Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts
Showing posts with label concerts. Show all posts

Sunday, January 25, 2026

Music residencies make Las Vegas an entertainment destination


For older, established music artists, there’s no need to tour when fans can come to you. That’s the point behind music residencies in Las Vegas, which has become more a destination for entertainment and sports than gambling.
Earlier this month, I saw Jennifer Lopez perform at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace as part of her “Up All Night” residency. JLo put on a great show, singing and dancing to her pop hits and Broadway classics.
The Colosseum has hosted residencies for Adele, Celine Dion, Elton John and more. Aside from JLo, other current and upcoming residencies include Blake Shelton, Def Leppard, Cyndi Lauper, Rod Stewart and Kelly Clarkson.
Another site of Las Vegas residencies is the iconic Sphere arena. It’s hosted U2, the Eagles, Backstreet Boys and Phish. Upcoming shows include No Doubt and Kenny Chesney.
The Dolby Live theater at Park MGM has hosted residencies for Bruno Mars, Janet Jackson, Usher, Maroon 5 and Mariah Carey. Current and upcoming residencies include Zayn Malik and Mary J. Blige.
The Venetian Theatre has featured residencies by Foreigner and The B-52s. Current and upcoming residences include Styx, Collective Soul and Chicago.
Entertainment has become more important to Las Vegas as casino gambling has spread across the U.S. In the past, casinos were only legal in Nevada and New Jersey.
Sports is another tourist draw with the opening in July 2020 of Allegiant Stadium, home of the Las Vegas Raiders NFL football team.
Plus, the former Oakland Athletics are building a baseball stadium on the Las Vegas Strip. That ballpark for the Las Vegas A’s is due to open spring 2028.
There’s also the T-Mobile Arena, which hosts the Vegas Golden Knights NHL hockey team as well as Ultimate Fighting Championship matches, concerts and other events.

Related articles:

The top 5 greatest Las Vegas residencies of all time (TheStreet; Jan. 9, 2026)

Photo: Promotional photo for Jennifer Lopez residency at the Colosseum at Caesars Palace.



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Sunday, January 18, 2026

Celebrities at CES 2026: Gwen Stefani, K-pop boy band Riize and more


The CES 2026 tech trade show in Las Vegas had only a sprinkling of celebrities this year.
K-pop boy band Riize appeared at the Samsung media event as the South Korean company promoted new smart music speakers and folding smartphones.
Pop singer Gwen Stefani performed after the Lenovo keynote presentation at the Sphere. Soccer great Alex Morgan also attended the Lenovo keynote.
Other celebrities spoke on panels during conference sessions. They included tennis great Serena Williams; RZA (Bobby Diggs), rapper and leader of the Wu-Tang Clan; Hank Shocklee, member of the rap group Public Enemy; and Will.i.am, music producer and member of the group Black Eyed Peas.
Also on-site were New York Giants quarterback Jaxson Dart and retired Phoenix Mercury basketball star Diana Taurasi.
The Variety Entertainment Summit at the show featured interviews with actors Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Billy Magnussen and Breckin Meyer.
Public Enemy performed a private show for Yahoo and the Black Eyed Peas also did a private show during CES.
The official CES closing party featured English DJ Duke Dumont.

Photos: Gwen Stefani performs at Lenovo event on Jan. 6. Riize at Samsung event on Jan. 4. (Patrick Seitz photos)


Related articles:

K-Pop Stars RIIZE Take Over CES to Help Samsung Unveil New Tri-Fold Phone and Micro RGB TV. (Rolling Stone; Jan. 8, 2026)

Actor and startup founder Joseph Gordon-Levitt worries that AI's biz model is "leading us down a dark path" (TechCrunch; Jan. 7, 2026)

Serena Williams Aims To "Change The Noise And Let People Know That It's Great To Invest In Us" (AfroTech; Jan. 8, 2026)










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Wednesday, December 15, 2021

D.C. Jingle Ball 2021: Good show even without Doja Cat, AJR


When iHeartRadio announced the music acts for its 2021 Jingle Ball Tour, I was impressed with the lineup of artists. The tour is back this year with in-person shows after canceling its 2020 holiday tour and going virtual because of the Covid-19 pandemic.
However, the 2021 Jingle Ball tour was rocked by high-profile cancellations by artists because of the disease. Coldplay, Lil Nas X, Doja Cat and AJR dropped out of the tour after they or members of their teams caught the coronavirus. Also, Dua Lipa canceled because of laryngitis.
Two of those acts, Doja Cat and AJR, had been scheduled to perform at the D.C. show at Capital One Arena on Dec. 14.
The Jonas Brothers headlined the D.C. tour stop. Other acts included Megan Thee Stallion, Black Eyed Peas, Saweetie, Tate McRae, Monsta X, Bazzi, Dixie D’Amelio and Tai Verdes.
The not-family-friendly show was good despite the absence of the two big artists. I particularly liked Saweetie, Monsta X and Tai Verdes. (See review by the Washington Post.)
Here are some tweets from me and others from the show:

