Van Halen – Long Version Trailer from Van Halen on Vimeo.

Can the best Van Halen frontman bring it like he did in the early 1980s? Just reading that sentence over, the likelihood seems very low. Tickets are expected to be $60+. David Lee Roth left the band in 1985 and Sammy Hagar became the face and voice of the band, with Eddie and Alex. Eddie’s son Wolfgang, 20, will play on bass.

I met Julio, one of Ms. Sariñana’s concert promoters, Sunday at a friends house and my ears perk up whenever I hear a name I haven’t heard before. Then I heard her husky voice dominating a playful pop beat and wanted others to know more.

Sariñana is already a success in her home country, Mexico. She doesn’t look manufactured (even though she was a child actress); you’re catching someone who’s just here and there to enjoy the music. Sariñana, lives in Mexico, sings in both English and Spanish and seems comfortable in her bilingualdom. She’s been around for about 3 years, since her debut Spanish-language album Mediocre in 2008.

Website: XimenaMusic.com
Twitter: @XimenaMusic

Other acts include Lynn Anderson, Don Edwards, Dave Stamey, Waddie Mitchell, Johnny Rodriguez, Michael Martin Murphey, and Josh Gracin, Belinda Gail, The New Pioneers, Clint Walker, Rollie Stevens (also now the festival organizer), Robert Fuller, Rocin’ M Wranglers, Waddie Mitchell, Jon Messenger, Johnny Western, and Rusty Richards.

Tons of kids and teen fun too, as well as chuckwagons, log home show, poet and songwriters, a cowboy race, mountain man rendezvous and the tradition of 9th Cavalry Buffalo soldiers and TV and movie performers.

FestivalOfTheWest.com – presented by Real Country, 96.3. Tickets are $25 each (separate from festival entry cost)

Islington O2 Academy saw the final night of the “Prog 2.0 tour” come to London, with rising stars Touchstone topping the bill.

On record at least, openers Enochian Theory are a prog-metal act with a nice line in atmospherics, and have been compared with the mighty Opeth. But tonight’s performance suffered from a very poor mix, with overpoweringly loud drums drowning out the guitar and bass, losing a lot of the subtlety. While they’re clearly talented musicians, their songwriting and compositional skills have yet to reach the level where their music can survive that sort of treatment from the soundman. Saying that, I certainly wouldn’t write them off, and there’s a lot of potential for the future.

Jurojin were a very different beast. They started as a straightforward four-piece prog-metal act, up to the last few numbers when they were joined first by a tabla player, then by virtuoso violinist Anna Phoebe. At that point they morphed into a kind of folk-metal-world music fusion that sounded like an utterly different band from what we’d heard at the beginning of the set. Like one or two other prog bands at an early point in their careers, their music goes off in many different directions, and they need to pick one and run with it. The last part of the set was genuinely exciting, and that feels to me like the direction in which they ought to go.

As for Touchstone, well, they were the band everyone came to see, and their tight high-energy performance delivered in spades. Their hugely melodic mix of progressive rock influences with a powerful hard rock sound has been steadily gaining them a following over the past three or four years. As for most of the last year and a half, the setlist drew heavily from their second album Wintercoast with a few selected songs from their earlier Discordant Dreams, including a great version of “Being Hannah”, a song I don’t think I’ve heard live for a while. As always, Kim Seviour makes a great frontwoman and visual focus for the band, completely transformed from the shy girl I first saw supporting The Reasoning four years ago.

Without wanting to downplay the importance of the rest of the band, the one thing that was very obvious this time was how much Moo Bass’ playing dominates the sound. From the machine-gun riff of the title track of “Wintercoast” onwards, his bass both drives the rhythm and acts as a principal lead instrument, leaving Rob Cottingham’s keys and Adam Hodgson’s lead guitar to add colour to fill in the sound. Like Panic Room the weekend before, with performances like this they seem destined for far bigger things.

