The 2008 showcase will mark the seventh year that the event has drawn local, young blues talent together for an evening of soulful singing. As the event has grown, the showcase has expanded to include stools on stage for regional and touring acts in years past, but the focus remains on the great talents the St. Louis Blues has to offer. This year's the showcase will feature St. Louisans Marquise Knox, New Rising Sun, Pokey LaFarge, Rum Drum Ramblers, and the Baby's Blues Allstars. This yearly blues extravaganza is produced by Bottoms Up Blues Gang guitarist Jeremy Segel-Moss. You might remember him and the lovely blues crooner Kari Liston from their visit ToastedRav's studios in the beginning of October, and if you don't I would highly recommend checking out that video!

This year the Baby Blues Showcase will be Sunday, November 30 at BB's Jazz Blues & Soups from 6pm until 11pm. Admission for the event is $15 or $10 and five canned foods. The showcase benefits St. Louis' Blues Society Mission Fund and Live Feed. I can hardly think of a better way to shake that turkey coma and wrap up a long weekend of thanks than checking out fresh blues talent and supporting two good causes.

Perhaps it's a bit cruel to assume this is some sort of spite on Richard's behalf. Though the two notoriously feud like brothers that do a lot of feudin', maybe Keith's just too humble to vote for a member of his own band; Oh wait, he voted for himelf as #20. Hmmm, well maybe he's just bored with fame and looking to stir up trouble within the group and get a laugh while doing it. If that's the case, the plan worked on me.

Bonus: Click [tab:video] to see Weird Al's hard-hitting interview with Richards from a few years back.

The fusion of music and visual art made for a big impact and high energy evening. Performances and artistic displays were staged throughout the museum's rooms of vintage motorcycles. St. Louis musicians and artists were featured at the event's fourth stop in our city, which already hit Charlotte, Atlanta, and Jackson and will be making its way to Birmingham and Baltimore. Among the local artists on display were C'Babi Bayoc whose cartoon like artwork has caught the eye of several local corporations, Peat Wollaeger whose progressive guerrilla style can also be seen at Mad Art Gallery, Justin Tolentino who is also a part of a sneaker art tour making it's rounds through the country, and artist Jovan Hansman who was featured during this year's Loop In Motion festival.

A dance floor, DJ booth, and live performance stage took over the back room of the museum. While break dancers from Wash U and local neighborhoods took over the dance floor, local musicians such as DJ Needles kept the dance floor packed. To see some break dancers, check out [tab:video].

To see pictures from the event, check out [tab:gallery].

Branca's guitar symphony debuted seven years ago in New York and has only been performed nine times since then, but St. Louis will have the rare opportunity to experience "Hallucination City" tomorrow night at The Pageant as part of the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's first Guitar Festival. Branca said the rarity of performances is due to the fact that is such a large undertaking. After Branca and his team agree to a performance they are tasked with gathering a group of 100 guitar players in the city they will be performing in using a semi-blind audition process.

The recruitment/audition process for "Hallucination City" performances are unique from traditional music auditions, and were conducted the same way in the other nine cities as it was in our own. Guitarists from around St. Louis were invited to participate by professors and other trusted musical mavens around town to perform the piece. The guitarists were sent the music, which was been called "extremely complex," by both the composer and guitarists, and if they think they are able to handle it they are a part of the performance. Rehearsals for Thursday night's performance consisted of two, ten hour nights that all one hundred guitarists were required to attend - then it's lights, cameras, amps.

St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's director and conductor, David Robertson, envisioned the guitar festival featuring "Symphony 13 (Hallucination City)" as part of his mission to open the SLSO up to new and different audiences. The program at The Pageant will feature Robertson playing guitar as a part of the "Symphony No. 13" ensemble, and he will also be performing, along with the SLSO, the pieces "G Spot Tornado" by Frank Zappa and "Arcana" by Edgar Varese. Thursday night's program will also feature the world premiere of Branca's new piece "Symphony No. 14 (The Harmonic Series)." Robertson, classified by many as a kind of musical savant, learned to play the guitar specifically for the festival performances.

To learn more about the symphony check out [tab:trav_video] for an interview with composer Glenn Branca and bass guitarist Jamie Ray.

The St. Louis Symphony Orchestra's Guitar Festival's performance at The Pageant begins at 8pm. Tickets are still available through Ticketmaster for $19 or $29. If you have to miss Thursday night, tickets still remain for The Beat Movement Orchestral Series, also part of the Guitar Festival, on Friday November 14th and Saturday November 15th at 8pm.

If you're too young or too out of the loop to know who the New Kids on the Block were/are, think about a boy band similar to the Jonas Brothers, only there are two more of them and they look way better with their shirts off.

