The Belly Up Tavern
8:00pm
with opener Ari Hest
$14.00 at the door

Elisa Toffoli is very popular Italian pop artist and is making her rounds on her first US and Canadian tour. You might have heard her song “Dancing” before on Dancing with the Stars. We caught up with Elisa as she was making her way to San Diego for tomorrow night’s performance at the Belly Up Tavern in San Diego, CA. She is out in support of her latest album Dancing.  Check out her Myspace for videos and songs from Dancing.

Interview with Elisa after the jump…

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The Whigs
The Eagles Ballroom
Milwaukee, WI
11/05/2008

Yesterday, I witnessed the biggest rock star in the world seize the reins of our United States. Today, I saw the greatest rock show of this year (The Whigs, We Are Scientists, and Kings of Leon.) And just before the show, I was able to sit down with the rock stars of tomorrow, Julian Dorio (drums) and Tim Deaux (bass) of The Whigs. While I would put these straight-rockers from Georgia in the category ‘rock star,’ they were not so quick to consent.

After meandering our way through the labyrinth that is The Rave…that is Eagles Ballroom…that is also four other venues, we found a balcony overlooking the parking lot. The place is HUGE. Doors opened as we were walking down the stairs and several girls recognized Julian with his signature backwards trucker hat right away.

Andy: The life of a rock star, it must be rough.
Julian: Yeah. Well you should see the Kings of Leon, they can’t go anywhere without getting mobbed.

Hit the jump for the rest of the interview.
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Howie Diamond, far left lookin’ dapper as all get out.

After their show last Sunday at the House of Blues, I had a chance to sit down with Low Vs Diamond’s Howie Diamond and chat about the current tour as well as what’s to come for the band. I got to the venue a little late because I was covering the Hot Chip show the same night.

So, the whole time we were talking Howie’s friends were hurrying him along so they could celebrate the show. I found out later on he’s originally from Chicago, which explained the entourage. He just kept telling them, “Guys, give me five minutes, just five minutes.” Surprisingly, it appeased most of them for about 25 minutes while we finished the interview.

Read about their plans for their next tour after the jump:

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Enrique Iglesias
Allstate Arena - Rosemont, IL
September 27, 2008

Enrique Iglesias opened his show last night with his 2004 hit “Not In Love” and followed it with two Spanish ballads. Switching up his English and Spanish hits, Enrique kept the audience on their feet waiting to hear what the next song would be. Having been performing and writing music for the past 20 years, he did not have nearly enough time to fit in all of the songs that have garnered him millions of fans from around the world. “Bailamos” was the 4th song of the night and brought back the memories of the moment years ago when he officially crossed over into mainstream pop in America.

Keep reading after the jump to see more photos from last night’s nearly sold out concert…

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Drew Emmick @ CaptainMelody.com

On Friday, September 12th I had the privilege to meet up with Kelly Winrich of Delta Spirit before they performed at Lola’s Saloon in Fort Worth, TX. I was led to a side room in the club where Kelly was chilling with his Apple laptop. He was gracious to give me a lot of his time and share tons of information on their album “Ode to the Sunshine.”

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After the Q101 Block Party was cancelled on Saturday, September 13th, several bands decided to head over to the Cubby Bear to play a free show for those who were 21+. Sick Puppies and Ludo were the only major acts that played the show. MSI rumored that they were going to play but didn’t actually show up, bummer. Anyways, here’s my interview with the Sick Puppies:

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The Presets, supporting Cut Copy on their North American Tour are an electro-dance duo hailing from Sydney, Australia. Chicago was the third stop on the tour following Kansas City and Minneapolis. The show was September 17th at the Metro and was sold out. You can check out Joe’s review of the show here.

