Free Republic

LOS ANGELES (AP) — California’s lieutenant governor and other elected officials on Tuesday urged Taylor Swift to postpone her Los Angeles concerts as a way to stand in solidarity with striking hotel workers. Lt. Gov. Eleni Kounalakis and dozens of state and local politicians signed an open letter telling Swift that her tour makes the region’s hotels money, with some properties “doubling and tripling what they charge because you are coming.” Meanwhile, the letter said, many housekeepers and other hotel workers can’t afford to live close to their jobs and some sleep in their cars and risk losing their homes....

Taylor Swift’s Eras Tour is the biggest thing on the planet right now if you read the reviews and hype surrounding the tour. Chaos takes over in cities when the tour rolls in and fans come from far and wide to see the show. Local economies see an instant boost thanks to ‘Swifties’ spending money like there is no tomorrow.The Philadelphia Federal Reserve has noticed and has concluded that Taylor Swift’s concerts and her fans are single-handedly rescuing the hotel industry. Hotel revenues are their highest since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020. No pressure, Taylor.The Philadelphia Federal...

IN THE LAST few years, CJ Strock, a talent agent who worked with the later incarnation of the Allman Brothers Band, faced an unusual dilemma. As seen in catalog and merch sales, a market still existed for the Allmans, their quintessentially Southern rock & roll, and their improvisational live shows, but the band itself didn’t exist: They formally gave their last performances in 2014, and Gregg Allman died of liver cancer three years later. With an eye toward introducing new fans to the band, Strock had an idea — essentially a new Allmans... Thus was born “The Allman Brothers Band...

The Justice Department has opened an antitrust investigation into the owner of Ticketmaster, whose sale of Taylor Swift concert tickets descended into chaos this week, said two people with knowledge of the matter. The investigation is focused on whether Live Nation Entertainment has abused its power over the multibillion-dollar live music.

Music fans frustrated over concert ticket hidden fees have gotten a powerful ally. President Joe Biden recently announced he would be coming after the such “surprise charges” as part of a sweeping new initiative. In a speech on Oct. 26, Biden announced he’d asked his Competition Council to take on “the unfair hidden fees known as 'junk fees' that are taking real money — real money out of your pockets — real money out of the pockets of American families.” Examples the President gave of such “junk fees” included banking overdraft fees, credit card late fees, hotel resort fees and...

TThe long-running Music Midtown festival at Piedmont Park in Atlanta, scheduled for Sept. 17-18 with headliners My Chemical Romance, Future, Jack White and Fallout Boy, has been called off, according to a statement issued by festival organizers. The likely cause, industry sources tell Billboard, are recent changes to Georgia gun laws that prevent the festival from banning guns on to the publicly owned festival grounds... … While owner Live Nation didn’t provide any additional details for the cancellation, pro-gun rights groups had been emailing and posting comments of the festival’s social media page for several months, hinting at potential legal...

in the '70s, Miller crafted a brand of pure pop that was smart, polished, exciting and irresistible - and that dominated radio in a way that few artists have ever managed. Hit followed hit in what seemed like an endless flow: “The Joker,” "Take the Money and Run," "Rock'n Me," "Fly Like an Eagle," "Jet Airliner," "Jungle Love," “Swingtown” and “Abracadabra,” among them. To this day, those songs are instantly recognizable when they crop up online or on the radio - and impossible not to sing along with. Their hooks are the very definition of indelible. Running through Miller's distinctive...

During his February 3 YouTube livestream, outspoken conservative rocker Ted Nugent discussed his plans to hit the road in support of his new album, "Detroit Muscle", which is due on April 29 via Pavement Music. The follow-up to 2018's "The Music Made Me Do It" was recorded with Ted's current band, which includes bassist Greg Smith and drummer Jason "Tickets go on sale tomorrow, I think, for this gonzo beach party rock and roll concert headlined by Ted Nugent in Panama City [Florida] on April 29th," Ted said (as transcribed by BLABBERMOUTH.NET). "Write that down. That's confirmed. There'll be no...

Police investigating a deadly crush that killed eight at a Travis Scott-headlined festival in Houston say a crazed man injected at least one person with opioids during the chaos. Houston Chief of Police Troy Finner made the shocking claim at a press conference Saturday after hours of rumors about the Astroworld Fest tragedy, and Mayor of Houston Sylvester Turner revealed the victims were aged between 14 and 27. 'One of the narratives was that some individual was injecting other people with drugs. We do have a report of a security officer, according to the medical staff that was out and...

AEG Presents, a global leader in concerts and live events, announced today that it will be requiring proof of vaccination for entry into its owned and operated clubs, theatres, and festivals. The decision comes on the heels of the dramatic surge in COVID-19 cases as the delta variant spreads throughout the United States. AEG Presents is either an owner or partner in such iconic venues and festivals as New York's Webster Hall and Brooklyn Steel, The Roxy and El Rey Theatre in Los Angeles, The Theatre at Resorts World Las Vegas, Firefly Music Festival, Day N Vegas, New Orleans Jazz...