Although I didn't compare to Melody's dedication back in the day, we were both extremely excited when we found out that New Kids on the Block would be making some time for their fans in St. Louis this year. So we put on our best NKOTB T-shirts and headed downtown to the concert.

Click on the [tab:trav_video] to see some of the extreme NKOTB fans we encountered.

I've experimented with several different music themes, and by far, the best one to run with seems to be to not have a theme at all. From chill local acoustic to Long Beach ska, it keeps me running and I don't get burned out on any genre in particular. Just in case you want some inspiration the next time you hit the gym, click on [tab:video] to see what keeps my feet movin'.

I am always one for trying something new, and going to see a live show is something I can never pass up. So, when I was invited to see Jason Isbell this evening at Off Broadway I said, "You know I am there!" Since I didn't really know anything about him I proceeded to pulling together a little collection of tid-bits, scraps, and info about the former front dude of Driver-By Truckers (DBT) fame. Here are a few of the things I learned:

• He is only 28 years old, which makes it all the more impressive that he has already been a member of a critically acclaimed band and broken off to start a fairly successful solo career.


• Though he wrote and recorded with DBT for three years, he is more folksy and jazzy as opposed to the DBT's southern rock sound. He actually has a little bit of a Dave Matthews vibe, and I love me some Dave.


• He kind of looks like the youngest brother from The Adventures of Pete and Pete.

Isbell is wheeling through St. Louie tonight with his band The 400 Unit. He is hauling around the country on tour to promote his album, Sirens of the Ditch. Local up and comers John Henry and The Engine will be the opening act, and after hearing some of Isbell's and John Henry's stuff I am really looking forward to tonight's show. To get a preview of what is in store for this evening, check out [tab:video].

Off Broadway is located at 3511 Lemp Ave. The show starts at 9pm and doors are at 8pm. Cover is only $15.

EDITOR'S NOTE - Since writing this post, I not only attended the amazing concert, but I took lots of pics to share with you all as well. Go to [tab:gallery] to check them out.

I recently started listening non-stop to Kings of Leon. I love their sound, I love every song of theirs I've ever heard and I would love to see them live. Fortunately, they're playing at the Pageant tonight; unfortunately, I don't have tickets and the show is sold out.

If you have no clue what band I'm talking about, click [tab:video] to see what you've been missing out on.

If you're going to the concert, I am beyond jealous. But if you didn't snag a ticket, I've compiled a list of fun things going on tonight in St. Louis to help you (and me) get your mind off the fact that you're not listening the the brilliant lyrics and mellow sound of one of the greatest bands out there.

Art St. Louis Presents Sukanya Mani - Sukanya is from Ballwin, Missouri, so what better way to support local arts than to go see some of her work tonight? Best of all, the event is free. The show is from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. today, but in case you miss it, it runs through Friday. For more information, go here.

'Comedy on Parade' at Atomic Cowboy - At 8 p.m. tonight, Bill Chott (you might recognize him from SNL, The Dana Carvey Show, Wizards of Waverly Place or Dude, Where's My Car) will tickle your funny bone at Atomic Cowboy. Surprise, surprise, the topic is...politics! For more information, go here.

John and Hank Green's Great American Tour de Nerdfighting 2008 - In case you're looking for something intellectually stimulating this evening, these guys are coming to St. Louis County Library to talk about books, sing about Harry Potter and "discuss all things awesome." The presentation, which starts at 7 p.m., is based on the brothers' year-long video blog, Brotherhood 2.0. Nerdfighter T-Shirts are available. For more information, go here.

Yeah, the Hills sucks, but this solution is way better than simplying playing them on TV again (or more realistically, creating yet another channel for Charter to take forever to buy that plays music videos...well for a while, until it becomes "MTV7:The Hills").  On the web, you search the entire library and play the videos you want!  So. Freaking. Awesome. Sure, you could say that youtube does this, but most are odd clips of people shooting their TV screen with a camera that seems to have been originally put together by Mr. Kodak himself.  MTV's versions are crisp and clear!

Thank you MTV!  Feel free to play a Hills marathon on me this weekend.

(Check out [tab:video] for a small collection of some of the best/worst I've found on the site so far!)

Tip of the cap to this LaughingSquid post for the heads up post on this awesome development!

Un-Sexy Update: 1st notable video omission found, and its "She Blinded Me With Science" by Thomas Dolby.  Tisk tisk MTV...its ok.  I still love you. 

During a 19-day stint of performances in North Carolina and California, a film crew followed the legendary band, capturing every song, backstage tiff, and pork rind eating contest (I'm just assuming there was a pork rind eating contest because, c'mon, is there a band out there that doesn't employ this competition as a team-building tool?) as it happened. After tediously combing through hours of footage, we're left with a nifty cinematic ode to the alternative rockers complete with interviews with rock gems like Pete Townshend of The Who.

