Our Best Picks

The Sheila Divine at Paradise Rock Club on Saturday: A divine opportunity to see these reunited locals, who celebrate the release of their highly anticipated and long awaited new album, which was funded by fans through a Kickstarter campaign. Tickets are $18.

Peter Frampton at the Lynn Memorial Auditorium on Friday and Hanover Theatre (Worcester) on Saturday: Frampton comes alive this weekend as he continues to celebrate the 35th anniversary of his seminal live album, Frampton Comes Alive!, with two shows in the Bay State. Catch him in Lynn on Friday for $37 to $67 or in Worcester on Saturday for $42 to $68.

Friday

The Darkness at Paradise Rock Club: Do you believe in a thing called a comeback? Well, Boston sure does because this show is sold out.

The Kills at Royale: Catch The Kills touring in support of Blood Pressure and see if they can get yours pumpin’. Hunters and JEFF the Brotherhood will open the show. Tickets are $22.

Jack’s Mannequin at House of Blues: HOB is the place to hear JM’s People and Things, but only if you already got tickets because this show is sold out.

Javier Colon at the Berklee Performance Center: NBC’s “The Voice” will premier on Sunday after the Super Bowl but you catch the season one winner and Connecticut native celebrate the release of his new album, Come Through For You, in Boston for $29.50 or $39.50.

Toby Keith at the Mohegan Sun Arena: Touring in support of his brand new album, Clancy’s Tavern, the country superstar hits Connecticut. Grab you red solo cup and join the party for $65 and $85. Rodney Atkins will open the show.

The Asteroids Galaxy Tour at the Middle East Downstairs: You probably remember these Danish rockers for their i=Pod commercial hit “Around the Bend”. Now touring in support of their brand new album, Out of Frequency, you can see them in Cambridge with Vacationer for $15.

Movers & Shakers, Hallelujah the Hills at Middle East Upstairs: A great local lineup, rounded out by Atlantic Thrills and Scamps. Tickets are $10.

Mission Hill at Hard Rock Café: More local talent on display as pop rock favorites Mission Hill celebrate the release of their new CD. This one also includes Sarah Borello, Harrelson Sills Live and Kiley Evans. All for just $12.

Saturday

Charles Bradley and His Extraordinaires at Brighton Music Hall: The “Screamin’ Eagle of Soul” will be beltin’ it out on Brighton Ave. Little Barrie and DJ PJ Grey join in. Tickets are $20.

Dierks Bentley at the Hard Rock Cafe: WKLB Country 102.5 is bringing the country superstar to Boston to celebrate the release of his forthcoming album, Home, with a special benefit for the Floating Hospital for Children at Tufts Medical Center. Of couse, tickets for this rare and intimate show are long gone.

Shea Rose at Café 939: See this Berklee student whose already making waves in the industry for just $10.

Entrain at Johnny D’s: Just pay a cover at the door to see the pride of Martha’s Vineyard do their thing.

Sunday

Nicolay & The Hot at Nights at Club Passim: Not a football fan? Then you’re mostly out of luck but Club Passim will keep the music going with Grammy-nominated music producer/performer Nicolay with jazz-trio The Hot at Nights. Tickets are $15.

Our Non Music Picks

Super Bowl XLVI on Sunday: Go PATS!!!

Of course, we’re most excited for the game, but each year the halftime show gives us some side entertainment as we stuff our faces with more food than a Thanksgiving Day dinner. This year, Madonna has the honor of performing for the nation’s top rated audience. So, for the good or the bad, we thought we’d take a look back at the past dozen Halftime shows.

2011: The run of classic rock heroes comes to a screeching halt as pop music returned to the Halftime Show thanks to the Black Eye Peas. The group, who descended from the ceiling, opened the set predictably with “I Gotta Feeling”. The rest of the set included hits “Boom Boom Pow”, “Pump It” and “Where Is The Love?”. Slash made a cameo to deliver “Sweet Child o’Mine” with Fergie, while Usher also appeared for his hit “Oh My Gosh”. Ultimately, it struggled mightily with poor acoustics but still boasted a visually stunning stage show with multiple platforms and army of dancers that glowed in the dark. Watch the show in full here.

