Concert Notes: 12/12/12 Tickets Go on Sale Monday; Neil Young Plays Brooklyn; More

Heads up, live music fans: tickets for the star-studded "12/12/12" concert supporting Hurricane Sandy relief go on sale this Monday, Dec. 3rd at 12 Noon Eastern via Ticketmaster. As the logo above indicates, the concert features Bruce Springsteen & The E Street Band, The Who, Bon Jovi, Dave Grohl, Paul McCartney, Billy Joel, Alicia Keys, Eddie Vedder, Roger Waters, and Kanye West. See more details on the concert at its website, 121212concert.org.

Tickets for the big 12/12/12 concert go on sale Monday.

People with Chase credit or debit cards will have access to a limited number of tickets for the 12/12/12 concert beginning at 9 a.m. on Dec. 3rd.

* Speaking of The Who, they're in town for a few shows this coming week to play "Quadrophenia" in its entirety plus other songs. They perform Wednesday at the Garden and Thursday at the Prudential Center in Newark; tickets are available for both.

* After jamming at the Garden on Tuesday, Neil Young & Crazy Horse play the Barclays Center in Brooklyn on Monday night. As before, Patti Smith and Everest open. Tickets are still available at Ticketmaster.

* Eric Clapton is bringing his Crossroads Guitar Festival to the Garden for two nights, April 12th and 13th. This charity concert features a bunch of guitar greats including Albert King, the Allman Brothers, B.B. King, Jeff Beck, Buddy Guy, and many more.

I completely forget when these were going on sale (it was yesterday), and they are sold out already. (Although StubHub lists about 1,200 tickets for each show, and the prices you see there may well come down as the dates approach).

Concert Notes: Coachella Cruises; The Who, Dylan Go on Tour

There are a couple of tours to talk about in this edition of Concert Notes, as well as a much more unusual kind of performance: the first-ever Coachella Cruises. Odd? Yeah, but at least all the endless jokes about the Coachella Cruise will distract us here in the U.S. from all the presidential election talk.

Here's what's news on the concert scene:

It may sound like a gag, but the S.S. Coachella is for real.

* Coachella Cruise to set sail: Building on the popularity of its first two-weekend festival this year, the folks behind the Coachella festival are sponsoring two rock-fueled floating parties. The "S.S. Coachella" will sail to the Bahamas this Dec. 16th to 19th and to the Bahamas Dec. 19th to 23rd.  Tickets go on sale this Saturday at 1 p.m. Eastern, 10 a.m. Pacific. Pricing starts at $500. See the Coachella Cruise FAQ for more details.

The lineup for both cruises features Pulp, Hot Chip, Yeasayer, Girl Talk, James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem (doing a DJ set) Sleigh Bells, Simian Mobile Disco, DJ Harvery, El-P, Black Lips, Grimes, and Cloud Nothings, among others.


Above: Townshend and Daltrey held a lengthy interview to announce the "Quadrophenia" tour.

* The Who to tour playing "Quadrophenia": Love live rock! The Who are getting back on the road after four years off to play "Quadrophenia" live in its entirety. Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey will play The Who's 1973 rock opera in more than 30 North American cities starting in November. Each show will conclude with some of the band's classic tunes. 

The NYC area will host five shows:  Brooklyn's Barclays Center (Nov. 14th), Madison Square Garden (Dec. 5th), Prudential Center (Dec. 6th), and Nassau Coliseum (Feb. 21st, 2013). There will be a presale July 20th; the public on-sale date is July 27th. (Link to The Who tickets.)

Related: There will be one-night-only screenings of a film on the making of the "Quadrophenia" album on July 24th. "The Who: Quadrophenia: Can You See the Real Me?" will be shown at theaters around the country, including AMC's Empire and Kips Bay in Manhattan and Edgewater and Secaucus in NJ. (See complete list of theaters here.)

* Bob Dylan announces more tour dates: Fresh off announcing his forthcoming album, "Tempest" (due Sept. 11th), Dylan has booked dates for some additional gigs in the Fall, with Mark Knofler. The only one in the NYC area is at the Barclays Center on Nov 21st; other dates not too far from the metro region are Bethel Center for the Arts (near the Woodstock site) on Sept. 2nd and the Mohegan Sun Arena in Connecticut on Sept. 8th. (See all Bob Dylan tour dates here.)

On Coverville, the Cover-Song Podcast: The Who, Guns 'N Roses, Red Hot Chili Peppers, & More

Recent episodes on the Coverville podcast include covers of songs by everyone from The Who and Bob Dylan to Guns N' Roses and Grace Jones.

It's been a long time since I posted an update on recent episodes from Coverville, the free cover-song podcast. So here's a look at some of the episodes that have come out lately (OK, going back to April). As usual with Coverville, most episodes spotlight a specific artist, but there are also podcasts on a certain genre (such as the country music episode).