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Saturday, April 17, 2021

Return of live events post Covid crisis still in question


Since the Covid-19 pandemic shut down public gatherings for live events such as concerts and sports in March 2020, the question everyone has been asking is when things will return to normal.
The time frame for the reopening of the economy in the U.S. keeps getting pushed back. It had been expected this summer but now it looks like this fall, given the slow rollout of vaccines.
Looking at concert venues in Northern Virginia and D.C., the earliest live performances are planned for late July and August for now.
The Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts in Vienna, Va., canceled its 2020 summer performance season. And this year’s season looks to start in August with concerts by Goo Goo Dolls, Train, John Legend, Pitbull and others. Shows scheduled for this June and July at the venue already have been postponed or canceled.
Capital One Arena in Washington, D.C., is hosting NBA basketball and NHL hockey games at limited capacity. The number of fans allowed to attend Washington Wizards and Washington Capitals games has been capped at 10% of capacity, or 2,100 fans per game. (See news release.)
As for concerts, the earliest scheduled performance is Justin Bieber on July 28 and Nickelodeon’s JoJo Siwa on July 31. Capital One Arena has no concerts planned for August. Harry Styles and Celine Dion have separate concerts scheduled for late September at the arena.
The outdoor venue Jiffy Lube Live in Bristow, Virginia, hopes to begin welcoming back music fans in July. It has a host of rescheduled concerts scheduled for that month including the Black Crowes, Megadeth, Backstreet Boys, Matchbox Twenty and the Doobie Brothers.
Elsewhere in the music world, the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival and Stagecoach Country Music Festival were canceled for the second straight year because of Covid. They had been scheduled for this month.
Gatherings related to popular culture genres also have been impacted by the health crisis.
San Diego Comic-Con and Anime Expo both have canceled their in-person conferences for the second straight year due to the coronavirus pandemic. The events had been scheduled for July. (See article by the Verge.)
Meanwhile, VidCon plans to return with an in-person gathering this fall. The annual conference devoted to online video creators is set for Oct. 21-24 at the Anaheim Convention Center in Anaheim, Calif. Organizers canceled last year’s in-person show because of the Covid-19 pandemic. (See article by the Hollywood Reporter.)
All I can say is, good luck.

Related articles:

How the conference industry sees the reopening of the economy post-Covid (Tech-media-tainment; April 14, 2021)

Love Comic-Con or E3? It may take a while for huge crowds to return to conventions (Los Angeles Times; April 8, 2021)

Photo: The Filene Center at the Wolf Trap National Park for the Performing Arts. (Wolf Trap)

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Sunday, May 5, 2013

Documenting my life on Twitter

Most of my posts on Twitter are to share weblinks to news articles. But occasionally I’ll tweet something personal or make a pithy observation.
In April 2011, I compiled a sampling of the latter from my first two years on Twitter. I wanted to see what parts of my life I was documenting on Twitter. With this post, I’ll cover the next two years of my Twitter posts.
Many of the personal posts included photos, but I won’t run those here.

Living in Connecticut 

Rainy day in CT, so took the family to see “Rio.” The kids liked it and that’s all that matters. $36 for 4 tickets, $20 for concessions. (April 16, 2011)

At New Canaan, CT, library to hear ESPN and ABC Sports President George Bodenheimer speak. (May 1, 2011)

Just plucked two ticks off my daughter. The scourge of Connecticut ticks continues. (May 14, 2011)

Moving to Virginia 

Stopped to see the Liberty Bell on the drive from Conn. to Va. Beautiful day in Philly. (Aug. 19, 2011)

Seeing Tysons Corner, McLean and Vienna, Va., for the 1st time in 12 yrs. I hardly recognized the area where I used to live. (Aug. 19, 2011)

Moving into new house in Vienna, Va., today. As usual, I think we have too much stuff. (Aug. 23, 2011)

5.9 magnitude earthquake in Va. Typical overreaction in DC. (Aug. 23, 2011)