Though you could nab the DVD on November 11, would it really be as good as watching it on a massive screen with a giant tub of buttered popcorn and a soda that you snuck into the theater in your manbag because...$5.50 for a soda, really Wehrenberg? Ronnies theater has the privilege of being one of only a handful of cinemas selected to screen the film on November 6, five days before it hits the shelves. So go, watch the film, then catch the band live at the Fox a few weeks later.

Also, for those less familiar with the 30-million album selling, creators of the most popular double album of the nineties, why the heck don't you know about them? group, click [tab:video] for the trailer and a few of their more popular music videos.

My enlightenment showed me that I know not only one, but two Jackson Browne songs... and I bet you do, too! He wrote "Somebody's Baby" and "Runnin' On Empty" (told ya!). In 2004 he was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame for his many accomplishments in the music industry beyond the soundtrack for Fast Times At Ridgemont High. Here are five random facts about Jackson Browne

1. His full name is Clyde Jackson Browne
2. Jackson Browne was a member of the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band
3. Jackson Browne's first CD came out in 1972
4. Jackson Browne wrote the song "You A**hole You"
5. Tickets are still available for his show at The Fox Theater on Sunday October 19th.

You can purchase tickets to the completely alive performer by going to Metrotix.com or the Fox Theater Box Office. Browne is touring to promote his latest album Time The Conqueror, his first CD with all new material in six years.

Celtic Thunder features five talented young male singers from Scotland and Ireland, and they'll be belting out some original compositions from musical director and composer Phil Coulter. More traditional songs like "Mountains of Mourne" and "Come By the Hills" will also be featured.

Frankly, I don't think you can get any more Irish/Scottish sounding than Keith Harkin, Ryan Kelly, Damien McGinty, Paul Byrom and George Donadson. These Celtic sensations, who range in age from 14 to 40, have pretty impressive resumes, and they've gotten nothing but rave reviews for their singing chops so far.

I 'ave a lil' bit o' Irish in me-self, but even so, I don't know much about Scottish or Irish culture. So just in case you want to randomly shout out something at the show that makes you sound knowledgeable, take these slang terms out for a spin:

• Arse - one's rear end.
• Jo Maxi - a taxi
• Y-Fronts - male undies
• Peeler - policeman
• Jammy - lucky
• Howya - 'hi' or a typical greeting
• Hooley - a party or celebration
• Gingernut - a red-headed person
• Undy-grundy - a wedgie
• Stay easy - relax
• Savage - excellent
• Pull your socks up - get to work
• Drink link - an ATM
• Cracker - wonderful
• Cheese on your chin - your fly is open
• Ara be whist - shut up
• Bogs - public toilets
• Muzzy - a little brat
• Kisser - mouth
• Whist - keep quiet

The issue I wanted to address is how quickly tickets seem to sell out for shows or how quickly the "good seats" seem to disappear. My venue is a non-Ticketmaster venue and while I can't speak for Ticketmaster venues, my guess is they might be experiencing the same problems. Here's what happens:

Say a show goes on sale at 10am. There are four ways to purchase tickets: on the phone, on the internet, at an outlet or at the venue's box office. The problem lies with the internet. What's going on is that everyone logs on at 10am to see what sort of tickets they can get. However, a large portion of these people (sometimes the vast majority of them) only want to purchase tickets if they get phenomenally good seats. If they don't get placed in the first five rows, they don't buy anything. Obviously mathematics dictates that not everyone is going to get placed in the first five rows. So what ends up happening is they slowly get placed in other, less sought after, seats. Eventually they fill up the floor and then 100 Level and, if demand is large enough, the higher levels. But they only wanted what, for most people, are "once in a lifetime" seats. So they don't buy them. But in the mean time, the computer system is still holding these seats. We call it a "counter hold" although I don't know if that's an industry-wide term.

A "counter hold" is a fancy way of saying that if someone is in the process of buying tickets, someone can't swoop in and buy those tickets out from under you. If this wasn't in place, buying tickets would be pandemonium...ok, it would be pandemonium-er. But the flaw in this system is that if someone chooses not to buy the tickets they are holding, there is a lag time between when they close their browser and when the computer system releases the tickets. The system can't tell that someone has closed their browser. So it keeps holding the tickets. There is a timer running and after a certain amount of time, typically 3 - 5 minutes, the system will automatically release the tickets. But when a show is a particularly hot ticket, a show can appear sold-out (or close to sold-out) for 10 to 15 minutes as the system gets logged jammed with lookie-loos that only want to go to a show if they get incredibly good seats.