The Presets: Julian (left) and Kim (right)

I had a chance to talk with lead singer and keyboardist Julian Hamilton. He shares his thoughts on the show at the Metro and leaves Chicago fans with some exciting words of encouragement! Here goes…

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I don’t really read Rolling Stone anymore. I find it is full of mostly outdated information and too much politics, but today on the front page of Rollingstone.com there is an interview with Arnel Pineda, the new lead singer for Journey. It’s titled, “Sad ‘Journey’ for New Singer”. It talks about how Arnel isn’t really finding life on tour very glamorous and he misses his family (who could blame him). Could another reason why he’s not as happy as he thought he’d be while touring with Journey be because he if trying to fill some big shoes? From the interview it appears that he was hesitant to take the roll as the new lead singer in the first place. Maybe he knew his new roll in the band would be criticized.

Replacing a lead singer that made a band is one hell of a task that not many have been successful at doing. The band that was most successful doing so, in my opinion, is Van Halen with Sammy Hagar. To this day the fans are still split between the David Lee Roth Era and the Sammy Era. It’s expected. Back to Journey, we didn’t give Journey a glowing review, but it wasn’t anything personal with Arnel. I am sure he expected the backlash when he took the job.

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Does It Offend You, Yeah?

This electro-punk act will be stopping in Chicago this Wednesday as apart of their current U.S. tour. The four-piece from Reading England have been gaining a lot of buzz and landed a spot at this years Lollapalooza Music Festival. If you haven’t heard of them, I would suggest you dig right in, blindfolded.

Their debut album You Have No Idea What You Are Getting Yourself Into is packed with energy & ridiculousness. But with song titles such as “Attack of the 60 ft Lesbian Octopus” what else would you expect?

I’ll admit I’m pretty excited about this show and earlier this week I got a chance to speak with lead singer James Rushnet to find out a little more…

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FALL OUT BOY’S NEW RELEASE FOLIE A DEUX SCHEDULED FOR NOVEMBER 4TH ELECTION DAY

FIRST SINGLE “I DON’T CARE”

FALL OUT BOY HEADLINES “ROCK THE VOTE BALLOT BASH” IN DENVER, ON FIRST NIGHT OF DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION

Fall Out Boy’s “Beat It” nominated for Best Rock Video at 25th annual MTV VMAs

Multi-platinum three-time MTV VMA-winning Island Records group Fall Out Boy have officially announced their upcoming new third Island album FOLIE A DEUX, to be released on November 4th, 2008. The band told a packed audience about the release the other night at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, when they headlined the “Rock the Vote Ballot Bash.” FOLIE A DEUX was produced by Neal Avron at The Pass Studios in Los Angeles. The first single will be the track “I Don’t Care.” Radio dates to be announced shortly.

For FOLIE A DEUX, Fall Out Boy spearheaded a politically charged group that unveiled cryptic “Big Brother” type messages in order to support and ignite a democratic process. Impressively, the creative album roll-out garnered over 1 million impressions in just one week online across literally hundreds of websites such as absolutepunk.net, friendsorenemies.com, Live Journal communities and many other popular music websites, including the band’s own site, www.falloutboyrock.com. “This roll-out was started to engage people and let them tell their own stories. We came up with the beginning and the end, while the rest happened organically,” says FOB bass player Pete Wentz.

Meanwhile, Fall Out Boy’s cover of Michael Jackson’s “Beat It” has been nominated for Best Rock Video at this year’s 25th annual MTV VMAs. The worldwide cablecast takes place live from Paramount Studios in Hollywood, on Sunday night, September 7th at 9:00 p.m. (Eastern).

Since their first major market headlining North American arena tour in spring 2006, Chicago’s Fall Out Boy - Patrick Stump (vocals/guitar), Pete Wentz (bass), Joe Trohman (guitar), and Andy Hurley (drums) - have appeared on the covers of Rolling Stone, Spin, Blender, and Alternative Press have have performed on NBC’s The Today Show, Saturday Night Live, The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Late Night with Conan O’Brien, CBS’s The Late Show with David Letterman, ABC’s Jimmy Kimmel Live and more.

Read on after the jump to heat what the guys in Fall Out Boy had to say during their press conference before the Nike+ Human Race 10K at Chicago’s Soldier Field.

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