Local Rob Baird new album “After All” releases 1/11/2019 on Austin’s Hard Luck Recording Company label and he’s throwing a big party! The album is a follow-up to his 2015 album “Wrong Side of the River”. His “heavy new folk-rock” (Rolling Stone) track “Burning Blue” premiered on Rolling Stone last week in December. Listen here. Watch his video for “Dreams and Gasoline”. Where: Antone’s Night Club When: January 12th, 9pm Get tickets here Check out more info about Rob and his music on his website. We covered a ton of shows this year! The most shows, and the biggest shows- and many we got invited to cover. Garth Brooks, Greta Van Fleet, Bon Jovi, Pink, Noel Gallagher, Muse, Olivia Newton John, Gary Clark Jr., Jason Isbell, Justin Timberlake, Taylor Swift, Backstreet Boys, Tom Morello, David Byrne, Chris Stapleton, Barry Manilow, ACL Fest, CMA festival, Houston Rodeo, SWSW, 30 Seconds to Mars, John Prine, Slayer, Anthrax, Lauren Daigle, Jason Mraz, Willie Nelson, Pixies, Weezer, Elvis Costello, Violent Femmes, Dixie Chicks, Lukas Nelson, Nick Cave, Phoenix, B52s, Simple Minds, Brad Paisley, Pat Benatar, Alejandro Escovedo, Dan Auerbach, Steve Aoki, Foreigner, GEazy, Earth Wind & Fire, Flogging Molly, Rick Springfield, Andy Grammar, Keith Urban, Carrie Underwood, Blue October, Jack Johnson, Vans Warped tour, Depeche mode, Kat Edmunson, Levitation Fest, Ministry, iHeart Country fest, Dr. Dog, Echosmith, Mastodon, Primus, Johnny Lang, Joe Satriani, Elvis Costello, Dave Matthews Band. You can view our BEST SHOWS OF 2017 to review last year’s picks and photos. Another huge Houston show, Taylor came to NRG Stadium on her ‘Big Stadium tour for her Reputation album”. It was truly one of the biggest productions and sets we have ever seen (and too many semis carrying gear to count). The best rock show we saw this year for sure. Although other huge tours including Mastadon and Slayer were epic and could fit this category too, these young boys (and brothers) from Michigan have blown up since we covered them early in 2018 at iconic Stubb’s Ampitheater in Austin. Our local blues legend played 3 sold out nights at ACL Live in December. (Jason Bollenbacher) Best hard rock, heavy metal show this year for sure. We covered a ton of music festivals in 2018 and they were all a bit different, but this Nashville fest was one of the best (and yes a country genre focus) with epic headliners and legendary acts such as Oak Ridge Boys, We got to see Carrie Underwood, Blake Shelton, Garth Brooks, Kelsie Ballerini, Luke Bryan, Keith Urban, Chris Stapleton, Dan & Shay, Jason Aldean, Dierks Bentley, Darius Rucker, Trisha Yearwood, Brothers Osborne, Brett Eldridge, and more. Absolutely one of the coolest and most unique shows we have ever seen. Playing intimate venues for his Atlas Underground project. Telling stories of friend Chris Cornell (and playing the beautiful song he wrote for him when he hadn’t heard from him) and playing with Bruce Springsteen, and playing several songs demonstrating his huge array of guitar skills and music genres (even playing with his teeth or the mic stand) to a finale like you have never seen. He brought the intimate crowd on stage with him for a rendition of his epic Rage Against the Machine song. You can see all our concert photos and reviews on Austin 101. diego donamaria by Diego Donamaria Coming to Emo’s Saturday December 15th, after his Dallas show, legendary rock guitarist Tom Morello brings his award-winning talents to Austin, this time on his own. The Atlas Underground Experience fall tour in support of his upcoming solo album, The Atlas Underground. The tour kicked off in NYC in October and has only a hand full of dates as he gets his feet wet playing his new songs live. The venues, and the tickets are exclusive. He wants to give fans “an intimate, exclusive opportunity to hear [the album] in its entirety before it’s released!”