After taking on the three month long tour with almost unbearable weather and thousands of people that we all love so much, being Warped Tour, Hey Monday headed out on a headlining tour on October 20th with Cartel, The Ready Set, This Century and We Are The In Crowd. This Fall Tour 2010 is jam packed with excellent bands that put on the performance of a life time night after night. Although they share a similar sound, they all manage to put their own twist to the genre, making each band strong in its own way. The tour is now near over, but the performances are stronger than ever. I got an opportunity to attend this show on Friday and my mind was blown. If you live in Texas or Florida, I highly recommend seeing this show!
Selling out arenas that hold thousands of people worldwide, Usher, accompanied by hot artist Trey Songz and upcoming artist Miguel, have begun the month long journey that they call the OMG Tour. Whether it be teeny boppers who love his new singles or long time fans who have been listening to him since the early 2000’s, women and men all around the country are traveling to the nearest location in order to see this outrageous concert packed with as much talent as possible. The tour started out in Seattle, WA and hit Las Vegas on the third day of the tour, and I was lucky enough to be one of the life long fans present.
Starting the show off by opening with a robot-like introduction,Miguel eased each audience member in the large events center into a huge smile. Using his soothing but powerful voice to awe a crowd full of Usher fans, Miguel was very capable of creating a memory in each persons mind of who he is and what his music is like. Opening up for such a worldwide known artist as Usher, Miguel really had a great opportunity to begin building a strong base of very loyal fans. Through his powerful performance, he did just this. Using unique dance moves to really shock the crowd, Miguel had women left and right standing up and screaming for him in hopes to grasp his attention for just one second. With such a strong stage presence, it would be nearly impossible for one to sit down or not want to sing along the second Miguel hit the stage. Using his powerful and mesmerizing voice in combination with his insane stage presence, Miguel exits the stage, after a performance that seems all too short, leaving crowd members shocked at what this little known artist brought to the stage. He is surely an artist to look for in the future, especially after putting on such an incredible opening performance for two very well known artists. His new album is released on November 30th and I recommend you pick it up when you get the chance.
From disaster to triumph Denver bred band The Battleship Agenda is a force to be reckoned with. After forming in 2009 with five former musicians from different bands TBA was the band to watch out for, but in early 2010 disaster struck when singer, Kat Barnes, left. With a fill-in singer TBA played a few more shows and ultimately decided to take a break to find a new singer. While taking a break, bassist Kellen Niemeier chose to part ways. One month before playing the Ernie Ball Stage at Van’s Warped Tour 2010 TBA welcomed new vocal addition and bass player Casey Ottmann into their family. With Casey’s arrival TBA started to transition into a new image and sound. Unfortunately, a few weeks before Warped Tour guitarist Tyler Call announced his departure with the band leaving original members Nick Ferro (Vocals/Guitar) and Chris Brinson (Drums), with new addition Casey Ottmann. Putting the broken pieces back together has been a very bumpy road for The Battleship Agenda, but after finding new guitarist Keoni Akina TBA is now whole again. With their first new song release “Houses” in October and a Halloween comeback show The Battleship Agenda is back and ready to take over Denver’s local music scene.
With two summer long endeavors on the Vans Warped tour under their belts, the Florida based band VersaEmerge head out on their first headlining tour two short months later. VersaEmerge released their first full-length album titled "Fixed At Zero" in late June, producing hundreds of new loyal vultures over the course of the past four months. Recently, they were featured on the hit television show "World Of Jenks", in which lead singer Sierra Kusterbeck was followed around by cameras during four dates of Warped Tour, unveiling some of her deepest secrets. Since then, swarms of new fans have been heading out to their nearest venue in order to catch a glimpse of what VersaEmerge is really about in an intimate performance on the Vultures Unite Tour.
The Paper Melody, a local band from Yuba City, CA, was given the wonderful opportunity to act as an opening band on this tour for the show at The Boardwalk in Orangevale, CA. Although they appear to be your typical four-piece band, The Paper Melody has something that is not common in the music industry. All four members sing on each track, creating a unique sound with as much power packed into it as possible. With this being said, they also put on one hell of a performance. Whether it be Jill slamming notes on her bass or Sean screaming into his mic while playing the drums, they got a crowd full of vultures to transform instantly into being interested in the music that they were pitching. Even with playing a very short set, The Paper Melody put on a live performance that was very powerful for a local band, gaining many more fans by the time the night was over.
After releasing their second new album this year on August 24th, Never Shout Never kicked off their first headlining tour last week in Seattle, Washington. The month long tour, called the Harmony Tour, is opened up with artists Carter Hulsey, I Can Make A Mess Like Nobody’s Business and The Maine. This weekend, I attended shows in San Francisco and Anaheim, California in order to see what all the talk regarding nineteen-year-old front man, Christofer Drew, is all about.
Starting the show off thirty minutes after doors opened, Carter Hulsey glides on stage, filling the venue with a positive stage presence. Playing hits such as Black and Blue and Dreaming of Heaven off of his new record “A Note In Your Pocket” (2010), audience members left and right couldn’t help but fall in love with the messages he spread. Bringing a folky/country sound to the tour, Carter does his best to give the crowd what they want to hear while staying true to his sound, in order to be sure each person is having a good experience. Does he do this? Yes, he does. Looking around the venue, I witnessed many teenagers become fans of his music in the twenty-five minutes that he sang his heart out on stage for. Trying to make it big while coming from a small town, Carter Hulsey sets the stage on fire with his passionate messages and ability to grasp the attention of his audience, t