Vintage Chicago Bears glasses survive another move. If only the team were as tough. (Aug. 27, 2011)

Glad I’m not in New Canaan, CT, now. 70% of village without power, many roads closed. Been there, done that too many times. (Aug. 28, 2011)

Read more »
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Thursday, May 2, 2013

Crazy idea: Pop stars should offer matinee performances

At 50, I’m still a fan of popular music. But I’m not so thrilled about staying out late at concerts.
Earlier this week, I saw Rihanna in concert at Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., and didn’t get home until 12:30 a.m. If it had been a club show, I would have been out much later.
That got me thinking. Broadway shows have matinees. Why couldn’t pop music performers?
It wouldn’t even have to be the full-on show. These could be scaled-down productions, without dancers, fancy lighting, video backdrops and sets. It could be just the singer and her band or the singer and acoustic accompaniment. (Remember “MTV Unplugged”?)
These shows could be targeted at younger fans, parents and older fans. They could be advertised as clean shows without explicit lyrics. The performers would do the radio versions of their hits, just like they would for broadcast television. That would make parents happy. These stripped-down matinees could be sold as “family-friendly shows.”
Instead of a 90-minute production, it could be a 60-minute show with the performer doing hit songs as well as deep cuts from their albums. They would be low-key events, with the singer in casual clothes and sitting on a stool, possibly engaging in conversation with fans.
The matinees could be held in a smaller venue, something more exclusive, for which a premium could be charged.
They wouldn’t have an opening act. Maybe a DJ spinning tracks. Or a local radio station could host them.
I think they’d be very popular.

Photos: Sexy shots of Rihanna from GQ magazine. 

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Tuesday, April 30, 2013

Rihanna thrills crowd at Washington, D.C., concert

Pop music sensation Rihanna brought her Diamonds World Tour to Verizon Center in Washington, D.C., on Monday and delivered the goods you’d expect from one of the most prominent music artists of her generation.
Reviewers, including the Washington Post, have noted that Rihanna, 25, can seem aloof or bored in live performances. She looks like she’s just going through the motions during certain dance segments or at times singing only half the lyrics and letting background singers or backing tracks pick up the rest.
I’ve come to accept that as her style. A native of Barbados, she’s got that laid-back, island-time manner. What’s undeniable about Rihanna is her charisma, beauty, sex appeal, fashion sense and vocal chops. She’s got the whole package.
She’s a great performer, even when she’s not trying very hard. That seemed to be the case early in the show Monday night, when she marched through some of her newer, lesser known material. But she cranked up the energy later in her 90-minute performance.
Highlights of the show for me included Rihanna performing “You Da One,” “Man Down,” “All of the Lights,” “We Found Love,” “Stay” and “Diamonds.” (See the set list at Setlist.fm.)
You also can check out photos of the show at Rihanna Daily (see above sample) and Voz de America.
I’m glad I got to see Rihanna at this point in her career, with her extensive catalog of hit songs. She’s definitely in her prime now. (See Wikipedia entry on her Diamonds World Tour, which runs for eight months through mid-November.)
However, I feel sorry for parents who let their teenage daughters go to the show (including President Barack Obama), because they had to sit through opening act ASAP Rocky. The farthest thing from a role model, Rocky rapped about the stereotypical thug life.
“Pussy, money, weed. That’s all a nigga need,” he rapped. Very inspiring.

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Friday, July 3, 2009

Heart deserves to be in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame


Tonight I watched rock band Heart perform at an outdoor concert in Naperville, Ill. Fronted by sisters Ann and Nancy Wilson, Heart was in top form.
I left the 90-minute show with two impressions: First, those ladies can still rock and, second, it’s a crime that they’re not yet in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.
Heart burst onto the music scene with their debut album “Dreamboat Annie” in 1976 and cemented their reputation with the successful follow-on albums “Little Queen” in 1977 and “Dog and Butterfly” in 1978. Heart was one of the first major rock bands where women were in complete creative control.
At the Naperville concert Thursday, they played hits including “Barracuda,” “Crazy on You,” “Magic Man,” “Straight On” and “Alone.” They also played covers of Led Zepellin and Who classics.
Lead singer Ann Wilson’s voice is amazing and Nancy Wilson’s guitar work is stellar.
So why aren’t the Wilson sisters and Heart in the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame? Politics and personal bias by the judges. If the hall is to have any credibility it needs to induct Heart next year.

Photos: The Wilson sisters of Heart today (top) and the cover of their 1976 album “Dreamboat Annie.”
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