. Emo’s is definitely the intimate setting Morello is wanting. It seats (actually stands) only 1700 people and is one of the most iconic venues in Austin. The album is a collaboration with amazing musicians like Marcus Mumford (Mumford & Sons), Portugal The Man, Gary Clark Jr. (our local guitar legend), WuTang, Big Boi, Killer Mike, Bassnectar, and more. In a recent interview, he said he “wanted to make the Hendrix of now album” and create a new genre of music with some of his favorite artists. It’s something he’s been working on for years between all his other projects, including touring with Bruce Springsteen. Morello was ranked number 40 in Rolling Stone magazine’s list of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of All Time” (Wikipedia). Well known for his unconventional guitar style, Morello is best known for alternative Rage Against the Machine, but we’ve been lucky to see him on stage with other amazing artists like Ben Harper, Soundgarden, Audioslave, Pearl Jam, and more. Although we miss Rage (RATM), we are so totally impressed with how Morello continues to expand and reinvent himself and his sound. He loves hard rock, blues rock, EDM, hip-hop, rap, you name it. He’s also pretty damn smart and has a degree from Harvard! Check out more on his site Wanna hear some amazing stories of his life and career and hanging with great music legends? This show is it! Plus, he’s selling signed copies of the new album! There are still tickets available for this show. Doors are at 7pm and tickets start at only $40. We heard about the 2 previous nights’ show and openers. But tonight’s show was special. Clark played until around midnight and didn’t seem to be slowing down. He took a short break before the encore and that was it. He brought on amazing guests including opener Eve & the Exiles, who he grew up with around Austin. How cool is that? In addition, guitarist Paul Walker was incredible, playing above his head and jamming like crazy. We love that Clark let’s local Austin musicians shine and is incredibly generous in the opportunities he provides. Willie Nelson is synonymous with Austin City Limits. He was the first performer to tape the ACL TV show 44 years ago in 1974, and his larger than life bronze statue is out front. You can also see tons of amazing concert photos of him inside the venue from ACL photographer Scott Newton. This ACL Live taping for the longest-running music television show Season 44 (produced by KLRU) marks his 18th appearance after a long 15 year absence. Although the location has changed (the original ACL venue was located on campus and was quite small), it’s still the best damn place for music you’ll find. The smell of weed filled the room and the smoke filled the air. If you were lucky, you caught the live streaming of the taping online. The fact that Nelson is still going strong at 85 and still touring the country to his favorite spots is a natural wonder and he really is famously ‘on the road again’ all the time (I mean c’mon look at his tour schedule). He looks almost exactly the same with his signature svelt figure, long gray braids, and red bandana. He still loves his famous acoustic guitar (Trigger which he’s had since he was 13) with his red, white and blue strap. He looked a little stiff when he walked and you could see him working his hands often during the show. But otherwise, it was the same Willie. Nelson says “Well hello there, it’s been awhile”. He wore all black, including his black cowboy hat, jeans, t-shirt, and his puffer coat. He wore a cool necklace. When he took his hat off, the crowd cheered. He made us all laugh hard when he tossed his famous red bandana to a happy audience member, only to turn around to grab another one from his stash (this happened several times). He showed his famous mannerisms of holding one finger in the air throughout the show. The set was brief, a little over an hour but in his classic style of continuous songs where they all seem to roll right into the next one. He played many from his enormous catalog and also songs from the Frank Sinatra tribute My Way, his new LP and the show was streamed online. He kicked off the show with ‘Whisky River’ then a guitar solo then ‘Still is Still Moving to Me’. Although known in the beginning for his country/outlaw style of music, Nelson is much more than that. We love the diverse sound, going from blues to ragtime to country in his classic style. He also did many covers of his legendary music friends including “This one’s for Waylon (Jennings)” as he rolled into. ‘It’s All Going to Pot’ and then Sinatra’s ‘Fly Me to the Moon’. And “Then one for Merle (Haggard)” ‘It’s all going to pot’ then ‘Roll Me Up and Smoke Me When I Die’. Then he continued with several more covers- many of the songs were covers. His sister’s piano solos, his own, and harmonica were highlights. His biggest cheers and standing O come from hit songs at the end, ‘Mamas Don’t Let Your Babies Grow Up to be Cowboys’, ‘On the Road