Tampa Calling

Just in from our pal Woody at Live Nation, a couple of rock shows at the Ford Amphitheatre. Both go on sale Sat., March 21.:

• Rock ‘n’ Rebels Tours w/Kid Rock and Lynyrd Skynyrd

Sat., June 27. $126, $76, $56 and $46 for reserved seats and $26 for the festival lawn.

• Crue Fest 2 w/Motley Crue, Godsmack, Theory of a Deadman, Drowning Pool, Charm City Devils

Fri., Aug. 28. $95 general admission dance floor; $95, $65, $39.50 reserved seats; $29.50 festival lawn

$10 festival lawn special, first day of sale only, 10 a.m.-10 p.m.

In response to Leilani’s “Top 10 Stupid Band Names,” I’d like to point out that, yes, not only are some band names stupid, or bad - sometimes they’re downright stolen.

We’ve all sat around stoned, drunk (even sober) and thought up – or accidentally stumbled upon - the next greatest band name EVER. There’s got to be a list of those names somewhere, right? I seem to remember someone saying, “We’ve got to write that one down!” 

There are plenty of band names inspired by literate source material or that just make sense (Steely Dan, named after a dildo in William S. Burroughs’ Naked Lunch or The L.A. Guns and Hollywood Roses combining to form Guns and Roses). But to lift the name of your group straight out of another artist’s catalog instead of establishing a new identity for your sound, your band, your business? It’s like starting up a fast food chain and calling it “Big Mac’s.”

As my wife pointed out, the only time a tribute should be paid to a band’s song is when you’re actually paying tribute to that band – as is the case with “Paradise City: The Guns N Roses Tribute” or ”Strutter: The Ultimate Tribute to Kiss.”

Here’s my list of offenders (in order of offense taken):

Read the rest of this entry »