Green Day postpones Asian tour due to coronavirus concerns

MANILA – Green Day has joined the growing list of bands and artists that have postponed their Asian tour dates over health concerns brought about the threat of the novel coronavirus (COVID-19).

In a Facebook post on Friday, members of the American rock band announced that they “have made the difficult decision to postpone our upcoming shows in Asia due to health and travel concerns with coronavirus.”

“We know it sucks, as we were looking forward to seeing you all, but hold on to your tickets we’ll be announcing the new dates very soon.”

Green Day’s Manila show was originally scheduled on March 14 at the Mall of Asia Arena.

The band is known for the albums “Dookie” and “American Idiot.”

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Korea's Seventeen arrives in Manila for concert

MANILA -- Members of the K-pop group Seventeen arrived in Manila on Friday for their one-night concert.

Seventeen is set to perform at the Mall of Asia Arena on Saturday, February 8, as part of the band's “Ode to You” world tour.


The hashtag #MaligayangPagdatingSVT became a top trending topic on Twitter in the Philippines as fans uploaded photos and videos of their arrival.


Seventeen last performed in Manila in September 2018 as part of its “Ideal Cut” tour.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Beyonce, Jay-Z offer chance of lifetime tickets to fans who go vegan

NEW YORK - Music's first couple Beyonce and Jay-Z are encouraging fans to go vegan for a month with a contest to give one lucky winner a lifetime of free tickets to their shows.

Queen Bey announced the challenge to her 123 million Instagram followers late Wednesday, saying it was in support of the Greenprint Project that promotes adopting even a partial vegan diet to limit environmental footprints.

Fans can sign up for the contest online and one will be chosen at random to win a pair of tickets annually for 30 years to concerts by Beyonce and/or Jay-Z, an estimated retail value of $12,000.

The superstar known for her groundbreaking "Lemonade" album said she was going meatless on Mondays and eating plant-based breakfasts, while husband and rap mogul Jay-Z vowed 2 of his daily meals would be plant-based.

Beyonce's personal trainer, Marco Borges, is behind the project. The superstar musicians wrote the introduction to his December book elaborating on its vision.

The pop-inflected R&B idol has been vocal about embracing veganism in the past, having adopted the diet prior to her stunning May 2018 performance at the Coachella music festival one year after giving birth to twins.

She is joined by fellow singers Miley Cyrus and Ariana Grande in promoting veganism, which prohibits consumption of all animal products including meat, dairy products, eggs and honey as well as wearing leather.

Research has shown that cutting meat and dairy products can boost the planet's health by reducing farmland use and planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Progressive metal band Dream Theater to perform in Manila

MANILA – Legendary progressive metal band Dream Theater will hold a concert in Manila this September for its “Images, Words & Beyond” tour.

The global tour celebrates the 25th anniversary of Dream Theater’s milestone album, “Images and Words,” which the band will perform in its entirety.

The Manila leg will be held on September 25 at Kia Theatre in Cubao, Quezon City.

Tickets will soon be available at TicketNet, according to presenter My Music Taste.

Aside from Manila, Dream Theater’s other Asia-Pacific stops include Toyota, Hiroshima, Tokyo, and Osaka in Japan; Seoul in South Korea; Sydney and Melbourne in Australia; Taipei in Taiwan; and Singapore.

“Images and Words” is Dream Theater’s best-selling album to date and is considered one of the best metal albums of all time.

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Dancing in the dark: New York club turns lights out

NEW YORK - With flashy lights and lasers increasingly the norm at concerts, a New York promoter is trying a new effect to bring the focus back to the music -- darkness.

In an experiment Friday night, more than 300 electronic music fans surrendered their smartphones to dance in a light-sealed room as their senses recalibrated to the audio.

After an initial hour of moderate lighting while a DJ warmed up the crowd with dance-friendly house music, the stage turned black except for a single light-bulb during the main set by Eprom, whose tracks are heavy on bass yet experimental with quirky melodic riffs.

"We want people to be less distracted by shiny objects and more focused on what the actual product is. A concert is all about the music," said Jay Rogovin, executive adviser of the Good Looks Collective entertainment agency, which put on the inaugural "LightsOut" show.

Hoping to startle the senses further, the LightsOut show -- which took place at the Knitting Factory in Brooklyn -- jarringly flashed red strobe lights at several points to remind the crowd of the darkness.

The setting appeared to loosen inhibitions, with a number of club-goers throwing their arms in the air with a joyful abandon that may have otherwise been hampered by self-consciousness.

NO PHONES, PLEASE

As proof of how difficult the zero-distraction concept can be, at least one person smuggled in a phone and, as is commonplace at shows, spent the night constantly messaging friends.

Fans were asked upon arrival to deposit their phones in pouches developed by the start-up firm Yondr.

Although they were allowed to keep the phones, the devices remained locked inside until they exited, when the staff opened the bags using technology similar to the security tags at department stores.

Despite the theme, the club was hardly pitch-black and no one groped in the dark.

Besides an illuminated red emergency exit, required by law, light seeped in from the hallway as well as the bathrooms, and the bartender also kept on several desk-lamps and candles.

The minimal lighting was no oversight, Rogovin said. The promoters believed maintaining some light important for safety reasons to keep people from tripping over one another.

REACTION TO EFFECTS OVERLOAD

Stage theatrics have a long history in pop music, and the advent of electronica in the 1970s brought diverse ideas about visuals.

The French electronic music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre found a complementary form of expression through elaborate light shows that sometimes encompassed whole cities, while German innovators such as Kraftwerk and Tangerine Dream believed a colder, robotic stage presence best encapsulated their computer-based music.

But as electronic dance music has soared in popularity in recent years, becoming a mainstay of summer festivals, visuals have become a must-have with lights that often have little to do with the sounds.

Dark concerts have also started in Britain, where the Blackout show brought experimental music with no lights last year.

"Dark dining," which took off in the late 1990s, has followed a similar philosophy at restaurants -- notably the Paris-based chain Dans Le Noir -- that serve food in darkness aimed at encouraging diners' senses to zero in on taste.

The latest New York concept came from Rogovin's associate Blake Oates, who tried the idea on a smaller scale in Atlanta.

Rogovin plans more New York editions. And although he also hopes to take the series elsewhere, he is under no illusion that he stands on the brink of an anti-MTV revolution.

He doubts dark concerts could accommodate more than 600 people because of logistics and safety concerns about sealing off light.

But he hopes LightsOut would be seen as "a little more mature" than kitschier parties that take place in New York, such as raves with video-game themes.

"We are really trying to make people experience and think a little bit more, versus just having a big rave-y feel."

source: news.abs-cbn.com

Selena Gomez arrives in Manila for concert

MANILA - Selena Gomez is in the Philippines.

The American pop star arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Saturday night for her first ever concert in the country at the Mall of Asia Arena on Sunday.

The July 31 performance is part of a concert tour promoting her second solo studio album, "Revival." Prior to Manila, Gomez played in Indonesia, Malaysia, Singapore, and Bangkok.

"Revival" was released in October 2015, and has since sold more than 500,000 copies. It includes hit tracks such as "Good for You," "Hands to Myself," "Kill Em with Kindness," and Same Old Love."

Gomez, who rose to fame in 2007 with appearances on several Disney TV series, released three studio albums with the band Selena Gomez & the Scene from 2009 to 2011. She launched her solo music career in 2013 with the album "Stars Dance."

Gomez was supposed to perform cancelled several tour dates in 2014, including one in Manila, to "spend more time on myself in order to be the person I can be."

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