If you’re a New Yorker, you’ve probably grieved and gripped over this year’s abnormally cold spring. But not to worry, pale friends! You can put away that Canada Goose because summer has finally arrived in the city, and with it brings sunshine, eccentricity, hot trash, and outdoor concert series like Live Nation’s National Concert Week, which runs from April 30th through May 8th.
The price-point isn’t too bad either. For $20 per concert, Live Nation has made this summer kick-off affordable for the masses. The roster is objectively awesome too and will make punk and rock fans alike jump up in the air with their legs bent behind them. Live Nation has enlisted the help of many storied groups such as Taking Back Sunday, Stone Temple Pilots, Collective Soul, and Styx.
I had the pleasure of interviewing these legends last week at Live Nation’s New York Headquarters.
Styx on Spotify and Streaming
The Knockturnal: What is your opinion on streaming services and how they are changing the landscape for artists? Do you see this as a negative or positive for musicians?
James “JY” Young: Honestly, I haven’t paid close attention to it…I don’t have the answer because there are a lot of negatives for people in my position, but there are some positives. It is just sad to see that there has been a long tradition of screwing the artist.
Lawrence Gowan: While I agree with everything he said, Spotify is one of the reasons people are finding us. To me, the more you hear a song and love a song, the better chance a fan will become a fan, shut the laptop, leave their house, and go see a live concert and go see what happens in that arena. What’s lucky with us is that we’ve toured at a level now where we play over a hundred shows a year, so there are ample opportunities to see the band and we want people to come see us.
Stone Temple Pilots on their last album Stone Temple Pilots (2018)
The Knockturnal: What was the vision behind the latest release this year?
Jeff Gutt: For me personally, it was to just go in and let the music speak to me, and let that dictate where I took the songs lyrically, melodically. Those are things I’ve done all my life before I was in Stone Temple Pilots, so to come in and have such amazing songs handed to me and say ‘write to this…’
[Dean DeLeo cuts him off]Dean DeLeo: It’s a four letter word, man. S-O-N-G.
Collective Soul on Tour Shenanigans
The Knockturnal: What’s been the funniest moment on tour?
Jesse Triplett: There’s been a lot of funny moments. It’s a little more inside for us, but our drummer is a non-stop comedy show. Just get a camera and follow Johnny Rabb around, and you’re welcome. One of our crew guys bought him a puppet, and he love puppets, and so he makes videos out on the road. It’s called Working Jim and he has his own YouTube videos.
Taking Back Sunday on Favorite Releases
The Knockturnal: What have been some of your favorite releases in 2018?
Adam Lazzara: Twin Shadow just put out a new record. Great! I’ve only listened to it about 2 or 3 times. But so far, so good. John?
John Nolan: Did that War on Drugs album come out in 2018 or was that 2017?
Adam: I think that was 2017. Last year, right? Well yeah, because they did that tour last year.
John: That Nathaniel Rateliff album is good. I just started listening to that.
Adam: The new one is out?
John: Yeah, it is very good.
Adam: Oh, snap. I’ll be on my phone a little bit later checking them out, so big fan of that band, man. We got to see them play in Charlottee where we lived last year which was a great time. Other than that, I have to go sort through it all. I have recently re-subscribed to Sirius radio, so the Tom petty and Beatles channel is mostly what I’ve been listening to, and they don’t have a lot of new music, so…[Adam and John laugh]
Get your tickets here: https://ncw.livenation.com/
PHOTO CREDIT: Getty Images for Live Nation
