Sean Spillane On Music

Wednesday’s Gregg Allman concert at the Palace in Stamford, which was postponed because of travel difficulties brought on by the snow, has been rescheduled for this Sunday, Jan. 2. Stamford Center for the Arts wants ticketholders for the postponed date to call the box office at 203-325-4466 as soon as possible to exchange your seats for the new performance. The box office is open Tuesday through Thursday from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m.

Tonight’s concert at the Fairfield Theatre Company featuring Anders Osborne has been canceled. This week’s snowstorm prevented the singer-guitarist from traveling to the Northeast.
For refund information, call FTC at 203-259-1036.

The Gathering of the Vibes music and arts festival has announced that its 16th edition will take place July 21-24, 2011, once again at Seaside Park in Bridgeport.
Early bird and VIP tickets go on sale Friday, Nov. 26, at 10 a.m., which the event organizers have dubbed “Black Tie Dye Friday.” Early Bird camping packages will be available for a limited time at $150 through the website www.govibes.com. There are only 15,000 camping spaces available and usually sell out.
There also are passes for sale for RVs, as well as travel packages with area hotels.
VIP packages include admission to the hospitality tent, preferred parking, a shaded camping area, catered meals, snacks and beverages and access to private bathrooms and hot showers.

When Pink Floyd mastermind Roger Waters announced that he was re-staging “The Wall” on his concert tour, I was intrigued. Having seen the show at the XL Center in Hartford Friday night, I’m blown away.
I’ve been attending concerts for more than 25 years, the last nine or so as a music writer for the Connecticut Post, so it’s safe to say I’ve seen more than my fair share. It’s also safe to say that Waters’ “Wall” is easily the most extraordinary event I’ve witnessed in my years of concert-going.
I was too young to see the original Wall tour in 1980, and the footage filmed at the concerts in Uniondale, N.Y., Los Angeles and England didn’t turn out to the band’s liking, apparently, as it has never been commercially released. Waters also staged The Wall in 1990 after the fall of the Berlin Wall with a cast of guest stars (Van Morrison, Cyndi Lauper, Bryan Adams, Joni Mitchell). But that was different and didn’t have the feel of Pink Floyd’s 1979 masterpiece.
Friday night’s concert had all of the angst, fear and paranoia of the album, with Waters front and center, leading us through the piece, a quasi-autobiographical look at his own life and growing feelings of alienation.
Waters’ early life was shaped by the death of his father in World War II, and that also was depicted as the night’s protagonist, Pink, had his father die when his fighter plane crashed into the stage. The first brick.
His school years are personified in the bullying schoolmaster, which comes to life in the form of a giant puppet. For “Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2,” Waters and his crew were joined by about 20 local youngsters, who added to the chorus and eventually chased the diabolical teacher back into the rafters.
It was at this point that workers started adding bricks to the framework of The Wall, slowly creating what would become a 240-foot-wide, 35-foot-tall character in the drama.
In what he jokingly called a “narcissistic” moment, Waters sang “Mother” as a duet with himself, circa 1981. As he played live, he sang along to footage of him performing the song at Earl’s Court in London from that year.
Interesting note on “Goodbye Blue Sky,” which I just learned. The child’s voice at the beginning, saying “Look mommy. There’s an aeroplane up in the sky,” is actually Waters’ son, Harry. Thirty years later, Harry Waters is the keyboard player in his father’s band.
The visuals on “Goodbye Blue Sky” pointed to the new direction Waters has taken “The Wall.” It’s more universal in scope, as documented by the bombers projected on the large, circular screen and on The Wall itself. Instead of bombs, however, the deadly cargo being dropped on the world below were symbols of the major religions, nations and corporations.
Very soon, the formidable wife would come onto the scene, another huge puppet that seemed to be half woman-half praying mantis. With her green skin, flaming red hair and lips made of pink neon, she was truly a horrific sight to behold.
The breakdown of Waters’ marriage would lead to the final brick in his wall and closed the curtain on the first act.
With The Wall now completed, the concert actually took on a new feel. The band may have been completely hidden, for the most part, but Waters and his co-conspirators had plenty of ways to keep the story moving along.
In pre-tour interviews, Waters spoke of the new technology at his disposal to make “The Wall” even better as a live event. He wasn’t kidding.
The computer graphics could make The Wall fade away, split down the middle and portions could flip over to reveal the next grotesquerie. Using the animation of Gerald Scarfe from the 1982 film based on the album, the second act played out on The Wall as if it were just another IMAX screen.
And the effects were tremendous. There were a few parts that had me flinching, as creatures hidden in, and behind, The Wall seemed to jump out at the crowd.
Waters was the only band member seen for much of the second act, emerging to help move the story along. He was joined by an old Pink Floyd friend, the flying pig used since the group’s “Animals” tour.
For this tour, however, the pig is now a flying black wild boar, with red lights for eyes and big black tusks.
If you’ve seen “The Wall” movie, then you will know pretty much the last 20 minutes of the show, as Scarfe’s animation was used almost exclusively as Waters sang along.
All that was left was for Waters and Co. was to carry out the orders of “The Judge” and to tear down his Wall. It was quite stunning watching it fall, coming apart in sections, much like an actual building implosion.
When The Wall was finally down, Waters and his bandmates played the coda, “Outside the Wall,” and that was that.
The concert was so epic in scope, it almost seemed like too much, if that can be said of a rock concert. Trying to take it all in almost seemed impossible, as there was always something going on with The Wall.
Actually, I see that Waters is bringing “The Wall Live” to the Izod Center in East Rutherford, N.J., Nov. 3-4 and at New York’s Madison Square Garden on Nov. 6.
I am so tempted to see it again, just to catch a few of the things I might have missed. It was that amazing a concert experience.

