Dfest to rock, countrify and otherwise entertain Tulsa
The All-American Rejects frontman Tyson Ritter
The seventh annual Diversafest Music Conference and Festival certainly is living up to its name.
This year’s Dfest features 150 acts playing everything from indie rock and pop to country and hip-hop. The lineup ranges from nationally known bands to state favorites to unsigned talents.
Among the top names on the bill: The All-American Rejects, The Roots, Disco Bisquits, Clutch, Helmet, Paramore, Zappa Plays Zappa, Ghostland Observatory, moe, Phantom Planet, The Apples in Stereo and Ty England.
The music extravaganza is today and Saturday in Tulsa’s Blue Dome District, between First and Third streets and Cincinnati and Greenwood avenues.
Performances will take place from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. today and Saturday at three outdoor stages and nine indoor venues.
Dfest also is supposed to a learning experience for aspiring musical stars, with a trade show, conference and clinics taking place from noon to 6 p.m. today and Saturday, Crowne Plaza Hotel, 100 E Second St.
The Oklahoman Entertainment Editor Gene Triplett has all the details of the event in his column in today’s Weekend Look section. Click here to check it out.
My colleague George Lang is on the scene at Dfest to cover all the musical greatness, so keep an eye out for his coverage in The Oklahoman and NewsOK.
I’m headed for New York City on assignment, so I unfortunately won’t make it to this year’s Dfest. But I highly recommend the event for music lovers because the lineup is amazingly varied and strong. And Stillwater’s own All-American Rejects just absolutely rock live.
For more information, go to www.dfest.com.
-BAM
CD review: Delta Goodrem, “Delta”
From Friday’s The Oklahoman.
Pop
Delta Goodrem “Delta” (Decca Records)
Already an established actress and top-selling pop star in her native Australia, singer/songwriter/pianist Delta Goodrem makes her U.S. debut with her third studio album “Delta.”
Goodrem boasts a lovely clear voice, but the uneven and slickly produced album, clearly designed to appeal to mainstream radio, doesn’t do much to separate her from the Natasha Bedingfields and Colby Calliats already crooning over the airways.
Much of the album veers wildly from overwrought musical theater-inspired pop songs (“Born to Try”) to sleep-inducing adult contemporary love songs (“Angels in the Room”) to tuneless dance tracks with arbitrarily applied beats and sound effects (“Bare Hands,” “Possessionless”).
Fortunately, the album offers enough pop jewels among all the sludge and rocks to make it worth the effort to sift through it. The first single, the pop anthem “In This Life” isn’t particularly original, but it offers an appealing showcase for her sparkling voice.
The combination of Goodrem’s sassy vocals and a catchy beat on the dance track “You Will Only Break My Heart” will get you moving. She pours her heart into the poignant and contained ballads “Woman” and “I Can’t Break It to My Heart.”
But the album’s standout track is spirited run-away-with-me love song “Brave Face,” which can gracefully stand up to the kind of repeated play that pop radio favors.
- BAM
What to do in Oklahoma on July 25
Today’s featured event:
Family Theatre Warehouse, 907 W Britton Road, is presenting the perky, big-haired and surprisingly meaningful musical “Hairspray” at 7 p.m. today.
If you can’t catch tonight’s show, other performancs will bop onto the stage at 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday.
For more information, call 848-7469 or go to www.okctickets.com.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com.
-BAM
Montgomery Gentry tickets on sale Saturday
Montgomery Gentry (Associated Press photo)
Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday for a big country music show planned this fall at the Zoo Amphitheatre.
Southern rock duo Montgomery Gentry and honky-tonk crooner Gary Allan, along with Miami native Keith Anderson as special guest, will play the Zoo Amp on Oct. 17.
For more information, go to www.zooamp.com.
-BAM
Weekend Warmup
Here’s a preview of the weekend of July 25-27:
Arts
- “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers”: Watch Lyric Theatre stage the musical romantic comedy “Seven Brides for Seven Brothers,” based on the 1954 MGM movie musical, at 8 p.m. Friday and 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday at the Civic Center Music Hall, 201 N Walker. For more information, call 524-9312 or go to www.lyrictheatreokc.com.
- Midnight Streak: Run for the arts Saturday at the fourth annual Midnight Streak, a 5K run and one-mile fun run benefiting City Arts Center at State Fair Park. The fun run starts at 10:30 p.m. at the center, 3000 General Pershing Blvd. The 5K race starts at 11 p.m. For more information or to register, call 951-0000 or go online to www.cityartscenter.org.
