Boy George was all set to play the Showbox July 20th, until The Man brought the hammer down. The U.S. State Department denied the Culture Club frontman a visa, so now his entire North American summer tour (running from July 11th in Las Vegas to August 23rd in Dallas) may have to be scuttled. The tour isn't officially cancelled just yet, but things aren't looking good. According to Boy George's manager: At the moment, Boy......

Pearl Jam is touring (nowhere near Seattle) this month—they’re kicking off a 13-stop trip tonight in West Palm Beach, actually—and that means more official bootlegs of Pearl Jam shows. Announced yesterday, the band will once again make their sets available via high-quality downloads—and on physical, “made-to-order” CDs. (Fans clamored for the latter option after the band’s last tour was released solely in intangible file format.) Even you crazy kids with Verizon V CAST phones......

Just announced: New Kids on the Block are playing the Tacoma Dome this fall. Saturday, November 22nd. Be there if you dare. Then: And now: If you just can't live without seeing NKOTB as grown-ass men, tickets ($29.50-$77.50) go on sale at 10am this Saturday via Live Nation and Ticketmaster. May God have mercy on our souls.......

May and June will be great months for concert-going fans of the few seminal Seattle rock bands and artists still thriving today. If you live east of, say, Iowa. Because the following local acts will play everywhere from Columbus to West Palm to NYC to London. And not Seattle. Shawn Smith: To support The Diamond Hand, his latest (fantastic) album, the Brad frontman and soloist extraordinaire will play five shows in early May, jumping......

If you weren't lucky enough to nab a pair of tickets to an April Eddie Vedder show via Pearl Jam's fan club presale or Ticketmaster's sale last Friday, you're only screwed if you aren't extremely wealthy—and charitable. Though his six-city, expanded-to-10-date tour sold out within minutes, there are a few sweet seats reserved for big-time, big-money fans who also wouldn't mind seeing the West Memphis Three go free. Per the press release: For all......

Photograph of Michael Strahan, coach Tom Coughin (holding the Vince Lombardi trophy) and quarterback and Super Bowl MVP Eli Manning by Tien Mao Gothamist was amazed after the Giants won the Super Bowl, the city went wild, and it witnessed a ticker-tape parade.Barack Obama drew 20,000+ ahead of Seattle’s Saturday caucus.Londonist had Super Tuesday too.Elusive guerrilla street artist Banksy revisits Los Angeles.After the Patriots lost the Super Bowl and came this close to making......

The only thing more sad and lame than a cover band is a tribute band. (Usually.) Well, even worse is a tribute band that plays the music of an another band that still exists. No, wait—a tribute band that plays songs from a one-off band’s one-off album … whose members live on. That’s truly scraping the musical barrel-bottom. Okay, okay. Worser yet is a national tour of three tribute bands that run this lamentable......

Could we be any vaguer? No, but that doesn't mean there's still not any reason to get excited. With In Rainbows making its formal debut atop the Billboard charts, Radiohead is set to cover North America in two tour legs, one prior to and one following their recently announced European summer tour (June 6 in Dublin through July 8 in Berlin). There's no exact dates or venues just yet, but the band has confirmed......

This morning's commute is pretty bad, but as this rain is expected to last well into the evening, by then Duck Tour may be the only way to navigate the city. Already (as of 8:35 am): --Amtrak service between Eugene and Vancouver, B.C. is suspended because of mudslides. --Sounder service was also cancelled. --Most highways and roads on the coast are closed. --Stevens Pass is closed. --Westlake Ave. in Seattle is blocked between Galer and......

Attention Pearl Jam fans and Flatstock attendees: You need the new, superfancy art book Pearl Jam vs Ames Bros: 13 Years of Tour Posters. The book is a compendium of the band's 1995-2007 gig posters by artists Ames Bros and Brad Klausen, PJ's exclusive print-design minds. Though (sadly) it doesn't date back to the Golden Days of Grunge, at 229 posters, it's an exhaustive collection. But it isn't just poster reproductions. Pearl Jam vs......