2010: The Who, led by Roger Daltrey and Pete Townshend (the band’s only remaining original members), rocked a medley of classics including “Pinball Wizard”, “Baba O’Reilly”, “Who Are You”, “See Me, Feel Me” and “Won’t Get Fool Again”. The performance was pretty solid but its accompany light show that impressed us most. The show also gave us one of our favorite prop bets in history: the number of windmills completed on camera by Townshend (Video here).

2009: Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band took a break from their marathon touring schedule for a stop at the big game. We wanted The Boss to do what he does best: rock. And with set of “Tenth Avenue Freeze-Out”, “Born To Run”, “Working on a Dream” and “Glory Days” that should have come easy. But when he instructed the TV crowd to drop the guacamole dip and chicken fingers at the start of the show and someone dressed up as a referee jumped on stage and threw a flag at the end, it was just plain corny. Still, the band sounded great and who could forget his slide into the camera? (Video here).

2008: Ok, we’re not gonna lie, we’d prefer to erase everything about this Super Bowl from our mind. That being said, we did enjoy the performance from Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers, a true American rock band. The set kicked off with “American Girl” and continued with “I Won’t Back Down” and “Free Fallin’” (Video here) before closing with a thrilling version of “Runnin’ Down a Dream” thanks to axeman Mike Campbell (Video here).

2007: This performance by Prince proved to be a very pleasant surprise. From a stage in the shape of his logo at midfield, Prince delivered a memorable performance in the driving rain. Guitar solos were plentiful, a marching band gave an extra flair, and Prince’s interpretations of various tunes was refreshing. The biggest surprise was a cover of Foo Fighters’s “Best Of You”, but delivering “Purple Rain” in a driving rain storm proved to be the most memorable moment of the show (Video here).

2006: Performing on the largest stage ever assembled for a Super Bowl Halftime Show – which combined the U2-heart stage theme from 2002 with their iconic tongue logo – the Rolling Stones performed a solid yet unmemorable performance. Working with a five-second-tape delay, the show’s editors cut lyrics from two songs – “Start Me Up” and “Rough Justice” – because they were deemed too sexually suggestive for broadcast. Mick Jagger jokingly introduced the one song that wasn’t edited, “(I Can’t Get No) Satisfaction”, as one that could have been played at Super Bowl I (Video here).

2005: What happens when your controversial halftime show stole more headlines than the game itself? You go family friendly! And what better way to that than with Sir Paul McCartney. Nobody can really complain about The Beatles’ great when they’re singing along to classics like “Live and Let Die” or “Hey Jude” (Video here and here).

2004: Does anybody even remember Jessica Simpson introducing the show or the performances by P Diddy, Nelly, and Kid Rock?. Of course not, all we remember is that infamous “wardrobe malfunction” (who ever used that term before?). The show was playing like a random iPod shuffle mix until Justin Timberlake joined Janet Jackson for “Rock Your Body”. As everyone remembers, at the end of the duet Timberlake ripped a piece of Jackson’s costume off, exposing her right breast on live television, and consequently setting off a firecracker of controversy across the world (Video here).

2003: The show kicked off with country music super-star Shania Twain delivering “Man! I Feel Like A Woman” and “Up”. No Doubt followed with their staple hit, “Just A Girl” (Video here) and the show ended in memorable fashion when Gwen Stefani joined Sting for The Police classic “Message In The Bottle” (Video here).

2002: After the misery that 2001 brought, Irish rockers U2 scored in every possible way with their halftime performance. The band brought their famed Elevation tour, which boasted a catwalk around fans to form a heart, to the Superdome. “Beautiful Day” set the tone (Video here) but it was an emotionally charged “Where The Streets Have No Name” with a scrolling tribute to 9/11 victims as their backdrop that sent shivers down the spine of many viewers (Video here). As Bono sang, “I’ll show you a place where there is no sorrow or pain,” it was just what Americans needed to hear.