(CNN)There is no indication two weeks after Lollapalooza that the music festival contributed to a spike in Covid-19 infections, a Chicago health official said Thursday, despite attracting an estimated 385,000 attendees.... Among vaccinated attendees, there were 127 diagnosed with Covid-19, Arwady said. That's just 0.04%, or four in 10,000 vaccinated attendees. "Among unvaccinated attendees we did, as expected, see a higher rate of Covid cases, but it was still low," she said. There were 76 unvaccinated attendees who reported testing positive, Arwady said -- 0.16% or 16 in 10,000 unvaccinated attendees. "And as of yesterday we had no hospitalizations or...

Garth Brooks is scheduled to take the stage at a sold-out Arrowhead Stadium concert Saturday... ...KANSAS QUARANTINE LIST The Kansas Department of Health and Environment’s travel quarantine list applies to those who attend “any out-of-state mass gatherings of 500 or more where individuals do not socially distance (6 feet) and wear a mask.” As a result of this guidance, people who go to the Garth Brooks concert and are not fully vaccinated will have to quarantine for seven days with a negative test result or 10 days without testing after the event if they go to Kansas. Those who are...

...the announcement that Jagger and company will try again, at the postponed 2021 Jazz Fest, caught just about everyone by surprise — even members of the Jazz Fest staff and board. Until Thursday, the Stones organization managed to keep secret not just the Oct. 13 New Orleans appearance but the band's entire 13-date fall stadium tour. “There may never have been anything that was so big and so quiet,” said Quint Davis, the Jazz Fest's longtime producer and director. “It’s the biggest band in the world doing an American tour that nobody knew about. And they’re playing Jazz Fest.” ...an...

Tech temp tattoos are nearly here. Microsoft Research and MIT's Media Lab have published details of Tattio, a futuristic research project looking into "on skin" technology. Inspired by the kind of metallic temporary tattoos you'd find at Coachella or Glastonbury, the team used gold imitation leaf metal and applied it to tattoo paper with stencil traces. In terms of functions, Microsoft Research and the Media Lab then experimented with a few ideas. The first was NFC tags to act as your digital identity and the idea is that people could choose how big an antenna they want to use in...

After taking 2020 off due to the pandemic, Riot Fest is returning to Chicago for 2021. My Chemical Romance were originally supposed to headline the festival in 2020 and then again in 2021, but after again postponing their reunion tour, they won’t play Riot Fest until 2022. That left a huge gulf at the top of the 2021 poster, which has been filled by none other than Nine Inch Nails. Riot Fest just announced its updated 2021 slate, which carries over a lot of bands from last year’s initial announcement, including headliners Smashing Pumpkins, Pixies, and Run The Jewels. The...

Metallica frontman James Hetfield has spoken of how he’s “sceptical” of getting the coronavirus vaccine. Speaking in a new interview, Hetfield was asked about the prospect of Metallica touring again soon, and how they would make potential live shows safe for fans. “I have no clue,” he told The Fierce Life podcast. “It’s not up to me. It really is up to the safety of everyone — not just the fans, but the crew and us. “I’m not sure what that means in the future as far as vaccines. I’m a little skeptical of getting the vaccine, but it seems...

A band in New Zealand played to a cowed of 50,000 fans on Saturday, while much of the world remains in lockdown due to the coronavirus pandemic. The five-piece group has been playing to huge crowds on its tour of the country where social distancing isn't required after the nation all but stamped out the coronavirus with its stringent lockdown measures. The band's tour finale on Saturday night was billed as the largest concert in the world since the beginning of the pandemic, which has devastated live music industries, as well as other forms of entertainment in front of live...

Set designers were finally able to draw fans into their vivid dream without the constraints of Newtonian physics. Yet virtual reality isn't all wonder.Pandemic lockdowns crushed the concert industry, but things are finally starting to move again. Many of us are optimistic that dense crowds might gather regularly by mid-autumn. The process is already starting in red states. Once everybody who’s anybody “takes the jab,” mass events should spread slowly across the country.All over the world, people are dying for another taste of what Émile Durkheim called “collective effervescence”: the intense thrill we get from a mass gathering with a...

Yes, this is a vanity, because in these times we all need a break, and thats why I come here sometimes. So...who do you choose?

COVID is over on Feb. 8 The end of social distancing, and the secondary knock-on effect of exposing masking as an unenforceable charade, is approximately 40 days away. How apropos that we must wander in the desert of dystopia 40 more days, but here it is. What is the most precise way of determining when social distancing will end? The return of full-sale concert arena events. Note that this also portends the end of masking, as there is zero chance concert security is going to bust a fully-sold arena for mask violations. And the first one is a shocker. Michael...