Axl Rose and company to revisit NYC venue where they performed their ‘Live at the Ritz’ concerts 24 years ago. By Andrea Duncan-Mao Guns N’ Roses’ Axl Rose Photo: Evan Agostini/Getty Images All that’s old is new again. Axl Rose and his revamped Guns N’ Roses will revisit their beloved New York when they launch their Northeast tour in February. In 2011, the band completed a sold-out international tour and will kick off 2012 with a series of intimate shows in the States, starting with New York. Beginning February 10, they will perform a three-show series in the city, the cornerstone of which will be at the club Webster Hall, which was originally called the Ritz. This is where GN’R played one of their most famous concerts, “Live at the Ritz,” in 1998. For their return, the venue will revert to its original name, complete with new signage and marquee, and fans can wax nostalgic about the days when Guns were the biggest band on the planet. Additional cities include Chicago; Silver Spring, Maryland; and Atlantic City, New Jersey. No word yet if more dates will be announced. The stark difference this time around is that the original members of the group — namely Duff McKagan, Slash and Izzy Stradlin — will not be there. Axl remains the only original member in this latest incarnation of GN’R, and the latest crew has yet to release a new album. The last Guns N’ Roses release was back in 2008 with Chinese Democracy. McKagan currently lives in Seattle and has had success with his bands Velvet Revolver and Loaded, while the top-hat-wearing Slash, who was also in Velvet Revolver, has guested on tracks from Michael Jackson and Rihanna and is a major figure in the “Guitar Hero” video games. Guns N’ Roses tour dates, according to a press release:
‘It’s definitely going to be about showcasing the music,’ Florence Welch says of U.S. trek, which kicks off April 14. By James Montgomery Florence and the Machine Photo: Kevin Winter/ Getty Images On Monday (January 23), Florence and the Machine officially announced their spring U.S. tour, a run of shows that kicks off April 14 in Santa Barbara, California, and wraps May 12 in Atlantic City, New Jersey, with a handful of festival dates sprinkled in for good measure. It’s the first proper stateside tour Flo & Co. have launched in support of their Ceremonials album (they played a light schedule of radio dates at the end of the year). But if you think they’ll be matching that record’s sonic scope with an equally gigantic stage show, you’d be wrong. After wowing audiences here with an unending stream of epic, wide-screen TV performances , this time out, they’re going to let the songs stand on their own, as mastermind Florence Welch told MTV News. “In a way, it’s not going to be too big a production; we’ve done a lot of quite extravagant stuff, and that’s been amazing, but for this tour, it’s definitely going to be about showcasing the music,” she said. “The songs are going to be the most important thing. It will be heavily based on the music … no bells and whistles just yet, we’re going to try and keep it quite pure.” So, in a sense, the upcoming trek will hark back to Welch’s early days, in more ways than one. She’s also taking along longtime friend and former collaborator Dev Hynes, currently recording as Blood Orange, as her opening act. “It’s going to be so fun, I can’t wait. I used to be his backing singer in Lightspeed Champion, he took me on tour with him for one date, in Manchester [England]. He was one of the first members of Florence and the Machine, he used to play guitar with me at all my first gigs,” Welch said. “Even though he was doing his own stuff, he used to come and play guitar for me. We’d be in these weird matching outfits, T-shirts and lumberjack trousers, doing Iggy Pop covers and I would play the drums, Green Day covers [too]. We covered the whole of Nimrod. ” Dates for Florence and the Machine’s spring tour:
Rihanna gave a performance in Atlantic City, but I think the word “performance” is an understatement. Rihanna didn’t just sing to her fans, she drank a beer, took a shot and even got a little sexytime action in front of the audience. She ended gracefully, of course, by flipping a middle finger to the crowd. How nice of her. Check out the pics from Rihanna’s on stage party scene: For more stories on Rihanna, look at: Rihanna Gets Her Drink On In Miami [PHOTOS] Rihanna Named Face Of Armani Underwear Rihanna & Drake “Quietly” Dating
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Singer will hit the road again on August 9 in Vancouver following her doctor-ordered hiatus due to laryngitis. By Jocelyn Vena Adele Photo: Stefan M. Prager/Redferns After canceling her North American tour earlier this month due to laryngitis, Adele has just announced the rescheduled dates for the trek. She will resume performing beginning on August 9 in Vancouver. After the stop in Canada, the tour circles back around to missed tour dates on the West Coast and in the Midwest, wrapping up on August 24. Adele is also set to add six more dates to the tour, stopping in Las Vegas; Atlantic City, New Jersey; Durham, North Carolina; Orlando, Florida; Miami; and Spring, Texas from October 7 through October 21. Despite the health setback, Adele’s album 21 has been bouncing around the top of the charts for more than three months now. Atop the charts for the last 10 of the 17 weeks it’s been out, this week it lands at #3, falling behind Bad Meets Evil ‘s (better known as Eminem and Royce Da 5’9”) Hell: The Sequel as well as 11-year-old “America’s Got Talent” soprano opera singer Jackie Evancho’s Dream With Me . So, why is Adele so unstoppable this year? “It shows the power … of her fanbase. You’ve got a song that’s performing very, very well, still being discovered by new people every week,” Nielsen SoundScan’s senior vice president of analytics Dave Bakula told MTV News. “You’ve got an artist here who wasn’t a household name prior to this record coming out, so you do still have that discovery process going on with her. “What it really goes to show is the fact that there still are that many people discovering the album every week,” he added. “I think it shows a lot about the latent demand that is out there for great music.” Related Artists Adele
