Rock Subculture Journal - Jason DeBord's Rock & Pop Concert Review and Music Resource
Rock Subculture Journal: Jason DeBord's News, Opinion, and Reviews About Rock & Pop Music, Concerts, Travel, & Memorabilia
This is the second and last of my 2012 “Year In Review” articles, though this one is mostly a pictorial. I went through the pictures I took at shows throughout 2012 and pulled out 100 of my favorites to republish here, in celebration of an amazing year for concerts and a fun year for me with photography. You can also check out my other Year in Review article with my Top 10 Live Music Concerts and Top 10 Studio Albums & Songs. [Read more...]
2012 was an amazing year for both new music and live concert events, and although writing this “year in review” proved to be a monumental task, it was fun for me to do it to relive some special moments and appreciate the opportunities I had over the past 12 months to find new music and attend so many awesome live shows. It’s funny because many concerts and tours are announced with little notice, so at the start of any given year, you don’t really know what to expect, and 2012 definitely held a lot of surprises. When all was said and done, I ended up going to 58 concerts in 2012, each of which featured anywhere from one to seven artists, so that is a lot of live performances.
Last night was a really historic and wonderful event by a little band called Ash. And I mean “little” in the most complimentary sense… a band that has stayed true to its roots and its fans. The group from Ireland celebrated their 20th anniversary in style, by really creating an event that celebrated their fans as much as themselves. This was most appropriately illustrated by their second of three (yes three!) sets, which transformed from an acoustic concert in a very small setting (which made the typical MTV Unplugged show look like a stadium gig by comparison) to a session of “Asheokie” (i.e. karoke, but with fans fronting for the band themselves). It was really unlike any show I’ve ever been to, and demonstrated a lot of class and, well, tremendous fan service. [Read more...]
Bonhams will be holding their “Entertainment Memorabilia” sale event in London on July 3rd (in addition to their Los Angeles-based sale the week earlier). This sale includes a mix of film/television as well as music related memorabilia, as well as some animation. [Read more...]
So I was having dinner with a friend last night, telling her about Saturday’s Coldplay concert in San Jose (see “Coldplay at the HP Pavilion | San Jose, CA | 4/28/2012″). I had mentioned that after the show, I met Jason Regler, the inventor of the “xylobands”, the wrist bands handed out to concert goers to wear during the performance, which are activated over RF signal to light up (and light up with different flashing patterns) for different songs, at different times during the concert. These were first introduced for the “American Express Unstaged” concert in Madrid, which was directed by Anton Corbijn (see “Coldplay “Unstaged” at Plaza de Toros | Madrid, Spain | 10/26/2011″). In any event, since my friend has never seen Coldplay in concert, I thought I’d send her a link to one of the videos I shot during one of those sequences, so she could see just how awesome these are when employed during a show. That’s when a very strange thing happened, which I thought I’d share with the readers of the Rock Subculture Journal… [Read more...]
Last night, April 28th, was the second in two back-to-back performances by Coldplay at the HP Pavilion in San Jose, CA – part of their official Mylo Xyloto world tour. This was the sixth time I’ve seen Coldplay in the past six months (having seen their AMEX Unstaged show in Madrid, Spain in October, some of the special European tour dates at the O2 in London and the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in December, and the special iHeartRadio charity gig at Club Nokia and the Jimmy Kimmel Live! block party in Los Angeles in February. As such, I don’t think I’m in a position to do a “normal” sort of review at this point, as I tend to subjectively compare to all of the other shows I’ve attended in the past year and beyond… but as I’ve come to expect, with last night’s gig, Coldplay put on a high energy show with a great mix of hits and new material. Watching many in the crowd seeing the show with “fresh eyes”, it was certain that the nearly 18,000 in attendance came away having shared an awesome experience with this fantastic concert.
Following last night’s Coldplay iHeartRadio benefit concert at Club Nokia, I was lucky enough to share a pair of tickets with another Coldplay fan who won them from The World Famous KROQ for a special Jimmy Kimmel Live! outdoor mini-concert / block party (or “bloq” party) behind the El Capitan Theater, where the regular show is shot in studio. Some of the songs performed at this concert will be broadcast on a special post Academy Award special of the JKL! show, following the Oscars telecast. This concert was originally scheduled for February 7, 2012, and rescheduled for tonight, February 9th.
I was fortunate enough to attend a very special Coldplay benefit concert tonight, which took place at Club Nokia in Los Angeles, in collaboration with iHeartRadio and Clear Channel Media and Entertainment Los Angeles radio stations KIIS FM, 98-7FM and MYFM. The proceeds of the show benefit two charities – A Place Called Home and Youth Mentoring Connection. [Read more...]
This is the fifth in a series of photojournals covering concerts during my trip to England and France. Tonight’s performance was Coldplay, which took place at the Palais Omnisports de Paris Bercy in Paris, France on December 14th, 2011. [Read more...]
This is the first in a series of photojournals covering concerts during my trip to England and France. Tonight’s performance was Coldplay, which took place at the O2 Arena in London, England on December 9th, 2011. [Read more...]
This article shares my impressions and experiences with having the opportunity to travel to Madrid, Spain last week to see Coldplay’s American Express “Unstaged” live concert performance on October 26th, directed by Anton Corbijn. [Read more...]
August 3, 2011, I caught a special one off Coldplay show benefiting MusicCares at UCLA – the Samsung AT&T Summer Krush Concert Series. This was another great Coldplay show, and I had the benefit of VIP tickets and some special perks and front row in the seated section. Two of the songs were recorded for the Jimmy Kimmel Show!, which aired later the same night (with some funny video with Jimmy Kimmel at the very bottom). [Read more...]
