The Black Keys will perform a benefit concert at Musica on Friday, November 27th.

The evening is called The Wild World of Alfred McMoore: a Multimedia Retrospective to Benefit Community Support Services.

Alfred McMoore was a longtime family friend of both Dan Auerbach's and Pat Carney's families. It was McMoore who used the phrase "black key" to describe something or someone he didn't like from which the band derived its name.

McMoore, who suffered from mental health issues, died this past September but lived independently in part through the help of Community Services.

While the Keys perform in the smallest, most intimate venue they've played in locally since their Lime Spider days, guests will be able to go upstairs to the galleries and see McMoore's "outsider art" pencil and crayon drawings.

Proceeds from the show will go to benefit more than 2000 people who are treated by Community Support Services in Northeast Ohio.

Tickets for this exclusive show will be available starting at $50 this Saturday, October 31st at www.ticketweb.com.

A limited number of tickets will be available at different price tiers that include signed CDs, t-shirts, and a post-show meet and greet with the Black Keys.

For more information go to www.akronmusica.com

The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame announced the unveiling of the new state-of-the-art Foster Theater and to celebrate the new addition they will be screening the film U2 3D from Tuesday, October 27 through Saturday, January 2, 2010.

As you can probably guess from the title, U2 3D is the venerated Rock Hall inducted band U2 in the first ever live-action 3-D Film. The concert was shot in South America during the final leg of the band's Vertigo tour and from most accounts I've heard and read, it is indeed quite an impressive experience. The band certainly was in fine from during their 2005 stop in Cleveland.

Showtimes can be found here:

www.rockhall.com/U23D

Here are a few of the new Foster Theater's particulars.

* 50 percent increase in screen size
* State-of-the-art projector system with 3-D viewing capability
* Dolby 7.1 surround sound and digital sound console
* Increased seating capacity with the addition of a multi-purpose seating area
* New lighting, carpeting, seats and walls
* High-definition camera and recording system that will tape events and programs in the theater for use in the Library & Archives, on the web and more

Here's the trailer for U2 3D

You can see the film for "FREE"….with paid admission to the museum, of course.

That's right all you Springsteen fans.
You thought you were just going to pay fealty to The Boss and listen to his new tunes but NO!

Start your salivating and hear palpitations now because Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band have joined the trend among veteran acts and will be performing his breakthrough 1975 album BORN TO RUN in its entirety.

According to Springsteen manager Jon Landau, after performing the whole album mid-show in Chicago, Springsteen and crew were surprised at how much fans loved the concept (Really?!) and have decided to do the album at Giants Stadium and in Cleveland.

If you hadn't got your tickets yet, Livenation said it has just released "some great seats," so log on to livenation.com or ticketmaster.com or call (888) 894-9424 and get ready to pretend its 1975 again.

And the "in it's entirety" trend continues to make its way to Akron with the announcement that Rock n Roll Hall of Famers Steely Dan will bring its Rent Party '09 Tour to The University of Akron's E.J. Thomas Hall for two nights and two albums (in their entirety).

On Monday, Nov. 16 the venerable jazz/pop group will perform its 1977 hit album AJA in its entirety plus "selected additional favorites."

On Tuesday, Nov. 17, the venerable pop/jazz group will perform its 1976 hit album THE ROYAL SCAM in its entirety plus "selected additional favorites."

That means hits' such as Peg, Deacon Blues and Kid Charlemagne all in the order you remember them (unless your first SD album was a best-of…)

Tickets are $61, $91, $148 and go on sale at 10 a.m. Friday, Oct. 5. at all Ticketmasters, livenation.com and the E.J. Thomas Hall box office (800)745-3000

See the glory….

Devo has reteamed with their original label Warner Bros. Records in they describe as a ‘‘unique, ground-breaking worldwide partnership,’’ according to Billboard.com

On November 3 W.B. will release deluxe versions of the Akron quintet's best selling albums Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! (Gold) and Freedom of Choice (platinum) on CD, limited edition colored vinyl and a 7-inch of Jocko Homo and Mongoloid.

The band will also embark on a seven-city 14 date tour that comes nowhere near Akron unless you consider Chicago "near."
The band as already joined many of their veteran rock peers in the trend of performing entire albums as they ran through Q: Are We Not Men? A: We Are Devo! at the All Tomorrows Parties Festival in May. For the tour the band will perform two nights in each city performing one of the reissued albums on each night.

As fans recall, Devo released a song/Dell commercial jingle last year Watch Us Work and a single Don't Shoot Me (I'm A Man).

As both Mark Mothersbaugh and Gerald Casale told me last winter before the big homecoming show/Democratic party benefit at the Civic Theatre, the band has been writing and recording new tunes and his cogitating on interesting new-fangled ways to distribute the music. Mothersbaugh said among the ideas being bandied about is selling all the songs for advertisements making it possible to give the album away for free (which is pretty D-E-V-O, if you ask me).

The pair also mentioned the possibility of sending out the songs to various contemporary (i.e. younger and hipper) musicians and letting them have their way with the songs as they did when the Teddybears remixed Watch Us Work.
The billboard article mentions LCD Soundsystem, Outkast's Andre 3000 and Justice.

Here are the current tour dates:

Nov. 3-4 Los Angeles (Henry Fonda Theater)
Nov. 6-7 San Francisco (The Regency Ballroom)
Nov. 8-9 Seattle (The Moore)
Nov. 11, 13 Chicago (The Vic Theatre)
Nov. 15-16 Washington, DC (9:30 Club)
Nov. 20-21 New York (The Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza)

Nov. 23-24 Toronto (Phoenix Concert Theatre)

Country singer/songwriter Gary Allan will bring his Get Off On The Pain tour to the Akron Civic Theatre on Thursday, November 19.