Band will headline four three-day festivals this summer, beginning in Atlantic City in June. By Aly Semigran Photo: 2011 Kevin Mazur/ GETTY For many, the Dave Matthews Band is summer. So, after a 20-year kinship with the band on the road, what exactly would a DMB-less summer look like for devoted fans? Lucky for “Dave heads,” they’ll no longer have to ponder that prospect. In 2010 the band announced they would be taking a hiatus from touring in 2011, but in the months that followed, an announcement was made that the multifaceted group — which includes Dave Matthews, Carter Beauford, Stefan Lessard and Boyd Tinsley, as well as Rashawn Ross, Tim Reynolds and Jeff Coffin (who stepped in after the death of founding member LeRoi Moore) — would be headlining a four-stop, multi-act Caravan festival from June to September. On February 22, members of DMB’s fan club, the Warehouse, received a cryptic “save the date” e-mail informing them that from June 24 to June 26 Dave and co. would be in the Northeast/Mid-Atlantic region and from July 8 to July 10 they’d be in the Midwest. The e-mail also alerted fans that the band would bring the tour out in August and September, but no locations or dates have been listed. Now fans can start making some concrete plans, as details for the first part of the festival have officially been announced. From June 24 to June 26, the Dave Matthews Band will headline three shows at Bader Field in Atlantic City, New Jersey. In addition to closing sets from the band each evening, as well as an acoustic set featuring Matthews and Reynolds, concertgoers will see scheduled performers David Gray, Ray LaMontagne, the Flaming Lips, O.A.R., Damian Marley, Bassnectar, Dr. Dog, Amos Lee, Thievery Corporation, Michael Franti and Spearhead, Warren Haynes Band, Grace Potter and the Nocturnals, Guster, Lotus, Rebelution, Fitz and the Tantrums, Carolina Chocolate Drops, Lisa Hannigan, Punch Brothers, From Good Homes, Delta Spirit, Big Gigantic, Alberta Cross, Mariachi El Bronx, TR3, Vusi Mahlasela, the Budos Band and Bobby Long. Tickets, which will only be available as three-day passes, go on sale to the general public Friday, March 25, at 10 a.m. However, members of the Warehouse will get the option of making ticket requests from Monday, March 14, to Monday, March 21, and Citi Card members will have access to pre-sale tickets on Monday, March 21. Will you be attending the Dave Matthews Band’s Caravan festival this summer? Tell us in the comments! Related Artists Dave Matthews Band Dave Matthews
Rolling Stone heard four new songs, which seem to draw from the past while still pushing the envelope. By MTV News Staff Report Lady Gaga Photo: Michael Caulfield/ Getty Images Hours before reviving her long-running Monster Ball Tour in Atlantic City, New Jersey, recently, Lady Gaga gave Rolling Stone magazine a sneak peek at four songs off her upcoming Born This Way album … and from the sound of things, she’s not only pushing the boundaries, she’s borrowing from some of the best in the business. For example, E Street Band saxophonist Clarence Clemons, who lends his prodigious skronk to a pair of the songs — “Edge of Glory” and “Hair” — or Nine Inch Nails, circa Trent Reznor’s Broken era (on “Hair,” which also apparently draws inspiration from ’80s singer Pat Benatar’s “We Belong” and the inspirational, all-encompassing lyrics of LG’s own “Born This Way”). Another song, “Judas,” which is set to be the second single off Born This Way, is described by Rolling Stone writer Matthew Perpetua as “a classic Lady Gaga pop banger,” with a “thumping, house music breakdown” and a vocal hook “that borrows a bit of Rihanna’s distinctive cadence.” “Edge” is “a massive power ballad with heavy club beats” that also contains “an element of cheesiness” and an “Eighties stadium rock vibe.” “Schei
Second Born This Way single is a ‘very, very dark song,’ Gaga says. By Kyle Anderson Lady Gaga Photo: Kristian Dowling/ Getty Images The title track (and first single) from Lady Gaga’s upcoming album Born This Way is still laying waste to sales records, but the singer is already contemplating the album’s second showpiece. On Monday, just before she took the stage at New York’s Madison Square Garden , where she was taping an HBO concert special, Gaga tweeted a lyric from “Judas,” which she already confirmed will be the second single from Born This Way. “I’m just a Holy Fool, oh baby he’s so cruel, but I’m still in love with Judas, baby,” Gaga wrote on Twitter . During a conversation with Carson Daly on his radio show last week, Gaga described the song as a much darker entry than “Born This Way.” “It’s about always falling in love with the wrong man over and over again,” she explained to Daly. ” ‘Judas’ is a very, very dark song. It’s rad.” Rolling Stone recently got to hear six tracks from Born This Way , including “Judas.” ” ‘Judas’ is a classic Lady Gaga pop banger with three huge hooks, a thumping house music breakdown and a vocal part that borrows a bit of Rihanna’s distinctive cadence,” wrote Rolling Stone ‘s Matthew Perpetua . Gaga just kicked off the latest leg of the Monster Ball Tour, which saw her open in Atlantic City before tearing into the first of two Madison Square Garden shows (the second, which will also be taped for the HBO special, is Tuesday night). There is no release date set for “Judas” yet, but Born This Way is scheduled to be dropped on May 23 and the video for “Born This Way” should be appearing soon — at least according to another Gaga tweet. “Just finished editing Born This Way video!” she wrote shortly after tweeting the “Judas” lyric. “Announcement Soon!” Related Photos Lady Gaga’s Madison Square Garden Performance Related Artists Lady Gaga