September 2012 News

by Rick Allen

Rock queen JOAN JETT and local-boy-makes-good Easton Corbin are among the performers scheduled at the Silver Springs attraction in the first half of 2013.

JOAN JETT will play at Silver Springs in 2013.

The theme park announced the bookings in an email sent Thursday, and on its website. Also announced Thursday were Josh Turner and Jamey Johnson.

Corbin, a native of Trenton in nearby Gilchrist County, is scheduled for Feb. 23; Johnson arrives a month later on March 23; Jett rocks the springs April 13; and it's Turner's turn on June 15. None have performed at the park before.

Three acts in 2013 will be nighttime shows, "which is new to the series," according to Brooks Jordan, marketing director for the theme park. None of these four acts will be among the nighttime shows, he added.

"We're looking at about eight or nine concerts this year," Jordan said. "We're bringing in some pretty high-caliber talent, people who've never played at Silver Springs before."

And some fans can't wait.

"We're really excited about the whole series," said Mr. Bob of the Mr. Bob and Kathy Morning Show on Ocala's K-Country 93.7 FM.

He said Thursday he is particularly eager to again see Corbin, one of the freshest faces in country in recent years.

by Chad Childers

The Foo Fighters freshened things up by digging into the past with several classic rock covers Friday night (Sept. 21) during their headlining set at Atlanta's Music Midtown festival. The event also gave them the opportunity to reprise their frequent cover of 'Bad Reputation' with the song's originator, JOAN JETT, who had played earlier in the day.

The fans were treated to a healthy dose of the band's 'Wasting Light' album early on, with 'White Limo,' 'Rope,' 'Arlandria,' 'These Days,' and 'Walk' among the first nine tracks of the night. But after that and such well placed hits as 'All My Life,' 'The Pretender,' 'My Hero,' and 'Learn to Fly,' the band mixed things up with their first cover of the night Ð Van Halen's 'Everybody Wants You.'

The blistering guitar work and audience reaction made this one of the highlights of the evening, as the Foo Fighters showed that even on someone's else's material, they're a band on top of their game.

Next up in the covers catalog was the group's take on Pink Floyd's 'In the Flesh?' The track has been a favorite cover over the past year or so with Taylor Hawkins leading the vocals rather than Dave Grohl.

The last two covers of the night also leaned to the classic rock side, with Dave Grohl leading the band through the Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers classic 'Breakdown' first. With its moody beat, the Petty classic allowed the Foo Fighters a bit of a breather from their adrenaline fueled set.

However, the mid-tempo break was quickly alleviated when Grohl and company introduced Jett. The singer, who has appeared several times with the Foo Fighters during the support of their latest album and even joined the band on the 'Late Show with David Letterman,' reprised the collaboration of 'Bad Reputation' for the Atlanta audience.

With that performance bringing the audience to their feet, the Foo Fighters finished out the night with their longtime show closer, 'Everlong."

by Jay Cridlin, tbt*



(All weekend, Soundcheck is at the DeLuna Music Festival in Pensacola Beach, for performances by Pearl Jam, Foo Fighters, Zac Brown Band and more. Follow us on Twitter (@tbtsoundcheck) or Instagram (cridlin) for live coverage.)

When DeLuna Fest organizers brought on Gus Brandt, the tour manager of the Foo Fighters, to book the bands for this year's festival, he made it clear that just because they were getting him didn't mean they were getting the Foo Fighters, too.

"The Foo Fighters were probably the last idea I had," he told tbt* a few weeks ago. "That was the first thing I said: 'Just because I'm coming doesn't mean the Foo Fighters are playing. I have to go through the same process that anyone else does.' It wasn't guaranteed."

The gamble ended up paying off. And on Saturday night on Pensacola Beach, that payoff was spectacular.

With an epic, explosive set that included guest appearances by JOAN JETT and Bob Mould, the Foo Fighters made it clear why they were Saturday night's headliner, and why there's a case to be made that they're one of the great American rock bands of all time.

Singer Dave Grohl promised an epic set -- at the outset, he promised five hours and every song in their catalog. And while that didn't exactly come to pass, no matter. Even when the amps cut out during an otherwise electric Hey, Johnny Park! -- a fact to which most of the band was oblivious throughout the song -- the band was on fire.

