40th Anniversary of Woodstock: Heat, but No Mud in NY

Today marks the 40th anniversary of the start of the legendary Woodstock festival in Bethel, New York... three days of music, peace, and mud. Fortunately, after a summer full of unseasonably wet weather, the NYC area is free of rain and mud for this anniversary weekend; it'll be hot and sunny.

There of course will be a range of events in upstate New York to commemorate the Woodstock anniversary, including a couple of Richie Havens performances. There of course will be special observances at the Bethel Woods Center for the Arts, a new facility that offers concerts and other events throughout the year, as well as a museum. Today is a (sold-out) Heroes of Woodstock concert featuring the Levon Helm Band, Jefferson Starship, Ten Years After, Canned Heat, Big Brother and the Holding Company, Mountain, and others.

A reading from the book "Woodstock Revisited" will be held August 17th, and Loggins & Messina and Poco will play a show on the 21st. There are also events such a a wine festival, county picnic, and even an alpaca day (bring your own alpaca?)

The Bethel Woods Center for the Arts seems to be a great development, bringing music and arts to the area of the Woodstock festival throughout the year, instead of just one weekend.

There was a big crowd at the Blondie/Pat Benatar/Donnas free concert in Coney Island Thursday night, but the only mud in sight was in a small puddle off one of the walkways. It was a great show, however, especially from the two co-headliners, who still sounded in good form after more than a quarter century while tearing through sets of their best-known tunes. (The Donnas sounded fine, but had a very short opening set.)

Pat Benatar couldn't hit the high notes the way she used to, but other than that her voice had much the same sound as it did back in the 1980s.

Blondie, Pat Benatar, and The Donnas to Play FREE Coney Island Show Thursday

A month after the Siren Festival, Coney Island is set to host another big concert event: the women-who-rock tripleheader of Blondie, Pat Benatar, and The Donnas. The three acts, who have been touring around the U.S. this summer, will be performing a free show in the Summer Seaside Concert Series at Asser Levy/Seaside Park in Coney Island/Brighton Beach, across the street from the New York Aquarium.

You can find directions to Asser Levy Park here, including subway and driving directions and a link to a map of the area. (Via subway: take the D to Stillwell Avenue/Coney Island Station; or take the Q or F to West 8th Street/NY Aquarium Station.)

See here for more Donnas tour dates, including some headlining shows. You can find Pat Benatar tour dates here. And here's the link for all the Blondie tour dates.

The free Blondie/Benatar/Donnas show in Brooklyn has been on my radar for some time, but I hadn't been aware of this concert series until just now. Which is too bad, because they've had some great classic acts: Credence Clearwater Revival, Gladys Knight and the O'Jays, Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons, Daryl Hall and John Oates, and the last show of the season, Donna Summer on August 27th.

The Donnas Celebrating 16th Anniversary with Tour and Greatest Hits

Happy anniversary to The Donnas, who this year are celebrating their Sweet 16 as a band. The ladies aren't resting on their laurels, of course, and are gearing up for a summer tour with two pioneers of women in rock, Pat Benatar and Blondie.

The new Donnas collection, called The Donnas Greatest Hits, Vol 16, will drop July 7th and is said to include unheard B-sides from their last album, Bitchin'.

According to an e-mail from the band yesterday, the album will also include:
"... Live versions of hits "Take It Off" and "Fall Behind Me", and two previously unreleased tracks from the band’s earliest days together. The band also re-recorded five tracks, remixed one and included two alternative versions of songs from their Lookout! Records catalog (1998-2001), one of which is sung by original producer/co-writer Darin Raffaelli."

For full track listing and Donnas tour dates see this article on Alt-Sounds.

In addition, The Donnas have some songs from their early bands that can be streamed on their MySpace page. You can find more songs from those bands, Ragady Anne and The Electrocutes (their later name), at MySpace pages for those bands, where you can also buy some of the tracks.

The Donnas summer 2009 tour starts on July 16th in San Diego and ends on August 23rd in Houston. The Donnas will be headline some of the shows. You can find more information about The Donnas on their Web site (in first paragraph) or on their Twitter feed.

The Donnas Featured on Rock Band 2

The Donnas have been one of my favorite bands for several years now, so I was happy to hear from the band that one of their tracks will be featured on the new Rock Band 2. The song is "New Kid in School" and the band says it's a bonus track from their latest album, "Bitchin'" (but it's not on my copy).

Other twenty-first century songs included on Rock Band 2 included "Down with the Sickness" by Disturbed, "PDA" from Interpol, and "Lazy Eye” by Silversun Pickups. You can read the entire Rock Band 2 song list and features at the Rock Band Web site.

