Live Entertainment Blog

The band They Might Be Giants is still active. You might have thought that they aren’t performing or producing music anymore. But that’s not true at all. They are still one of the most successful alternative bands in the country. They do the music that they want to do, rather than the music that people simply tell them to do. Lately, they have been writing more music for children and music that various people have commissioned for TV shows and other kinds of things. But don’t forget, they produced “The Spine” not that long ago and they perform songs from throughout the life of the band during each and every concert. This is a fun band that I predict will be making music for many years to come.

For more than two decades, Bonnie Raitt has been one of the most famous blues singer-songwriters. She was most popular back in the 70s and 80s, when she released songs like “Nick of Time” and “Something to Talk About.” She did win 9 Grammys during her career and was commercially successful. She’s touring again, putting on great shows. Last weekend she was with Taj Mahal at the Santa Barbara Bowl. Her songs have never been as good at connecting to audiences as they are now. Some of these songs haven’t been heard in many years and it’s going to be fun to hear the things that changed during the period between the recordings and now. Tickets for Bonnie Raitt are available right now and if you hurry, you can be there too.

There’s a new production of It’s a Wonderful Life and it hasn’t been easy to get it up. It’s a decent show, and it’s a musical. It is written a little bit in the style of Stephen Sondheim, with songs that are more like opera or sung dialogue. It fits fairly well, but it’s very difficult to do that kind of thing right. Meanwhile, the show doesn’t have the money or resources to put the show on the way that it needs to be done. It will be a lot of fun for people to see this show, but it will be disappointing if you’re expecting real Jimmy Stewart calibre performance. The performers are good but it’s not like Mr. Stewart. The songs seem a little bit odd in the context, since the movie as we know it has no songs, but it melds fairly well ultimately.

It is almost time for the Radio City Christmas Spectacular. Can you believe it? I know some people just started school, but Christmas always comes by very quickly after that. Radio City Christmas Spectacular tickets will be going onsale very soon. This great show with the fun music and dancing is most enjoyable. Each show consists of those things as well as some of the most entertaining scenes onstage. There’s a reason this show has been put on every year for so many decades. The show has changed many scenes and it’s quite a bit more high tech than it was back in 1933, but it’s also very similar, with the singing and dancing that give people the sense of being in an old fashioned theater from that era. It gets thousands of people into the holiday spirit every year and you can really feel the moment there.

A 17 year old named Taylor Swift won her first MTV Video Music Award, going up against Beyonce and other big stars. She didn’t think she’d win it because she’s a country act, a girl with a guitar who writes many of her own songs. She was up onstage, giving her thank you speech and then she noticed “hey, Kanye West is onstage too”. Then her microphone was taken away by that same man and he talked about how Beyonce’s video was better than anyone else’s. It was just kind of a mean thing to do. Kanye is suffering a bit because of it, in terms of the public opinion. Swift, meanwhile, was invited by said Beyonce to finish her speech when Beyonce won a little later. Swift had to bring herself back to performance mode a few minutes later because she had a live song right after she won.

When you see Jude Law in Hamlet, you might even see him at Helsingore Castle, in English Elsinor Castle. This is the place where the play is written to have taken place and it’s a very interesting version. Though the actual King of Denmark was there and it was an otherwise very important show, Law didn’t seem to care at all. The new Hamlet was a lot of fun for us to catch, because Law has began showing us how talented a performer he really is. Especially in the last few years. But his celebrated run in London, and now in Denmark itself, are becoming big in his career thusfar. He is an energetic, almost nervous, style Hamlet, a character that no one does perfectly, because there is no real ideal of the character. The amount of interest generated by this character and the performances is always immense, and in this case it is definitely worth it!

The hip-hop group Jay-Z has had a crazy year on their tour front. They apparently announced a new show at Madison Square Garden. The show sold out in just a few hours both on primary and secondary markets. It was very interesting for them to notice this and see if they will be putting forward some other big shows too, since they have only had a few of those kinds of performances this year. Since it’s selling so well, they will probably be adding some more, in addition to all their performances in smaller college venues over the next few months.

Nine Inch Nails is retiring. Perhaps you already know that. This is a band that has been quiet over the last few years, but it’s going to be sad to see them go anyhow. They have been one of the best bands over the course of several decades and it’s going to be a lot of fun to see them one last time. Trent Reznor, the face of NIN, has decided to retire the band and they are doing a final tour of shows for people in places all over the country. But there’s a catch. They are playing almost entirely at small venues that people don’t really know much about and that this band could have sold out several times in a row. But they wanted to have their final shows a little more intimate. And they do a good job of showing the kind of music that this band has been playing over the many years that they have been out there. They have music from back to “The Crow” and their grunge music of the 90s and the alternative music that came right after. It’ll be very sad not to hear them put together new music. But we can also hope that they will bring it back sometime later. It’s not expected that they would do that, but it’s certainly possible!