I Had No Idea The Rocket Summer at Irving Plaza

I had no idea The Rocket Summer was just one guy. Before I went to this show a few weeks ago, I downloaded some tracks from iTunes to get a feel for the music (and decide if I really wanted to go to this)! The tracks sounded great and of course I recognized the infectious hit, “Cross My Heart.” So, bopping along to TRS’s upbeat tunes, I headed off to Irving Plaza to see what “they” could do on stage.

It wasn’t until my “i-know-everything-about-all-newish-bands” friend Michael met me at Irving Plaza’s will-call that I learned that The Rocket Summer was just Bryce Avary. This was even more impressive – one guy doing the work of four or five and convincing me that it was a well-oiled machine of a rock group!

The stage show was even more impressive. Bryce sang, played guitar, keyboards, clapped with the crowd, bursted confetti into the crowd, jumped into the crowd and enthused the crowd. It was like Bryce was throwing a massive party and we were all invited to partake in the fun and craziness of the night.

I got a chance to meet Bryce who gave me a sweaty, but genuine hug and a thanks for coming as he explained to me his thrill that Stevie Wonder’s horn section plays on one of the tracks on his forthcoming (July) release. I was also happy to do what I guess might be called a Rock n’ Roll mitzvah (if you’re Jewish) and gave two huge TRS fans (Mike and Steve) an opportunity to talk with their idol. The two teenagers were speechless as Bryce stood less than four feet away, entertaining industry folk. After ensuring them that musicians love praise and love their fans, we made our way over to Bryce. Bryce confirmed that his appreciation of his fans is endless, taking time to say hi to the boys and remembering their names.

To be honest, I left the show in the middle of The Early November’s set. After the full-force effort and rock-solid performance from TRS, The Early November’s set seemed a bit… dull!

Check out The Rocket Summer at Bamboozle on May 5th – I’m sure you can expect to experience some crowd surfing by Bryce and enjoy the party he gets started on stage.

More tour dates on MySpace and NEW ALBUM in July!

Confetti for the crowd

*Jordana

Tune into BBC

Digital cable has changed my life. Now that I have a full-time job and can't watch General Hospital during the day, I get to tune into SOAPNET at night.

But almost even better is BBC on demand. Coupling is the funniest show ever. Forget about Friends! And In the City is a way hot extension of Hollyoaks. They rule me.

That's all I have for you really. I just felt like writing a blog but have nothing to say.

*Joelle

How Terry McMillan Got Her Attention Back

Terry McMillan is the author of a bestselling novel turned movie How Stella Got Her Groove Back, based on her own experience of finding a handsome, dapper, younger gentleman in Jamaica and bringing him back to the U.S. to marry.

After they married, he announced he was gay. She announced they would divorce.

She is now suing the proverbial pants off this guy for "smearing her reputation throughout their highly publicized 2005 divorce." I have some advice for McMillan:

Get the fuck over it.

Honey, it looks like some other handsome, dapper, younger gentleman beat you to stripping the lawsuit off this guy. Suing him for "conspiring to humiliate and embarrass" you--oh, and for $40 million that you know the dude doesn't have--you are only humiliating and embarrassing yourself.

Did you blow all the royalties already?

We'd forgotten you existed until this tidbit popped up in the news media. Chalk it up to experience: You got used for a greencard. Sucks, but it happens. To quote The Main Ingredient (and later Aaron Neville, who, inexplicably, is listed as a "rock" artist on iTunes--hey Apple, you might want a new categorizer): "Everybody plays the fool. There's no exception to the rule."

Now, you can make a bigger fool of yourself via the justice department (way to waste my tax dollars paying your judge) and likely lose your case--or you can be productive.

You're a writer, Ms. McMillan.

This is the perfect material for a sequel. Get on that, and get off my 5:00 newscast.

And if you really want to punish your ex? Force him to watch the film he was the male muse for.


*By Jess, who is hoping Amanda's doing better.

Literal and figurative food for thought.

I am so sick of people nagging me about my nutritional intake and eating habits.

It comes down to this: When I am hungry, I consume whatever food I happen to want at that moment. When I am full, I stop (usually). I am a picky eater and there are very few foods that fall within my "like" category, most of which are unhealthy (read: everything I enjoy besides Luna bars) and many that fall within my "yucky" category (read: seafood that isn't battered and fried beyond recognition, almost all vegetables save for the ones that pass for starches, and anything too ethnic because my tastebuds are inhabited by a bunch of dirty, no good bigots).