"Did we f---in' rock that s--- so hard it doesn't work anymore?" Grohl asked after the band ended Hey, Johnny Park! Never mind all that -- the Foos then embarked on a sprawling, dynamic version of Mose Allison's Young Man Blues.

by James Stafford | Photo by Valerie Paty

This weekend's Midtown Music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia has been the buzz on social media. Me, I'm on the other coast so I've had to follow along as my friends and colleagues giggle and titter about Pearl Jam, the Foo Fighters, and Adam Ant (anonymous quote: "I don't think Adam Ant knows how old he is").

But Why It Matters has a mighty reach, much like Rush Limbaugh at a seafood buffet. Alert reader and music fan Valerie Paty was among the 52,000 gathered at Piedmont Park on Friday night to hear JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS get it done, and she passed along her notes and photos to share with you.

If you think of JOAN JETT at all, you probably think of her as the "I Love Rock and Roll" lady, but she's a badass. She's survived almost forty years in the music business, which is no mean feat, and she's done so by keeping her songs, her band, and herself tight. She keeps the crew on point, too: At one point during the show Jett gave a sound engineer a dressing down. Rock Ôn' roll ain't for sissies.

She and her band brought it: the black clothes, the cock rock moves, and a career-spanning set that included everything from RUNAWAYS nuggets to new cuts. Here is their set list:

Bad Reputation
Cherry Bomb
Do You Wanna Touch Me?
I Love Playing With Fire
TMI
Hard to Grow Up
The French Song
Love is Pain
Naked
Reality Mentality
I Love Rock Ôn' Roll
Crimson and Clover
I Hate Myself for Loving You
A.C.D.C.

If that wasn't enough JOAN JETT for the capacity crowd, she hopped on stage during the Foo Fighters set for a "Bad Reputation" run-through.

by Dennis Pillion

PENSACOLA BEACH, Florida -- JOAN JETT still loves rock and roll, and a huge crowd turned out for her Saturday set at DeLuna Fest 2012.

The crowd for JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS was the largest I've seen on a secondary stage, as thousands gathered to wish the singer a happy birthday as the sun set behind the stage on Pensacola Beach.

Jett rewarded the big crowd with a high-energy set that included her hits "I Love Rock and Roll," "Touch Me There," "Crimson and Clover," and many more.

The Joy Formidable and Bad Brains are finishing up now and Band of Horses go on at 8:15 as a lead-in to tonight's headliners, Foo Fighters.

by Melissa Ruggieri | Photo: Robb D. Cohen/www.robbsphotos.com

3:15 am September 22, 2012

Shiny, happy people.

So Las Vegas has the "I Heart Radio Festival" with Bon Jovi, Taylor Swift, Usher, Rihanna, No Doubt, Green Day, Mary J. Blige and a ton of other artists taking over the MGM Grand Arena this weekend.

Apparently, if an act isn't playing out west, they're in Atlanta, and that's cool with us, right?

On Friday night, Music Midtown -- back for a second year in expanded form after its five-year hiatus -- packed Piedmont Park with the lineup of Van Hunt, JOAN JETT AND THE BLACKHEARTS, T.I., The Avett Brothers and Foo Fighters.

I am admittedly terrible at gauging crowds in giant open spaces, but I'm going to take a semi-educated guess that the audience eclipsed last year's main event night with Coldplay (about 38,000).

And this was the "smaller" night.

Today, the musical festivities continue with Atlanta's O'Brother at 1 p.m., followed by Civil Twilight (1:30 p.m.), LP (2 p.m.), Garbage (2:45 p.m.), Adam Ant (3:45 p.m.), Ludacris (4:45 p.m.), Neon Trees (5:45 p.m.), Florence and the Machine (6:45 p.m.) and Pearl Jam (9 p.m.).

But back to Friday night.

This is really a seamlessly run event. Yes, the entrance can get congested when --thousands of people show up at the same time, but with plenty of beverage tents, enough green space for sprawling, an impressive lineup of food vendors (reasonably priced, though I still balk at paying $4 for a bottle of Coke Zero), interesting merchants and a musical rundown that ran on time all night, it's hard to find a complaint.

However, a reminder that smoking is banned in Piedmont Park .This is a city ordinance, not a ruling from the Midtown Music Council On High. Let's try to comply folks, capisce?

If you didn't attend Friday's six-and-a-half-hour musical smorgasbord, here's what you missed: