Talking bands, business, venues, and life on the road with the merch guy
Full disclosure, Bob Russamano and I go back a ways. I first met Bob in 1994, when we were both incoming freshmen at King’s College. The Lehigh Valley native/current Philadelphia resident and I shared a deep love of music – something we’re still both pursuing today. As a couple of Mass Communications majors, we had […]
None heavier – or friendlier – than ‘Riff Lord’ Kirk Windstein and Crowbar
Heavy metal groundbreakers bring 'Doom' to Philadelphia and Brooklyn June 28-29
here’s often an interesting, unexpected turn of events when you interview a band while they’re out touring. Kirk Windstein from Crowbar was one such example. While the phone call NEPA Scene had set with him to coincide pre-show for the band’s recent gig in Minneapolis was confirmed several days in advance, the hectic pace of […]
New tour and album, ‘Rivals,’ gets Coal Chamber burning again
Nu-metal band reunites and performs across the tri-state area April 2-6
Even though they’ve regrouped sporadically to play live since a “permanent” disbandment announcement in 2005, notably in the form of high-profile gigs at Australia’s Soundwave Festival in 2012 and a 2013 European festival run (Download, Graspop, Nova Rock, etc.), Coal Chamber hasn’t released a studio album since 2002’s “Dark Days.” This 13-year dry streak will […]
Young Lehighton rockers A.D.D. are garnering attention with big shows and an even bigger sound
Dakota McGeehan knows what he wants in a great rock song. “I like the heavy guitar riffs that you can’t get out of your head and the catchy lyrics that will have you humming for the rest of the week,” says the vocalist/guitarist of the Lehighton quartet A.D.D. – his enthusiasm for the power of […]
Extreme vocalist Gary Cherone recalls the lasting legacy and ‘magic’ of ‘Pornograffitti’ on 25th anniversary tour
Boston rockers perform album in its entirety tonight in Jim Thorpe and Saturday in New York
t’s hard to believe it’s been 25 years since the release of Extreme’s seminal hard rock opus, “Extreme II: Pornograffitti.” The record, which sold in excess of two million copies and spawned a pair of Billboard Top 5 singles – the acoustic stomper “Hole Hearted” and the sparse, lip-quivering duet “More Than Words” (the latter […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Fireball, Phyllis Hopkins Electric Trio, and The Russello Project raise the bar for NEPA musicianship
Three of Northeastern Pennsylvania’s most prominent guitarists, all currently leading very different, yet dynamically musical ensembles, combined for one of the most volatile axe-slinging evenings in recent memory at Diane’s Deli in Pittston on Saturday, Dec. 20. The heavy British blues-inspired Fireball, anchored by longtime NEPA six-string stalwart Butch Frable; the smarmy Chicago blues-infused Phyllis […]
Wilkes-Barre’s Down to Six take the plunge with debut album ‘Atlantic’
New lineup set to release record on Dec. 27 at The Other Side
Mixing the atmospheric, sonic vitality of Taking Back Sunday and The Used, with a light-touch, straight-outta-1995 Matthew Sweet sentimentality and proto-punk inner child, Wilkes-Barre’s Down to Six kick out their jams with dynamics out the wazoo and more hooks than a professional angler’s convention. In short, this is a band never lacking in excitement or […]
After years of hard work, Kore Rozzik is a ‘Rockstar’ of his own making
The band rocks Ole Tyme Charley’s in Plains on Friday
“It was a lot of trial and error,” says Queens, New York-based vocalist Kore Rozzik of the stage persona that has become the identifiable face of his band bearing the same name. “Kore Rozzik has been an idea for many years. As I found myself through my young adult years, the character developed.” Rozzik and […]
CONCERT REVIEW: Slayer ‘still reigning’ with brutal Bethlehem performance
Several inches of snow and somewhat dicey road conditions in the Lehigh Valley couldn’t stop the metal faithful from amassing a near-capacity army at the Sands Bethlehem Event Center on Thanksgiving Eve, Nov. 26. The triple attack of Exodus, Suicidal Tendencies, and Slayer made for a trampled-under-flying-bodies good time, and the crowd was anything but […]
Are Black Veil Brides ‘the future of metal’ or just a ‘rock ‘n’ roll band?’ Maybe they’re both.
Controversial young metal group plays the Sherman Theater this Friday
lack Veil Brides frontman Andy Biersack has been quite the polarizing figure in the rock world since his band’s 2010 debut record, “We Stitch These Wounds.” For starters, the band is often written off by “serious” metal fans as a somewhat “mallcore” alternative to their definition of what metal should be; the cushy “whoa, oh, […]
