Bad news for lovers of 80/90's hair rock,

The concert by Cinderella (whose look was more hair metal than their straight-forward rock sound), Warrant and Lynch Mob at the Time Warner Cable Amphitheater in Cleveland on July 19 has been canceled.

Aparently Tom Keifer, Cinderella's gravelly voiced lead singer (finally) had a hemorrage in his left vocal chord that has made it impossible for him to sing anytime soon.

‘‘Consequently, and most regretfully, the upcoming Cinderella tour has been cancelled.’’ quoth the presss release.

Yikes! Get better Tom.

Refunds are available at point of purchase.

Goodness how times have changed.

A quarter century ago British metal pioneers Iron Maiden’s American tour drew picketers across the country and piles of the band’s albums were burned by Christian activist groups offended (and perhaps a bit frightened) by the band’s macabre image and subject matter.

But in 2008, an Iron Maiden concert has become a family outing evidenced by the generations of metal heads that gathered at Blossom Thursday night to bang their heads to the band’s string of classic and hit metal tunes.

A impressive array of familial configurations could be seen rocking to the Maiden. There were toddlers likely attending their first concert (and likely getting their first whiff of marijuana smoke) with their dads; fathers and tween-aged daughters discussing the bands guitars; large families exiting their SUV’s all decked out in Maiden gear and even a women stretching her authentic 1983 tour shirt’s stitches to the breaking point as it tried to cover her very pregnant belly.

The sextet’s latest tour, dubbed Somewhere Back In Time, coincides with the release of yet another DVD and CD compilation and is visually based on the bands’ 1985 Powerslave tour and features music from their 1980 debut through 1992’s concept album Seventh Son of a Seventh Son.

The band of mostly pentagenarians (save singer Bruce Dickenson who turns 50 in August) still performed with the energy they did back when protesters were declaring Number of the Beast a danger to the spiritual welfare of our nation’s children. The band is also still having fun onstage, constantly smiling at each other while working through their rock poses ripping through hot versions of classic Maiden tunes including the set opening twofer of Aces High and 2 Minutes to Midnight both from Powerslave.

Dickenson wearing awful “ripped” leather pants, a camouflaged shirt and a wool cap was the talkative host, shouting his standard audience request to "scream for me O-Hi-O!,” riffing on the amount of cows in the state, and praising the audience for giving the band its most enthusiastic response in the states in years.
"Many of you were not even born when many these songs were written, which is excellent.’ Dickenson said before a double shot of Revelations and a shout-a-long The Trooper from 1983’s Piece of Mind.

Naturally, their early MTV/radio hits, Run To The Hills and Number of the Beast received huge ovations and inspired much air guitar/bass/drums from the crowd, but the band also played their magnum opus and fan favorite, the 13 minute Samuel Taylor-Coleridge inspired Rime of the Ancient Mariner complete with expertly timed pyro and colorful explosions.

While hardcore fans may quibble with the setlist (three songs Seventh Son of a Seventh Son?), many of the songs such as 1992’s Fear of the Dark seem to be chosen in part because they are packed with sing-a-long moments and Dickenson constantly encouraged the crowd to participate and they happily obliged.

By the time Eddie, the band’s sinister zombie-like mascot and accidentally brilliant marketing tool made his obligatory appearance during the set ending Iron Maiden both the band and fans had worked themselves into a sweaty, fist-pumping metal fervor.

Yes, times sure have changed. Iron Maiden's strong, energetic performance before an equally energetic and appreciative crowd proved that the old 20th century bon mot about families that pray together could easily be modified for the 21st century to “the family that headbangs together stays together.”

Iron Maiden Setlist - Blossom Music Center 7/12/08

Intro. Churchill's Speech
1. Aces High - From Powerslave (1984).
2. 2 Minutes to Midnight - From Powerslave (1984).
3. Revelations - From Piece of Mind (1983).
4. The Trooper - From Piece of Mind (1983)
5. Wasted Years - From Somewhere in Time (1986).
6. The Number of the Beast - From The Number of the Beast (1982).
7. Can I Play With Madness - From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988).
8. Rime of the Ancient Mariner - From Powerslave (1984).
9. Powerslave - From Powerslave (1984).
10. Heaven Can Wait - From Somewhere in Time (1986).
11. Run to the Hills - From The Number of the Beast (1982).
12. Fear of the Dark - From Fear of the Dark (1992).
13. Iron Maiden - From Iron Maiden (1980).
Encore
14. Moonchild - From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988).
15. The Clairvoyant - From Seventh Son of a Seventh Son (1988).
16. Hallowed Be Thy Name - From The Number of the Beast (1982).

