The weather has been heating up and so has the local concert schedule. There are plenty of good shows to catch in the Mid-Atlantic area this August.
Counting Crows and
Maroon 5 played
Hershey Park Stadium in
Hershey, PA tonight. On
Friday, the stadium will be filled with the heavy sounds of
Poison and
Dokken.If you're a fan of
Bruce Springsteen and
The E Street Band, you can catch them there on the
19th.
The Allman Brothers Band bring their bluesy southern rock to Hershey Monday August
25th. The other half of that bill is
Bob Weir and RatDog. Ending the month's shows at Hershey, is a
triple threat concert of
Journey,
Heart and
Cheap Trick on the
28th.
At
Rams Head Live! in Baltimore, MD tonight,
Metallica wannabes and an embarrassment to all of us with even partial
Welsh heritage,
Bullet For My Valentine were scheduled to play. Opening for them was
Cancer Bats, who could be a halfway decent band if they had a singer fronting the band instead of whatever you would call Liam Cormier. One upcoming concert that does get me excited, and for the right reasons, is
Peter Frampton. He'll be playing real Rock and Roll music at Rams Head on Friday, August
15th.
Ted Nugent may be a total whack job, but he sure can play guitar. You can
"Wango Tango" with him on the
26th.
There are many reasons to visit Baltimore's
Pier Six Pavilion this month. They'll have a wide range of musical styles in the entertainers headlining the venue. I'll just mention the most interesting. Classic Rock takes the stage on August
13th, when both
Boston and
Styx play there. Eight time Grammy Award winner
Anita Baker follows with her beautiful voice two nights later, on the
15th. We change gears again on the
19th, with a harder edged style of blues in the forms of
George Thorogood And The Destroyers and
Buddy Guy. Performing their own hits, as well as
'Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band' in it's entirety on August
21st, is an odd mix of musicians if you ask me (nobody's asking me). The list for the 'Sgt. Peppers' Tribute includes the great talents
Todd Rundgren (He's gone metal with his latest album, you know),
Lou Gramm (of
Foreigner) and
Denny Laine (of
The Moody Blues,
Wings), along with the less popular
Christopher Cross and
Bo Bice (former
American Idol contestant). Speaking of Idols,
Billy Idol will be at Pier Six on the
22nd. The wonderful blues artist
Robert Cray will share the bill with
Keb' Mo' on Saturday, August
23rd during the "Bringin' It Back Home Tour".
This
coming weekend, Saturday August 9th and Sunday August 10th, it's time for
"Virgin Music Festival 2008" . Held at
Pimlico Race Course in Baltimore, MD as it has been each year since 2006, the festival will have a boat load of talent. The artists scheduled to perform this year include
Bob Dylan,
Nine Inch Nails, The
Foo Fighters,
Stone Temple Pilots,
Iggy Pop And The Stooges, etc., etc., etc.
There's a few really good concerts at
Nissan Pavilion in Bristow, VA (a.k.a. Washington, DC) this month. The
'Metal Masters Tour 2008' featuring
Motorhead,
Judas Priest,
Heaven And Hell and
Testament rocks the place on Thursday, the
7th. Counting Crows along with Maroon 5, as well as
Sara Bareilles visit on the
16th. The legendary singer,
Rod Stewart appears on Sunday, August
24th. Finally, on the
27th, the combo of Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick play at Nissan Pavilion.
