Clubs

Who wears the tight pants in this family? Music Wrap Up

I’m sorry to have to bring you the news the Susquehanna Bank Center has suffered a multiple personality breakdown associated with the letter J. I’m serious. Journey, Jonas Brothers, and Jewel on stage?

Is that a NEW Journey song I’ve been hearing on the radio? Holy crap. And with Steve (The Voice) Perry even. Sounds like he’s still wearing the really tight jeans. Red alert, red alert! Warp factor mid-1980’s, Mr. Sulu! Icons of that decade Heart and Cheap Trick share the stage with Steve and the lads but, never fear, we’ve also got a blast from the 1990’s (Jewel), a blast from 5 minutes ago (Jonas Brothers), and a blast from who the hell knows when (Bernadette Peters) to shake your live music foundations this weekend.

If the thought of seeing any of these artists live on stage this week activates your bile duct, no worries, there’s home grown and regional talent too. We’ll get to that later. Hey SBC, there’s a J band you missed – Jiving Jiblets.

Journey, Heart, Cheap Trick (Susquehanna Bank Center, 8/26/2008 @ 7 pm)
Yes, Virginia, Journey is still alive and kicking because they’ve got a massive promotion going tied in with a ZVUE MP3 player pre-loaded with their new CD. Plus you can go to their website and read all about it. This band still brings the ‘A’ material, like they always have, which begs the question – what have they been doing for the last 20 years? Hiding in a rabbit hole counting their cash? Sisterly vixens Heart and the radical fun dudes from Cheap Trick fill out the bill.

Bernadette Peters (Mann Center for the Performing Arts, 8/26/2008 @ 8 pm)
My main memory of Ms. Peters is as a romantic foil for a too-stupid-to-breath Steve Martin in a great little 1970’s movie called The Jerk. Apparently, she’s an actress, comedienne, and singer as well. Hmm. Very interesting. She returns to the stage at The Mann with the Chamber Orchestra of Philadelphia for an evening of Broadway and Cabaret standards. Click here if you want to adopt one of her dogs.

Jonas Brothers (Susquehanna Bank Center, 8/27/2008 @ 7 pm)
Now be nice! These poor boys can’t help it they’re stuck at the very apex of the Disney marketing wave. They’ll fall off pretty soon but for now, Curly, Larry and Moe are hotter than a chile pepper bullet in an Arizona lawman’s gun. If you’re over the age of 20 you better not even think about it unless you’re taking a gang of tweens – trust me, you’ll never live it down. But if the Jonas Brothers are your dirty little fantasy, get ‘em here.

Brad Paisley and Jewel (Susquehanna Bank Center, 8/30/2008 @ 7:30 pm)
I have no clue how these two ended up on the same bill. Is there something going on I don’t know about? They’re not going to pull another Chesney/Zellweger quickie marriage-annulment-I-was-duped, are they? Oops, now I remember, she’s married already. Regardless, Paisley is something of an oddity in Nashville as a star AND serious player of his guitar. Plus his songs are fun. Jewel’s slumming with country music these days and filling up her website with crazy ideas about clean drinking water. Where DO they come up with these silly notions? Sorry, sorry, I’ve had too much Mt. Dew already today.

We’ve now arrived at that time of the week where we toss off a few local or regional bands that might kick serious musical butt. You’ll never know if you don’t go. Ta da! My favorite lesser known band name of the week is…wait for it…Violens, because they don’t know if they want to be a flower or a punch in the face. Check ‘em out but let’s keep the plant abuse to a minimum, okay?

Violens @ Johnny Brendas, 8/30/2008

Nightwish @ Trocadero, 8/29/2008

Ism @ Khyber, 8/28/2008

Mr. King @ North Star Bar, 8/26/2008

Stay safe and watch for falling coconuts!

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