Personnel
Bruce Dickinson - Lead vocals
Dave Murray – Guitar
Adrian Smith – Guitar, backing vocals
Janick Gers – Guitar, backing vocals
Steve Harris – Bass, keyboards, backing vocals
Nicko McBrain – Drums, percussion
Michael Kenney – Keyboards

Due to production delays the first two weeks of british rock band Coldplays North American tour have been changed.

For North East Ohioans that means that instead rocking with the band on July 6
they will have to wait to Viva La Vida with Chris Martin and the gang until Tuesday, October 21.

Tickets will be honored on the new date

Rather than wax philosophic, I'll just let the man and his awesome conk/pompadour hairdo speak/sing/play for himself.

Hey, Bo Diddley and Bo Diddley

You Can't Judge A Book

Road Runner

Eric Clapton is a living rock legend.
He's the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame's only triple inductee and a guitarist who used to be called God and influenced a few generations of guitarists and has a 40 year catalog of hits and classic rock radio staples.
But the 63 year old rock God and part time Ohioan has no new material to push (beyond yet another compilation) and brings with it the freedom to play what you want when you want, and Saturday night at Blossom Clapton wanted to play the blues and play them he did.

With a near sellout crowd ensuring that concert promoter LiveNation could crow about the venue's season opening numbers, Eric Clapton & His Band, a sextet, casually took the stage and and got the crowd on its feet with the funky blues shuffle of Motherless Children the opening track from Clapton's 461 Ocean Blvd.

It was a great, familiar and upbeat way to start the evening but it was the next two songs , Freddie King's funky arrangement of Key To The Highway and Muddy Waters Hootchie Cootchie Man that set the tone for rest of the evening. Clapton longtime guitar foil Doyle Bramhall II traded vocals and guitar solos on the former tune and Clapton let his Stratocaster do much of the talking on the on latter.

In fact Clapton didn't do much talking at all beyond the occasional declarative "Thank You!"
Casual Clapton fans hoping for a live "greatest hits" were likely disappointed in the 18 song cover filled set as he didn't play any hits from Cream, Blind Faith, his subpar overproduced 80's albums and only one song from the Unplugged associated tunes.

Clapton diehards content to hear Ol' Slowhand stretch out on guitar and play with passion however got an earful as both he and Bramhall (a lefty whose guitar is strung upside down) were in fine form. Bramhall played a lovely melodic solo for Little Wing and Clapton dug deep on the basic 12 bar blues of Otis Rush's Double Trouble, and showed his funky, rhythmic side on the near disco groove of Wilson Pickett's not well known Don't Knock My Love.

There was, of course, a semi-acoustic portion with Clapton playing Drifting solo before being joined by the band on Motherless Child, and Robert Johnson's Travelin' Riverside Blues featuring another tasteful slide solo from Clapton.

Aside from Clapton and Bramhall, keyboardist Chris Stainton also impressed with a fine imitation of Chuck Berry sideman Johnnie Johnson's machine gun piano style on Hootchie Cootchie Man and earned an ovation from the crowd for his rolling, saloon style solo on another Johnson tune Little Queen of Spades which Clapton answered with his own fiery above-the-octave solo that earned a standing ovation from the crowd.

Clapton may be in a place where pleasing himself onstage is more important than running through the hits, but he apparently didn't want to send the casual fans home with nothing to talk about beyond the number of songs they had never heard. Thus, the set closed with a string of hits. Wonderful Tonight, had couples canoodling in their seats followed by a suitably rousing Layla which brought everyone to their feet, and Cocaine gave Stainton one more chance to shine on the keyboard.

Opener Robert Randolph, the pedal steel phenom whose joyful, upbeat 40 minute set music got the the crowd's toes tapping and heads nodding, returned for the encore jam on Muddy Waters Got My Mojo Workin'.

Back in 2001 Clapton declared he was retiring from touring, but it was his love of the blues that brought him back to the road. Whether Clapton will ever feel like playing the "hits´´ in concert again remains to be seen. But blues fans and any fans who still might think Clapton is "God´´ should be giddy that he's playing the music he loves with fire rather than sleepwalking through Forever Man for the umpteenth time.

Eric Clapton & His Band Setlist

01. Motherless Children
02. Key To The Highway
03. Hoochie Coochie Man
04. Little Wing
05. Outside Woman Blues
06. Double Trouble
07. Don't Knock My Love

08. Drifting (acoustic)
09. Rockin' Chair (acoustic)
10. Motherless Child (acoustic)
11. Travelling Riverside Blues
12. Running On Faith (acoustic)

13. Tell The Truth
14. Little Queen of Spades
15. Before You Accuse Me
16. Wonderful Tonight
17. Layla
18. Cocaine

Encore:
19. I've Got My Mojo Working (with Robert Randolph)

Doyle Bramhall II - guitar, backing vocals
Chris Stainton - keyboards
Pino Palladino - bass
Ian Thomas - drums
Michelle John - backing vocals
Sharon White - backing vocals

Only a few short months after their show in Cleveland, the reunited Stone Temple Pilots will be bringing their large catalog of 2nd wave grunge hits to UA's E.J. Thomas Hall on Monday, July 7.

