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Double CD and Double DVD Featuring the Full Theatrical Performance of Operation: Mindcrime I and II Are Both Available From Rhino June 26

LOS ANGELES — Queensrÿche brought the group’s acclaimed Operation: mindcrime albums to the stage last year performing the original and its 2006 sequel in their entirety during the group’s successful North American tour. The marathon shows included a full theatrical production complete with surround sound, video imagery and actors portraying the concept albums’ characters onstage with the band. Rhino captures Queensrÿche’s epic performance in front of the quintet’s hometown crowd at the Moore Theater in Seattle with MINDCRIME AT THE MOORE. The double CD ($24.98) and double DVD ($29.99) versions will both be available June 26 at all physical retail outlets and www.rhino.com. The album will also be available at all digital retail outlets for a suggested retail price of $14.99. An iTunes exclusive version featuring a video of “The Chase” with Ronnie James Dio will be available for $15.99.

The CD includes singer and chief songwriter Geoff Tate along with guitarists Michael Wilton and Mike Stone, bassist Eddie Jackson and drummer Scott Rockenfield performing all 32 mindcrime tracks plus a two-song encore featuring their signature hits—“Jet City Woman” and “Walk In The Shadows.” The DVD features the same performance expanded with bonus material including a tour documentary, a featurette on the band’s “Rock & Ride Across America” charity motorcycle ride for the VH1 Save The Music Foundation, and a live performance of “The Chase” from the Gibson Amphitheatre in Los Angeles, featuring Ronnie James Dio’s only public appearance as Dr. X.

“This concert is the realization of an idea that began nearly two decades ago,” says Tate. “The story and music of Operation: mindcrime is very dear to the band. We are thrilled with this performance and proud to share it with our audience.”

Queensrÿche released Operation: mindcrime in 1988. Praised by critics and certified platinum, the album was an acclaimed success remaining on Billboard’s Top 200 for more than a year. In 2006 the band released a long-awaited sequel to their magnum opus to critical and commercial success. The album debuted at #14 on the Top 200, their highest debut in over a decade.

The concept albums follow an intriguing and complex plot that revolves around Dr. X, a political puppet master who brainwashes Nikki—the story’s main character—to assassinate corrupt public figures. The story also includes Nikki’s lover, Sister Mary. A former teenage prostitute who becomes a nun, Sister Mary is murdered mysteriously, leaving the cliffhanger “Who Killed Sister Mary?” Set 20 years after the original, Operation: mindcrime II explores Nikki’s fate after being released from prison and reveals the identity of Mary’s killer. The album centers on revenge and what it does to people, their emotions and the choices they make.

MINDCRIME AT THE MOORE
Disc 1
1. “I Remember Now”
2. “Anarchy-X”
3. “Revolution Calling”
4. “Operation: Mindcrime”
5. “Speak”
6. “Spreading The Disease”
7. “The Mission”
8. “Suite Sister Mary”
9. “The Needle Lies”
10. “Electric Requiem”
11. “Breaking The Silence”
12. “I Don’t Believe In Love”
13. “Waiting For 22”
14. “My Empty Room”
15. “Eyes Of A Stranger”

Disc 2
1. “Freiheit Ouvertüre”
2. “Convict”
3. “I’m American”
4. “One Foot In Hell”
5. “Hostage”
6. “The Hands”
7. “Speed Of Light”
8. “Signs Say Go”
9. “Re-Arrange You”
10. “The Chase”
11. “Murderer?”
12. “Circles”
13. “If I Could Change It All”
14. “An Intentional Confrontation”
15. “A Junkie’s Blues”
16. “Fear City Slide”
17. “All The Promises”
Encore
18. “Walk In The Shadows”
19. “Jet City Woman”

Bonus DVD Content
-Tour Documentary
-“The Chase” performed live with Ronnie James Dio in Los Angeles
-Queensryche Rock & Ride featurette

The new band, Circus Diablo made their debut Sunday night at Canes in Mission Beach, Ca. Circus Diablo features Billy Morrison: Vocals. Billy Duffy (The Cult): Lead Guitar. Ricky Warwick: Rhythm Guitar. Brett Scallions: Bass Guitar. Jeremy Colson: Drums. For those of you that didn't come, you missed a kick ass rock show. For the 75 or so that did... we were treated to a very intimate show! So intimate that before and after their set, you could walk up to any of the band members and get an autograph or just chat. They all were very cool!