2001: Produced by MTV, the “The Kings of Rock and Pop” show was just painfully awful. A funny skit by Ben Stiller, Adam Sandler, and Chris Rock started the show on a good note, but it headed south from there. Old school Aerosmith fans thought the “Bad Boys of Boston” had sold out in previous years, but this was the icing on the cake. Sharing the stage with ‘N Sync, both bands played two partial songs each before launching into a horrendous rendition of “Walk This Way” with the aid of Britney Spears, Mary J. Blige and Nelly. It was a sickening sight (Video here).

2000: Produced by Disney, the “Tapestry of Nations” show featured Phil Collins, Christina Aguilera, Enrique Iglesias, Toni Braxton, and an 80-person choir with narrator Edward James Olmos. This was the last of the true major production for a halftime show. Based on the year long Millennium celebration at Walt Disney World’s Epcot, the performance also featured a full symphony orchestra, massive puppets, aerial dancers, and pyrotechnics (Video here).

“Our fans are in for one hell of a rock show,” declared Godsmack frontman Sully Erna in a press release. “We’re very excited to get back out with our Massachusetts brothers again. It’s been a pinch too long, and all hell is about to break loose!”

“Going on tour with Godsmack was a no-brainer,” added Staind frontman Aaron Lewis.

Godsmack continues to tour in support of their most recent release, 2010′s The Oracle. The album, the band’s fifth studio effort and follow-up to 2006′s IV, debuted at #1 on the Billboard 200. It features singles “Cryin’ Like a Bitch”, “Love-Hate-Sex-Pain” and “Saints and Sinners”.

Staind will return to the road to support their self-titled seventh studio album. It debuted at #5 on the Billboard 200 after its release in September, marking the band’s fifth consecutive top five album debut. Staind has been powered by singles “Not Again” and “Eyes Wide Open”. The new album also marks Staind’s last with original drummer Jon Wysocki, who departed from band following the recording process in May 2011. He has since been replaced by Sal Giancarelli.

The tour, which kicks off on April 13 in Augusta, Georgia, is scheduled to run through May 18 in Bangor, Maine. Godsmack and Staind are giving fans the chance to design a tour poster for The Mass Chaos Tour via Creative Allies. The winning designer will receive $500 and a prize pack. For contest details and entry, go here.

To say that 2011 was disappointing and difficult for Augustana would be an understatement. After the group cancelled their late 2010 tour due to “circumstances beyond their control”, Epic Records dropped their contract when sales for their latest, self-titled record fell short of expectations. It wasn’t just tours, sales and label support that they lost, though; keyboardist John Vincent, bassist Jared Palomar and drummer Justin South all left last year, leading to rumors that the band had broken up. But don’t count them out just yet – with a new lineup backing original frontman Layus, new songs, and a new attitude, Augustana is back on the road and ready to prove that theirs is a tale yet unfinished.

Sorely missed are the talents of Vincent, Palomar and South, but the band seems to have found adequate replacements, bringing in their previous drummer David Lamoureux and assigning bass duties to his brother Jordan. Both are familiar enough with the material, and more. The vocal harmony they provided in songs like the night’s opener “Hey Now”, “Either Way I’ll Break Your Heart Someday” and “Dust” sounded natural, even beautiful at times. David injected some much-needed energy into the band’s on-stage chemistry with spirited, head-banging antics, and Jordan took on even the most challenging bass lines with a cool confidence, gliding through “Steal Your Heart” with apparent ease.

Layus shone in the night’s much-anticipated highlight, “Boston”. Cheers erupted even as he sat down to his keyboard and only amplified in the cramped venue as he began playing out the lively melody. The concert quickly became a giddy sing-along as fans tried – to no avail – to match Layus’s falsetto during the chorus. The frontman happily obliged the role of crowd-pleaser as he closed the song, singing “I’m way up here in Boston” then shouting “Gronkowski, Hernandez, and Bill and Tom” before finally resuming with “where you all know my name”. Whether or not the San Diego native is truly a Patriots fan, announcing his support for New England in the upcoming Super Bowl brought the crowd over the edge.

