Backstage Pass

Braininess doesn’t always translate well on record for rockers and Coldplay, who celebrated the release of their “Viva La Vida or Death and All His Friends” album with a free concert for fans at Madison Square Garden Monday night, is no exception.
    For great performers, however, brain power and star power can be powerful allies and Coldplay, especially singer Chris Martin, is no exception to this either, as the band’s crafty 70-minute show not only erased some of the album’s more problematic issues, but highlighted some of the album’s subtler charms.
    Though Coldplay rolled through eight new songs, usually the kiss of death for arena shows, they handled it effortlessly through smart moves in pacing and staging, including playing on a mini-stage in the middle of the Garden floor and heading up to the balcony to deliver a moving, stripped-down version of “Yellow” surrounded by its fans.
    “Viva La Vida,” the band’s first No. 1 single and the song that will propel the album to No. 1 as well, was transformed from delicate pop number to an arena anthem by Martin’s bouncing performance and the crowd participation that unexpectedly built the little bridge of “oh ooh-woh-oh”s into something of Springsteenesque proportions.
    “Great singing, there,” said Martin, who seemed a bit shaken by the moment’s power.
    However, Coldplay pulled off some surprises of its own. By separating the  “Chinese Sleep Chant” from its boring medley partner “Yes” in the album version, the song was able to soar to its mid-‘80s U2-like glory. By cutting off the “Reign of Love” ending from the gorgeous “Lovers in Japan,” Coldplay found a worthy, upbeat show-stopper, complete with butterfly-shaped confetti to flutter in the light show.
    And Martin was, of course, quick-thinking enough to turn his flubbing of the lyrics to “Fix You” into the night’s most-memorable moment, turning the next verse into “When you embarrass yourself at MSG, but it doesn’t matter ‘cause you got in for free.”
    
SETLIST: Life in Technicolor / Violet Hill / Clocks / In My Place / Viva La Vida / Chinese Sleep Chant / God Put a Smile Upon Your Face / 42 / Square One / Trouble / Lost  / Strawberry Swing / Yellow / Death Will Never Conquer / Fix You / Lovers in Japan

PHOTO: Chris Martin and Will Champion during "Viva La Vida" by Ari Mintz for Newsday

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Hard to believe, I’m sure, but The Cure’s Robert Smith – he of the gravity-defying hair and the over-dramatic mascara – sometimes forgets that less can be more. His band’s long-awaited return at Madison Square Garden Friday night was a sprawling, three-hour affair, with tons of hits, several misses and a sense of excess that, while bold and charming, eventually became, well, excessive.

Our Bob was in fine voice the entire evening and, seemingly, in equally fine spirits. (See the video below for the evening’s stage banter. He also introduced “Friday I’m in Love” by saying “Well, it’s a shock that we’d play this,” on, y’know, a Friday night.) And some of the new songs from the forthcoming album sounded pretty great, especially the lush opener “Underneath the Stars” and the first single “The Only One.”

The problem with the clunkers – especially “The Perfect Boy,” which sounds like The Cure doing a recent Bryan Adams cast-off, and “Baby Rag Dog Book,” which has Smith and the guys getting their Metallica on – is that they not only interrupt the flow of the show, but they do it in spectacular fashion. Then, once the interruptions become cumulative, it gets harder and harder to start up again, though, with The Cure’s outstanding back catalog, they were able to do it time and time again.

The gothic aura of “Pictures of You” followed by “Lullaby” followed by “Fascination Street” was gorgeous. The pure pop buzz of “Friday I’m in Love” followed by “Inbetween Days” followed by “Just Like Heaven” was a thrill, matched later in the encores of “Close to Me” and “Why Can’t I Be You.” If they carved the thing down to a tight, muscular two hours, it would have been an amazing show. Of course, it really wouldn’t really be the massive show of force that Robert Smith clearly wanted to create either. Nevertheless, I’m thinking the abridged version that aired live on Fuse Friday night as part of their “Fuse Rocks the Garden” series and will, no doubt, re-run many times over, may actually pack a more powerful wallop than the diluted version fans got at the show.