The treat for me was chatting with Billy Duffy again. I meet him for the first time backstage at The Cult concert in Vegas this year and it was awesome. He is one of my guitar influences and it was great to find out what a nice guy he is.

Circus Diablo are only playing a few more shows before they take a break until next year. I suggest checking them out before they do. Go to their web site for the very few upcoming shows!

Click here for pictures from the show!

Queensryche was arrested this past week at the Amsterdam Airport for concealing and carrying an illegal firearm. Here's an excerpt from Geoff's Tour Journal to explain:

What a day! At the airport in Amsterdam we were all lined up at the ticket counter checking in for the flight to Oslo. The 35 pieces of luggage to check were being lined up and I turned to ADAM, our Tour manager and whispered "Remember there's a gun in our bags" referring to the replica Glock 45 handgun that we use on stage. In a second of confusion he says to the ticket agent, "Oh yeah, not to worry but we have a gun in this suitcase." Before he could explain that it wasn't a real gun but a replica, airport Police swarmed in on us and the questioning began. Apparently, unknown to us, any gun, whether real or fake, is highly illegal in Holland. Quick thinking ADAM realized that this was suddenly getting ugly and that we might get detained and miss the flight, thus putting the show in Oslo in jeopardy. He instantly informed them that the bag in question was his. Before I could blink, they arrested him and took him away. He looked back at me and said, "Don't worry get on the plane and I'll call you later." As I watched him being led away the ticket agent handed me my boarding pass and said, "Have a nice flight." Right. The rest of the entourage boarded the plane and journeyed to Oslo without further incident. Just before show time a very stressed out ADAM burst into our dressing room full of tales from his eventful day. There was no jail time only a fine and oh yeah, they confiscated the gun.

Picture a concert with today's greatest musical talents...a carnival...a celebration of culture...this is STREET SCENE 2006. Headliners Tool and Kanye West top the list of the more than 45 internationally acclaimed performers who are confirmed for this year’s two-day event. The 22nd annual STREET SCENE is set for Friday, August 4 and Saturday, August 5 and will take place in a massive 2.5 million square foot area outside Qualcomm Stadium adjacent to downtown San Diego.

Performing on the six stages, this year’s line-up is a mix of Alternative and Indie to Hip Hop and Reggae artists: Tool, Kanye West, AFI, Social Distortion, Snoop Dogg, Modest Mouse, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Queens of the Stone Age, Wu Tang Clan, My Chemical Romance, Sean Paul, Bloc Party, Bad Religion, Yellowcard, Tricky, She Wants Revenge, Steel Pulse, G Love & Special Sauce, Slightly Stoopid, The Subways, The Editors, The Futureheads, Donavon Frankenreiter, Rock Kills Kid, Matchbook Romance, Bedouin Soundclash, Tapes 'n Tapes, West Indian Girl, Thomas Mapfumo & The Blacks Unlimited, Cheb I Sabbah & The 1002 Nights, What Made Milwaukee Famous, Margot and the Nuclear So and So's, Dirty On Purpose, The Colour, The Shys, Mutaytor, Particle, Yard Dogs, Drag Show, Lydia, Lupe Fiasco, Ska Cubano and others TBA.

Doors open at 3:00 PM, with music getting underway at 4:00 PM and continuing until 12 midnight on both days. The multi-stage event will feature top-of-the line sound and lighting to ensure an incredible music experience for all.

But as previous STREET SCENE attendees know--it’s about more than just the music here. Aside from the longtime partnership with “Southwest Airlines Taste of San Diego” featuring some of the best food from San Diego’s top restaurants, this year’s STREET SCENE is also shaping up to be a virtual feast for the ears and eyes. Concertgoers will also enjoy Mutaytor: a phenomenal, cutting-edge circus act with fire dancers, tribal drums, aerial acrobatics, stunning visual and audio effects; The Yard Dogs Road Show, a critically acclaimed vaudeville/burlesque act; The Dragon House Drag Show; a drum circle; carnival rides; interactive art installations; and arts and craft vendor booths from throughout southern California.

While a special pre-sale of two-day tickets has already sold out (via an email outreach to longtime festival supporters), fans can purchase two day passes beginning Monday, May 22 at noon via the website (www.street-scene.com) or by phone at 877-840-0457. A limited number of weekend passes will be available for $115; once the initial allotment of weekend passes has sold out, the price will increase to $125 and finally $135. Single day tickets will go on sale in July. Onsite parking passes will also be available for $15 per day.