Just when you thought that college campuses would be unable to handle any more scourges to their populations, with meningitis and date-rape rampant, a new scourge has reared its ugly head: severe, humorless sobriety. Last night we found ourselves in the midst of a sedate and calm crowd of clean-cut, upstanding young college students at a co-ed mixer held in the HUB Ballroom, featuring the touring acts of the NME Rock 'n' Roll Riot......

Yo La Tengo's current "Freewheeling Tour" is billed as one where "anything can and will happen." Reports from earlier stops informed us to expect the unexpected in a setting that is more "mass hangout than veritable rock show," that we could ask questions and should look for the band to play songs based on those questions. Even so, we weren't sure what to expect. We weren't sure if we'd like the format or if it......

It's not often the Seattlest feels the need to research a show before we go to see it, but Yo La Tengo's current tour has a really fascinating description: The Freewheeling Yo La Tengo Tour is a rare opportunity to see this ever-surprising band in a setting more intimate and interactive than any tour in their 23-year career. A little bit "Storytellers," a little bit "Unplugged," with a soupcon of their famously varied Hanukkah shows,......

Tonight only, the British disturbo-cabaret group Tiger Lillies appear at the Moore for their Misery Guts Tour. If you're not heading to a Halloween party, a Tiger Lilllies show is a reliably transgressive alternative. They've been called a "Brechtian punk cabaret combo," and that's by people who like them. Martyn Jacques croons in falsetto his tales of London's underworld, prostitution, slayings, and bestiality, to rollicking gypsy-flavored accordion accompaniment. 8pm // Moore Theatre // Tickets $25......

This last summer, Josh Homme took Billy Gibbons' advice on how to be "the people's band," and instead of hitting places like NYC, Boston and Seattle, when Queens of the Stone Age launched a tour in support of their latest release, Era Vulgaris, they hit up the sort of cities major touring acts never play. Hence the name: the Duluth Tour. That's left Queens fans here in Seattle jonesing for a show. And at......

Kim is off to see Susan Werner at the Triple Door Sunday night. This weekend is a toss up for Matt between going down to Portland for the final days of the Body World 3 show at OMSI or heading out west to the The 26th Annual West Coast Oyster Shucking Championship and Washington State Seafood Festival. As previously noted, Seth is going to take The Grand Tour with George Jones at the Paramount. Friday,......

Londonist are starting to think their city is getting just a little bit too expensive, when even Christian Slater can't afford to go out there. And there's no escaping, as local singer Lily Allen discovered when she was barred entry to the US. The British mapping agency caused further bad karma, by blocking a 3-D representation of London in Google Earth. But the smiles returned to Londonist's faces as they interviewed Baroness von Reichardt,......

Ratatouille has grossed a quarter billion simoleons since its release last month, but the biggest kick might be that it's getting kids interested in French food. Daisley Gordon, the chef at Seattle's Campagne, is even giving Saturday morning ratatouille cooking classes. In the film, the plot turns on a remarkably tasty, multi-layer eggplant ratatouille (actually devised by über-chef Thomas Keller of the French Laundry and Per Se). "I just loved the movie, which captured......

"It's easy to hate you!" said one player last night at the Old Pequliar. We're sure it was. Last night's quiz turned out to be unreasonably difficult, and we felt bad about it even as the nightmare was unfolding in front of our eyes. Average score in round 1, Geography? 3.3 out of 10. Average score in round 2, A Fine Romance? Better! But only by half a point -- 3.85 out of 10.......

LAist was comped front row seats by the Dodgers due to Malingering being struck by a foul ball last week, and she came back with some great photos, and earlier made fun of 4th of July on Venice Beach. But the biggest stories of the week was that the Mayor's Hot Tamale was revealed, and that a Kwik-E-Mart was erected in Burbank. Phillyist was busy doing the Fourth of July up right, exercising their......

