Alice In Chains has announced the first run of must-see shows for 2018 – a North American headline tour beginning April 28th at the House of Blues in Boston. Dates are listed below and ticket info can be found here,
Dates are as follows:
April 28 – Boston, MA – House of Blues
April 30 – Syracuse, NY – Landmark Theatre
May 1 – Toronto, ON – Massey Hall
May 3 – Washington DC – Anthem
May 4 – Charlotte, NC – Carolina Rebellion
May 7 – New York, NY – Hammerstein Ballroom
May 10 – Atlanta, GA – Coca-Cola Roxy
May 13 – Somerset, WI – Northern Invasion
May 15 – Chicago, IL – Riviera Theatre
May 16 – South Bend, IN – Morris Performing Arts Center
May 18 – Columbus, OH – Rock on the Range
May 19 – Philadelphia, PA – WMMR BBQ
Multi-Grammy-nominated thrash icons Anthrax will see Kings Among Scotland, the band’s long-awaited live-in-concert DVD, arrive in stores and online on April 27th (Megaforce). Captured last February 15th at the band’s sold-out concert at Glasgow’s historic venue Barrowland Ballroom, the two-hour Kings Among Scotland incorporates the band’s entire live show along with interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and other B-roll shot on the band’s tour bus, backstage, in hotels and elsewhere. The DVD will also include a “gear rundown” from each of the band members. Kings Among
Scotland can be pre-ordered starting today; log on to anthrax.com for all purchasing information.
“Playing for our friends at the Barrowlands has always been very special,” said Anthrax’s Frank Bello. “We all know we’re going to get together and have an insanely great time, and we think that incredible interaction and energy really comes through on this video.”
With packaging art created by Steve Thompson (Slayer, Motorhead, Iron Maiden), the DVD’s concert is presented in two parts. For part one, Anthrax perfomed the “favorites” that had been voted on pre-show by the band’s fans and includes gems like Madhouse, Be All, End All, Breathing Lightning, and A.I.R. The band augmented the stage production for part two, with ramps and staircases and other production values while they tore into their classic 1987 album Among The Living, performing Caught In A Mosh, I Am the Law, Indians, Eflinikufesin (N.F.L.), and more.
“It was pretty a intense show,” added guitarist Scott Ian, “especially when the crowd was so insane, the floor actually started moving up and down.”
“It was a challenge for all of us to play Among The Living live,” admits Charlie Benante. “We’ve played a number of that album’s songs in our shows over the years, but not all of them, and playing a song in a recording studio is not the same as playing it live on stage. So we put in a lot of time to get all of the tracks down perfectly. And I’ll tell you, after we finished that set, as arduous as it was, we all felt a sense of exhiliration, like we could go out and do it again.”
The release of Kings Among Scotland will be preceded by Anthrax’s North American co-headline tour with Killswitch Engage – “KillThrax 2018” – set to kick off January 25th in Montreal. All dates are below.
The Killthrax Tour 2018
January:
25 MTelus, Montreal, QC
26 London Music Hall, London, TN
27 Sherman Theatre, Srtoudsburg, PA
28 The National, Richmond, VA
30 Jannus Live, Tampa, FL
31 The Fillmore Charlotte, Charlotte, NC
February:
2 Eagles Ballroom Club Stage, Milwaukee, WI
3 Egyptian Room at Old National Centre Indianapolis, IN
5 Marathon Music Works, Nashville, TN
6 Iron City, Birmingham, AL
8 The Pavilion at Concrete Street, Corpus Christi, TX
9 Lonestar Pavillion, Lubbock, TX
10 The Criterion, Oklahoma City, OK
11 El Rey Theater, Albuquerque, NM
13 House of Blues, San Diego, CA
14 House of Blues, Anaheim, CA
16 Revolution Concert House, Boise, ID
17 Knitting Factory Concert House, Spokane, WA
19 The Ranch, Edmonton, AB
20 Bowes Event Center at Revolution Place, Grande Prairie, AB
21 MacEwan Hall, Calgary, AB
23 Burton Cummings Theatre, Winnipeg, MB
24 Skyway Theatrer, Minneapolis, MN
25 Anthem @ Hard Rock Hotel & Casino, Sioux City, IA
27 The Forge, Joliet, IL
March:
1 Rams Head Live, Baltimore, MD
2 Dome Arena, Rochester, NY
3 The Palladium, Worcester, MA
4 State Theater, Portland, ME
Greg Prato of the Long Island Pulse spoke with Anthrax guitarist Scott Ian about his forthcoming book, Access All Areas: Stories from a Hard Rock Life, out December 12th. Highlights from the interview appear below.
