Kings of Leon/Bob Dylan at the Sears Centre and more

New Look!
In case you haven't noticed, the website has undergone a bit of a change cosmetically. Look even closer and you'll notice a few other changes. First and foremost, all posts from the past few weeks on have labels, so that way if you wanted to go to any specific category (i.e. "News") you can click on that tab and you'll find a full list of posts related to that category. Also, the new sidebar makes it a lot easier to backtrack to older posts if you need to. I hope you like the new changes, and I will continue to tweak things on the site (per usual) as needed.

Bob Dylan
Opening Act: Kings of Leon
Sears Centre- 10.27.06

Although it was far from a sellout crowd, those that were on hand had a chance to appreciate an almost totally satisfying experience with Bob Dylan. While much of the crowd was too old to appreciate what the Kings of Leon had to offer, and consequentially spent the opening set time discussing whatever sense of nostalgia being at a Dylan concert did for them, the younger counterparts used their time to dance along as the Kings of Leon thrashed out a solid 45-minute set. Playing a relatively tight set that centered around their singles (namely "Molly's Chambers," "The Bucket," and "Four Kicks"), Kings of Leon may not have scored high for risk-taking, but as an opening act, they more than held their own, and gave a good taste of what they bring to the table for those that aren't familiar with them.

A brief break between sets gave everyone a chance to check out the brand new Sears Centre, which held its first event only a few days prior, and, at least for concerts, this place is great. Something like a miniature-Allstate Arena, the Sears Centre offers incredibly intimate seating for an arena, and there really isn't a bad seat in the house.

Once the house lights went back off, the crowd went nuts-- something that would only exist to greet Dylan, as much of the older audience spent most of their time seated afterwards. Unfortunately, I never got the chance to hear Bob Dylan play the guitar due to his arthritis, so instead his band was forced to do their best to fill in for him. That in itself is a bit of a tall order, but they did make due by sticking to the basics and letting Dylan get his solo kicks via the harmonica. While anyone with a pair of ears knows that Dylan's voice has been pretty much shot for some time now, what's amazing is how much of a presence and command he has despite (or maybe even because of) that. Sometimes, it made song identification a messy venture, but besides that, hearing Dylan even performing hits like "All Along the Watchtower" and "Like a Rolling Stone" was thoroughly inspiring as it sounded just as fresh and new as ever. While some, as one woman pointed out behind me after the show, may feel that Dylan's best year are behind him because "he sounds nothing like he did [when she was younger]," I think they're missing the point. The fact is that a 65-year old legend is still able to perform everyday at a caliber that may very well not be what it was when he was at his peak, but is certainly an enlightened experience that could come from very few other artists, past or present.

Kanye West MTV follow-up
For those of you that didn't have a chance to catch Kanye making a fool of himself at the MTV European Music Awards, I thought I would post the video for it. I know there are people claiming that it was a joke on Kanye's part, but even if it was (which I know isn't true anyway), it was still a classless move on Kanye's part.




New Music Tuesday
There really isn't much to talk about this week. For you casual Dave Matthews Band fans out there, or perhaps the people that have yet to really be exposed to any of their work, their first installment of their greatest hits collection, aptly named, The Best of What's Around was released today. The tracklisting was more or less chosen by fans, and has one disc dedicated to the DMB's studio efforts and one disc dedicated to their live performances. While it's hard to recommend this to any die-hard fan (there are no extra-perks involved that you wouldn't be able to access otherwise a la The Roots' most recent hits collection), it's a great starter kit for a newbie, if you will, to gain some exposure to the band. Also out today is The Road to Escondido by JJ Cale and Eric Clapton. Eric Clapton has always had great admiration for JJ Cale, so it is fitting for them to be featured together on this album. While in an adult contemporary setting, the album seems to be relatively good, there is really nothing here that sets it apart, unfortunately. If you're a fan, however, especially with Clapton's more staid work, you will probably have a lot of fun listening to this album.