Concert Announcements and Updates

This summer's lineup of shows continues to heat up! Here's the latest events that have been added to the Concert Calendar (right sidebar).


Local punk legends Dillinger Four reunite again this year for a show at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis on Wednesday, July 4 with Frozen Teens, Brain Tumors, Turkish Techno, and Victory. Their last show earlier this year sold out in advance, so get your tickets now.


Experimental hardcore masters from St. Paul The Crinn are back with Mortality Crisis, A Boy And His Dog, and Nerves for a Minneapolis show at the Triple Rock Social Club on Saturday, July 7. The Crinn's last album, Dreaming Saturn, was released by Nuclear Blast; hopefully some new material will be showcased.


Pop rockers Hoobastank return on Thursday, July 12 at the Varsity Theater in Minneapolis. Tickets for this 18+ show go on sale today, Friday, June 8 at 10:00 am.


According to the Mystic Lake website, the July 15 Kid Rock show is now sold out.


Punk-hardcore band The Dopamines arrive at the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis on Sunday, July 15 with Lipstick Homicide, The Slow Death, and The Manix.


God Forbid just announced a tour with Battlecross that brings them to Station 4 in St. Paul with Devilsex, Climactic, Reaping Asmodia, Deretia, and Purified on Wednesday, July 18.


The revamped lineup of In This Moment is already out on the road in advance of the new album Blood that will be released in August, and Saturday, July 21 brings them to St. Paul at Station 4.


Another sold out show - tickets are gone for Steel Panther on Friday, July 27 at The Brick in Minneapolis. Let's hope this gets moved to a larger room such as Myth.


Punk-ska pioneers The Mighty Mighty Bosstones invade the First Avenue Mainroom on Saturday, August 11. Tickets go on sale today, Friday, June 8 at 12:00 noon.

Classic rock legends The Guess Who play Minneapolis at Epic (of all places) on Saturday, August 18. No ticket information is yet available.


Eyes Set To Kill rolls into Station 4 in St. Paul with My Ticket Home, and Awaken The Empire on Sunday, August 19.

The next night, Monday, August 20, is one of brutal underground death metal at Station 4 in St. Paul with Abolishment Of Flesh, Skinned, Sadistic Passage, What Lies Within, and Fetus Heist.

Canadian technical/power metal band Into Eternity returns to Station 4 in St. Paul with local openers Cold Colours, Climactic, and Northsky on Friday, August 24.

70's rockers/80's balladeers REO Speedwagon bring their show to the Mystic Lake Showroom in Prior Lake on Friday, August 31. Tickets go on sale Saturday, June 16 at 10:00 am.


Former Hüsker Dü frontman Bob Mould plays at First Avenue on Saturday, September 15. To celebrate the 20th anniversary of Sugar's debut album Copper Blue, Bob's band will play this album in its entirety, along with another set of new solo material and Hüsker Dü classics. From what I can gather, Bob has always been reluctant to play his previous bands' material, so this should be a special night. Tickets go on sale today, Friday, June 8 at 12:00 noon.


Surely this will sell out - Katatonia and the Devin Townsend Project co-headline a tour with special guests Paradise Lost and Stolen Babies that arrives in St. Paul at Station 4 on Sunday, September 16.

Leave it to the Melvins to book a tour that hits all 50 states plus the District of Columbia in 51 days! The road warriors hit Grumpy's in Minneapolis on Wednesday, September 19. It's not clear which Grumpy's location will host this show, so more information will be forthcoming.


Reactivated industrial/noise icons the Swans play the Fine Line in Minneapolis with Xiu Xiu on Friday, September 21.


Great news for classic and progressive rock fans - Kansas brings their upcoming tour with none other than King's X to Myth in St. Paul on Saturday, September 22.


Guitar virtuoso Steve Vai comes to The Brick in Minneapolis on Wednesday, September 26. No ticket information is available at this time.


Lagwagon, pop-punk heavyweights who never got their mainstream due, hit the Triple Rock Social Club in Minneapolis on Thursday, October 4 with Dead To Me. This should sell out!


It doesn't get much heavier than this bill - Morbid Angel, Dark Funeral, and Grave bring their dark arts to Station 4 in St. Paul on Friday, October 5.