LI Pulse: How is Access All Areas different from I’m the Man?
Scott Ian: I’m the Man is an autobiography…This one fills in the blanks. It’s 23 stories from my life. Some of them from when I was a kid and most of them from my years in the band, touring, experiences I’ve had, crazy places I’ve been and situations I’ve been a part of, most of which I call my “Who the hell let me in here?” moments.
LI Pulse: Something that you touch upon in the book is while KISS is now a widely-admired rock band, back in the late 70s/early 80s, non-fans of the band would often voice their disapproval of those who wore Kiss shirts in public.
Scott Ian: Like any other kind of time in music, it’s generational. And KISS really tapped the vein of a younger crowd. When you had a bunch of 13 year olds, 14 year olds, 15 year olds who all of a sudden are wearing Kiss shirts and yelling Kiss lyrics and buying Kiss records, well, of course, that makes it completely uncool for the older teenagers who were listening to Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Aerosmith and so on…If you look at it on paper, a four-year age difference, big deal. But 13 and 17, that means everything. [Laughs]
LI Pulse: It’s been a few years since you appeared on the reality TV show Supergroup. What are your thoughts on it now?
Scott Ian: I had a blast doing that. I really have nothing bad to say about it. I got to live…as a rock star, for a couple of weeks in Las Vegas and really just had no responsibility. We had limousines on call for us 24 hours a day…It’s an experience that is very much an anomaly in my life. And I just kind of went with it the best I could. I don’t think I betrayed myself and became somebody different on that TV show. I was very much myself. I’ve had a lot of people tell me, “You and Jason Bonham were like the voices of reason on that show.” And I’m like, “Well, I don’t know about all that, but I was just myself. That’s who I am.” I didn’t feel like I needed to put on a bigger personality to be on that TV show.
Randy Widman of Hairbandheaven.rocks spoke with our own Eddie Trunk. Excerpts from the interview appear below.
HBH: Growing up being a fan of KISS, was that the driving motivation for you to get Ace Frehley a solo deal on Megaforce Records?
Eddie: I wanted to bring more melodic music to Megaforce. The label was known for at the time very heavy music. I thought to grow it would be a good idea to bring in a name artist that could maybe get radio play and appeal to hard rock and metal. The owner of the label was not a Kiss fan, but liked the idea. So we tracked Ace down and he was my first ever signing. I was 22 and it was kind of surreal, and to this day we are close friends.
HBH: Where there any other bands or artists that you tried to sign to Megaforce before they where big?
Eddie: White Lion. I brought them to the head of the label and he passed. He thought it was just not something that would work for us, and he may have been right. I had become friends with those guys when they did one of their first ever radio interviews for Fight To Survive, which was only out in Japan at the time. They ended up being signed by Atlantic which was our distributor. But they remembered my early support and gave me my first ever gold album on stage at a show at Lamour. Really special moment for me. I’m still friends with all four of the guys. Always lots of laughs when we see each other.
HBH: With all of the great bands that you have seen live, who are some of your favorite? Who haven’t you seen that you wished you had/could see? (from any point in time)
Eddie: My first show was Kiss & Piper 12/16/77. So that will always be landmark for me. Having done this now almost 35 years it’s endless really. Recently seeing Metallica at Webster Hall, Guns N Roses at The Apollo (which I hosted), the launch of the new STP. Those are just cool recent moments. I just saw Alter Bridge and they always blow me away. The Struts are the best newer band out there I think. I also love Soul Asylum and always get excited to see them. For me acts I don’t see all the time or in special settings is great. And bands that do everything real and live. Not a fan of the many recorded tracks some bands use. UFO is always special for me as well as Aerosmith. Just so many.. I wish I saw Zeppelin in the glory years, never did.
HBH: Being such a huge fan/historian of music, did you ever play an instrument? If so, which one? If not..why not?
Eddie: One regret I have is I can’t play a thing. I took drum lessons real early on, but didn’t stick with it. I didn’t have the patience. I wanted to do everything I heard on my KISS albums instantly and got frustrated quick. So I decided instead I would do something to help the bands I loved. Radio, TV, writing, record labels, anything to connect and support. One day I still want to learn guitar.
HBH: Something we like to discuss here so I will ask you. If you could start a band with ANY artists you want, who would you choose? (1 singer, 2 guitars,1 bass, 1 drummer, 1 keyboard)
Eddie: These are so tough.