The Cure, "Baby Rag Dog Book" (Live at MSG)

SETLIST: Underneath the Stars / Prayers for Rain / A Night Like This / The End of the World / Lovesong / To Wish Impossible Things / Pictures of You / Lullaby / Fascination Street / From the Edge of the Deep Green Sea / The Perfect Boy / Hot Hot Hot! / The Only One / Wrong Number / The Walk / Sleep When I’m Dead / Push / Friday I’m in Love / Inbetween Days / Just Like Heaven / Primary / Shake Dog Shake / Charlotte Sometimes / 100 Years / Baby Rag Dog Book // ENCORE: If Only Tonight We Could Sleep / The Kiss // Freakshow / Close to Me / Why Can’t I Be You /// Boys Don’t Cry / Jumping Someone Else’s Train / Grinding Halt / 10:15 Saturday Night / Killing an Arab

    When R.E.M. took the stage in the waning moments of a Jones Beach lightning storm late Saturday night, it was a scientific fact: There was electricity in the air.
    “Welcome to R.E.M. Survivor 2008,” singer Michael Stipe said, as sheets of rain fell on the already-drenched crowd. The band ditched its regular opening, as Stipe broke into the Creedence Clearwater Revival classic “Have You Ever Seen the Rain?” followed by a stunning version of the R.E.M. classic “So. Central Rain” and it became instantly clear that this was going to be a show fans brag about for decades to come.
    Anticipation was already high for the show, its first area appearance since releasing its return-to-form album “Accelerate,” but the battle against the elements (and an hour-long rain, er, lightning delay) brought the best out of the band and the crowd. Once R.E.M. roared through “These Days” and Stipe pretended to be electrocuted when he grabbed the mic stand, everyone shifted into high gear.
    Despite the rain, the sound was excellent and Stipe was in fine voice the entire evening – so was bassist/backing vocalist Mike Mills, for that matter – even as they all negotiated puddles on the stage and tried not to fall down or get electrocuted for real.
    The fieriness of the “Accelerate” songs – especially the usual set-opener “Living Well Is The Best Revenge” and the snarling glam-rock gem “Man-Sized Wreath,” which Stipe dedicated to “the pathetic George Bush” – fueled inspired versions of the band’s classics. (The weather was apparently the inspiration for hauling “It’s the End of the World As We Know It” off its tour-long hiatus.) Guitarist Peter Buck is masterful with both swaggering rock anthems, including “What’s the Frequency Kenneth?” and “Orange Crush,” and meticulous ballads like “Losing My Religion” and the newly acoustic “Let Me In,” but he seems to be enjoying rocking out more these days.
     When The Smiths’ great Johnny Marr, now playing with opener Modest Mouse, took the stage next to Buck for a gorgeous version of “Fall on Me” and “Man on the Moon,” it was a thrill to see indie rock’s two most influential guitarists had only gotten better – something that could also be said for R.E.M. as a whole.

SETLIST: Have You Ever Seen the Rain? / So. Central Rain / These Days / Living Well Is The Best Revenge / What’s the Frequency Kenneth? / Man-Sized Wreath / 1,000,000 / Ignoreland / Hollow Man / Welcome to the Occupation / Houston / Electrolite / Horse to Water / The One I Love / Let Me In / Bad Day / Orange Crush / I’m Gonna DJ / “ENCORE”: Supernatural Superserious / Losing My Religion / It's the End of the World As We Know It / Fall on Me (w/Johnny Marr) / Man on the Moon (w/Marr)

PHOTO: Michael Stipe at Nikon at Jones Beach Theater by Michael Ach for Newsday. 

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What made Adele -- the latest promising one-named British import, following Duffy and Estelle -- so surprising at the Highline Ballroom wasn't her remarkable voice (though I guess in these days of pitch correction, the way she was able to recreate and, in some cases, improve on the vocals from the recorded versions on "19" is stunning in its own right). It was her charming personality and the delightful poise of a 20-year-old clearly still trying to figure out what is going on.

