hardDrive Live Tour was OFF THE HOOK last night in Patchogue, NY at The Emporium! The evening started off with a great live chat on the hardDriveRadio APP with Matt Kiichi Heafy and Mark Tremonti. We were so stoked to be able to sit them down together in the back of Mark’s tour bus to spend some quality time with their fans. Thanks to all who participated!
Then the performances kicked off with the boys from Detroit Rock City, Wilson. A short yet spirited set from the guys included tracks from their new Right To Rise album, including the title track. Chad Nicefield, frontman and part time bass drum player a la high school marching band, didn’t disappoint the crowd with his antics, including joining the audience on the floor. Next up was our friends in Tremonti. Love Mark and his band and their set included songs from both of Tremonti’s albums. Happy he opened the show with one of my favs, “Cauterize,” title track of the latest. (BTW: Tremonti fans should know the Dust album will be out in the spring.) Then co-headliners Trivium came with the full force of metal only they can bring. They had a cool set design with the mask (one on each side of the stage) that is seen on the cover of their forthcoming Silence In The Snow album. It is so awesome to see the different flavors of hard rock/heavy metal on this stage and each band bringing their styles effortlessly. And many thanks to all the bands for the hardDrive LOVE from the stage! Great night of rock and I hope you can get to see it at a venue near you! See www.harddrivelivetour.com now for all the details!
Meanwhile, Paulie Walnuts was at the Food Truck and Rock Carnival over the weekend and got to hang with Barry Stock of Three Days Grace and Morgan Rose of Sevendust to talk about the new album, Kill The Flaw. I had a tooth pulled on Friday and spent Saturday in a vicodin hangover/headache. So I wasn’t able to leave my couch, sadly! Slash performed Saturday night and I was sorry to miss it. Godsmack headlined last night, along with sets from Like A Storm and Clutch, among others. The good news is Lou Brutus will be hanging with Godsmack, Five Finger Death Punch, Papa Roach, In This Moment, Pop Evil and more this weekend at Sonic Boom in Madison, WI! (Paulie will be posting some shots on our Facebook page, so check that out and LIKE us!)
And here’s a big I TOLD YOU SO to the naysayers who said ROCK IS DEAD! Blabbermouth reporting this morning Bring Me The Horizon’s That’s The Spirit debuted at No. 2 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 62,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Sep 17.
The Billboard 200 chart ranks the most popular albums of the week based on multi-metric consumption, which includes traditional album sales, track equivalent albums (TEA) and streaming equivalent albums (SEA).
In terms of pure album sales, That’s The Spirit landed at No. 1 on the Top Album Sales chart with first-week sales of 55,000 copies. This marks Bring Me The Horizon’s best sales week ever.
Then there’s Slayer’s Relentless album! It debuted at No. 4 on The Billboard 200, having shifted 50,000 equivalent album units in the week ending Sep 17.
In terms of pure album sales, Repentless opened with 49,000 copies, marking Slayer‘s highest-charting album yet. Slayer‘s previous album, World Painted Blood, registered a first-week tally of 41,000 to land at No. 12.
And in the top 10, Five Finger’s album is #5 and Iron Maiden at 10. Oh, yes, Rock is SO DEAD! LOL
The Pulse Of Radio reporting this morning they’ve done it separately in Three Days Grace and Staind, but now singer Adam Gontier and guitarist Mike Mushok have penned a Top 10 rock radio hit together in “Better Place,” the first single off the self-titled debut album from their new band Saint Asonia. Between them, Gontier and Mushok have composed or co-written 27 previous Top 10 singles, with 17 of them hitting Number One. This marks the first time the two musicians have done it as part of the same group.
Saint Asonia was announced earlier this year, with Mushok and Gontier joined in the band by ex-Finger Eleven drummer Rich Beddoe and Dark New Day bassist Corey Lowery.
Although Gontier left Three Days Grace in late 2012 under less than amicable circumstances, he told us that he’s since reconnected with his former bandmates: “Over the last few months, the guys in Three Days and myself have reconnected and started talking again, so I mean myself and Barry (Stock, guitarist) and Brad (Walst, bassist) are pretty tight now, so it’s a good thing. You know, I’m proud of what they’re doing and I think they’re just as proud of what I’m doing.“
Soundgarden frontman Chris Cornell stopped by The Tonight Show With Jimmy Fallon to perform “Nearly Forgot My Broken Heart,” the first single from his newly released solo album, Higher Truth. The album arrived in stores on Friday (Sep 18th), the same day that Cornell kicked off an acoustic tour that stops in San Pedro, CA on Monday night (Sep 21st).
AC/DC‘s sold-out concert at Wrigley Field in Chicago last Tuesday night (Sep 15th) got between 15 and 20 complaints about noise from area residents. HA! (It’s AC/DC, people! You should be HAPPY!) The calls Tuesday were mainly from residents north and northwest of the ballpark. It was reported earlier in the week that the show would include the use of pyrotechnics, with helicopters capturing aerial shots of the band’s performance for future DVD release. (Chicago Tribune)
And finally, today in the hardDriveRadio Studios, Shinedown, Like A Storm and Trivium! More tomorrow!