While I’d hardly say the O2, with it’s overpriced beer and often indifferent sound and atmosphere is a favourite venue of mine, this was certainly the best gig at this venue I’ve seen to date. With the tour promoted by Classic Rock Presents Prog, attendance was very good indeed, with over 250 through the doors. And nice to see Porcupine Tree’s Steve Wilson in the crowd.

Angerfist is one of those one-member bands that have more excitement and creativity than a stadium full of Britney Spears or a pocketful of Justin Biebers.

That may sound like damning with faint praise but Angerfist is all about damnation. (Ironic that considering i found out about this event in front of a Scottsdale, Arizona church.)

Since 1997, when Danny Masseling started playing professionally at 16, he’s moved from teenage angst to grown-up digital full-frontal aural dancefloor assault. His rise and influence was sharp and quick. Samples were sparse. The beats, insightful and inventive. Masseling survives and like his European Nordic DJ brethren his name is sought to put a sound-shifting sheen to songs that are often played out the day of release.

Angerfist headlines a Jan. 21 show at Tempe’s 1300-capacity 910 Live venue (910 N. McClintock Road, Tempe, AZ). It marks their first time in Arizona and he’ll have to try really hard not to bring the house down. Limited tickets are $25 from Event Vibe, and the rest are $30, $40 at the door.

Turner & Heit crack in for the fun, battling Tranzit & Dooz (aka promoters Relentless Beats vs. TranzitHouse.com.) Also filling out the noise:

The AZHC All Stars, 6 DJs create a wicked sound. Unless they just didn’t know what they’re doing the ideas bouncing back and forth will be seamless and wonderful.

AZHC Hardstyle Team VS Hardstyle Assault. The hometown, house-proud crew.

Pac D vs Ill-legal? – aka IBB, Da, Binge Records X vs Subversion Dubstep 2×4

Nemo vs Sesso – aka One Vibe Events vs Jersey Shore (Go Snooki!, go Snooki!)

Also featured: Brandon de Carlo, Robotech, and Matt Dunn.

So when Swedish symphonic metal band Therion came to Shepherd’s Bush Empire for a rare UK appearance the chance to see them live on Halloween night was too good to miss. I’ve only heard a couple of their albums, the recent double album “Gothic Kaballah” and a superb earlier live album “Live in Midgard.” The albums are huge in scope, with multiple singers, choirs, and many guest musicians. I wondered how music of this complexity would translate live.

Before Therion there was not one but two supporting acts. I always make a point of getting there in time to see the support; you never know when you’re going to see a great band you might otherwise never have heard of, and you can always retreat to the bar if they turn out to be rubbish. Tonight both supports were good.

Openers Loch Vostok were an entertaining progressive-tinged metal band with a hairy frontman I could imagine crewing a Viking longship ready to loot and pillage some innocent Northumbrian village. Second support was Norway’s, Leprous. With a name like that I expected grunty death metal – in fact the band, fronted by a dreadlocked keyboard player, were nothing of the sort, fairly melodic, a bit bonkers but great fun. Both bands are well worth checking out.

Having never seen Therion live before, I wasn’t at all sure what to expect. The show began with just four instrumentalists on stage, progressively joined by two male and two female vocalists, both opera-trained sopranos, until there were eight people on stage.

The music they played can only be described as epic, and hugely melodic. While they’re not touring with the full choir that sings on the most recent album, the combination of four powerful lead vocalists still made for a immensely rich sound, whether it was alternating leads or four-part harmonies. While the focus was on the elaborate vocal arrangements, with the twin guitars of Christofer Johnsson and Christian Vidal the metal side of things wasn’t neglected either. One guitar solo in particular was simply jaw-dropping. The only thing I didn’t like was their reliance on programmed keys; I’d much rather they’d employed a flesh-and-blood keyboard player alongside the guitars and vocals. Saying that, one of the female singers did play keys for a couple of songs. We also had vocalist Thomas Vikström playing flute on a couple of songs. I really wasn’t expecting to hear any flute at this gig.