Additionally, “Street Scene VIP Ultra Lounge” packages are available for $700. The two-person (21 and over), two-day package includes: two weekend tickets; a hosted beer & wine bar plus exclusive VIP cocktail specials; delicious catered dinner; VIP parking; a private, nohassle entrance; seating with live video feeds on plasmas from all key stages; private VIP restrooms; and various other surprises.

STREET SCENE was launched in 1984 with two versions of the event (one in May, the other in August). Originally set in a one block area of downtown San Diego (on 5th Avenue between J & K Streets), the event’s first-year performers included Los Lobos and The Blasters in May, and X, Robert Cray, and the Neville Brothers in August. By 1987, Street Scene had become a once-a-year occurrence. The Gaslamp location was utilized for 19 years. In 2004, while celebrating its 20th Anniversary, the annual event moved to a venue adjacent to Petco Park. This enabled festival organizers to allow people to move more freely between the festival’s performance areas while remaining in an easily accessible central San Diego location. The move to the Qualcomm Stadium location in 2005 allowed for an even more expanded area. Throughout the festival’s 20-year history, fans have come to expect a mix of some of the top names in music.

For up-to-the-minute updates, hotel information, transportation, parking and other facts, please visit www.street-scene.com.

In June Heart comes to the Del Mar Fair with their Love Rules Tour. They are awesome live so when tickets went on sale today I went to purchase tickets and was shocked to find out that tickets for floor seats were a whopping $153 each! You have got to be kidding me? That’s too much money to see a band at the fair? I have never heard of this before. The last time they were in San Diego tickets cost around $60. I sure would like to know what caused the jump in ticket cost to see them. I seriously many people will pay the $153, $90 or $50 ticket cost for decent seats. Sorry Heart, I will not see you for that cost.

The Cult tore it up at The Joint in Vegas on the second night of their tour! I even got to meet the band (see below). Billy and Ian were very nice and down to earth, answered my questions and even let me drink their beer!

For pictures from the show, click here.

Collective Soul released their first live CD with a DVD today titled "Home".

Review coming soon! (as soon as I get it in the mail!)

Disturbed released their third studio CD today titled "Ten Thousand Fists" today. I give every song 5 stars! Just like their first CD, every cut is awesome. They are rockin' harder than ever and it's the best CD I have heard in awhile! They even covered the Genesis song "Land of Confusion" and did an awesome job (just like they did with "Shout" from Tears for Fears on the first CD). Pick up a copy today, you won't be sorry.

Also, "Ten Thousand Fists" debuted at #1 with 238,000 units sold in the first week! Awesome!

New York, NY (June 27, 2005) - Sevendust is teaming up with innovative newcomer WineDark Records and its distribution partner, Universal for the upcoming release of their fifth record. Sevendust is an Atlanta, GA-based hard rock group who clawed their way through the late 1990s and early 2000s with a string of hit albums, forming the backbone of a sound and aura that defies mere typical genre classification. Beginning with their 1997 self-titled debut and continuing through to their most recent record, Seasons, Sevendust despite a self described “roller coaster ride” has sold nearly four million units in the US alone and is poised to expand it’s domain.

(Sevendust) "We have been on a roller coaster ride since May of 2004. We replaced our management company with MG Management, dug out of financial despair, watched a record deal dissolve, and replaced a guitarist all in the course of six months. This left us in the position to do things one-way, our way. In January of this year, we locked ourselves away and shut out the outside world and began writing, recording, and self-producing or fifth album entitled, Next. For the first time since very early in our careers, we had no outside interference, no one telling us how to sound, no one telling us what to look like. The end result is truly gratifying. After feeling like a battered and ugly wife for so long, it was amazing to see the reaction to what we created from such a large percentage of the record industry. After weighing many options we decided to sign with Winedark/Universal who subsequently offered us our own record label imprint, 7Bros. Records. The excitement that we feel from these individuals, is something we have never felt before. It is safe to say we don’t feel so ugly after all."

Sevendust's fifth record, Next, will be available on October 11 th, 2005.

Sevendust launches own imprint, 7 Bros. Records, signs to Winedark/Universal-Fontana.

Disturbed was to play San Diego on 8/6/05 at an undisclosed location. It was just announced that this data has been canceled! What's up with that guys? We would have loved to be the first stop on your tour.

