With the weather warming up throughout the country, concert fans everywhere are gearing up for what promises to be an eventful summer. Several hotly anticipated new albums are on the way, must-see artists have scheduled summer tour dates across the country and large music festivals are expected to gather hundreds of artists and hundreds of thousands of fans together for both day- and weekend-long shows.
Several artists are due for new studio releases. Australian hard-rock band Jet has set the release date of its third album, entitled "Shaka Rock" (2009), for late August, and the band's British contemporaries, Arctic Monkeys, are also expected to release their long-anticipated third album late this summer. More immediate releases include Eminem's first album in five years, entitled "Relapse" (2009), which is expected to be followed shortly by "Relapse 2" (2009) sometime in the second half of the year.
Dave Matthews Band will also be coming off a studio recording hiatus with the release of "Big Whiskey and the GrooGrux King" (2009) on June 2, the band's first album since the untimely death of saxophonist and founding member LeRoi Moore, who succumbed to injuries suffered in an ATV accident last summer. Older contemporaries, 311, which formed in Omaha, Neb., back in 1988, will release its 9th album on the same day, entitled "Uplifter" (2009).
In the arena of hip hop, several new releases have been generating buzz. Lil' Wayne's newest album, entitled "Rebirth" (2009), now scheduled for a June 23 release, will apparently be mixing rock influences with the rapper's traditional sound. Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, Avril Lavigne and Lenny Kravitz have been confirmed as guest performers on the upcoming album. The Black Eyed Peas are expected to release their fifth studio album on June 9, which, if its first chart-topping single "Boom Boom Pow" is any indicator, will be a massive success. Finally, rapper Lupe Fiasco, who performed at Tufts' Spring Fling in 2007, will be releasing his third album, "Lasers" (2009), at some point this summer, possibly by the end of June.
In addition to these hot albums, a number of tours will be hitting major U.S. cities this summer. 311 will be supporting its new release with shows in southern California in early June, with a couple of Northeast shows later the same month and a sprinkling of Midwest and Southeast tour dates. Cultural icon Bob Dylan will continue his seemingly endless touring schedule, playing a series of stadium shows throughout the northern Midwest in early July, the eastern seaboard in mid-July and the South in late July and early August. The Roots will play a series of New York shows at the Highline Ballroom throughout May and June, with a stopover in their hometown of Philadelphia on June 6. Pop-punk veterans Green Day will embark on an extensive tour in support of their recently released "21st Century Breakdown" (2009), hitting more than 30 U.S. cities over the course of July and August.
Last, but by no means least, music festivals in the United States will be offering extensive line-ups this summer. Bonnaroo, perhaps the most famous event, will host more than 160 artists in Manchester, Tenn., from June 11-14, including Bruce Springsteen, the recently reunited Phish, Beastie Boys, Wilco, Snoop Dogg, Ben Harper, TV on the Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, MGMT, The Decemberists, Girl Talk, Animal Collective and many others.
Chicago will host the fifth-annual Lollapalooza festival on Aug. 7-9, featuring Depeche Mode, The Killers, Kings of Leon, Beastie Boys, Lou Reed, Andrew Bird, STS9, Band of Horses, Of Montreal, Arctic Monkeys, Kaiser Chiefs, Cold War Kids and The Gaslight Anthem, as well as many other big and small acts.
For hip hop fans, there will be Rock The Bells, a travelling festival series that will feature Nas, Damian Marley, The Roots, Common, Busta Rhymes, Big Boi, House of Pain, Talib Kweli and Hi-Tek, Tech N9ne, RZA, GZA and Raekwon, among others. Rock The Bells will hit Chicago on June 17, Detroit on June 28, Washington, D.C. on July 12, Boston on July 18, New York on July 19, Denver on Aug. 6, Los Angeles on Aug. 8 and San Francisco on Aug. 9.
With so many concerts and albums coming out this summer, it promises to be a busy season for avid music fans across the nation, despite ever-increasing ticket prices. To avoid paying hefty service charges, try purchasing tickets for upcoming shows at the box office of the venue rather than going through online websites, which frequently add shipping and convenience charges to the base ticket price.