I recognised relatively few of the songs they played, I’m guessing songs from the new album Sitra Ahra, which I’ve yet to hear, featured very heavily. But it didn’t seem to matter. Their whole two-hour set was hugely enjoyable, and I can see this is going to be a band I’ll be seeing again next time they come to these shores.

The Bad Shepherds were formed by Ade Edmondson, once the frontman of NWOBHM legends Bad News using the name Vim Fuego. But this band play celtic folk arrangements of classic punk and new wave songs, with Ade’s “thrash mandolin” accompanied by Troy Donockley on Uilleann pipes, whistles and cittern, and Andy Dinan on violin.

I saw them a year ago in Manchester, playing as a four piece. Now reduced to a trio, they’ve not really lost anything from their sound. Given the similar concept, comparisons with Bluegrass cover band Hayseed Dixie are inevitable, but The Bad Shepherds are more that just a British take on the same idea. Many of the songs are radically reconstructed, with lengthy instrumental intros and outtros of weaving pipes and violin lines. You frequently don’t recognise the song at all until the vocals start, and sometimes not even then. The set includes songs like “Anarchy in the UK”, “London Calling”, and their version of Kraftwerk’s “The Model” played on pipes simply has to be heard to be believed. The whole thing is immensely enjoyable even if you don’t particularly like the original songs; Troy and Andy superb instrumental playing providing the melodic element many of the original songs lacked.

While Ade Edmondson is better known as a comedian than as a musician, the show is all about the music rather than comedy; and while Edmondson may front the band, it’s as much about Troy and Andy, both very talented folk musicians, as it is about him. And like every great live band, they fact that they’re clearly enjoying their time on stage shines though.

Panic Room are a Swansea-based progressive rock band that emerged from the ashes of the original lineup of the celtic/progressive band Karnataka, with Karnataka’s backing vocalist Anne-Marie Helder taking on the role of lead singer.  They have so far recorded two studio albums, and made their live debut at the beginning of 2008.

The Robin 2 is one of Britain’s premier rock clubs, with a gig diary that reads like a who’s who of classic rock, prog and blues.  With great lighting and acoustics they always attract decent-sized crowds, even on a Sunday night. Tonight the venue gave us one of the best sound mixes I’ve ever heard for Panic Room.  Like many bands they’re often only as good as the soundman lets them be, and tonight he did them proud. Everyone was loud and clear, especially Paul Davies who’s shredding lead guitar has sometimes got buried in the mix in the past.

When I saw Panic Room at The Cambridge Rock Festival back in August I thought they’d raised their game for a showcase festival set. Seeing them again at a regular gig made it clear to me that the festival performance was no one-off. What’s happened is the propulsive playing of new bass player Yatim Halimi has raised the live energy of the band to a whole new level.

If you’ve only ever encountered Anne-Marie Helder playing a supporting role with Mostly Autumn, or much earlier with Karnataka, seeing her front her own band is a revelation. As a vocalist she’s easily in the same league as the lead singers of those bands, with a voice of huge power, range and emotional depth. And as a frontwoman she simply dominates the stage.

The setlist consisted of pretty much the whole of their second album Satellite, including a couple of songs from the bonus EP included with the limited edition, about half the first album, plus their cover of ELP’s “Bitches Crystal,” a song they’d recorded for a Classic Rock Presents cover disk that never saw the light of day due to party-pooping corporate lawyers. They’ve dropped the sprawling epics from the first album in favour of shorter, punchier songs, hard rockers like “Electra City” and “5th Amendment”, the gentle acoustic “Sunshine,” and the plain bonkers “I Am A Cat,” a paean to mad cat ladies everywhere.

The high spot was a truly monstrous “Dark Star” with it’s Hammer House of Horror organ riff from Jon Edwards, underpinned by a powerful bass groove from Yatim. They finished with a soaring rendition of the second album’s title track, in which Yatim got a round of applause for the bass solo.  When was the last time you saw that happen outside of a jazz gig?