The true appeal of Augustana, of course, is the voice of Layus, the group’s one remaining original member, and he appropriately took the spotlight for the majority of the night. Though soft ballads like “Fire” and livelier tunes like “Shot In The Dark”, as well as hits “Sweet And Low” and “Counting Stars”, he stunned the crowd with his range and sheer emotion. He sang “On The Other Side” with such gentle passion that he might have been singing to his young daughter rather than a rock club, leaving the audience savoring every line till he broke the (very) elongated last note to close the song.

But old-age adages seem to apply to Augustana too, and it’s true that their strength is also their weakness. Relying too much on Layus’s signature tone – a voice that’s just a little angst short of a wail – risks a monotonous sound and it’s questionable if they have enough variety to hold a crowd’s interest for a lengthy set. Undoubtedly, several filler songs from Tuesday’s 26-song set could have been cut with no complaints (“Last Mistake” and “I Still Ain’t Over You” come to mind).

Luckily, that’s where the Augustana’s new material comes in. Finding themselves without a label has not stopped Layus and company from writing new songs. The band took time to road test a few new songs with “Life Goes On”, “Need A Little Sunshine” and “The Easy Lessons Are The Hardest To Learn” all standing out. Each offered catchy melodies that suggest a shift away from the tone of their previous material. The band appeared to enjoy playing the new songs the most, even closing the show in surprising fashion with a softly-sung melody called “Alive”. It seemed to be a symbolic closing, as Layus proved he has more to offer with a new-look Augustana that is ready to chart a new course.

British rockers Graffiti6 opened the show with a charming blend of pop, R&B and British soul. The band explored the wide variety of sounds that their new debut album Colours offers, including the gritty “Lay Me Down” and folksy ballad “Goodbye Geoffrey Drake”. Frontman Jamie Scott proved to be a little too fond of his falsetto in “Over You” but his driving vocals in “Stare Into The Sun”, as well as the attractive melody of “Free”, elicited enthusiastic applause.

Setlist:
1. Hey Now
2. Mayfield
3. Last Mistake
4. Someone’s Baby Now
5. I Still Ain’t Over You
6. Stars and Boulevards
7. Sweet and Low
8. Either Way I’ll Break Your Heart Some Day
9. Twenty Years
10. Shot In The Dark
11. It Only Means I Love You
12. The Easy Lessons Are The Hardest to Learn
13. Dust
14. Borrowed Time
15. Life Goes On
16. Counting Stars
17. Fire
18. Boston
19. On The Other Side
20. Like A Whisper
21. Just Stay Here Tonight
22. Need A Little Sunshine
23. Wrong Side Of Love
24. Hurricane
25. Steal Your Heart
26. Alive

Known best for their work in The String Cheese Incident, Jason Hann and Michael Travis formed EOTO in 2006. using no per-programmed loops or heavy samples snatched from other producers, EOTI aim to bring dubstep to life in real time by pushing the movement into unexplored territories. Their dynamic live performances, which are fueled by on-the-spot spontaneity and 100% live improvisation, have earned EOTO high praise.

The upcoming show in Boston, though, will not just be any show. EOTO will be unleashing the “lotus flower stage design”, a fully interactive 3-D mapped stage. Video crews will film the show for release later this year.

BMS Photographer Peter Cooke was on site all night to capture the show. Check out our photo galleries for each of the performers below.

Rascal Flatts

Sara Evans

Hunter Hayes

Break The Spell, the band’s third studio effort and follow-up to 2009′s Leave This Town, was released in November. It debuted at #8 on the Billboard 200 and was certified gold less than a month later. The album was recorded in Los Angeles and was produced by Howard Benson (Three Days Grace, Kelly Clarkson, who the band worked with on their previous two albums. Break The Spell features lead singles “Renegade” and “Crawling Back to You”.