That said, if you are sixty pounds overweight and telling me that I shouldn't eat my apple turnover I'd been craving all day "because it's fattening," you really deserve to be vomited upon by an army of bitter bulimics. Conversely, if I am out to eat with you and don't finish my meal because I'm full, I'd appreciate your not criticizing me and telling me that I "never eat," especially if part of the reason I'm full is because I just ate a bowl of soup and a huge cheese danish. If I don't like something, I am not going to eat it. If I don't have room in my stomach for something and it isn't a steak or something irresistibly sugary, I am not going to eat it.

There are plenty of people out there with open weight and food issues, and plenty more with weight and food issues that they displace on others to avoid facing in themselves (thank you, Dr. Freud). If you're on a diet, good for you. If you want a heaving slice of chocolate layer cake, good for you too. Just remember that it's not my fucking problem.

Now, if you'll excuse me, there is a bag of Caramel Creams in my desk drawer waiting to be devoured and chased with Coke Zero, which I drink not because it's diet, but because I like the taste.


*By Jess, who hopes Obama and Clinton join forces.

A Controversal Remix That Will Give you Goosebumps.

Driving to a St. Patrick's Day party last night my amazing friend Lew in an attempt to cheer me up after a day of hell, put on a remix of Green Day's Boulevard of Broken Dreams... containing talent from the likes of Green Day (obviously), Oasis, and Travis. Three of my ALL TIME favorite bands...

Even though with the release of this to the internet world there has been a tremendous amout of controversy sounding the useage of the songs and etc...I think that it came out amazing... and it made my night worth experiencing...

From my heart to your ears...



*By Amanda (who loves Lew, thank you)

Need something to do while you await an update from OUR blog?

The Junior Varsity are in the process of recording what will undoubtedly be a killer new album, and they've been keeping a studio blog of their own, which is more than worth checking out. Read about their encounters with rappers, their fascination with Nirvana's Nevermind, and more here. And leave them comments telling how much you love them, because you know you do.

*By Jess, who went to Hooters for the first time last night and was offerred (and rejected) a job

Love Arcade and The Academy Is at Irving Plaza

Note: Planet Verge also did a filmed interview with both bands; check back here and at PlanetVerge.com in the next few weeks for the exclusive footage!

Last week I was lucky enough to catch The Academy Is at a “one night only” US show before heading off to the UK for a string of performances. Adding to my good fortune, I also had the pleasure of seeing fellow-Atlantic Recording artists, Love Arcade, open the show for their one and only tour date with The Academy Is.

Snowhite, the virtuoso behind Love Arcade truly is a jack-of-all-trades. Not only did he write all of the pop songs for Love Arcade’s self-titled debut, but he engineered, produced, played, sang and even did the graphic design for the album! A hard-worker off the concert stage, when Snowhite performs on stage, you can expect no less!

Snowhite and his band played about a 25-minute set. Memorable songs included “Passenger,” a sexy-pop ballad that surely sent all of the fifteen-year old girls in the audience into daydream-mode and “Keep it Comin,’” an anthem-atic song with a punk-edge, especially live.



Describing Love Arcade is a bit complex as, at the live show, they seem especially edgy and tough, but the pop-hooks and bubble-gum lyrics give them a dollop of Backstreet Boys. Snowhite sings, “keep it crackin’ like a bubble pop pop pop.” Regardless, it’s an interesting mix and a fun show to check out if Love Arcade is in your hood.

And as for the name Snowhite, it’s a high school nickname that stuck (and that Snowhite brings to his stage performance, typically performing in all white). Apparently, Snowhite wasn’t a morning person in high school and his classmates joked that he looked as sickly and pale as a cokehead each morning.



The Academy Is, the headliners of the night, blew the crowd away with extreme energy that couldn’t be matched by a dozen cases of Red Bull. The crowd fed off of the band’s vibes, averaging about four crowd-surfers per song and only a few dropped bodies. The band tells me that they do notice and appreciate their crowd-surfers. Adam, the band’s bass player, shared his one and only crowd-surfing experience with Planet Verge. A few years back, Adam took the plunge at a Midtown show. Unfortunately, Adam found himself passing over the crowd during a song where fans traditionally give two punches in the air as Midtown sings “hey, hey!” I’ll let you guess where on his body Adam took those two “hey, hey” punches..!

I think a huge part of The Academy Is’s success, besides the obvious catchy singles, is how they connect with their fans, on stage and off. On stage, lead singer, William, dedicated a song to a fan he met in line for tickets to their Irving Plaza show. The fan was the first in line and had waited for hours in the rain! There were also several points during the show when William would jump off the stage and reach out to fans or slap a high-five to a passing crowd-surfer.



