In his new tour of mid-level venues, Jay-Z is clearly prepping for his much bigger set of performances next year. He hasn’t really been a huge headliner in previous years, but now he’s climbing the ranks in a way that no one would have expected before. This coming year, there are big plans for him to perform in New York, Chicago, LA and all kinds of other places, bringing his noted hip hop sound and giving the audiences what they would expect from such a talented musician. His first performances in the preceding set of concerts have been reviewed by Variety and others as some of the best shows of the year. They expect that his energy, talent and overall exciting concert skills will take him all the way to great success.
Usually we don’t review movies in this space, but since we talked about the Michael Jackson concert series that was planned back last summer, it seems fitting. The documentary film was originally intended as a big concert film that was supposed to show the behind the scenes of the biggest shows of his career. Michael Jackson’s background is shown in this film and it’s really beautiful. While he might not be as meek in the rehearsals as in public, he’s still calm and kind. He is also clearly in charge. He was involved with every part of the performance, from auditions to the music to the movie shown in the background. He was clearly a perfectionist and it’s great to see how good he was at what he did, even though it’s a little bittersweet to see since his passing.
There are some reports that a Mamma Mia sequel might be in the works for the upcoming year. Interviews with some of the actors have indicated that they feel ready to do the movie and it will be interesting to see if these plans work out. It remains to be seen if there is anything that a person can put into a second movie. It seems like the first one stands alone quite well and a sequel doesn’t have much more to offer. But maybe I’m wrong and they’ll come up with something amazing. They’ll have to delve deeper into ABBA’s music, unless they just want to write their own “wall of sound” style music? Anyway, the plans are very early right now, so they probably haven’t figured out all of these issues themselves!
Fans of the movies will be excited to hear about the Star Wars in Concert show which is about to start up and travel to concert halls all around. The show highlights the music of John Williams, made for the movie. But it’s played by a live symphony orchestra. They will play music synchronized to scenes in the movie, which they show on a huge screen. In this way, they will show you how the music works with the images onscreen. The entire thing will be narrated by Anthony Daniels, who you will know as the actor who played C-3PO in the movies. Star Wars in Concert tickets will give you a night of fun and excitement as you find out the exclusive behind-the-scenes story of the music made for the movies!
With Bob Dylan working on his tours, it’s always very unexpected to read a review. For whatever reason, I don’t imagine Bob Dylan as getting reviews anymore. I mean, isn’t he just there and great. Do you have to say anymore? Well, apparently the music is just as good as ever. His style is a little bit unusual now, however, because he doesn’t really care what people think. He has a small mustache now and wears a “western style suit” which I assume includes the string for a necktie thing. His music, while it deals with the themes of death a lot (more than it used to even), is able to keep relatively upbeat. It’s hard to say why he does this, but he is amazing at it! His Christmas album, on the other hand, has gotten some very harsh reviews!
I figured I would lay off the reviews of things for a little while in order to do some celebrity gossip. After all, who doesn’t enjoy celebrity gossip. For example, I’ll never forget where I was when I heard that Hasselhoff had severed a tendon in his arm when glass fell on him after smashing his head on a low-hanging chandelier. Well, in today’s gossip columns, Maria Shriver, the wife of California governor Arnold Schwarzenegger, was photographed twice driving while on her cell phone. She hasn’t been caught by the authorities, so she probably wont be paying the $70 plus fees that the state is owed for such a violation under the law that her husband had strongly lobbied for. Her representatives and the governors gave no response when TMZ called them. We shall see if anything happens there.
One of the top rock bands to come out of Canada in many years is Stars. They started about a decade ago, but they’ve finally hit it bigger than before! They have been opening for big name bands and in small venues alike. Their newest album, In Our Bedroom After the War, has become especially popular, and made them one of the best-known groups in North America. Just for fun, I decided to go into the archives and see what previous concerts with them are like. Their performance in 2007 in Winnepeg was quite a bit of fun. They have a good stage presence and they played the songs that everyone in the audience wants to hear. The audience even knew many of the songs by heart and sang along. The fun was palpable. The different styles of the various musicians could be seen easily and they lived up to their reputation as an artistic and poetic band.
What happened Kanye? What about you Lady GaGa? What do you have to say about this? The tour that both of these people were supposed to be part of was cancelled this fall, for undisclosed reasons. Was Taylor Swift gonna rush the stage? There were a lot of different pieces of confusion going on with this tour, with different people saying there is or is not a tour and dates being released and rescinded. It was a complicated summer for both musicians and it didn’t help that the Kanye-Taylor Rift happened just a few days before the tour was set to begin. While we were hoping that the tour would go on and that we would get to see it, it might be good for both artists to take a little rest and enjoy their time off while they regroup and make another run next concert tour season.
Remember a little more than a year ago when the New York Philharmonic went to North Korea? It was a great show and a presentation of the unity that music can put together. The Philharmonic will be doing several other things over the course of the next few years, that’s for sure. These are some of the best concerts that they put forward, because it’s more exciting and more heartfelt than many of the other ones. Over their long history, they have shown that they are up for this kind of performance more and more. Keep up to date with details of their next trip when they come out and read all about it.
Miley Cyrus is continuing her “I’m Grown Up Tour”. That’s not its actual name, but just what I’m calling it, because the theme of the tour is that she’s no longer a child star, but that she’s headed up into the ranks of more mature stars. The trick is that the teens are still looking up to her and see that she’s shifting into a much less wholesome style of music and dancing and it’s going to be tough for the parents to explain to those children what she’s doing. But meanwhile, the performances are really kind of fun, because there are some good songs. She’s also one of the best performers in the country right now, and she can sell her music and her style really well. Hopefully the strength and maturity that she shows in performing will get her through the difficult period that many younger performers have had when they make that transition.