Parade is a project put together by York-based singer-songwriter and musician Chris Johnson, who has played at various points with Fish and Mostly Autumn, as well as fronting a number of local York bands over the years. The band also involves vocalist and multi-instrumentalist Anne-Marie Helder and drummer Gavin Griffiths, both members of the current Panic Room and Mostly Autumn lineups. It’s completed with two of Chris’ long-term York associates, Patrick Berry on bass and Chris Farrel on lead guitar, the latter of whom replaced Parade’s original guitarist Simon Snaize.

Their one album to date, The Fabric on the surface sounded like indie with its sparse chiming guitars and clattering drums. Repeated listens reveal some real musical depth, especially with the multi-layered vocal harmonies. With its depth and sonic experimentalism it still (to me) falls within the broad spectrum of progressive rock while managing to avoid all the musical clichés of the genre.

The Stereo is a cozy little venue with a capacity of just a hundred or so. located just outside the medieval city walls, Support was local band In Spades Inc, who played us forty minutes of competent hard rock. By the time Parade took the stage, the venue was pretty much full, if not quite sold out, with quite a few familiar faces in the crowd.

Their setlist naturally drew very heavily from The Fabric; in fact I think they played the entire album. The five-piece band managed to translate the multi-layered arrangements from the record extremely well in a live setting, albeit with a lot more energy, with Gavin giving it some serious welly on the drums at times. Of the non-Fabric songs, the semi-acoustic country and western arrangement of one of Chris’ solo songs, “The Luckiest Man Alive”, featuring Patrick on stand-up double bass, was an unexpected highlight of the evening.

Compared with her lead role in Panic Room the previous weekend, Anne-Marie Helder is content to play a supporting role, playing keys and singing harmony lines, leaving the spotlight for Chris.  Although when she does take the lead, such as the wordless eastern-sounding closing section of “High Life”, the result is mesmerising.

After a powerful rendition of the album closer, “Ending”, which left me wondering how on earth two vocalists could reproduce those rich vocal harmonies live, they encored with a brand new number, “Monochrome”, before ending the evening with a muscular version of “Science and Machinery”, a song Chris originally performed with Mostly Autumn back in 2007. I thought it sounded out of place in MA’s set. Here, enhanced by Chris Farrel’s E-Bow, it fitted Parade’s set perfectly.

Tickets for four of the five stops go on sale, Friday (dates listed at Ticketmaster). The complete dates are as follows:

Nov. 4: Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ (performing, Mer De Noms)
Nov. 5: Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ (Thirteenth Step)
Nov. 6: Marquee Theatre, Tempe, AZ (eMOTIVe)
Nov. 8: Avalon, Los Angeles, CA (Mer De Noms)
Nov. 9: Avalon, Los Angeles, CA (Thirteenth Step)
Nov. 10: Avalon, Los Angeles, CA (eMOTIVe)
Nov. 12: Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA (Mer De Noms)
Nov. 13: Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA (Thirteenth Step)
Nov. 14: Showbox at the Market, Seattle, WA (eMOTIVe)
Nov. 16: The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA (Mer De Noms)
Nov. 17: The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA (Thirteenth Step)
Nov. 18: The Fillmore, San Francisco, CA (eMOTIVe)
Nov. 20: The Pearl, Las Vegas, NV (Mer De Noms)
Nov. 21: The Pearl, Las Vegas, NV (Thirteenth Step)

• Tickets (limit two per person in all five cities) go on sale Friday at 10am PST for Tempe, Seattle and Los Angeles.
• Tickets for Las Vegas go on sale Friday at Noon PST (different from previous reports)
• Tickets for San Francisco go on sale Sunday at 10am PST.

A limited number of VIP packages are available for each show. Wine tasting and meet the band packages, on sale at the same time. Keenan has a strong interest in wine-making, heads up the Stronghold Winery in Jereme, AZ and creating an Arizona presence in the wine industry. Wine-tastings have become a staple of his pre-shows.