• The Who #2 (including "Substitute" by Graham Parker, "I Can't Explain" by Scorpions, and "The Seeker" by Rush)
  
• Guns 'N Roses (featuring "Sweet Child O' Mine" by Taken by Trees, "Don't Cry" by Mogwai, and "Welcome to the Jungle" by Wave in Head)
  
• Red Hot Chili Peppers (including "Give It Away" by Bjørn Berge, "Under the Bridge" by Straight No Chaser, and "Californication" by Vitamin String Quartet)
  
• Country song covers #2 - country-style covers of pop hits (including " Life In a Northern Town (Live)" by Sugarland, Little Big Town, and Jake Owen; "You Shook Me All Night Long" by Big and Rich, and "Tequila Sunrise" by Alan Jackson)
  
• The Pretenders #2 (featuring "Don't Get Me Wrong" by Lily Allen, "Brass in Pocket" by Kelis, and "Talk of the Town" by the Pernice Brothers)
  
• Bob Dylan #4  (including "Don’t Think Twice, It’s Alright" by Curtis Stigers, "Blowin’ In The Wind" by Jools Holland and Ruby Turner, and "Girl from The North Country" by Eels)

Also recently featured on Coverville: Steve Winwood, Grace Jones, Muse, the podcast's second Madonna cover song episode, and more, including covers of songs from "Ferris Bueller's Day Off" and "Goodfellas."

Summer Concerts On Sale: Dave Matthews Band, Death from Above 1979, Governor's Ball, TV on the Radio, More

Tickets for the Aug. 22 show by Deerhunter (shown at River Rocks last summer) go on sale May 20 at 12 Noon.

It's still only May, but some of the summer concerts continue to be announced, and tickets are going on sale in the next day or two for some of the in-demand shows. This includes the Dave Matthews Band "Caravan" festival, the Foo Fighters two area appearances, and a show by the Canadian band Death from Above 1979. Here's a look at some of them, with other assorted summer concert information. (I'll have details on more free summer concerts in upcoming posts.)

The DMB show is already on sale; many of the others go on sale Friday, May 20th at 10 a.m. or Noon.

Dave Matthews Band Caravan - Fri. - Sun, Aug. 26 - 28 - Governors Island (full set by DMB each day; Dispatch, The Roots, Moe, Gogol Bordello, Josh Ritter and the Royal City Band, Bela Fleck and the Flecktones, The Head and the Heart, Robert Randolph and the Family Band, more)

(The DMB Caravan has another tri-state area show, in Atlantic City June 24 - 26.)

Governors Ball Music Festival - Sat., June 18 - Governors Island (Girl Talk, Pretty Lights, Empire of the Sun, Neon Indian, Big Boi (of Outkast), DJ set from Passion Pit)

Death From Above 1979 "with special guests" - Fri., July 22 - Williamsburg Waterfront

M. Ward with Kurt Vile & The Violators - Thurs., Aug. 11 - Wellmont Theatre (Montclair, NJ)

TV On The Radio with Broken Social Scene - Thurs., Sept. 8 - Williamsburg Waterfront

Roger Daltrey Performs The Who's Tommy, "plus Who classics and more" - Sun., Sept. 18 at Prudential Center and Fri., Sept. 23 at Nassau Coliseum

Deerhunter - Mon., Aug. 22 - Webster Hall

Foo Fighters - Mon., Sept. 26 - Izod Center

The Who Play the Super Bowl (VIDEO)

As someone who's been a fan of The Who since the 1960s, I was delighted to see the band play the Super Bowl halftime show tonight, even though they weren't in touring form and only had a 12-minute window to play as many segments of songs as they could squeeze into that time.

Here's what was in The Who's medley: “Pinball Wizard” into “Baba O’Riley,” “Who Are You,” a bit of “See Me/Feel Me” (from Tommy), and “Won’t Get Fooled Again.”

The New York Times noted that The Who "exhibited flashes of age and familiarity," whereas Rachel Sklar over at Mediaite echoed my reactions to the show: would've liked some lesser-known tunes, but overall thought it was a great show. (Judge for yourself in the videos of the performance, unfortunately split into two parts.)


Speaking of which, how old are the members of The Who these days? According to The Times (which seems to have trouble getting dates right these days), guitarist/songwriter Pete Townshend is 64, and singer Roger Daltrey is 65. I wasn't sure who the bassist was, but the drummer was Zak Starkey, son of Richard Starkey (better known as Ringo Starr). Zak has been The Who's drummer since the mid-'90s, and is a relative youngster at 44.

The Who was my favorite of the top rock groups growing up, even more than the Rolling Stones and The Beatles. I was glad to see them rocking out on such a big stage, and hope the performance wins them some new fans and sells some albums.

Music News: Beatles Jam Track, New Concert DVD from The Who

You've no doubt heard that there's a 14-minute Beatles jam recording out there somewhere, and it turns out Paul McCartney is looking to get it released. According to an article in Billboard, "Carnival of Light" is the most experimental track the Beatles ever recorded and McCartney needs to get permission from surviving Beatle Ringo Starr and the estates of George Harrison and John Lennon to get the tune to see the light of day.

"I said it would be great to put this on because it would show we were working with really avant-garde stuff," McCartney told the BBC about the track, which was recorded early in 1967.

Speaking of classic rock releases, here's one that's definitely reaching the listening public: a DVD of a 1977 concert by The Who. Called "The Who at Kilburn 1977," the DVD is coming out tomorrow, November 18th and is the full performance of a concert that was filmed for the Who documentary, "The Kids Are Alright."