Allan first made a splash with Baskersfield inspired honky-tonk tunes in the mid 90's but on recent albums has been incorporating more classic rock into his country sound. Allan is touring behind his latest single, the weepy love-lost ballad Today, and his upcoming album to be released in November.

Tickets for the show are $28.50 and $38.50 and go on sale at 10 a.m., Friday, Sept 18.

To get you all excited for the show, here's a video of Allan at the House of Blues: Cleveland in March singing Today.

Ok, so he forgot a few of the words.
Cut him some slack, it's a new song.

Reunited pop-punk trio Blink 182, announced Tuesday that they will be rescheduling a series of shows to give drummer Travis Barker time to sufficiently mourn the loss of his friend Adam Goldstein with whom Barker survived a deadly plane crash in 2008.

Adam Goldstein aka DJ AM was found dead in his SoHo apartment on August 28th. Preliminary autopsy results found 8 undigested oxycontin pills in his stomach and a ninth in his mouth but no official cause of death was determined.

Tonight's concert at Blossom Music Center has been rescheduled for Wednesday, September 30.

The band posted the following statement on their Web site concerning the rescheduled shows.

After much thought and consideration, blink-182 has rescheduled their next two shows in order for Travis Barker to mourn the loss of his dear friend Adam Goldstein.

Travis, Mark and Tom would like to thank all their fans for their support during this difficult time.

Popular 90's alt-rock groups don't disband forever.
They just go away for awhile, realize that nothing else is as awesome (or pays as well) as being a rock star and then reform "rejuvenated" and ready to rock like its (place be$t year for band, here).

But, that doesn't necessarily mean that your old fans will still give enough of a poop to pay their own money to relive their salad days.

So sometimes band/promoters have to give fans a jumpstart.

Case in point: Reunited post-grunge stars Creed have teamed up with Akron's own classic/active rock station WONE 97.5 to gather the blood of fans, i.e. BLEED FOR CREED. In exchange for a pint of your blood, Creed & WONE are offering FREE LAWN TICKETS to the band's Wednesday night show at Blossom Music Center to folks who come down to the radio station (Akron Radio Center,1795 West Market Street-right by the West Point Market) and give up some of your precious life juice Tuesday, (8/25) from 8 a.m. to 8 p.m.

Now, this is a darn good thing Creed and WONE are doing because blood banks are always looking for a few good pints.

But from a business standpoint, FREE TICKETS for a show usually indicates that the number of PAID TICKETS is considerably smaller than the promoter/venue would prefer and really want folks to fill up some available space.

Nevertheless, their potential loss is your and the local blood banks gain.
So, if you've been itching to hear/see the now clean-headed Scott Stapp do the 2009 version of the dark leather panted-super-earnest-post-grunge-rock-god thing on monster hits such as Higher and With Arms Wide Open then cough up some blood–sorry, I mean donate some blood and see it all for free.

If you'd rather keep your blood, as of Monday afternoon you can still buy two tickets in the pit for a concert that is happening on Wednesday night.

Frankly, I'm a bit surprised that this show hasn't done better considering that Creed sold somewhere in the neighborhood of 10 skidillion records during their heyday (I may be off by a skidillion or two, but it was a lot) and sold out arenas around the country. Plus, 80's & 90's alt/indie rock nostalgia is all the rage.

Did all those Creed Fans have a musical epiphany and finally realize how derivative and boring Creed was back then?

Are they all so enamored with the bands that gained fame crawling out of Creed's sonic afterbirth (Nickelback/Daughtry/Shinedown/3 Doors Down, et al..) that they no longer have time/energy for the….."original?"

Whatever, it's a win-win for fans:

Free lawn tickets to Creed in exchange for the opportunity to do something good for your fellow humans.

Alright all you BRUUUUUUCE! fans, it's time raid the kids' college fund, cash in your IRA or do whatever it will take for you to afford two tickets to see Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band when the Working On A Dream tour stops at Quicken Loans Arena on November 10.

Actually, only one of the kids might have to wait on college as tickets prices are relatively sane with general admission floor seating going for $92 and reserved seat tickets priced at $58 and $92.

For most fans, $58 and a nose bleed is a small price to pay to see their (filthy rich & famous) Working Class Hero live from the rafters of "Da Q."

Tickets will sell out fast as they always do (Springsteen has sold more than 2 million concert tickets in 2009 alone) so don't dawdle.

Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m., Saturday, August 22 and will be available at Livenation.com and ticketmaster outlets.

Due to injuries suffered by singer Steven Tyler's after recent fall from a stage during a concert at Sturgis, Doctors have told the 61 year old rock legend to take it easy and the band has subsequently canceled the remainder of their tour which was to stop at Blossom Music Center on September 10.

Refunds for the show will be available at the point of purchase.

Tyler was attempting to keep the crowd entertained while the band was experiencing some sound problems, but the lithe sexagenarian apparently didn't see the edge of the stage until he had fallen off of it.

Through the magic of YouTube we can all enjoy the spill.

Ouch!

Tyler got up and waved to the crowd before being airlifted to the nearest hospital.

This one's kind of a bummer as the band had been playing their breakthrough 1975 album Toys In The Attic in its entirety and weren't we all looking forward to hearing Uncle Salty live?