youtube footage of testament from kickoff tour date

TESTAMENT Guitarist Checks In From The Road - May 18, 2009

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The Back Yard is now open!

Thanks for making opening weekend at the Back Yard (at the Beaumont Club) a success! For those of you who missed it, Famous Dave's Red Dirt BBQ with Cross Canadian Ragweed and Randy Rogers went off with a bang. Stay tuned for many more events to happen out there.

Did you goto the show? What were your thoughts?

Here are a few shots from our friend Todd Zimmer.





Don't miss our next big show in the Back Yard on June 12th with Rise Against, Rancid, and the Riverboat Gamblers.

Tickets available now through Ticketmaster and at the Beaumont box office.

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tim finn reviews franz ferdinand at the beaumont

franz ferdinand review beaumont 4-27-09
Review: Franz Ferdinand

Monday night, a big crowd at the Beaumont Club saw a band living at its peak. It's probably safe to say that Franz Ferdinand won't be larger than it is right now, at least not in America. It drew about 1,200 people to a Westport nightclub on the first day of a normal work week, without a hit to speak of on Top 40 radio or a reality show to inflate its reputation. These days, that's a reasonable measure of success.

Unfortunately, this show also proved you can draw a crowd into a nightclub but you can't make it dance. The band was tight and taut, the music was vibrant and groovy but the crowd spent a lot of the night spectating. It took some coaching/coaxing from leadman Alex Kapranos to squeeze some participation out of the fans before him, including a hail of la-la-las during "Ulysses." Otherwise, most of them were as docked as Nick McCarthy, who is walking with crutches these days, nursing a sore foot.

The crowd was watching a good show: lots of melodic, well-crafted and -executed dance tunes that blended indie rock with new wave/post-wave and white-funk, some of them embroidered artfully with guitar and keyboard lines and riffs. FF initially drew some comparisons to bands like the Strokes, but its roots go back to rock/funk bands like INXS (and a little Talking Heads). They were also watching an impressive video show projected on a tall screen that spanned the width of the stage. Excellent touch.

This was my first show inside the new Beaumont, which looks like it is going through its own episode of "What Not To Wear." The first thing you notice: the abscence of stank. The second: the better use of space, especially around the expanded bar in the main room. And at least for this show, the sound was cleaner -- and on a night when the volume was as high as it needed to be. The merch table was selling ear plugs for a reason. It also looked like this was a date night for a lot of couples; the crowd was split about 50/50 guys/gals.

The boys from Scotland are touring on their latests, "Franz Ferdinand: Tonight," which, in some parts, veered significnatly from the formulas that made the first two albums so appealing. However, the live versions of the new songs blended well with the old, even the more adventurous cuts like "Lucid Dreams."

Hard to pick out two or three highlights because the band sounded stout all night and the crowd was relativley static -- enthusiastic and appreciative but on the proper side of rowdy and ecstatic. Two songs caused eruptions of singing and movement: "Take Me Out" and the closer "This Fire." This former two-stepping cowboy bar didn't go infernal all night, but at least for that song, it felt like fans were at least thinking about burning down the house.

| Timothy Finn, The Star

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yeah yeah yeahs june 3rd @ the beaumont!

yeah yeah yeah's are playing the beaumont club wednesday, june 3rd. tickets go on sale on may 9th.

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Gaslight Anthem review

backtorockville review of the gaslight anthem
Review: Gaslight Anthem

One of the best Bruce Springsteen tribute bands in the world didn't play a single song by The Boss Saturday at the Beaumont Club. It wasn't necessary. The men of The Gaslight Anthem understand that the best way to pay homage to Springsteen is to bring his classic rock sound to a new generation through exhilarating original material.

A good portion of the approximately 600 fans who attended Saturday's joyous rock 'n' roll revival wouldn't be caught dead at a Springsteen concert. They might argue that the Gaslight Anthem are a punk-based band in the tradition of Rancid and Social Distortion. But there's just no denying the obvious: Behind itsaccelerated tempos and underneath their tattoos, the New Jersey quartet are hardcore Springsteen freaks.

Steeped in the American iconography of cars, dreams and rock n' roll, songs like "Meet Me By the River's Edge" and "Great Expectations" are practically Springsteen parodies. Still, it's not all about Bruce. The band's songs also make direct and indirect references to Tom Petty, Elvis Presley, Bob Seger, Tom Waits and Paul Westerberg.

And during the best songs of their 70-minute set- "We Came To Dance," "Even Cowgirls Get the Blues" and "The '59 Sound," the Gaslight Anthem achieved glorious heights that they could claim as its own.

While Saturday's concert was the band's third Kansas City appearance in six months, it was their first gig as headliners. They still have a bit of work to do. While he's extremely likable, front man Brian Fallon has little of Springsteen's dynamic stage presence. And the band still lacks the explosive range of The E Street Band.

Consequently, they were almost shown up by the Heartless Bastards.

The Ohio-based band evoked the sensual blues of Slim Harpo and the pop smarts of Big Star. They also offered Crazy Horse-style stomps and plaintive country whining. All of it was mesmerizing.

Australia's A Death In the Family battled an extreme visiting-team disadvantage. There was absolutely nothing wrong with their brawny brand of melodic punk. Even so, Kansas City band the Architects work the same general territory with unparalleled ferocity. A Death In the Family, therefore, never had a chance.

| Bill Brownlee, Special to The Star

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