Loud music and high-flying stunts during the Outbreak Tour

March 2, 2011
Huntsville, AL
Monster Energy Drink Outbreak Tour: Rev Theory, Pop Evil, The Black Cloud Collective and Aranda

Pop Evil's Leigh Kakaty gets a few helping hands from the crowd during the Monster Energy Drink Outbreak Tour stop in Huntsville, Alabama.

They say desperate times call for desperate measures. Though there have been some great local band shows in Memphis lately, the number of national acts rolling through is severely dwindling. So I once again hit the road, on a weeknight nonetheless, to catch the Monster Energy Drink Outbreak Tour on its closest stop to me. The locale - a mere three hours away in Huntsville, Alabama.

For Those Women About to Rock

Lzzy Hale at Rock on the Range 2010

This week brought us the centenary celebration of International Women’s Day, so I thought I’d take a look at some of the women currently turning the rock world on its ear. Unlike their pop counterparts of recent years, these women are more than just a pretty face and hot body (though they’re pretty smokin’ too.) For each, its never a case of either/or. They can sing AND scream, write AND play. They can do it all. And with their “anything you can do, I can do better” attitudes, they’re showing the boys who’s boss.

Nonpoint Brings Out Memphis’ Finest

Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Newby’s –Memphis, TN
Nonpoint with Dirge Within, Red Line Chemistry, Inner 61, and Surrender the Fall

Nonpoint's Elias Soriano works the crowd during the Memphis stop of their tour.

Midweek shows are usually the bane of my existence. They don’t mix well with those like me who have to commute to work for an 8:00 am start the next day. And, as my luck would have it, they’re lately associated with concerts I’m dying to see but too far away to drive over and back on a “school night.” But the stars aligned when my hometown bar Newby’s announced a mid-week show featuring Nonpoint. And I wasn’t the only one to come out for the occasion.