She gasped in shocked appreciation when the crowd began singing her single "Chasing Pavements" back to her. She revealed that she was wearing Spanx, that the pineapple juice wasn't helping her voice, and that she was more of a Miranda than a Carrie, even though she bought a pair of Manolo Blahniks that she intended to wear onstage and then kick off because, "I can't really walk on high heels."

It was her charm that made all the songs from "19" so much better live than on record, another example of why the music industry's ongoing shift from searching for video-friendly one-hit wonders to bonafide live acts who can tour may actually help it survive in the long run. Of course, Adele would've been signed regardless, a unique show-stopper who jazzily plucks pretty notes out of the air or bends them to fit the emotion she's trying to convey.

Adele apologized for the lack of uptempo songs on her "dramatic, melancholy" album, though the irresistible groove of the Mark Ronson-produced "Cold Shoulder" was strong enough to hold up the entire hour-long set, along with "Right as Rain" and "Tired." And when the ballads are as strong as "Daydreamer" or "Crazy for You," no one will complain anyway.

SETLIST: Right as Rain / Melt My Heart to Stone / Daydreamer / Dreaming of You / Cold Shoulder / First Love / Make You Feel My Love / Tired / Hometown Glory // ENCORE: Crazy for You / Fool That I Am / Chasing Pavements

PHOTO: adele.tv 

     Now that’s a Duran Duran concert. After being disappointed by the stilted show on Broadway to launch the band’s “Red Carpet Massacre” album, I was a little worried about the Durans, but it’s all worked out fine.
    They ditched the blander bits from the new album and stitched the better songs into their sure-fire set of hits, which made everything sound better. “Falling Down” sounds better after “Planet Earth.” “Skin Divers” sounds slinkier between “Come Undone” and “The Reflex,” especially now that Simon LeBon does the rapping instead of a tape of Timbaland. And the electro mini-set, where they channel Kraftwerk reworking “Last Chance on the Stairway” and “I Don’t Your Love” while pitching in a hot cover of The Normal’s “Warm Leatherette,” is still a thrill – though the expanded “Girls on Film” still beats it.
    For two hours, LeBon, bassist John Taylor and keyboardist Nick Rhodes made a strong argument for why the new romantic pioneers deserve to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year and why Durannies still treat them like it’s 1984 and “The Reflex” is ta-na-na-na-ing out of every radio in sight.

SETLIST: The Valley / Red Carpet Massacre / Nite Runner / Hungry Like the Wolf / Planet Earth / Falling Down / Come Undone / Skin Divers / The Reflex / Save a Prayer / View to a Kill / Last Chance on the Stairway / All She Wants Is / Warm Leatherette / I Don’t Want Your Love / Skin Trade / Tempted / Notorious / Girls on Film (w/Papa Was a Rolling Stone) / Ordinary World / (Reach Up for the) Sunrise / The Wild Boys // ENCORE: Rio

PHOTO: Anna Ross and Simon LeBon at Rumsey Playfield in Central Park. 

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If Zootopia has always been hits radio powerhouse Z100's snapshot of where pop music stands at a given time, this year’s edition was a high school yearbook photo.

Bookended by Miley Cyrus and the Jonas Brothers, the four-hour revue was all about teen pop – either building it, as the Disney stars currently are, reliving it, as the reunited New Kids on the Block did, or graduating from it, like Jesse McCartney.

Cyrus, as her recent Vanity Fair photo flap suggested, is in the midst of a transition, just like the 15-year-old megastar’s teenage fans, and that extends to her music. Nearly half of her 30-minute set was a sneak preview of her forthcoming “Breakout” album, due out on July 22, and it showed how she was shedding the girlish pop of her “Hannah Montana” show and moving into more standard pop fare.