Lastly (whew!), Dutch symphonic metal maestros Epica return to Station 4 in St. Paul on Monday, November 5 with Alestorm, Insomnium, System Divide, and Destiny Potato.

Pick your shows and start making plans!

DEVIN TOWNSEND PROJECT - July 5, 2011, St. Paul, Minnesota

Devin Townsend Project
July 5, 2011
St. Paul, MN, Station 4

Click photo to see additional picture of the Devin Townsend Project (13).

Having seen Strapping Young Lad and the Devin Townsend Band a few times before, I knew to expect the uncanny during this support slot to Children Of Bodom. Although the set was short (35 minutes), it ranked up there with two other memorable shows by Devin. The first time I saw SYL was way back on the City tour (opening for Testament and Stuck Mojo), undoubtedly the best time to have seen them. My favorite Dev show was seeing the Devin Townsend Band open for Symphony X about 5 years ago, where floored me by playing some songs from the godly Ocean Machine album.

Click photo to see additional picture of the Devin Townsend Project (13).

Back to the present - this show was sold out and Station 4 was unbearably hot inside. Septicflesh and Obscura did a great job opening the show, but everyone was here for the final two acts. Multiple equipment problems delayed the start of DTP's set, but Devin keep the crowd entertained with his bizarre wit as he and the crew scrambled to get things going. Having released four albums in the last two years, it was shocking that only two of the six songs came from those albums. "By Your Command" from Ziltoid The Omniscient opened the show before Dev dug way back for "Truth" and "Om". Introduced as a ballad, "Supercrush!" would have been the evening's highlight if they hadn't followed this with "Kingdom", a super heavy, emotional song from the criminally overlooked Physicist album. It's one of my favorite Dev songs, and I couldn't believe I was actually hearing performed live to perfection. "Juulaar" was cut from the set, so "Stand" closed out the show.

Click to watch the Devin Townsend Band perform "Kingdom". Videos of the entire set can be viewed at my YouTube channel.

This was the most engaging I've ever seen Devin, and his on-stage banter can only be described as unique and bizarre. His band sounded tight despite playing in extreme heat. I'll get to Children Of Bodom in an upcoming post, but in many ways DTP stole the show. Download this and bask in the glory!

Click to watch the Devin Townsend Band perform "Supercrush!". Videos of the entire set can be viewed at my YouTube channel.

Devin Townsend Project
July 5, 2011
St. Paul, MN, Station 4
Shall I Tell You More??
192 kbps, 46.33 MB

Setlist:
1. By Your Command
2. Truth
3. Om
4. Supercrush!
5. Kingdom
6. Stand


http://www.megaupload.com/?d=K41F9085


As always, please feel free to share the link but do me a favor and share the link to this post rather than the download link. Thanks!

Upcoming Posts

Okay, I'm finally set to get a whole bunch of overdue things posted. You may have seen a slew of videos from some shows during the last three months that I've posted on my YouTube channel. This month I intend to get the audio of these posted for downloading. I've posted some full-length concert videos for download, but I won't be doing this any longer. The main reason is that video files are very large (especially the high-resolution ones I've been most recently shooting), and all file hosting services I've tried are extremely unreliable, to say the least. More often than not, the uploads crash and major headaches ensue when I have to attempt uploading a single file multiple times. Sorry about those of you who like video bootlegs, but it's just too much of a hassle.


I'll also add a note about audio file quality of shows available for download. First, I post everything at the bit rate at which they are recorded, 192 kbps. I currently don't have anything that records at higher bit rates. For people that sniff their nose at anything not lossless or at 320 kbps, I understand. I could encode files so that they appear to be lossless, but I don't want to fool anyone or waste your hard drive space. Second, yes, the quality of bootleg recordings varies! Some of these sound better than others. My experience has been that the quality primary depends on the sound inside the venue. I'm not a sound engineer, but I do master the original files so that they sound the best that they can on my sound system. They probably sound a bit different on your stereo or computer, so adjust your equalizer settings to listen. The most important thing is that these recordings do not have any distortion, and so generally they are extremely listenable for audience recordings.


There's a lot of things to post so I'm going to start with shows for which I've had requests. First up will be the Devin Townsend Project on July 5, 2011 in St. Paul. Here's the artwork for some other upcoming posts to whet your appetite. These posts will be combined reviews of the respective concerts. There's many more to come, so just hold tight.