Good morning Radicals! Hope you’re planning to go out and vote today! Here’s the latest in music news:
Five Finger Death Punch drummer Jeremy Spencer will sit out the fall leg of the band’s tour with Breaking Benjamin to undergo a second back surgery for an undisclosed condition. A drum prodigy known as “The Engine”will fill in for him on all dates, with the tour beginning on Tuesday (November 6th) in Wichita, Kansas and ending on December 11th in Portland, Maine.
Following the two bands’s successful summer run together, the fall arena tour will once again feature 2018 breakout rock band Bad Wolves and Swedish veterans In Flames on select dates. From Ashes To new will offer support on the entire trek.
Five Finger Death Punch will donate a portion of its ticket sales to VETPAW (Veterans Empowered to Protect African Wildlife). The mission of VETPAW is to end the illegal poaching of rhinos, elephants and other endangered species, using the skills and experience of highly trained combat veterans to form anti-poaching units, train local park rangers and support their communities.
Breaking Benjamin will donate a portion of ticket sales to a charity the band has long supported, St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, in an effort to help further research to end childhood cancer and other life-threatening diseases.
Five Finger Death Punch is continuing to tour in support of its latest album, And Justice For None, which came out in May.
Papa Roach has announced a special run of five shows in its home state of California to celebrate the release of the band’s forthcoming 10th studio album. The group will close out this run with three concerts at the landmark West Hollywood venue The Roxy in Los Angeles.
Singer Jacoby Shaddix said, “It’s been so long since we’ve done some real intimate shows like this in California — since 2009, in fact. We can’t wait to show our California fans a bit of love they deserve. Sacto, SF, LA, they’re all in for a treat.” Tickets for the shows will be on sale beginning on Friday (November 9th).
Shaddix told us a while back that he still thinks the best way to experience a rock band is up close and in person: “The best way for somebody to fall in love with a rock ‘n’ roll band is to go see that band live. Like, yeah, check ’em out on the Internet, but, you know, you’re not really gonna get what a rock ‘n’ roll band is about until you see that band live. I think that that’s one of our best attributes is our live show, you know, so I encourage anybody out there. You know, it’s like, come be part of what we do live, that social experience is like, you know, you can’t download that experience and that’s the beauty about live rock ‘n’ roll, you know.”
Ozzy Osbourne has announced additional “No More Tours 2” North American tour dates for 2019. The new round of shows will launch on May 29th in Atlanta, hitting another 26 cities before winding down on July 29th in Los Angeles. The last four gigs, all West Coast dates, are make-up dates for concerts postponed last month when Ozzy had to have surgery to remove an infection in two fingers.
For these shows, Osbourne will once again be backed by his longtime collaborators Zakk Wylde on guitar, Rob “Blasko” Nicholson on bass, Tommy Clufetos on drums and Adam Wakeman on keyboards. Tickets go on sale to the general public starting Friday, November 9th at LiveNation.com and through the Live Nation app.
Prior to his 2019 dates, Ozzy will headline a special New Year’s Eve (December 31st) edition of Ozzfest at the Forum in Los Angeles.
The “No More Tours 2” tour launched in May 2018 in Santiago, Chile and will travel around the world through 2020. It has been advertised as Ozzy’s last major world tour of this length, although he says he will continue to perform select live shows in the future.
Metallica played a rare acoustic show this past Saturday (November 3rd) at the Masonic in San Francisco. The evening, dubbed the “All Within My Hands Foundation Helping Hands Concert And Auction,” celebrated the first full year of Metallica’s All Within My Hands non-profit foundation, which was launched in 2017 to help creating sustainable communities by tackling the issues of hunger and workforce education and encouraging volunteerism.
In addition to acoustic versions of some classic Metallica songs like “Disposable Heroes,” “The Unforgiven,” “Nothing Else Matters” and “Enter Sandman,” the band covered Deep Purple‘s “When A Blind Man Cries,” Nazareth‘s “Please Don’t Judas Me,” Blue Oyster Cult‘s “Veteran Of The Psychic Wars” and Bob Seger‘s “Turn The Page.”
Band members James Hetfield, Kirk Hammett, Robert Trujillo and Lars Ulrich were joined by a quartet of backing musicians who provided additional percussion, keyboards, strings and vocal harmony.
Ulrich told us that even after years of playing arenas and stadiums, Metallica still enjoys doing intimate shows: “Playing small places are always fun. Any time you have a small place and you’ve got a lot of energy and a good vibe in a small place it’s always fun ’cause the energy’s contained. And obviously we spend a lot of time playing outdoors, and outdoors, it’s great. But the energy kind of goes to the stars, you know. When you’re playing small places and the energy’s contained, it’s pretty awesome.”
Along with unplugged performances from Metallica and opening act Cage The Elephant, the night offered attendees an opportunity to bid on one-of-a-kind auction items.
Metallica is on a break for the next three weeks but will resume its current North American tour on November 26th in Las Vegas.
An official public memorial service for late All That Remains guitarist Oli Herbert will be held at the Palladium in Worcester, Massachusetts this Sunday (November 11th). The event will also be livestreamed via Herbert‘s Facebook page starting at 2:15 p.m. ET. Herbert’s friends and family are putting together a video package for the memorial and accepting submissions of photos from fans until November 8th via email to suzanne@suzannepenley.com. Herbert passed away at the age of 44 on October 16th. While a cause of death has yet to be revealed, his passing has been described as an “accident.”
Just so ya know… GNR like a lot of artists opposed to the unauthorized use of their music at political events has formally requested r music not b used at Trump rallies or Trump associated events.
— Axl Rose (@axlrose) November 4, 2018
With Election Day upon us at last, Guns N’ Roses frontman Axl Rose has been expressing his displeasure over Donald Trump‘s staff playing “Sweet Child O’ Mine” at recent political rallies. Axl wrote on Twitter, “Just so ya know . . . GNR like a lot of artists opposed to the unauthorized use of their music at political events has formally requested r music not b used at Trump rallies or Trump associated events.” Axl added that the Trump campaign was using “loopholes” to continue playing the song. Axl has been a frequent critic of Trump and the Republican party.
Finally, we’d like to wish a happy birthday to Living Color singer Corey Glover, and Bad Religion frontman Greg Graffin! Be sure to get out and vote today!
