Artist of the week: Kosheen

Since the late 90s Kosheen amaze their fans with their quite special mix of different music styles. They play a perfect blend of what the books call "Trip Hop", "Drum and Bass" and "Rock". But that's the only thing books can tell about the trio from Bristol because books can't define the speciality of their concerts. And the good news is: they're constantly touring. 

With a Bob Dylan like endurance it seems as if they never rest. On saturday they play at a very special location - even for them as I can imagine: they play in the newly built 3.3km long Achrain-Tunnel with an incline of 5%. 

Here's a setlist of one of their concerts last year:

• Kosheen at JZE, Essen, Germany setlist 2007

As far as Saturday's concert is concerned, stay tuned, you'll find it on setlist.fm - for sure.

Links:

Kosheen website
Photo from flickr
Tunnelevent

Die Toten Hosen are back!

Mach das Flutlicht an (turn on the floodlights) ... one of Germany's most popular rock bands is back on tour: Die Toten Hosen from Düsseldorf (photo with Bob Geldof). It's their first major tour after their 2004/2005 "Friss oder Stirb" world tour that also led them to Argentina, where they're quite popular as well. 

Now after more than three years, they're back with a huge setlist of 33 songs in Mannheim and 35 songs in Chemnitz. Their tour "Machmalauter" features 23 venues. 21 of them in Germany, one in Vienna/Austria and one in Zürich/Switzerland. Just like AC/DC, their concerts sold out immediately.

If you're among the lucky ones who did manage to get tickets for their gigs or if you're just interested in what they play this year, just visit Die Toten Hosen setlists on setlist.fm regularily, and you won't be disappointed ;-)

rock and roll!

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Photo by u2005 (flickr)

Chuck Berry in Concert (Innsbruck/Austria)

Chuck Berry is, without controversy, one of the greatest rock and rollers of all time. Being among the major influences of numerous well known musicians, such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones or the King himself, Mr. Berry is one of the last living legends that still are on tour, and still rock the house.

So I braved the elements and rode through this year's first snow through the alps. Fearless. To find the sign you see on the photo which explains that the gig has been cancelled due to Chuck being ill. Unlucky - both Chuck and me. But maybe that's the price you have to pay when you're still on tour with 82 years. So let's hope Chuck's feeling Goode again soon and will be able to complete his tour ... and will be back next year. Here's a setlist of his concert in Blueberry Hill in June:

• Chuck Berry setlist Blueberry Hill, June 11, 2008

rock and roll!

what's up next?

Farin Urlaub comes to Hohenems and Russkaja to Dornbirn. Check out soundevent

I Am Kloot in concert

As part of their European Tour 2008, I Am Kloot from Manchester came to the Conrad Sohm in Dornbirn/Austria last Saturday, November 15 2008. Their support act, beginning around 9:00pm, was the Swiss band Mañana. Although they state their influences being Doves, U2 and The Verve, I'd say they're a nice mixture of Keane and Elbow. You should really check them out.

Then at 10pm, after having watched the support act from their merchandise table, I Am Kloot entered the stage and did a set of no less than 21+3 songs. Kicking off with their regular tour-starter "One Man Brawl" they played eleven more songs until the band left John Bramwell solo on stage. There he played two songs, including my favourite, Astray, solo on acoustic guitar to be later joined by the band again doing eight more songs including "Twist", "Proof" and "The Stars Look Familiar".

After having completed their regular set the about 500 people (my rough estimation) longed for more and got "The Same Deep Water As Me", "Down At the Front" and the most beautiful tune of the evening "To You".

I then managed to get their setlist signed by John after the concert - but not before telling him how great the show was ;-)

Check out their setlist on setlist.fm:

• I Am Kloot Setlist at Conrad Sohm, Dornbirn on November 15, 2008

What's up next in the Central European/Western Austrian Area? Chuck Berry's rockin Innsbruck, "Best German Act" EMA winners Fettes Brot in Hohenems, and a whole bunch more, have a look at SOUNDEVENT for details!