Then you are going to dig this... Joe has just put up on the web for streaming a 2 hour live concert recorded recently in Anaheim, Ca. I just watched it and it's AWESOME! There is also and interview with Joe, pictures and more. Check it out by clicking here.

Musicians believe the internet is an essential tool to help create and market their work, but at the same time more than half of artists say file sharing of unauthorized copies of music should be illegal, according to a new report.  Click here for the entire article.

INCUBUS ANNOUNCES "MAKE YOURSELF FOUNDATION" GRANTS FOR 2005

Band Donates $100,000 to the American Red Cross

New York, NY - Grammy award nominated rock band Incubus today announced a number of donations today through their non-profit organization, the Make Yourself Foundation. At the top of the list, the band is donating $100,000 to the American Red Cross Tsunami Relief Fund. Founded in 2004 by the band, the Make Yourself foundation was established to donate funds to various charities which are listed on the Make Yourself Foundation website (www.makeyourselffoundation.org). In its first year, the Foundation raised an astounding $400, 000 through Incubus' music-related activities while the band toured around the world.

When sitting down to decide how to best allocate the funds, the massive tsunami hit Asia, altering the band's initial plan. The band explains, "We started the MYF as a vehicle to try and help people who have not been as fortunate as us. Last year we spent the year raising money and bringing attention to a number of worthy causes. When we sat down in December to allocate the money, we had no idea of the disaster that was about to happen. The magnitude of the tsunami disaster is truly overwhelming and we can only hope that this donation can help bring some relief to the people who've been affected by it."

In addition to the Tsunami relief effort The Make Yourself Foundation will be making donations to the following organizations.

The Red Cross www.redcross.org
Future Forests www.futureforests.com
International Rett Syndrome Association www.rettsyndrome.org
The Painted Turtle www.thepaintedturtle.com
Surfrider Foundation www.surfrider.com
Operation Smile www.operationsmile.com
Heal The Bay www.healthebay.org
Institute of Music and Neurologic Function www.bethabe.com
Sweet Relief www.sweetrelief.org
Save the Music www.vh1.com/partners/save_the_music/home.html
Break the Cycle www.breakthecycle.org

The band is planning more charitable related music projects this year.

A Perfect Circle is releasing a new album on election day that is "a collection of songs about war, peace, love and greed".I kinda wished it would come out before the election to get us in the right mood For the entire article about this album go to: http://www.billboard.com/bb/daily/article_display.jsp?vnu_content_id=1000626795.

Let me first start off saying that I am a HUGE Cheap Trick fan. I buy anything they put out. While this DVD is great, it is not a live DVD... it is really a documentary (or rockumentary). With that in mind, it has great insight to the history of the band that I never knew like Tom invented Pop Tarts and Rick's dad was a famous opera singer.

I was let down that there is no way to watch the concert footage (most of it new songs) in its entirety.

On October 7th, Sevendust is releasing their long awaited follow up to Animosity titled Seasons. This 12 song CD promises to be killer... the song Enemy is already available from their web site (www.sevendust.com) and is killer. There are also 3 additional song samples on an e-card that are equally as good. I for one can't wait until Seasons is released and will be waiting in front of the CD store at 10am on 10/07/2002!

Today Rolling Stone released an article about the Iron Maiden "Dance" back outlining their tour and new album. I personally am going to skip their appearance in San Diego this week. Why? Well... their last album was week, during their last concert Bruce actually had the balls to say that they were going to bring metal back and they played way too many songs from the new album during the show.

Come on Bruce, groups like Disturbed, Tool, Sevendust and others are bringing metal back, not you. Take your place in history... keep touring, keep playing to the old (good) songs with a few (very few) new songs mixed in. That's what we like. Oh, curb the attitude too.

One parting question... does Iron Maiden really need three guitarists?

On 2/27/02 Bob Dylan performed at the 44th Annual Grammy Awards. Not really sure why… maybe because somehow his new album actually was nominated for an award… not sure why about that either. While he was performing his jumbled up non-sensible song, I could only believe he was thinking the following behind his smirk and rolling eyes…

“You all are so stupid! I can’t sing, my songs make no sense but still you think I’m great and you buy my albums. You all even nominated me for an award! Can you all understand any of the words coming out of my mouth? I really don’t know what I’m doing but it’s so funny watching you all lapping it up!”