The set list
Part 1: In the Flesh?/The Thin Ice/Another Brick in the Wall, Part 1/The Happiest Days of Our Lives/Another Brick in the Wall, Part 2/Mother/Goodbye Blue Sky/Empty Spaces/What Shall We Do Now?/Young Lust/One of My Turns/Don’t Leave Me Now/Another Brick in the Wall, Part 3/Goodbye Cruel World
Part 2: Hey You/Is There Anybody Out There?/Nobody Home/Vera/Bring the Boys Back Home/Comfortably Numb/The Show Must Go On/In the Flesh/Run Like Hell/Waiting for the Worms/Stop/The Trial/Outside the Wall

Kicking Daisies, a local band comprised of four mega-talented teens from the area, is one of five acts in the running in Radio Disney’s Next Big Thing national talent competition.
The band features sisters Caitlin and Carly Kalafus on drums and bass, respectively, Ben Spremulli on lead guitar and singer-guitarist Duran Visek.
Here is a link to the Radio Disney Next Big Thing website where you can watch clips of the band, hear a few of their songs and, most importantly, cast your votes for Kicking Daisies.

http://radio.disney.go.com/artists/nbt/2010/artist-kicking-daisies.html

According to an e-mail from proud papa Chris Kalafus, you also can “text NBT to 347639 then they’ll ask you how many stars you would like to vote,” with the most being five stars. He also stresses that people can vote daily in the competition.
If you’re at The Big E in West Springfield, Mass., Saturday night, you can catch Kicking Daisies when they open the 8 p.m. concert by Boys Like Girls.
For more on the band, go to www.kickingdaisies.com.

Because of a scheduling conflict, the Oct. 5 show by The Gorillaz at the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford has been canceled. Purchases made through the websites www.LiveNation.com and www.ticketmaster.com will be automatically refunded and all other refunds will be available at the point of purchase. For more refund information, call 203-265-1501.