City of the week: Philadelphia, PA

This week's city of the week is Philly. With its 1.5 million inhabitants it's the sixth largest city of the US and, of course, the largest in Pennsylvania. A city with such a size has a lot of concert locations - to present all of them I'd need some more blogposts apart from this one ... sounds like a good idea :-) Anyway, here are three locations:

The home of the Philadelphia Flyers, the 76ers, the Wings and Soul is the Wachovia center where some 20,000 people are allowed to get in whenever a major concert takes place. And quite a few did: Neil Diamond, Paul McCartney, David Bowie, KISS, U2 and many many (many!) more. Here two selected setlists:

• Coldplay at Wachovia Center some days ago
• The Police at Wachovia Center in July
• George Michael at Wachovia Center, also in July
• Roger Waters at Wachovia Center last June

A slightly smaller stadium is the Philadelphia Spectrum. Since its opening 41 years ago (almost to the day) it hosted a lot of concerts and hopefully will until its planned closing in September 2009.

• Nine Inch Nails at Wachovia Spectrum in August
• Slipknot at Wachovia Spectrum in 2005
• Grateful Dead at Wachovia Spectrum in 1995

The smallest venue I'd like to present you is the Electric Factory with a capacity of about 2,500 - 3,000. They host many many small concerts of known artists. E.g. the Kings of Leon and We are Scientists will play there today and tomorrow! Here some setlists:

• Machine Head at Electric Factory last year
• The Killers at Electric Factory in 2006
• Megadeth at Electric Factory in 2004

rock and roll!

Photo by flickr

Pop idol of the week: Rihanna

20 year old Rihanna was born in Saint Michael, Barbados and is one of today's hottest acts. Her career began to be successful back in 2005 when she released her first album "Music of the sun" which became a top 40 hit a lot of countries. The next album "A Girl Like Me", released in April 2006 sold even better, before she finally topped charts around the world with both the album "Good Girl Gone Bad" and her single "Umbrella".

She's also on tour - steadily as it seems. Here's a setlist of her "Good Girl Gone Bad Tour" in 2007. As it is the rule for pop acts where a gig involves a huge amount of dancing and choreography, they don't change the setlist often.

• Rihanna in Sofia, 2007

 So what's up next? If you saw her touring and recording schedule, you'd say 'holidays' ...

rock'n'rihanna

Photo under CC licence by gamerscore (flickr)

City of the week: Nashville, TN

It's another city of the week saturday today. I'm sure each one of you loyal and regular readers couldn't wait for another city of the week to come, right? This week's city is Nashville, Tennessee. Nashville is located right in the center of Davidson Country and is, with its about 600,000 inhabitants the 25th largest city of the United States. It also hosts some nice concerts every now and then. 

The biggest arena for that is the Sommet Center (Formerly known as Gaylord Entertainment Center - was a good idea to rename the place, wasn't it? ;-) with a capacity of 20,000 for concerts. Check out the setlists of the following gigs that took place there:

• Red Hot Chili Peppers at Sommet Center in 2007
• Bon Jovi at Sommet Center in April 2008

A slightly smaller place is the Ryman Auditorium with a capacity of 2,362 where R.E.M. played in 2004:

• R.E.M. at Ryman Auditorium in 2004

An even smaller location is the Cannery Ballroom where 500 people rock the house. And they surely did last year when The White Stripes played there:

• The White Stripes at Mercy Lounge/Cannery Ballroom in 2007

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rock and roll!

Photo under CC license from flickr (Sommet Center)

Pop idol of the week: Pink

Another week, another Pop idol for all you rockers out there: crazy 29 year-old Alicia Moore from Pennsylvania, called Pink or P!nk - both pronounced pink" has been in business for quite a while now.

She just got out her fifth studio album called "Funhouse" on October 24 and announced a world tour for 2009. It's also the fifth tour she'll be on - and with her ever-growing success it's supposed to be the biggest tour ever. 

For those of you who can't wait for the tour to come and wondering what Pink's concerts are like, here a fine selection of some previous P!nk gigs of her "I'm Not Dead Tour" in 2006:

• Pink at Olympiahalle, Munich, Germany
• Pink at Hanns-Martin-Schleyer-Halle, Stuttgart, Germany
• Pink at Hallenstadion, Zürich, Switzerland

Pink and roll!

Photo by flickr (CC Licence)