ELEVATION to go on Armed Forces Tour in July

It's an honor to announce that ELEVATION will be embarking on a tour to the Middle East in July to play for service men and women in Saudi Arabia, UAE, Bahrain, Qatar and Kyrgyzstan. Although some of the areas we may be visiting might be sensitive, we will try to update you as much as possible during the tour with blogs and photos. This is going to be a thrilling experience for us.

Also, we are adding some East Coast dates in late June right before we head out. So be sure to come out and send us off.

Love,
ELEVATION

ELEVATION to go on Armed Forces Tour in July

Concert Review: Fall Out Boy @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium (5/17/09)

I have loved Fall Out Boy since they were just starting to emerge in the Chicago Pop/Punk music scene. There are plenty of haters out there surrounding Fall Out Boy whether it is thinking they've sold out, they hate Pete Wentz, they think Patrick Stump sucks live, or that they just are not interested in their music in general. I am the kind of fan that could never start to dislike a band because of some ridiculous reason. All of these rumors were proved wrong by their show and actually made me love them even more. I had not seen Fall Out Boy Live since they toured with The Hush Sound, The Starting Line, and From First To Last so I was a very excited little lady. I was even lucky enough to be able to meet all of them at the Mall Of America at a meet and greet before the show, even if they were 45 minutes late. But when Patrick Stump told me he liked my anchor shirt it completely made up for those 45 wasted minutes.

Two of the opening bands are also a few of my favorites, Cobra Starship and All Time Low, so that made it even more exciting. Especially since those two bands I have seen live countless time in small club venues and have even been able to hang out with them after shows, it was cool seeing them being able to live out their dream and playing to huge crowds. And yet another thing to up the exciting and entertaining factor is that it was the last day of the tour. So everyone knows what that means, end of tour pranks. I got some good videos of the pranks, so I will share those here:

•Pete Wentz imitating Gabe from Cobra Starship


•Last song of the last date of the tour, enough said


•All Time Low gets pranked at the beginning of their set


Fall Out Boy's whole point and reason behind this tour was to raise awareness of corruption and secrets kept throughout our country's political system. They wanted to make it known to all the fans in attendance, from the little 13 year-olds who are attending their first concert to the original Fall Out Boy fans, that we are the generation that can change things. That if we all rally together, we have the ability to change the world ourselves. They wanted people to get more out of the show than just going and watching some guys dink around on their instruments, they wanted us to feel something and make us realize we are part of something big. I think this is a real cool idea because it creates a sense of community between all those kids you see at all the shows you attend around town.

When we were waiting for Fall Out Boy to come out on stage there were video clips playing showing things from warfare on the front lines, to corporate executives in meetings. Fall Out Boy came out dressed as executives complete with suits and wigs. And they even had security guards with them. Even if in our case four of the security guards were members of All Time Low and Cobra Starship and were only wearing their boxer briefs, end of tour shows are way fun. After a few songs they changed and became more like their rockstar selves and explained to us what that was all about. I thought that they played a really good mix of songs from Take This To Your Grave, From Under The Cork Tree, Infinity On High, and of course their most recent LP Folie A Deux.

This is a clip of Fall Out Boy's opening videos and first song of their set

-Hannah

Concert Review: Fall Out Boy @ Roy Wilkins Auditorium (5/17/09)

'09 Tour W/ Jane's Addiction to be Last for NIN?

Nine Inch Nails

The following letter was posted by Trent Reznor on NIN's website:

Towards the beginning of my career in Nine Inch Nails, our biggest break came in the form of an invitation to perform a series of shows with Jane's Addiction. These performances essentially created and defined the term "alternative" rock in the US, created an ongoing festival franchise that is still thriving (Lollapalooza), set the stage for Nirvana to shift popular taste a few months later, and were really fucking FUN to play and attend - truly the best times I've had. The shows were epic. So epic, they propelled NIN to the "next level" (whatever that means), but caused Jane's to implode. The band broke up at the end of that tour.

Fast forward to the present. Corporate rock STILL sucks. A friend tells me they saw the original Jane's lineup play a tiny show in LA that was unbelievable. I break out my Jane's records and am amazed by how vital they sound. These guys were the real deal and in this current climate mostly dominated by poseurs and pussies it was refreshing to hear something that sounded dangerous, volatile, beautiful and SINCERE.

Emails were sent, phone calls were made, dinner was arranged, ideas were discussed and the next thing I know we're in the studio experimenting. We laugh, we get to know each other, we cry, we yell, we almost quit, we record LOTS of guitar solos, we discuss, we actually begin to all communicate, we yell some more, we become FRIENDS, we laugh again and we do some great things. I get to see first hand why they broke up all those years ago but I also get the chance to see four distinct personalities that become an INCREDIBLE band when they're in the same room.

In NIN world, 2009 marks the 20th anniversary of our first releases. I've been thinking for some time now it's time to make NIN disappear for a while. Last year's "Lights in the Sky" tour was something I'm quite proud of and seems like the culmination of what I could pull off in terms of an elaborate production. It was also quite difficult to pull off technically and physically night after night and left us all a bit dazed. After some thought, we decided to book a last run of shows across the globe this year. The approach to these shows is quite different from last year - much more raw, spontaneous and less scripted. Fun for us and a different way for you to see us and wave goodbye. I reached out to Jane's to see if they'd want to join us across the US and we all felt it could be a great thing. Will it work? Will it resonate in the marketplace? Who knows. Are there big record label marketing dollars to convince you to attend? Nope.

Does it feel right to us and does it seem like it will be fun for us and you? Yes it does.

Look for tour dates soon and I hope to see you out there.

Trent

'09 Tour W/ Jane's Addiction to be Last for NIN?

Elevation's Tour Blogs

So Elevation is now in the thick of their January tour with Lights Resolve. They'll be continually updating people on their travels via the web (of course).

Follow them on Twitter.
Here's their brand new photo blog.
And here's the official news+blog.
Oh yeah, lastly they'll be creating video blogs to post on their YouTube Channel.

Elevation's Tour Blogs