On “Fly on the Wall,” she pulled in some new wave influence, rocking like Blondie and using layered vocals that sounded sorta like Missing Persons. More impressive was “7 Things,” which mixed jangly pop verses with a raucous rock chorus, resulting in a weird, but entertaining hybrid of Natalie Imbruglia’s “Torn” and No Doubt’s “Just a Girl.” And “Breakout”’s title track was revved-up power pop, like “Since U Been Gone” on a sugar high.

After hearing those songs, it gets tough to hear Cyrus go back to all the pop cliches of “G.N.O. (Girls Night Out),” but it’s a balancing act that she will have to continue since “Hannah Montana” songs are still the ones her fans know most.

SETLIST: Start All Over / Good and Broken / Right Here / Fly on the Wall / 7 Things / G.N.O. (Girls Night Out)) / Breakout / See You Again 

So far, it’s a problem her pals the Jonas Brothers haven’t had to tackle yet, their half-hour set of power pop still gives their fans exactly what they want, especially with their recent crossover hit “S.O.S.,” and more noticeably the power ballad “When You Look Me in the Eyes.”

Jesse McCartney, however, has decided to stretch, adding a bit of R&B and rock to his style. The way he worked the irresistible hit “Leavin’” and “How Do You Sleep,” likely the next hit from his new “Departure” album out tomorrow, McCartney seems set to move into Justin Timberlake territory – both in style and sales.

The reunited New Kids on the Block seemed like they hope to stretch as well. For their first concert appearance in 15 years, the guys reprised their “Today” show performance – only completely in key and with crisper dance moves this time. Their medley of hits, which included a reggaeton-tinged version of “The Right Stuff,” suggested broader ambitions, but weren’t quite ready to reveal them all yet, offering their new single “Summertime” and a drawn-out “Tonight” instead.

With a new tour coming up, the New Kids know better than to give up all their plans at a radio show. With age, you see, comes wisdom.

     The next chapter in the ever-evolving saga of Taking Back Sunday started with a bang Friday night, as the band made its Madison Square Garden debut.
    Though the Rockville Centre-based band's 45-minute set was shorter than usual and the sound was a bit muddy, it did offer some clues about TBS’ next move, especially since the addition of guitarist/singer Matt Fazzi who replaced Fred Mascherino in February.
    Opening with “Error Operator” and “Liar,” which showcase the heavy-hitting guitarwork of Ed Reyes and Fazzi, the band is concentrating on the hard rock end of their catalog and making those songs sound more aggressive than their original versions. (They even look more aggressive as bassist Matt Rubano bounded around  the stage and Mark O'Connell pounded the drums.) Even the one still-untitled new song they unveiled, with lines like “I’m ready to begin again,” has more in common with Queens of the Stone Age than the emo-pioneering sounds of their debut “Tell All Your Friends.”
    That doesn’t mean the band is ready to abandon its past, though, giving the early hit “Cute Without the ‘E’” a prime spot in the set and featuring singer Adam Lazzara scream, “Louder!” as the crowd sang along. But they do seem set on changing it, as a smiling Fazzi gave the backing vocals a poppier sound than the original, or as Lazzara busted out Beyonce’s “Irreplaceable” in the middle of “A Decade Under the Influence.”
    Though TBS is currently working on a new album in Brooklyn, they jumped at the chance to play The Garden, even unveiling a new backdrop (and t-shirt) that uses graffiti to change the iconic “I” in the “I (Heart) NY” logo to “TBS.”
    “[My Chemical Romance] gave us a call and said, 'Hey, do you guys wanna play Madison Square Garden?'  Lazzara told the crowd.  And we said, 'That's not funny, man. That's a mean joke.' But they were serious.
    The night also closed a chapter for My Chemical Romance, whose two-year tour supporting the great album “The Black Parade” ended Friday in grand style, headlining the venue where the band’s brothers Gerard and Mikey Way first developed their arena rock dreams at a Smashing Pumpkins concert.
    In front of family and friends, as well as a capacity crowd, My Chem made the most of the memory with powerful versions of “Welcome to the Black Parade” and “I Don’t Love You” and a dramatic take on “Helena” that left the crowd wanting more.