The band features all orignal members Dean DeLeo, Robert DeLeo, Eric Kretz and Chagrin Falls native Scott Weiland who recently parted ways with the sucessful supergroup Velvet Revolver.
The tour began in Columbus and passed through Cleveland earlier this month.
Barring any unforseen problems (which in the band's past have all been named Scott Weiland), STP is set to hit the studio to record their sixth album and first in since Shangri-La Dee Da in 2001.

Tickets for the show go on sale at 10 a.m., Saturday with ticket prices set at $58.50 and $48.50.

Your dreams have been answered.

NKOTB is back, baby!

LiveNation announced today that New Kids On The Block will be performing at "Da Q" on October 3, so save up your pennies all you (now) 35 year old NKOTB fans because tickets go on sale Monday, June 2 and prices will be $27.50, $47.50 and $67.50.

Joey (formerly Joe as a grown-up solo artist but apparently back to Joey for the reunion) McIntyre had this to say about the whole reunion caffafel.

“I think history has looked upon us fondly,” say McIntyre. “I wouldn’t say we were important, but people do now see our place in pop history. We’ve read that we `begat the boy bands” like Backstreet Boys and N’Sync. And in a way, those groups have all made us more contemporary. They made us younger in a way by putting us in their generation. But hey, what about New Edition? There would be no New Kids without them. And of course, the Jackson Five begat New Edition. So I guess we were really just the first white boy band.”

Good for you, Joe.
Glad to see you know some history and aren't trying to pull a Vanilla Ice (who considers himself a pioneering "white rapper") and claim you started the boyband craze.

Hey, I don't wish these guys any ill will, though I must admit I'm surprised to see character actor Donnie Walburg interested in whipping out those old moves again.
Anyway, not that they don't have a cache of fans who are no probably longer ashamed to admit they TOTALLY WERE IN LOVE WITH NEW KIDS, but isn't booking Quicken Loans Arena aiming a bit high?
I mean sure they sold 70 million albums and had numerous hits ("including the back-to-back international number one efforts, 1988’s Hangin’ Tough and 1990’s Step By Step — and a series of crossover smash R&B, pop hits like You Got It (The Right Stuff), Cover Girl, Didn’t I (Blow Your Mind This Time), Hangin’ Tough, I’ll Be Loving You, Step By Step and Tonight," the press release reminds us) but I dont' know if fuzzy and warm teenage nostalgia is enough to fill Q.L.A. with screeching 25-35 year olds.

Though, I suppose those fans won't have to ask their parents for ticket money or a ride this time.

Good luck, men….I mean, "Kids"

Old R&B/pop Divas (yes, that includes Elton John) and now apparently old R&B bands don't die, they just settle in Vegas.

To wit: Former Prince proteges The Time will be doing a summer residency at The Flamingo Las Vegas.
The band recently performed on the 50th Grammy Awards show in February with all orginal members Morris Day, Jerome Benton, Jesse Johnson, Monte Moir Jimmy Jam and Terry Lewis on stage together for the first time since 1993..

Now the same lineup will try to inspire tourists and gamblers to do The Walk and The Bird and perhaps even engage in a little Jungle Love while reminding everyone how Cool they were in the 80s'
(sorry about that)

Anyway, The Time will perform 15 shows at the Flamingo from June 24 through Aug. 2, with ticket prices ranging between $65 and $125 via Harrahs.com.

I'm a big fan, but for $125 Morris Day better come to my table and sing 777-9311 to me and Jerome has to be my hype man for the rest of the evening?

Another week and another rapper wants to be an actor.
This week it's Bow Wow who is coming off a sucessful collaborative album with fellow teen hearthrob Omarion.

According to the Associated Press, the rapper known as Shad Moss by his mama is going full steam ahead with his acting career.

Bow Wow will become a regular on HBO's "Entourage" when the show returns for its fifth season this fall, according to reports.

The 21-year-old rapper, whose real name is Shad Moss, is currently filming the New Orleans-based sports drama "Patriots" opposite Forest Whitaker and Isaiah Washington. His movie resume also includes "Roll Bounce" and "The Fast and the Furious: Tokyo Drift."

Perhaps as he said after spending 16 of your 21 years on earth making teen rap hits perhaps the grown up Wow is reading the tea leaves.
He's already surpassed the average rap career by about 10 years and three albums so he (and his team) likely figure that the teenage fans he's been marketed to will contine to grow up and his albums sales (along with the rest of the industry) are likely to dwindle. After good notices for his work in Roll Bounce he's got a much better chance of continued fame and fortune as an actor.

Also, Tokyo Drift sucked so bad, I wouldn't bother to put that on my resume.