The band connects online, too. The guys tell me that they personally check their MySpace page and respond to as many fans as possible. It’s no wonder that fans feel such a connection to this band and sell out their shows in record-breaking time!

Now, to single out one or two songs from the band’s Irving Plaza show wouldn’t be doing their performance justice at all. Every song they performed was amazingly vibrant, powerful and full of life (really, the show was nothing short of a fabulous time!). I can, however, highlight a few special and unique moments:

-We’ve Got A Big Mess On Our Hands – the first single off the forthcoming (April 3rd) album titled Santi. Intense drum beat and the crowd already knows the words! Speaking of knowing all the words:

-Attention – the band sang this for the first time in months, but they only sang about half of it, the crowd sang the other half, word for word.

-Seed – Another song off Santi. A real treat and first listen for concert-goers. Big time power ballad.

-New guitarist. Recognize that cute Aussie? Michael Guy Chislett from Butch Walker and the Let’s Go Out Tonites has joined forces with The Academy Is! Michael describes the move as natural since The Academy Is spent so much time at Butch Walker’s house and since Butch produced Santi for the guys.



-Small club tour. For those of you who can’t afford to see The Academy Is supporting Fall Out Boy on their arena tour, The Academy Is is planning a smaller club tour in late summer.

That said, if you can afford the $40 ticket for Fall Out Boy & The Academy Is, do it! Think of it as an investment in your physical fitness – you’ll spend an average of two hours on your feet, jumping, dancing, swinging and singing and you won’t even realize you’re tired til your head hits your pillow at night.







*by Jordana

The downside to big shows

It was a sweat fest at the Kill Hannah/ It Dies Today/ Papa Roach show at Starland Ballroom last night. The venue was completely filled to capacity with metaled out guido people, and it wouldn't be surprising if it was actually over-sold. One thing is for sure, being a fairly short person packed in like a sardine wasn't much fun. What's the point of having a press pass to review a show when you're thrown in with the fans and can't see anything, I ask?

Let's start with the opening act, a local band of middle-aged wanna be cheese rockers whose members, besides the bald singer, haven't gotten haircuts in years. The crowd had to suffer through 30 minutes of them spitting out corny songs like "In Your Mouth" and "Quicksand." For some reason, people crowd-surfed for them. But remember, these were not music people, they were drunk guido-wanna-be-metalers who just didn't know any better. For a band that used so much distortion, their sound lacked power and fell flat. Not sure what was sadder, to be the band playing or the girls cheering for them when they covered The Who?








On to the highlight of the night: Kill Hannah! They owned the stage from the second they plugged into their amps. Actually, they owned things from the minute you walked into the venue. Kill Hannah’s merch table was the only one that had a line. Ironically, Papa Roach’s was vacant. Not sure what that says. There were deff. Kill Hannah tattooed fans in the front row, and during the band’s set, you couldn’t even tell that they weren’t the headlining band. Everyone went crazy. Especially when the band covered Billy Idols’ “Rebel Yell.” Vocalist, Mat Devine is a pro. He spent a lot of his set time being supported by security while singing in the crowd. Kill Hannah have the stage presence, the show and they bring the rock. What more could you ask for? (Ok, I have an interview with Mat going up on www.planetverge.com!)



It Dies Today… What can I say about them? I almost got crushed the first time I saw them play at the Knitting Factory in New York City and this show was no different. Forget about taking pictures in the photo pit. I value my life and am not a fan of getting someone’s shit stained sneakers kicked into my head. Pre-show, new vocalist Jason Wood warmed up his voice while setting up merch. It sounded really good. So there you have the secret to how to keeps screams so strong. Sing. If tonight was any indication, It Dies Today is doing just fine since the departure of Nick Brooks in January. In fact, the only person who isn’t too fine is the kid who left them a comment on MySpace saying he drove an hour-and-a-half for the show just for It Dies Today and then found out it was sold-out.




Headliners Papa Roach, I’m sure tore the Starland Ballroom apart. But I wasn’t there to see it. In fact, I left in the middle of It Dies Today because there’s no point in reviewing a show you can’t even see. However, I did happen to walk into a special acoustic show Papa Roach put on for radio station winners before the show. It led me to have a bit more respect for the band. In the past, I have written them off as just another mainstream radio band, and then once Colby started looking like James Hart from 18 Visions, it was all over. But acoustically, he has a great voice and I really enjoyed all the songs. It was a nice VH1 Storytellers kinda thing. Check out the clips I put up on www.youtube.com/user/planetverge.

*By Joelle