SETLIST : Error Operator / Liar / Set Phasers to Stun / One-Eighty by Summer / (untitled new song) / Cute Without the ‘E’ / Spin / A Decade Under the Influence / What It Feels Like To Be A Ghost / MakeDamnSure

PHOTO: Matt Fazzi at Madison Square Garden by Charles Eckert for Newsday. 

Hayes Carll paused a moment for a confession.

"I don't have a lot of love songs," he told the Bowery Ballroom crowd. "I have a lot of sex songs."

He also has a lot of songs about drinking, playing in bars and love gone wrong. Do you really need any more reasons to run out and buy his fine "Trouble in Mind" album?

Well, Carll delivered many more, with his winding Dylanesque rockers like "A Lover Like You" and his engaging stories about playing in Crystal Beach, Texas, roadhouses where he was part of the daily specials ("All the fried chicken you can eat and Hayes Carll - $4.99").

All that experience has made him quick on his feet, too. When he started his gorgeous ballad "Willing to Love Again" with the line "I drink too much" and received an inappropriate "Woooo!" as a response for the somber confession, he smiled and started over, saying, "You're fun."

Well, he would know. 

SETLIST: Faulkner Street / Beaumont / I Don't Wanna Grow Up / A Lover Like You / Drunken Poet's Dream / Willing To Love Again / I Got a Gig / Wish I Hadn't Stayed So Long / Down the Road Tonight / Bad Liver and a Broken Heart 

PHOTO: Hayes Carll by Keith Carter for Lost Highway 

You can't keep Regina Spektor down.

Though it wouldn't have been understandable to cancel her free-to-festivalgoers appearance at the Tribeca/ASCAP Music Lounge on Tuesday, she decided to play hurt. “In my defense, I did get injured at the Tribeca Film Festival,” she said, after hobbling onto the stage, favoring her left ankle. Spektor fell down the stairs after a screening of “The War,” joking that she probably did “serious damage” but didn’t seek medical attention.

“I’m in denial,” she said. “I’m just icing it.”

Trooper that she is, Spektor’s performance didn’t suffer at all, pulling out gorgeous versions of "Fidelity," "Samson" and even the appropriate “Bobbin’ for Apples” for the occasion, putting extra emphasis on the line, “I’ll always opt to fall down these stairs in the end.”

She did buckle a bit after stomping and drumming her way through "Poor Little Rich Boy." "I almost made myself pass out with a broken ankle," she said, afterwards. "See, I'm such a --- baby."

"Toughen up," she told herself. Then, she did.

SETLIST: On the Radio / The Flowers / Better / Poor Little Rich Boy / Apres Moi / Bobbin' for Apples / That Time / Fidelity / Field Below / Samson 

Halfway through Estelle's show at Highline Ballroom, John Legend, who signed her to his new Homeschool Records label and produced her new album "Shine," turned to the crowd and said, "Now you know why I believed in her."

Yeah, we do. For more than hour, Estelle proved herself to be the real deal.

And all the star power that showed up to help her out -- Legend, reggae star Kardinal Offishall, the great Rah Digga, and Gym Class Heroes frontman Travis McCoy -- was a sure sign that the rest of the world will soon find this out for themselves. Her mix of reggae, hip-hop and pop was addictive, as was her stage banter, which ranged from stories about the relationships that spawned some of her songs to philosophical advice ("We've --- up the ozone layer, so if you like someone, have sex. There's not much time.") to some helpful ways to differentiate her from the other British female singers currently flocking to the States ("I don't do drugs. I love Amy, but I don't.")

It's a good distinction since Estelle came across as a cross between a streetwise Amy Winehouse and a lucid Lauryn Hill -- a combination that is pretty hard to resist.

PHOTO: Estelle for Homeschool/Atlantic Records 

Estelle ready to 'Shine' [Newsday]
Listen to 'Shine' [VH1]