Feature – Page 29 – The Daily Vault

12 May

A Report From Memphis In May

Paul HansonFeature

I couldn't do it. Walking around with a small notebook and taking notes while bands entertained thousands of people throughout the weekend, playing their songs with energetic style, just didn't seem like the right thing to do. Instead, I spent my five days in Memphis drawn to the accommodating people that I met and talked to, both inside and outside of the festival. Everywhere we went, very quick service, always with a smile, or an obnoxious waitress, like the one that served us our delicious cheeseburgers at the Hard Rock Café for our Saturday lunch downtown. While the weather often…

05 Apr

Great Big Sea Hits The Landlocked Midwest

Duke EgbertFeature

"I wish all our first concerts in a town were this good."Journalistic neutrality be damned, I'm going to be a shameless fanboy here. If you don't like it, well...you have my apologies.After six years of waiting, I finally got to see Great Big Sea live this last week, and it was, in a word, incredible. Simply put, the concert was incandescent in its energy, enthusiasm, and talent, and the band proved that no matter how good they are on CD, they're even better in person.GBS is currently doing a US tour in support of their latest CD, Something Beautiful. The…

17 Mar

Yeah Yeah Yeahs Invade Emo-ha

Sean McCarthyFeature

What better place than an old gymnasium to showcase an enormously hyped trio from New York that specializes in playing heavily-influenced '70s garage punk? The Yeah Yeah Yeahs could not have come at a better or worse time in the music world. The females who trailblazed the alternative movement of the '90s have mostly settled into maturity, so lead singer Karen O is providing some much-needed young blood to the alternative/college rock scene. However, the band is in danger of slipping under the radar (much to the delight of YYY fans) in the mainstream because of listeners burning out on…

21 Oct

They’ve Got the Fire: The Return of Montrose

dvadminFeature

Hearing the name of a legendary '70s hard rock band like Montrose mentioned in the present tense is bound to generate two emotions among its audience: hope, and fear. Hope, that it means what fans have been waiting for all these years - the chance to hear all those early classics, the ones that basically ignited the heavy metal flame in America, played again for the first time in a quarter century. Fear, that it may be what we've seen far too much of in the past few years from other '70s bands -- a quickie milk-the-audience reunion that draws…

17 Oct

Masters of Thrash Still Reign

Paul HansonFeature

The Jagermeister music festival rolled through Davenport, Iowa, on Friday, October 10, 2003. Advertised as 25 bands on three stages, the event at Banana Joe's lived up to its name. Luckily, the night was a beautiful one. The moon was full, a gentle breeze flowed through the main stage area, and the beer and Jagermeister flowed. There were three stages -- two inside, one outside -- so if one band sucked, you could go find another. This turned out to be important, as there were some truly awful bands that played -- and one band that ruled supreme.On the main…

30 Sep

A Mark, A Mission, A Finger, A Star

Emily KinsellaFeature

"I'll find myself drifting in a sky full of/scars they cut into you/blisters rose colored hue/mayday we're going down/these masculine memories are morose/your kerosene company is comatose." So begins Vendetta Red, who sound a tad bit like Trapt, or Adema if you wanna go that route. Lead singer Zach Davidson gyrates and hops about so, that I would liken his onstage demeanor to that of Chester Bennington of Linkin Park fame, or that guy who abandoned Rage Against the Machine, so that now they're Audioslave. VR's set lasts little longer than it would take to consume a taco, and doesn't…

03 Sep

Everything In Its Right Place

Sean McCarthyFeature

"I can't believe, out of all the bloody places to see Radiohead… bloody Wisconsin…" muttered Nick, a Londoner who flew stateside to see the band, to me in the lawn section of Alpine Valley Music Theatre on a crisp, cloudless Saturday night. He had me beat. We only drove nine hours from Omaha. But for the summer of 2003, this was THE act to catch. Four years after cocooning themselves with computer processors and brief stateside appearances, Radiohead released their "pop" album, Hail To The Thief and reviews from abroad and in the states have hailed this tour as possibly…

25 Aug

The Return Of The King: Rubberneckin’ With Elvis

Adam MicoFeatureNULL

*Stop*Back in 1969, Elvis was in the midst of his big comeback. After years of poorly-received and similar-sounding movie fodder, he cradled R&B, country and pop to recreate himself as a relevant artist. Radio smashes came out full-force with anthemic cuts like "Suspicious Minds," "Kentucky Rain and "In the Ghetto." When originally released, "Rubberneckin'" was only capable of garnering a modest cult following after this tune was buried as a B-side to "Don't Cry Daddy" and used in his embarrassingly-received final film, Change of Habit.*Look*"Stop, look and listen, baby… that's my philosophy..."As a fan, I was always curious to why…

01 Jul

I Know What You Want

JBFeature

There are two distinct sides to Mariah Carey. One side makes good music. The other makes American Idol fodder.The side that makes good music basically invented the pop/hip-hop cross followed by countless big-name recording acts; Jennifer Lopez went so far as to steal a sample idea from Carey's Glitter album and scored a huge hit (ironically titled "I'm Real"). Carey was supposed to be a footnote, an obscure yet influential artist that was considered cool to like, with her immense library of samples, her obsessive songwriting and producing, her vocal phrasing replete with influences from jazz, hip-hop, and R&B.Instead they…

13 Apr

The Boss Rises Again: Bruce Springsteen And The E Street Band Live In Sacramento

dvadminFeatureNULL

They tried to draft Bruce Springsteen last year. A group of New Jerseyites got it in their head that what their state really needed to turn things around was for Springsteen to represent them in the U.S. Senate. That idea only seems preposterous if you have never seen the man live in concert. For there may be no one in the history of rock and roll - hell, the history of popular music - with this man's ability to inspire.As he has throughout the 2002-2003 tour supporting his Grammy-winning album The Rising, he arrived in Sacramento, California last Wednesday night…