thee Oh Sees played a blistering set to a packed and seething crowd Monday night at the Bug Jar. People had been raving to me about this band all week and now I see why. Goddamn, this was a rock 'n' roll show! This San Francisco band is dynamite
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Shuffling my way through the pre-show fog, I had high expectations and even higher hopes for the Judas Priest/Thin Lizzy/Black Label Society show Wednesday at the Main Street Armory. I needed a good old-fashioned rock show to clear out the cobwebs. The Armory was packed, the vibe was palpable.
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Drenched in a genuine casual cool, The Pixies always let the music supply the drama. I mean, for as utterly intense as this band sounds, it so does not look the part. But then again, a quick eyeball across the crowd of around 4000 gathered at the Main Street
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Earlier this week the Xerox Rochester Jazz Festival honchos announced that club passes for the 2012 festival - with new dates June 22-30 - will go on sale Friday, October 28. Passes will cost $155 (plus a $4 service fee) through January 15. After that prices will increase to
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Up until last night I had experienced nothing quite like The Flaming Lips. That's because up until last night I had never experienced The Flaming Lips. With what can only be described a celestial pageantry, this band blew my doors off when it played Main Street Armory. I'll never
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Maybe they couldn't find a babysitter. Or maybe they just sound good together and wanted to bring it to the people. Regardless, the Tedeschi Trucks Band is a gale force of classic rock fortified with the blues, with a little r&b tossed in as well. Saturday night the band
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Gary Cherone's new band, Hurtsmile, put a smile on my dial Friday night at Montage Music Hall. Other than his work with Extreme and the 10 minutes he spent in Van Halen, I really didn't know a whole heck of a lot about Cherone. But I got wise to
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Saturday night I started off at Water Street Music Hall where I see-sawed between both the main stage and the club side. Mrs. Skannotto opened up its set with an atmospheric, surrealistic preamble that resembled Pink Floyd. Adding to this peculiar and hypnotic tone was not one, but two
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Eve To Adam brought the heat and the people to their feet Thursday night at Montage Music Hall. Despite the band's leather-clad tightness, there was a ragged excitement that bled cool throughout the joint. This band is clearly (hopefully) the sound of rock's future. This is where the
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I've given Jackson Browne plenty of chances - I've seen him live four times now - but it's official: the guy is boring. His show at the Auditorium Theatre on Friday was a yawn fest, but his fans ate it up. I have to admit, Browne has the best
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Blues belter Candye Kane already had a good reputation in Rochester after the set she played in town earlier his year. She returned to play to an enthusiastic Abilene crowd Wednesday, September 21. But unlike a lot of contemporary ladies singing the blues, Kane doesn't co-opt the genre's down-and-out
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Jonny Lang put on his best screw-face and milked the blues out of his guitar to a packed Water Street Music Hall crowd Wednesday, September 14. He looked like he was passing a watermelon, but he sounded great. It's the blues, and it burns hot, but Lang and his
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I'm all about the outlaw country. I believe in its message, I believe in its stubborn adherence, I believe in its bloodline. I first heard Wayne "The Train" Hancock and Hank Williams III and I felt a sense of relief; the musical tumor that is Nashvegas was benign. A
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In my experience as a writer who likes to manipulate and twist language, I've come to this conclusion: when a profane word is placed in front of another word, it simply means "really." For example: "what a goddamn mess" or "I'm so fucking excited." I've also discovered that the
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Though there are plenty of blues acts here in town - good ones, too - Joe Beard usually opens for the big names when they roll through town. A couple of people asked me why he usually gets the nod. As Beard was playing with his usual casual elegance
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It was armpit hot at Darien Lake by the time I rolled up Tuesday for the Vans Warped Tour 2011 --- America's traveling carnival of music, swag, and teenagers testing the limits of good taste. I had mapped out who I wanted to see, and who I was curious
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Life is too damn short for bad music, whether it's the result of a lack of talent, or just phoned in by some burned-out bum on a stage. I usually ask around or do a little web research before exposing myself to a potential waste of time. However lately
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Bootsy Collins brought the big bottom to Party in the Park Thursday, June 30. Decked out in a full gold lamé Liberace suit and a feathered headdress, Collins and his big, bad Funk Unity Band positively rocked the parking lot. Collins wielded his Space Bass more like a guitar,
