For its tour in support of its 13th studio album, which is called “Fade,” Yo La Tengo has dispensed with the formality of hiring an opening band to fill time before its headlining set. Instead, it fills the role itself, which makes sense, for this is two or three bands rolled into one.
Wednesday night, for almost three hours (including a 30-minute intermission), the trio from Hoboken, N.J., gave a crowd of about 500 very attentive fans at Crossroads KC a ride through its its history, which goes back 25 years and comprises 13 albums, half of which are as uneven as the others are memorable.
The show was split into two sets, an opening nine-song set that, compared to the main set, was quiet and acoustic. The band gathered at the front of the stage, like just another opening band, and played what amounted to an unplugged set. Georgia Hubley struck her drums with brushes, and most of the guitar work from her husband, Ira Kaplan, and James McNew was acoustic. Here and there they added keyboards, some programmed sounds and alternative percussion, like a maraca.
Grunge was transformed into mud Wednesday at the Midland theater.
The atrocious sound field for Soundgarden, one of the leading bands of the grunge movement, sullied what should have been a triumphant comeback concert. While pristine sonics are not part of the band’s aesthetic, the poor sound quality was unacceptable for a performance by a major act at an elite venue. Soundgarden broke a 13-year hiatus in 2010 and hadn’t appeared in Kansas City since the 1990s. The capacity audience of about 3,000 was primed to see the reunited quartet.
Soundgarden tore into an intriguing setlist with relentless intensity. The concert opened with mangled versions of “Searching With My Good Eye Closed” and “Jesus Christ Pose.”
The folks with the Kanrocksas Music Festival have announced that a limited quantity of $99 single-day passes for the fest are going on sale Monday. Two-day passes are available for $175. The lineup for Friday, June 28, and Saturday, June 29, follows. For more, go to kanrocksas.com
Peter Frampton’s Guitar Circus summer tour hits the road late this month, and one of its stops will be Aug. 18, a Sunday, at the Kauffman Center for the Performing Arts. For that performance, Frampton is bringing with him the king of the blues, B.B. King, and Sonny Landreth. Ticket information is forthcoming.
Organizers of the 2013 Wakarusa Music Festival have announced the times and stages for the four-day festival at Mulberry Mountain in Ozark, Ark. It runs May 30 to June 2. The festival opens at noon May 30, a Thursday. Among the bands on the bill: Galactic, Calexico, the Black Crowes, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Of Monsters and Men, Umphrey’s McGee, ZZ Ward, Grouplove. Gogol Bordello and Widespread Panic. Local acts on the bill: Making Movies and the dance/aerial troupe Quixotic. For a complete schedule, go here.
At a time when speed and efficiency are paramount in the music industry, the five members of Red Line Chemistry have had to exercise patience.
“It was tough because we know you really need to be out on the road to remain relevant,” lead vocalist Brett Ditgen said recently from Beaumont, Texas, where the band shared a bill with Device and Nonpoint. “But in the end it worked out because we ended up putting out the best record we’ve ever made.”
That record is called “Tug of War,” and it will be officially released Tuesday. “War” is the Kansas City band’s third full-length album. It represents a significant departure from the other two, Ditgen said, and a big part of its change in sound and dynamics had to do with all the time he and the band had to spend on songwriting.
He will return to the Sprint Center on Oct. 16, a Wednesday, his first show here since May 2011. Tickets go on sale at noon Friday (Mother’s Day gift, anyone?)
She brought along a few wardrobe changes, a satellite stage that floated above the crowd, a few enormous beach balls and a first-rate light and video show. It all added to the spectacle of Carrie Underwood’s show at the Sprint Center on Wednesday, but none of it overshadowed the main attraction: her voice.
Over the course of 90 minutes, Underwood unleashed upon a crowd of about 13,000 fans a torrent of relentless sky-scraping anthems that showed off her mighty vocal prowess. Wednesday night’s show was a makeup date for a December concert canceled because Underwood was ill. Though there were moments when she spoke between songs when her voice sounded tired, even slightly hoarse, she had no trouble roaring relentlessly through 19 songs.
Underwood is touring on her fourth studio album, “Blown Away,” released one year ago. She performed half of that album, including “Leave Love Alone,” for which she was joined by the evening’s opening act, Hunter Hayes. During “Remind Me,” she was joined via video by her duet partner, Brad Paisley.