Sahara Hotnights Heats Up Knitting Factory NYC

Anybody whose knowledge of Swedish rock and pop is limited to Abba is missing a lot of great music... such as the all-female band Sahara Hotnights.

At New York's Knitting Factory last Thursday the four women played an enthusiastic (if short) set of their older rockers and more mellow ballads from their newest album, “What If Leaving is a Loving Thing.”

Mind you, this show came less than two weeks after I saw another of Sweden's rock and roll exports, The Hives, at New York's Terminal 5 with The Donnas. The state of Swedish rock and pop is indeed strong, especially when you include the pop trio Peter, Bjorn, and John; the rock group The Soundtrack of Our Lives, and other groups.

Sahara Hotnights reminded me of The Donnas, in fact, besides the obvious fact that they are both all-women rock foursomes. Both started out at about the same time, in the early 1990s, and both began playing a rough-edged style of rock that has grown more polished in recent years.

Some fans have complained that “What If Leaving is a Loving Thing” is too mellow compared to the band's earlier material, and it definitely is more melodic and more ballad-oriented, with some dance rhythms thrown in. The same has been said of The Donnas, which started out sounding much like the Ramones, with loud, hard, fast two-minute songs.

But it's inevitable that a band's sound is going to change over the years, if only because the members have become better musicians. And in the case of both The Donnas and Sahara Hotnights, being being together as a band for more than 15 years is definitely going to naturally result in growth and change.

Having said that, if I were to recommend one Sahara Hotnights album to someone it would be their second disc, 2001's “Jennie Bomb.” It features their harder, more aggressive power-pop sound and plenty of catchy tunes, including “Alright Alright (Here's My Fist, Where's the Fight?).”

The only complaint I had about the Sahara Hotnights show was its short length. At 43 minutes, it was even shorter than a Donnas show (the ones I've been too have clocked in at anywhere between 50 minutes and an hour).

The Hives and The Donnas Rock NYC

The Hives and The Donnas are two of the most high-energy garage-rock bands around, so it's only appropriate that they recently played a venue in New York that resembles, well, a big garage.

The cavernous new venue Terminal 5, said to be the first large concert venue to open in Manhattan in years, hosted The Hives (from Sweden) and The Donnas (from Southern California) on March 7th, and it was probably one of the best values in concert-going I've had in years (except for free concerts). For $22.50 I got to see The Donnas, favorites of mine who I catch every time they come to NYC, and The Hives, who I just became familiar with when I knew I'd be seeing them.

If The Donnas are high energy in concert, The Hives are absolutely manic. Singer Pelle Almqvist roamed all over the stage, jumping and scissor-kicking his way through the show and even wandering into the audience. Guitarist Nicholaus Arson was similarly frenetic, urging the crowd on and periodically putting guitar picks onto his extended tongue and spitting them out into the audience.

The two bands' joint tour has ended now, but it was a very entertaining twin bill. The bands will continue touring separately (in Europe and Australia, respectively) supporting their new albums: "The Black and White Album" (The Hives) and "Bitchin'" (The Donnas).

The Donnas Spend the Night at Highline Ballroom

It had been a long time since The Donnas had played New York City, but the ladies from California made up for the absence with a high-energy show at the Highline Ballroom last week.

Their new album, "Bitchin,'" has a harder edge than their last few releases, reminiscent of Joan Jett in several songs, and this rougher sound comes off great in concert, where there are no overdubs or editing, but the unvarnished sound of the crunching guitar. Speaking of that guitar, this harder sound means that Allison Robertson, the band's lone guitarist, has to be on top of her game at all times, and she was up to the challenge.

Brett Anderson's voice was in fine form, as usual. And drummer Torrey Castellano, who has had problems in the past (and maybe still does) with wrist injuries from drumming, was wailing away on the skins with abandon, oftentimes practically jumping off of her stool. She's been a very enthusiastic and active drummer every time I've seen The Donnas, but she seemed to be even more revved up this time around. I wonder if her injuries have subsided, allowing her to whack on the drums harder, and enabling the band to pursue songs with a harder edge and a more driving beat.

As expected, the setlist included a number of songs from "Bitchin'" along with a collection of tunes from their last few albums. A couple of pleasant surprises were a song from one of their early albums, "Let's Go Mano," played during their encore, and a cover of the Ratt tune "Round and Round."

The only complaint I had about this show is the same one I have of every Donnas show I've attended: the band plays the shortest sets I've ever seen in a headlining band. I've seen The Donnas four or five times now and they've never played long than an hour, and sometimes the sets are closer to 50 minutes. I had sometimes suspected maybe this was due to Castellano's injured wrists--maybe they couldn't handle much more pounding than that on any given night--but she seems to be pounding the skins pretty hard these days.