MusicScene.ORG has a new look

Last year's New Media/Website winners MusicScene.org have a new look and feel to their website.

I confess I continue to stop by this site every day or so to see their users views on politics, home theatre accessories and local music.

MusicScene.ORG

Yahoo! News - Dave Matthews Band's Big Stink

Yahoo! News - Dave Matthews Band's Big Stink

Just in case you missed this story. This is the kind of news that just asks to be shared.

Re:Connect opens Saturday, August 28th at Creative Electric Studios

Re:Connect is an exhibition featuring independent short film, visual art, literary works, & music presented by Mental Contagion and DV Cinema and sponsored by HowWasTheShow.com. It runs from Saturday, August 28th through Sunday, September 5th at Creative Electric Studios (2201 NE 2nd Street Minneapolis.)

Re:Connect is curated by Mental Contagion and DV Cinema, organizations that utilize technology with a grass roots approach to increase awareness of independent work through online exhibit. The objective of Re:Connect is to bring independent film, visual art, and literature to a physical space where selected works can coexist in one installation, encouraging independent voice in a group context. Film makers, artists, and writers local to the Twin Cities and from around the world have been selected to participate in this event to present a variety of mediums and formats.

Saturday's opening night festivities (8/28) will feature performances by The Deaths, Spaghetti Western, Maria May & John Jerry of The Owls, Christopher Danforth (solo), and Kasi, starting around 5 p.m.

Check the complete schedule here. Or download press release here.

Surrealism at the Hexagon Bar

Jeaneen Gauthier sings over a can of Bud at the Elliot Smith Tribute. That's Ciaran Daly's right arm on the left as he grabs a mic, and Jacques Wait on bass.

The Ouija Radio/Melismatics show at the Triple Rock ended early enough Friday night that I was still able to hightail it to the Hexagon Bar to catch the end of the Elliott Smith Tribute Show staged by Chris Dorn and friends. However, by the time I arrived the show had degenerated into craziness, with coincidentally Ouija Radio producer Jacques Wait on stage playing bass in an impromptu "band" that was covering Blondie and Fleetwood Mac with various musicians swapping in and out of the group, including Sean Hoffman on drums and Janeen Gunther on vocals. I must say this was one of the most bizarre, goddawful and weird musical phenomena I’ve stumbled into in a while. Did I mention goddawful?

It was just the end of the show that was bad, however. I heard that the Elliott Smith Tribute itself featured several ethereal performances, and a goosebump razing performance by Erik Kassel.

Turnout, was also very good, leaving more than a dozen of us dumped out onto the sidewalk after 2 a.m. looking for the after-party.

Governor Pawlenty to miss Bruce Springsteen gig at Excel

Minnesota Republican Governor Tim Pawlenty feels bad that Bruce Springsteen is using his popularity as a musician to promote his political convictions. "I really appreciate his music, but I wish he wouldn't interject his music with politics," the governor said after learning that The Boss is participating in several Democratic fundraisers that hope to help limit George Bush (who Pawlenty supports) to just one term.

Apparently the Governor feels so bad he's not even going to go to the concert, currently slated for the Excel Energy Center on October 5th. Poor guy. If he doesn't go he's also gonna miss R.E.M., John Fogerty, and Bright Eyes. I wonder if this mean's he'll also eschew The Faint at First Avenue that night, since members of that band are friends of Bright Eye's Conor Oberst.

Maybe it's a good thing that music fans generally don't attend shows of bands that politically disagree with them. How many staunch Reagan supporters do you think you might have found at Dead Kennedys shows in the early 80's? And how many Kerry supporters or liberation theologists are you going to find at a Lee Greenwood or Toby Keith show?

I can understand music fans with political differences avoiding each other when possible, but musicians (and actors, sports figures, etc.) should clearly continue to use their celebrity to promote their politics. What value does celebrity have if it's not the increase in visibility when you champion the causes you hold most dear?

I just hope the Governor doesn't stop reading HowWasTheShow.com when I come out in support of Ralph Nader.

Minneapolis council OKs smoking ban - Non-smoking Music Fans will soon breathe easier

Minneapolis council OKs smoking ban

Beta Band play to play Dublin, and I'm there in spirit

(5:13 p.m. Dublin time)

In a few hours time, Beta Band will take the stage in a Bud Rising Music Festival show at the Temple Bar Music Centre in Dublin. Unfortunately, I am back in America now and will not be there. The Beta Band is one of my favorites that I did not have a chance to catch live this year. As a consolation, however, I will be getting live phone reports from the show from a very special friend who promises me a first hand report and will hold her mobile phone up so I can catch a song or two. (Nary a doubt that Howwastheshow.com's reach is world wide!)

Recently, Beta Band performed a live studio session for London's 104.9 FM XFM (www.xfm.co.uk) which is archived in broadband hi-fi right here. Quite a lovely set, I might add. Though an older show, you can also watch a live concert from London's 93 Feet East from September 17th, 2001 archived here.

(7:05 p.m. Dublin time)

Erin rang me from the venue where she just heard the sound check. The Beta Band played all of Assessment and Easy, the 1st and 4th songs from their new LP "Heroes to Zeroes." In a weird twist, she was just hanging out outside with the band, but didn't realize it because she hadn't seen a picture of the lads, who are: vocalist Stephen Mason, drummer Robin Jones and DJ/ sampler John MacClean who all hail from Edinburgh and bassist, Richard Greentree (pictured above.)

(9:39 p.m. Dublin time)
I just got my anticipated phone call, and for the first time was on the other end of a multi-minute transatlantic mobile phone transmission of a live show as the Beta Band played "Assessment." In the past I'd always thought it was odd to see people holding up cell-phones at shows (Jim Froelich had commented on this weird phenomenon to me at one point), but having now received one of these calls I must change my opinion. I definitely picked up a bit of the energy of the show, which was only augmented by Erin's enthusiastic words, "This is awesome, I wish you were here." I really felt "jacked in", to borrow a phrase from Neil Stephenson's Snowcrash.

See Erin's full review on the main site here.