Steven Tyler, Eddie Van Halen, John Sykes, Steve Harris, John Bonham, Paul Raymond. That would be pretty kick ass! But SO many I could think of, that’s just off the top of my head.
HBH: Who are some of your favorite “hair bands” ? And which do you consider to be “underrated”
Eddie: With all due respect to your site, as many know I don’t use the word “hair band” or “hair metal”. It was developed as a knock on these artists and I feel still hurts them and continues the stigma against them, which is still very real. So I just call it 80’s hard rock. So many great ones. What comes to mind? Ratt, Bon Jovi (yes they were at one time), White Lion, Vain, Tesla, just a few I can think of that I really love/loved. Recently I saw LA Guns, Warrant and Jack Russell. All sounded great. Some of those guys are better now than they were in the day. Winger too, amazing and all real! Skid Row and Tesla probably my two all time favorite bands of that era.
HBH: Are their any NEW bands out that you are really digging that we should know about?
Eddie: The Struts. They are the best newer band with the best songs I have seen in a long long time. I think/hope they can bring it all back. Also love Rival Sons. Haven’t seen Greta Van Fleet live yet, but lots of buzz which is good to see. But The Struts blew me away recently and I love the album.
Ruben Mosqueda of Sleaze Roxx spoke with Tom Keifer. Highlights from the interview appear below.
Sleaze Roxx: Funny we should be talking right now. This Friday December 8th, 1986 was my first time seeing Cinderella. You guys were opening for [David Lee] Roth and it was an incredibly good time.
Tom Keifer: Oh, man. That was such an incredible experience opening for Dave. We went from playing clubs to opening up for the David Lee Roth Band in arenas. A lot of years went into constructing the songs and refining them — then boom. Lightning struck [laughs]! I tell people it’s like this tornado picked us up and took us on this wild ride, which continues ’til this day.
Sleaze Roxx: You have been touring hard behind The Way Life Goes—your solo debut album. I picked the album when it was released three to four years ago. What I wasn’t aware of is that the album was pulled?
Tom Keifer: It was released four years ago. Yeah, the story is starting to circulate in the press. The album took nine years to create. We worked on the album and there was no label involved. We completed the album and we found a label that was over the moon to release it in 2013. The Way Life Goes exceeded our expectations and received wonderful reviews.
The first single Solid Ground did very well on rock radio. We started touring this band. The press gave us great reviews. Then there was a corporate shakeup at the label and we got caught in the middle of it. Ultimately, this resulted in the album being removed from shelves and online. We’ve been touring as you stated for the last two years and we’ve had no album available. With all the work we put into creating it and all this promotion that we’ve done behind it; we decided to ‘lawyer up’ and get the masters back.
The idea was that once we got the masters back, we would reissue it but we wanted to get back in the studio with this band and cut some additional tracks. We spend about a quarter of last year working on the bonus content and the packaging. We also worked on a documentary on the recording of the bonus tracks for the deluxe edition. We are absolutely thrilled to have The Way Life Goes back available for people to purchase. I’m so proud of what we have done with the relentless touring, getting this band road tested, going from clubs to top billing on some festivals. We’ve had some curve balls thrown at us along the way but we’ve kept going.
Sleaze Roxx: A very cool moment after the initial release was your appearance on Late Night With David Letterman. What was that like? That must have been surreal.
Tom Keifer: Yeah, that was surreal. I had never done live TV before so it was a new experience. Honestly, I was a little freaked out about it [laughs]! I was kind of nervous for sure…That was a first in all my years. Even with Cinderella, I had never done live TV. It was great for the album and the band for sure.
Sleaze Roxx: Before I let you go, I have to ask what it was like working with [drummer] Cozy Powell [Whitesnake, Rainbow, Black Sabbath] and [bassist] John Paul Jones [Led Zeppelin]?
Tom Keifer: Both were amazing experiences. When we went in to record Long Cold Winter, we were in need of bringing in a drummer since Fred [Coury] wasn’t going to do it, since he was a bit inexperienced in the studio at that time. [Producer] Andy Johns had to make that difficult decision. We were sitting in the studio with our A&R guy saying, “You know you can get anyone you want.” I don’t remember who but one of us said half jokingly, “Well, how about we get Cozy Powell [laughs]?” He’s this legendary drummer as you know. The A&R guy looks at us and says, “Okay, done [laughs]!” It was really that simple. He came in to perform on the record and he was just simply amazing, particularly his chops. He was just so schooled in the blues and roots of jazz. You can hear that on the tracks Long Cold Winter and Coming Home. He had just such finesse and swing that really helped make that record what it is. The drumming just stands out on that record.