After a couple of earlier postponements, Lady Gaga’s Monster Ball tour finally made it to Connecticut, thrilling a sold-out crowd of 18,000 at the XL Center in Hartford with her dance-pop hits, elaborate stage set-ups and wave after wave of dancers giving highly athletic performances.
For fans of Lady Gaga, it was probably just what was expected: songs from her ultra-successful debut album, “The Fame,” and it’s quickie follow-up, “The Fame Monster”; several costume changes that ranged from bizarre to skimpy to creepy to near-blasphemous (a sheer outfit that looked like a nun’s habit); and many intricate dance productions.
There actually was a theme to the concert, as Lady Gaga guided a couple of her dancers to the Monster Ball, starting off in an inner-city setting, moving on to a subway set a creepy park before finally reaching the Monster Ball at the end. Sort of a twisted “Wizard of Oz,” where the destination isn’t home, but rather a place where the outsiders find themselves with kindred spirits.
Musically, the songs didn’t stray that much from the recorded versions and there seemed to be a lot of singing along to backing vocal tracks. At one point, she screamed about how she sings in her concerts, but there seemed to be little doubt that she doesn’t sing all the time at her shows. How can you sing, dance and climb up the on-set scaffolding, all without dropping a note?
But she definitely does a lot more singing than most pop stars in concert, and that was reassuring.
Mid-show, she quieted things down a bit for the songs “Speechless” and “You and I,” showing off her vocal range as both songs featured her singing and her piano playing.
The highlights, naturally, were the Top 10 singles, of which Lady Gaga has an astounding seven in a little more than two years. If you never heard of Lady Gaga before going to the show, the seven hits would have been easy to figure out as the crowd was whipped into a frenzy from the first notes of each one.
“Just Dance” and “LoveGame” were played early in the set; “Telephone” propped up the middle portion; and the two-hour concert ended on the highest of notes with four straight blockbusters.
“Alejandro” was followed by “Poker Face.” After yet another costume change, Lady Gaga led her band through “Paparazzi.” One final costume change and the show wrapped with “Bad Romance.”
Still, for those of us not initiated in the Cult of Gaga, there was something a little off-putting about the concert. I must admit to having a great respect for the artist, as her pop songs are incredibly catchy and there’s never anything wrong with that. However, there were several moments during the show that I felt completely lost.
Lady Gaga is very vocal in her support for the gay community, which has always been supportive of her career. All of that is perfectly fine.
What I didn’t particularly care for was her constant sermonizing on the subject, using almost every break to talk of the issues of feeling like an outsider, of gays in the military and repealing the armed forces’ Don’t Ask Don’t Tell policy.
Important issues to Lady Gaga and for many of her followers, but not to many in attendance and certainly not of great significance to the hundreds of youngsters in the crowd.
You could almost see their eyes glaze over as she went off on another tangent about calling your senator and voicing your opinion on Don’t Ask Don’t Tell. After a while, I’m sure they were thinking: “Don’t Talk, Just Sing.”
The opening act was New York rock band Semi Precious Weapons. Because of extenuating circumstances, I was late to Thursday’s show and only caught the last 10 minutes of their set. Let’s just say I wish I had gotten there 10 minutes later.

Live Nation announced that tickets for three performances of Trans-Siberian Orchestra’s Winter Tour 2010 will go on sale Friday at 10 a.m.
TSO will perform two shows Nov. 6 at 3:30 and 8 p.m. at the XL Center in Hartford with tickets $28-$60.
It will also be at the Mohegan Sun Arena on Nov. 17 at 8 p.m. with tickets $51-$61.
Tickets for all three shows will be available through Ticketmaster at 800-745-3000 or online at www.LiveNation.com or www.ticketmaster.com.
Straight No Chaser, a wildly successful a cappella group, will play the Oakdale Theatre in Wallingford on Nov. 14 with tickets on sale Monday at 10 a.m., also through Ticketmaster and www.LiveNation.com. Tickets are $20-$39.50.