OK, maybe one will be up in Saratoga Springs and another down in Albany, so it isn’t really a face-to-face face-off, but which one will you go to tonight, Sirsy at Putnam Den or Timbre Coup at Red Square?
Category / Music
Trans-Siberian Orchestra brings new show to Albany
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You’ll be a bit disappointed if you go to the Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s annual holiday concert expecting to hear the group to play its holiday rock opera “Christmas Eve and Other Stories.”
They’re not doing that this year.
Instead, the bombastic rock act has chosen to rock “The Lost Christmas Eve,” the final chapter of its popular Christmas trilogy—which began with 1996’s “Christmas Eve.” “The Lost Christmas Eve” — which will be played in its entirety — focuses on people in a rundown hotel, an old toy store, a blues bar, and a Gothic cathedral in New York City on Christmas Eve. But don’t worry.
The TSO will heat up its huge light and laser show and dust off yuletide favorites such as “Christmas Eve/Sarajevo 12/24” during the second half of the concert. 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany. $33-$73. 487-2000; http://timesunion.com
Trey Anastasio Band to play Palace Theatre on Jan. 26, 2013
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Trey Anastasio Band will return to the Capital Region to play on Saturday, Jan. 26, at the Palace Theatre in Albany, Live Nation has announced.
The band is touring in support of Anastasio’s latest solo release, the album “Traveler,” which was released in October by ATO Records.
Rolling Stone magazine called the recording “gorgeous” and said of the song “Pigtail”:”all class-clown philosophizing and noodle-dance groove – is the slam-dunk: a reminder of what he does better than anyone else.”
The band’s line-up includes Cyro Baptista, James Casey, Natalie Cressman, Jennifer Hartswick, Russ Lawton, Tony Markellis and Ray Paczkowski.
Tickets for the show will be $42.50 go onsale at 10 a.m. Dec. 15. They can be purchased via LiveNation.com, at the Palace Theatre box office at 19 Clinton Ave. in Albany or charge by phone at 800-745-3000.
Why you know someone in a band: The Capital Region is dense (but not popular) with music
To control for the effects of population, this map (above) shows the distribution of musical acts per 10,000 people. Note how dark it is in and around Albany. From http://www.theatlanticcities.com/arts-and-lifestyle/2012/11/americas-most-popular-music-scenes/3588/
Richard Florida, who coined the term creative class — about how the development of cities can be dependent upon the rise of a class of professionals involved in creative industries — recently published a study in the Atlantic Online about the most popular music scenes in the U.S. (A hat tip to my colleague Leigh Hornbeck to pointing me to this map on the Idiotsbeingidiots blog.)
Florida’s post offers four maps:
- Raw Number of Musical Acts (LA is on top, followed by NYC and Chicago)
- Density of Musical Acts per 10,000 (This is the map above, with LA on top, followed by Napa, Calif., and Las Vegas — the Albany metro area comes in ninth)
- Music Popularity Index (in millions) This comes from MySpace data in 2007 (!) and has LA, NYC and Atlanta in the top 3
- Popularity Index per Capita (Nashville tops this list, followed by LA and Atlanta)
The article states that the data come from MySpace in 2007, so it can be out of date. Florida writes:
In early 2007, at the peak of the site’s popularity (it had more visitors than Google at the time), my team at the Martin Prosperity Institute (MPI) and I organized and collated information on the more than three million artists that were listed. We cleaned the data, organizing it by location, popularity (as reflected by fans, plays, and page views), and key musical genres. Overall, we were able to code almost two million acts to metro areas.
It is stunning that Albany area is so highly ranked in the density of musical acts with 154 for 10,000 people.
Now this doesn’t mean the city of Albany, but the metropolitan statistical area, which includes the four counties of the Capital Region (Albany, Rensselaer, Saratoga Springs and Schenectady) and more than 800,000 people. But if the math is correct, and you take that 154 per 10,000 and apply it to a population of 800,000, that means in 2007 there were 12,320 musical acts in the Capital Region.
To me this study, and Albany’s rank in it, means a few things:
- It confirms what I’ve long suspected and what other data, like a recent Preview survey, has said: going to see music is one of the top entertainment activities in the region.
- Many of the people who go to see musical acts are also involved in their own musical act.
- New technologies have made it easier than ever for people to create, record and distribute music, and this region is a vibrant place for that creation.
- Despite all of this vibrancy, the music doesn’t have much of a reach, in that it doesn’t rate highly on the popularity index. That could mean that not enough people are hearing the music being created in this area, because the new tools for recording and distribution aren’t enough to make it big in the music world, if Albany has to compete with Nashville and LA, for example. Then again, it could also mean that the music isn’t all that good.
- It also means that, with so many musical acts, that you, dear reader, likely know at least one person who plays music in a band, if not several,
What’s your take on this data?
Photos: Carrie Underwood over the years
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Carrie Underwood returns to the Capital Region on Tuesday, Dec. 4. It is hard to believe that it has been more than seven years since she became part of the pop culture firmament with her winning turn on the fourth season of American Idol. To celebrate her return, which will feature her American Music Award best Country album: “Blown Away,” check out these photos to relive the past seven years of her rise from AI contestant to superstar. You can read the review of her 2010 concert at Times Union Center here.
At a glance
Carrie Underwood
- When: 7 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 4
- Where: Times Union Center, 51 S. Pearl St., Albany
- Tickets: $40.50-$60.50
- Info: 800-745-3000; http://timesunion.com
Josh Ritter, Greg Brown to return to The Egg
Josh Ritter
The Egg has announced 3 new concerts: Solas and The Duhks on Jan. 12, Greg Brown on Feb. 2 and Josh Ritter on Feb. 13.
Tickets are currently available to members of The Egg and go on sale to the public on November 28. New memberships are currently being accepted for those wishing to take advantage of the pre-sale. For more information, call The Egg Box Office – 518-473-1845.
More details from The Egg follow:
Continue reading →
Nas concert moved to Upstate Concert Hall
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The recent issues surrounding live music at the Washington Avenue Armory in Albany has prompted a venue change for the Nov. 9 Nas concert.
The concert will now be held at the Upstate Concert Hall, 1208 Route 146, Clifton Park. The show includes special guests Jhene Aiko. Tickets are $30 in advance, $35 day of the show, with doors opening at 8 p.m.
For more information, visit the Upstate Concert Hall website at http://upstateconcerthall.com/2013/?cat=6
Meat Loaf concert postponed
The Meat Loaf concert scheduled for Saturday night in Albany has been postponed, the Palace Theatre announced this morning on its Facebook page.
The postponement is blamed on the devastation of Hurricane Sandy, which has forced the postponement of several of Meat Loaf’s concert dates, such as shows that had been scheduled for tonight at the Beacon Theater in New York City and on Nov. 5 at the State Theater in Ithaca.
Meanwhile, Times Union reporter Paul Grondahl spotted a Meat Loaf concert tour bus at the Marriott on Wolf Road on Tuesday, after the singer and his band had to evacuate hotel in New Jersey.
A new concert date will be announced at a later time, the Palace said.
Call the Palace box office at 465-4663 for updated information.
Green Day + Twilight = new video
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Green Day, The Forgotten, Music, More Music Videos
Green Day may be on hiatus, but here’s its video, related to the upcoming Twilight movie (and the thankfully final Twilight movie).