With John Paul Jones, I grew up listening to his playing, not just his bass playing but his orchestration that he did but also his work on the mellotron on stuff like the Rain Song and the colors that he added to the band. Funny enough, his name was brought up when we were recording Long Cold Winter. We had some orchestration mostly on Don’t Know What You Got (Till It’s Gone). We didn’t use him mainly due to time and budget constraints but his name was in the back of my mind from there forward. Then when we went into recording the album Heartbreak Station. The songs Heartbreak Station and Winds Of Change had some rough strings that were on the demos that I had recorded on a synthesizer. I went to my manager and mentioned that Andy [Johns] had mentioned that if we were going to do this, that we ‘really’ do this and get John Paul Jones. We reached out to his management and we sent him the demos and he expanded on what I had done and added the orchestration. He flew in during the recording of the record and he directed the orchestra, while we watched [laughs]! Meeting him and watching him was just such an amazing experience. John Paul Jones is incredibly humble and down to earth. It was a pleasure to work with him.
Today sees the release of Avenged Sevenfold Live At The Grammy Museum® (Capitol), a special acoustic album recorded during the band’s recent sold-out event at the famed GRAMMY Museum® in downtown Los Angeles. Listen to the full set here and watch below to see the band’s GRAMMY Museum® performance of Roman Sky.
Produced by Joe Barresi (Queens of the Stone Age, Tool, Nine Inch Nails) and the band, the digital-only release features unique renditions of new songs and classic tracks captured during the first-ever acoustic performance by GRAMMY® nominees Avenged Sevenfold. A portion of the album’s proceeds will benefit the education initiatives of the GRAMMY Museum®, which seek to inspire youth to the enduring qualities and cultural significance of music.
Presented as An Evening with Avenged Sevenfold, the October 19th event was held at the Museum’s Clive Davis Theater and featured an intimate conversation about the band’s career and new music, moderated by Los Angeles Times Pop Music Critic Mikael Wood. The interview followed a stunning acoustic performance from the band (backed by a string section) and saw the quintet (vocalist M. Shadows, guitarists Synyster Gates and Zacky Vengeance, bassist Johnny Christ and drummer Brooks Wackerman) discussing their latest release, The Stage. Last week, Avenged Sevenfold received a GRAMMY® nomination (their first ever) for “Best Rock Song” for that album’s title track, The Stage.
The track listing for Avenged Sevenfold Live At The Grammy Museum® is:
1) Opening (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
2) Introduction to “As Tears Go By” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
3) “As Tears Go By” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
4) Introduction to “Hail To The King” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
5) “Hail To The King” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
6) Introduction to “Roman Sky” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
7) “Roman Sky” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
8) Introduction to “Exist” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
9) “Exist” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
10) Introduction to “So Far Away” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
11) “So Far Away” (Live at the GRAMMY Museum®)
On January 12th, Avenged Sevenfold will launch their North American headlining tour at Bridgestone Arena in Nashville. See full list of tour dates below.
January 12 – Nashville, TN @ Bridgestone Arena
January 14 – Grand Rapids, MI @ The Van Andel Arena
January 16 – Reading, PA @ Santander Arena
January 17 – University Park, PA @ Bryce Jordan Ctr – Penn State University
January 24 – Green Bay, WI @ Resch Center
January 25 – Peoria, IL @ Peoria Civic Center
January 27 – Sioux Falls, SD @ Denny Sanford Premier Center
January 31 – Biloxi, MS @ Mississippi Coast Coliseum***
February 2 – North Little Rock, AR @ Verizon Arena
February 3 – Evansville, IN @ Ford Center
February 6 – Wichita, KS @ Intrust Bank Arena
February 8 – Lincoln, NE @ Pinnacle Bank Arena
February 9 – Cedar Rapids, IA @ US Cellular Center
February 11 – Fargo, ND @ Fargodome
February 12- Bell Mts Place Winnipeg, MB
February 14- Sakstel Centre Saskatoon, SK
February 15- Rogers Place Edmonton, AB
February 17- Pacific Coliseum Vancouver, BC
. Captured last February ... )
, a special acoustic album recorded during the band’s recent sold-out event at the famed GRAMMY Museum® in downtown ... )