Again’, and ‘Always on My Mind’. He closed with his gospel style faves, ‘Will the Circle be Unbroken’ and ‘I’ll Fly Away’ which was awesome and longtime favorites from the beginning. We hadn’t heard many of these songs in years but the lyrics came back instantly to our brains. See the full set list from tonight at Setlist. We thought he would bring his family up during the taping but didn’t. His son Lukas Nelson recently did his own taping of the show and it was an epic experience with his band, Promise of the Reel (including brother Mika). No star-studded show with all his favorite friends (and trust us, there are many). He still loves the crowd interaction and audience participation (it’s mostly a sing-along the entire night) and he often holds his hands up to one ear as the crowd yells during key phrases in each song. He doesn’t talk significantly to the crowd and treats the tv taping like a regular concert but shares many a “thank you very much”. He is still incredibly humble and appreciative. He exited with a simple “Thank you Austin City Limits”. His smile is as iconic as his voice and beloved guitar. We have been fortunate to cover Willie many times over the last few years, including at his Luck Ranch for Luck Reunion, many concerts, the Beto political rally, and various music festivals. But this one was incredibly special. We hope it’s not his last ACL taping. We don’t know how much longer we will be honored with his presence and we try to soak up as much of him as possible every time. Regardless, we don’t think any other Willie concerts will go down in history as special as this one. The band consisted of drums (Paul English), bass guitar (Kevin Smith), harmonica (Mickey Raphael), percussion (Billy English), piano, (his sister Bobbie Nelson is an icon herself), he holds his cup up to cheer her into her amazing solo. He often gives the band ample time to shine during solos. (which gives him a little break). There were a few times when his rhythm wasn’t in sync with the band, but mostly everything went smoothly. If you missed this one in person, don’t worry, Nelson has his annual string of shows back at ACL for New Year’s. You won’t want to miss this special show when it airs. See the info and the schedule for airing the show (sometime in 2019) at KLRU. The biggest band to be exported from Scotland brought us back to the eighties again. The show at ACL Live in Austin was in support of their Walk Between Worlds (2018)-their 18th studio album, on the heels of the surprising success of Big Music (2016). It’s their first full tour in over 25 years. See all our photos from the show on Austin 101 The band took a short break after the first set and changed into dry clothes then played a second full set with most of the hits being played near the end or encore. Kerr shared fun stories throughout the night including the one where he was on a flight and the lady next to him most certainly remembered him as they guy from Simply Red! He was super engaged with the audience and really connected with everyone. We loved the simple set with cool light bright backdrop and the band dispersement with several guitars that really got picking! Really cool white light beams and at times, a completely black set. We especially loved the kick ass female drummer, Cherisse. Kerr gave shoutouts to lead Charlie as the ‘guitar hero’. The backup singer, Sarah Brown came front for a song and blew us all away. Strong and soulful, she stole the show for a moment. Set 1 by Diego Donamaria
(photo by Eryn Brooke)
Backstreet Boys
(Diego Donamaria)Noel Gallagher
Pink
Dan Auerbach
Johnny Lang
Garth Brooks
Simple Minds
Lauren Daigle
Taylor Swift
(Jerri Starbuck)Greta Van Fleet
Gary Clark Jr.
Elvis Costello
Earth Wind & Fire
David Byrne
(Jason Bollenbacher) Olivia Newton-John
(Denise Enriquez)Lukas Nelson
30 Seconds To Mars
Slayer and Anthrax
Joe Satriani/G3
CMA Music Festival
Tom Morello
(photo courtesy of Tommorello.com)Muse
Dave Matthews Band
Justin Timberlake
Albert Hammond Jr. at SXSW
Depeche Mode
(Diego Donamaria)
(jerri starbuck)
Jim Kerr has still got it. Sexy. He was full of energy, profuse sweating, from major dance moves and killer poses. He was so limber and fit, he jumped around and twirled the mic stand, he got down on the floor in several poses-awesomeness. These fans were die hards from the beginning, you could feel it. Some travelled far. Texas was lucky to be added to the short North American tour.