Tony Award®-winning musical "The Light in the Piazza" is coming home to Seattle on its current National Tour. We just assume you know all about its effect on the Broadway set, but if not, here. Single tickets go on sale this Friday, March 16. You can catch "Piazza" April 17-29 at the Paramount. The two-week run is co-presented by Broadway Across America—Seattle, Intiman, and Seattle Theatre Group. If you subscribe to any of 'em,......

BENEFIT: The Clif Bar Save Our Snow Tour, featuring DJ Sabzi from the Blue Scholars, stops by Fremont to help start global cooling. First they came for the snow, but we said nothing, because we follow the sun. 7-10:30pm // Evo Gear in Fremont 122 NW 36th St. // $5 BOOK:Journalist and activist Ann Jones talks about her book Kabul in Winter: Life Without Peace in Afghanistan, her account of volunteering to teach English to......

Tickets for the Vancouver, BC reunion of The Police were sold out in under three minutes, sort of. Seeing them performing together again on the Grammy Awards show this month made us nostalgic for the soundtrack of our elementary school years. And now we learn that tickets for the June 6th show at Key Arena go on pre-sale tomorrow morning at 10 AM for members of The Police Tour Fan Club. What is The......

We couldn't help but notice that maitre d' Mikel Kanter from Vancouver's Elixir bistro is telling tourists an awfully familiar story: He also offered that the term "Skid Row" was coined just outside the window for the logging skids that led to the water in earlier times. Skid Row, of course, became a term for the down and out, and there's nothing down and out about Vancouver these days. Wait a minute. Skid Row? Doesn't......

That's one thing we learned from The Moth Story Tour on Sunday night at Town Hall. Actually, we learned that from the brochure, which explained what local voices were going to appear in which cities. Cho in LA, Savage in SEA. The premise of The Moth is simple: storytellers get ten minutes on stage to tell a true story. No notes. The benefit, as host and first storyteller Jonathan Ames put it, is that you......

Wednesday, October 11 >>>University Temple United Methodist Church, 7:30pm. Religious believers can be co-opted, argues distinguished biologist and secular humanist E.O. Wilson in his talk "The Creation: A Meeting of Science and Religion." Blah blah salvation of biodiversity blah glory of nature blah work together. We dislike this automatic Religion-and-Science connection ("Ballet and Groundskeeping: A New Unity"), but he's a smartie. Could be worth it. Suggested donation: $5 at the door. >>>UW Information School, 7:00-9:00pm.......

"You're going to buy it anyway," chirps the (RED) marketing copy. So why not put profits from sweatshop labor to use in the fight to eliminate AIDS in Africa? Do good and look fabulous at the same time. We're not entirely sold on that proposal, but we did have much more fun at the Hotel Cafe Tour [myspace] Saturday night at the Crocodile than we were expecting from a grab-bag of six singer/songwriters (part......

Before we get into the review, let's draw your attention to the Kristin Hersh show this Tuesday, and Patricia Barber next Tuesday and Wednesday. TIME says Patricia Barber is what you get when you "cross Diana Krall with Susan Sontag." Who can pass that up? Rosie Thomas/Lambchop: 9/28 We had never heard Sub Pop's Rosie Thomas [myspace] before and were delighted to discover a terrific folk-pop vocalist and lyricist in one package. While endearingly kooky......

A little something for everyone. Consider next Monday's show the icing on the delicious music-y cake. Tuesday 12th >>> Sarathan Records Showcase w/The Purrs, Two Loons for Tea, Christopher Blue, Shane Bartell at Neumo's. Local label Sarathan Records is going to show off some of the bands on their roster. They've got great t-shirt designs, so the merch is top-notch. 8pm; $5. 21+ >>> Jeff Lang at Tractor Tavern. A blues guitar master from......

Celebrate Ben Franklin's 300th birthday with the Bikini Bandits and Phillyist! (NSFW). Speaking of Mr. Franklin, send in a picture of Ben (or Ed Rendell) with a red tongue and win a free t-shirt. And they might have the next YearlyKos in Philly. You know who's going to be upset about those Bikini Bandits? The Houston school system. Houstonist also reports on some redevelopment shenanigans over a landmark theater. LAist's sex advice column on......