It's not unusual to see situations where the 15th person in line gets better seats than the first person in line. This stuns that 15th person and really pisses-off that first person. They automatically assume that venue (or a rogue box office worker) is holding back the good seats for their friends. While I can't tell you that that has never occurred in the history of ticket sales, it's not near as common as people think. If a show is a slam-dunk sell out, there's not much you can do beside log on and hope you get lucky. If you're trying to get tickets to an MLB or NFL playoff game, you better either be lucky or know somebody with the team. But most shows don't sell out. And if you know that your show isn't going to sell out, there's a really good chance you'll get better tickets at 10:30am than you will at 10:00am (this is assuming a 10:00am on-sale). It's a scary proposition to sit there and wait once tickets go on-sale but unless you're going after tickets for the Led Zeppelin reunion or Coldplay, chances are you'll do better.

Of course, now that I've told you that, it'll probably just make the problem worse.

Anyways, they're playing at Harrah's Voodoo Lounge in Maryland Heights this Thursday, and in case you want to get a little personal with the fellas before buying your tickets, I asked Los Lobos' Steve Berlin a couple of questions. I was impressed with the fact that he plays the saxaphone, percussion, flute, midisax, harmonica and the melodica for the group, but I was more impressed with how he keeps it all in perspective.

Q.For people who don't know what latin rock sounds like, what would you compare it to and how would you describe the sound?
A. Not sure how to answer that one- I can only speak about what we are, which is a band that combines rock, blues, country and just about everything else we can find and make our own music. Obviously, theres a major Latin influence, but I wouldn't call us a standard bearer for Latin rock by a long shot. And on any given night, we can sound like three or four totally different bands depending on how we are feeling.

Q. What is your favorite activity to do as a group when you're not on tour or the recording studio?
A. When we are off the road or away from the studio, we are with our families since we are away from them so often and for so long. Some of us play golf together on the road so that might be as close as we get to non-music group activity.

Q. What was the best thing about winning the Billboard Century Award (2001)?
A. It was quite an honor, like winning the Grammies we've won. That and the parties are usually pretty cool.

Q. Your latest album, "The Town and the City," sounds very close to your hearts. Can you give a couple examples of how the lyrics relate to real-life stories in your pasts?
A. I may have to punt this one to Louie, who wrote the lyrics. I will say that we are all second generation Americans so a lot of the immigrants' stories are close to our hearts.

Q. What is something about Los Lobos that would surprise your fans?
A. That we really dont hang out together much off the road- there really seems like less and less time to spend with our families, so aside from tours and studio stuff we dont see each other hardly at all.

If Steve's answers have piqued your interest, go here to buy your tickets now, or click [tab:video] to hear how they sound live.

For a clip of Sr. Lewney's expertise, click [tab:video].

Well, the presentation was fun, and Dr. Lewney was certainly edgy, but I can honestly say that almost the entire elaboration on physics went right over my head. I enjoyed listening to him play guitar, and his adults-only sense of humor was pretty entertaining (Although I think the moms with small children in the audience were hoping their kids didn't get his jokes about "grass" and "doing it"), but it's going to be pretty much impossible for me to sum up his complicated presentation in a way that even remotely makes sense. Instead, I'll submit to you my notes from that hour, and hope that you get something out of them.

• Go to doctorlewney.com for more information about the guy with the attractive British accent.
• The number of vibrations per second on a guitar string equals is it's frequency.
• Wow, that "smoking" comment was pretty questionable for small children.
• The fundamental reasons why a guitar string sounds like it does are the length, the tension and the width.
• This talk about the different types of harmonies sounds really technical.
• "What's the shape of space time?"
• The universe is less expanded if you look back in time.
• With the electric guitar, guitar makers do no want the actual guitar to vibrate - only on acoustic.
• MY EARS HURT!
• Yep, I'm pretty sure that was another sexual reference.
• Asking what's north of the North Pole is the equivalent of a cosmologist asking "what's before the universe?"
• When a positron meets an electron, they annihilate each other.
• "Kids, get a physics degree because it's better than working at McDonald's and you'll get paid three times as much."
• The 10 or 11 dimensions in the string theory are more of a mathematical framework other than a scientific theory, so for now, that's enough dimensions to keep the theory intact.
• The Large Hadron Collider (LHC) will not make black holes, so everyone should stop taking one lonely retired chemist's opinion so seriously.
• Wow, the guy next to me with the high-rise pants smells bad. And he is asking a really complicated question about space and time theory right now. Who is Higsfield?

Just in case Sr. Lewney's take on physics and rock 'n roll has made you want to play a few riffs, the St. Louis Symphony and composer/musician Glen Branca are looking for 100 guitarists and bass players for an organized show at The Pageant. If you're interested, e-mail Glann at glenn@glennbranca.com. The first rehearsal is November 11, so you better start practicing.