They brought us back to a simpler time of fun music and coming-of-age movies like “Breakfast Club” with a #1 hit on the soundtrack (that they originally didn’t even want to do). So many fun sing alongs and we were surprised we remembered all the words from iconic songs like “Don’t You”, “Alive and Kicking”, and “Love Song”. Our favorite “Promised You a Miracle” was especially awesome. They only played a few songs from the latest album, which people loved, but really made them happy to play all the hits we used to dance to.
Like U2, this band has been going for 40 plus years and seem to continue to reinvent their sound and their vision.
The Signal and the Noise
Waterfront
Love Song
Let There Be Love
Up on the Catwalk
Sense of Discovery
Promised You a Miracle
The American
Hunter and the Hunted
Stand by Love
Dirty Old Town (Ewan MacColl cover)
Set 2
Theme for Great Cities
She’s a River
Walk Between Worlds
Honest Town
Someone Somewhere in Summertime
See the Lights
All the Things She Said
Dolphins
Don’t You (Forget About Me)
New Gold Dream (81-82-83-84)
Encore:
Book of Brilliant Things (Lead vocals by Sarah Brown)
Once Upon a Time
Alive and Kicking
Sanctify Yourself
diego donamaria
Featured
by John Croxton
Gary Clark Jr. is an Austin success story. A local boy made big. He’s a Grammy winning musician and has gotten so busy that we don’t have as many opportunities to see him anymore. So we simple must see the show. This one was rescheduled from earlier this year and was well worth the wait.
In the not-too-distant past, Gary Clark Jr. and Eve Monsees were Austin High School classmates, learning to play guitar together and growing up in the Austin music scene. Wednesday night Eve and her band, the Exiles took the stage to open the final of Clark’s three-night sold out run at the Moody Theater. Monsees later joined Clark for the final song (encore “Don’t Owe You a Thang”), capping off a string a musical guests sharing the bright lights with Clark onstage over the three nights (including Jimmie Vaughn, Tameca Jones, Eric Tessmer, and Eric Gales).
Clark played songs from his new album (“This Land”) releasing in early 2019 as well as old favorites (“Bright Lights”, “Blak and Blu”, “Ain’t Messing ‘Round”) and closed out his set with an electrifying version of his first charting single, a cover of the Beatles 1969 #1 hit “Come Together”. As he likes to do, he also got into some old blues, with songs from B.B. King (“My Baby’s Gone” and Albert Collins (“If Trouble Was Money”) among others.
The lyric ‘knowin’ by the X on his hand’ refers to Gary as a young boy trying to get into Austin music clubs (such as iconic Continental Club) to watch his guitar heroes play, but so young he had to have the X because he wasn’t old enough to drink.
Also, Sonic Highways was a season-long documentary on HBO, where each week they showed the recording of each song on the album in the city it was recorded in.
In the Austin episode, Gary Clark shows up at Studio 6A to record his guitar solo in ‘God as My Witness’, but without a guitar. Foo Fighters guitarist Pat Smear lets him borrow the guitar he brought, and that he had just bought for the solo. After Gary Clark plays it, Pat says “You can keep that guitar, it’s never going to do anything like that again” (meaning that Pat, a highly skilled guitarist himself, can’t touch Gary Clark’s talent). Really cool moment.
You can view the ACL TV taping video of the song Foo Fighters recorded in Austin as part of their Sonic Highways album (God as My Witness), where Gary Clark Jr. joins them onstage.
Check out the video. The song was recorded for the album at KLRU-TV Studio 6A in Austin, Texas and features blues rocker Gary Clark, Jr on lead guitar.
View the 2018 show, night 3 setlist.
If you haven’t seen GCJ live, it’s about time. You might be able to catch him at Austin’s iconic venue Antone’s where he is a part owner. Also, he heads out on a major 2019 US tour starting in March in Miami.
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