“We recorded a hard-hitting album that is primed to blow the doors off these great theaters,” Daughtry declared in a press release. “Fans who come out are going to get an incredible show every night.”

For the upcoming tour, the band has also pledged to donate $1 from every ticket sold to Malaria No More, a humanitarian organization focused on eradicating all malaria deaths in Africa by 2015.

Little Spark, Baylin’s third full-length album and follow-up to 2008′s Firesight, was released last month. It was produced by Kevin Augunas (Cold War Kids, Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros).

“I did a lot of soul searching,” Baylin said in a recent interview with US Weekly. “It has been almost four years since my last album came out, and I felt like I needed to take that space because I really had to make this one for me and create a piece of art that I would want to listen to. And I felt like if I was authentic and honest and not do anything too weird, that hopefully the fans would come along with me. And so far it’s been pretty good.”

Baylin also had some very well-known resources at her disposal. The singer is married to Kings of Leon drummer Nathan Followill, and her high school friend Scarlett Johansson directed the video for lead single “Hurry, Hurry.”  The video, which is streaming below, was shot in one take on New York City’s Manhattan Bridge with the New York skyline as its backdrop.

“One of the greatest gifts of growing up with Jessie has been watching her develop as a musician,” Johansson said in a press release. “This song has a dreamy Brian Wilson sort of feel; I wanted to build on that and allow the video to carry on dreamily and use the changing tone and Jessie’s expression to match the vibe of the melody.”

Prior to the show in Rhode Island, The Avett Brothers will perform at the Whittemore Center on the campus of the University of New Hampshire in Durham on Tuesday, April 17. Tickets for the show, which range in price from $28 to $38, will go on sale Friday, February 10 at 10 a.m. through Ticketmster.

On the upcoming tour, the band is expected to preview material off their highly anticipated forthcoming seventh studio album. Though no official release date has been set for the yet-to-be-named album, more details are expected to be revealed in the coming months. “We’re right at the finish line,” singer-guitarist Seth Avett told Rolling Stone in a recent interview. “It’s just the formalities now.”

The Avett Brothers crew recorded more than 20 songs last year in Asheville, North Carolina. Acclaimed producer Rick Rubin, with whom they partnered with for their 2009 breakthrough album, I and Love and You, returned to lead the project. Avett explained that the band took their relationship with Rubin a step further on the new album and also described one new track, “Paul Newman Versus the Demons”, as having a whole new sound for the band. “It has an aggressive riff, and the instruments are very Nineties rock – what you could call grunge. It’s certainly a major departure,” said Avett of the band’s ode to the legendary actor.

In 2010, The Avett Brothers release a live compilation, Live, Volume 3.

“We’re excited to co-headline this tour with Opeth for whom we have great respect and admiration,” collectively stated Mastodon in a press release. The tour will kick off on April 4 at the State Theatre in Portland, Maine. Another New England stop is scheduled for The Dome in Wallingford, Connecticut on April 10. Mastodon will close both shows.

The tour continues Mastodon’s support of their latest album, The Hunter. Released in September, the band’s fifth studio effort and follow-up to 2009′s Crack the Skye, debuted at #10 on the Billboard 200. It was recorded at Doppler Studios in Atlanta with producer Mike Elizondo.  Lead single, “Curl of the Burl”, has been nominated for a 2012 Grammy Award in the “Best Hard Rock/Metal Performance” category. The band recently posted a very special video for their new single “Dry Bone Valley,” created by long-time friend and noted fine artist Tim Biskup. The video is steaming below.

Swedish metal band Opeth will be touring in support of their new album, Heritage. Released in September, the band’s tenth studio effort and follow-up to 2008′s Watershed, debuted at #19 on the Billboard 200. Produced by singer-guitarist Mikael Akerfeldt mixed along with Porcupine Tree singer-guitarist Steven Wilson, Heritage was recorded in the band’s hometown of Stockholm. “I dig it; we all do,” boasted Akerfeldt in a press release. “In fact, it feels like I’ve been building up to write for and participate on an album like this since I was 19.”