Category: Power Pop Concerts

Some of the best music is notoriously difficult to get good seats for. In some cases a ticket broker can help you find what you’re looking for. One example is the Coldplay show on July 25 in Alpine Valley Music Theatre in Wisconsin. You will have a hard time unless you try a broker with Alpine Valley Music Theater Tickets.

Sometimes you can plan ahead, like at the Cape Cod Melody Tent, in Hyannis, MA. the best shows are coming up in July and August. The new wave party band, B-52’s will be there on Saturday August 1st. And those old men, The Beach Boys (i.e. Mike Love and Bruce Johnston) make an appearance on July 19th. If you’d like tickets for these shows check out Cape Cod Melody Tent Tickets.

One of the biggest summer venues is the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston. Classic rock acts like Debbie Harry and Blondie on August 8th, The Moody Blues are there on August 25 and The Pretenders are showing up on August 12th. Some of these bands will not be around forever, so get a chance to check out the Back Of America Pavilion Tickets.

This post has been sponsored by acheapseat.com

An intimate small venue performance — my favorite concert style. This is a real treat that’s expertly filmed and very blog worthy. Thanks again to Mike McCartney’s Time Machine.

I had the good fortune to attend a concert sponsored by The New York Power Pop Page and see Splitsville perform some magic on the small stage at Kenny’s Castaways. Unfortunately I missed Joey Salvia’s set, but heard two female pop acts – The Trouble Dolls and Amanda Kaletsky. They kept the crowd mellow and polite for the most part, until the main event: Splitsville. The band took the stage and rocked out with hits like “Headache”, “Ponce DeLeon” and “The Love Song Of B. Douglas Wilson” among others. Matt Huseman sweated out a great performance that included many songs from band’s early Greenberry Woods days. Brandt Huseman lead vocals on a few tunes and plenty of humor between songs. Keyboard/bassist Paul Krysiak also did a great job. Lead Guitarist Tony Waddy made it look effortless, although he confided in me that he was exhausted. A trusted source from the band let it slip that the group are currently writing a sequel to their award-winning “Pet Soul” LP. I can imagine all of you pop fans salivating already, but more information/demos will be reported when I find out.

Saturday, April 25th, Kenny’s Castaways, 157 Bleecker St., New York City

8 PM – Joey Salvia
8:30 – The Trouble Dolls
9:30 – Amanda Kaletsky
10:30 – Splitsville

Joey Salvia is featured daily on 1050 ESPN Radio’s The Michael Kay Show. The Trouble Dolls is a favorite local band whose biography is not to be believed! Amanda Kaletsky has sang the National Anthem before Mets and Islanders games. Splitsville are widely recognized as one of the finest power pop bands. This is one show I don’t want to miss! 

On Thursday, I attended the IPO music festival at Kenny’s Castaways on Thursday and Saturday. Thursday night started with a bang. The group Bubble was so loud, the entire club shook with those heavy garage pop sounds. Then I was treated to some great psychedelic rock from Maple Mars, where the band got the crowd psyched up. The band played a lot of tunes from the latest album “Beautiful Mess” and got the groove going that night. Afterwards, I was able to introduce Readymade Breakup (shown here) to the stage and those guys had the crowd on it’s feet for “Honey, You May Be Right.” It was the highlight of the night.

I returned on Saturday night and very early on got to introduce The Third of Never to the stage. Bandleader Kurt Reil and the rest performed as a tight unit that got both progressive and melodic. The other band Reil is in, the Gripweeds currently are working on a new album and have a “Best of The Gripweeds” album out now. Then The Private Jets took to the stage, dressed in full airline pilot uniforms. They put on a superb performance from their album “Jet Sounds” and the crowd really started to grow and get into it.

But when Andy Goldberg and Dean Basil got on stage as The Sun Kings, the crowd went nuts. They played a variety of hits from their album “Grin” and from Andy Goldberg’s solo albums. The crowd cheered for an encore and The Sun Kings shined brightly (shown here). Then, The Wind reunited onstage for a very cool quirky experience. Lane Steinberg and Steve Katz are like a throwback to The Beatles and Big Star and kept the audience primed. The drummer let it all hang out on stage, to the point I thought he would spontaneously combust onstage.

Then Buddy Love took to the stage. I witnessed the reunion of this local New York legend last year, this time the band was much looser and confident as they played to the audience in a very animated, finely tuned set. Joey Kelly (shown here) made the stage seem 20 feet long and both Doug Khazzam and Scott Schiller displayed good musicianship and stagecraft. Overall a thrilling night. Loads of thanks to David Bash at IPO for making a great festival.