- “Marc Barker: The Illusion of Mattering”: An opening reception for this art exhibit will be from 4 to 7 p.m. Friday at the East Gallery of the state Capitol. Barker uses science and art as inspiration for images that relate to his personal experiences. The exhibition will run through Sept. 14. For more information, go to www.arts.ok.gov/capitolart/eg.html
- “Hairspray”: Bop along as Family Theatre Warehouse, 907 W Britton Road, presents the musical “Hairspray” 7 p.m. Friday, 2 and 7 p.m. Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 848-7469 or go to www.okctickets.com.
Family
- Tom Noddy, The Bubble Guy: See bubbles of all shapes and sizes when Tom Noddy, The Bubble Guy, makes his Oklahoma debut this weekend at Science Museum Oklahoma, 2100 NE 52. Noddy, who has been featured on “The Tonight Show,” at 1 and 3 p.m. Friday; noon, 2 and 4 p.m. Saturday; and 1 and 3 p.m. Sunday. For more information, call 602-6664 or go to www.bubblemagic.com.
- National Day of the American Cowboy: The National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum, 1700 NE 63, will celebrate this occasion with activities offered all day Saturday. Visitors will receive stickers marking the day, and a limited number of museum-goers will receive bandanas courtesy of Purina Mills. Cowboy singer-songwriter Gary S. Pratt, the A-Bar Bunkhouse Band and trick roper/storyteller Marty Tipton will provide live entertainmen. The Oklahoma State University Rodeo Boosters will offer a roping demonstration. For more information, go to www.nationalcowboymuseum.org or call 478-2250.
Movies
- “The X-Files: I Want to Believe”: Director Chris Carter and stars David Duchovny and Gillian Anderson reunite for the second movie based on the paranormal TV series.
- “Step Brothers”: Two spoiled adult children (Will Ferrell and John C. Reilly) develop an intense sibling rivalry after their single parents get married.
- “When Did You Last See Your Father?”: This movie tells the story of a son’s (Colin Firth) mixed memories of his dying father (Jim Broadbent).
- Oklahoma City Museum of Art movies: The French-language art film “The Flight of the Red Balloon” at 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday; Stanley Kubrick’s amazing 1960 epic “Spartacus” at 2 p.m. Sunday. For more information, go to www.okcmoa.com/film.
Music
- Jimmy Webb: Hear Elk City native and songwriting star Jimmy Webb perform at 8 p.m. Saturday and Sunday at the Blue Door, 2805 N McKinley. For more information, call 524-0738 or go to www.bluedoorokc.com.
- John Mellencamp: Listen to the 1980s hitmaker R.O.C.K. the Ford Center, 100 W Reno, at 7 p.m. Friday. The show also will include Oklahoma City-born singer/guitarist Graham Colton. For more information, go to www.okfordcenter.com.
- Smilin’ Vic: The variety/oldies act will play as part of the Arts Council of Oklahoma City’s Sunday Twilight Concert series. The free concert will from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at the Myriad Gardens in downtown. For more information, go to www.artscouncilokc.
- Billy Currington: Hear the country singer at 6:30 p.m. Saturday at Frontier City, 11501 N I-35 Service Road. For more information, go to www.frontiercity.com.
- Three Dog Night: The classic pop/rock band will bring joy to the world and music to Riverwind Casino, 1544 W State Highway 9 in Norman, at 8 p.m. Friday. For more information, go to www.riverwind.com.
Statewide
- Dfest, Tulsa: More than 150 bands will play this weekend at the Diversafest Music Conference and Festival. The event will feature The All-American Rejects, The Roots, Disco Bisquits, Clutch, Helmet, Paramore, Zappa Plays Zappa, Ghostland Observatory, moe, Phantom Planet and Ty England. Performances will be from 7 p.m. to 2 a.m. Friday and Saturday at indoor and outdoor venues in Tulsa’s Blue Dome District, between First and Third streets and Cincinnati and Greenwood avenues. Music industry conferences will be from noon to 6 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Crowne Plaza Hotel, 100 E Second St. For more information, go to www.dfest.com.
-BAM
The concert’s at the Zoo or the concert is a zoo?
Have you seen these rockers? This Associated Press photo of Rick Nielsen, left, and Robin Zander of Cheap Trick is probably the closest some of Wednesday night’s concert-goers got to actually seeing the band.
I’ve heard and received lots of comments today about my review of Wednesday night’s Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick show at the Zoo Amphitheatre.
The consensus: The bands truly rocked, but the organizers bombed.
It’s never a good sign when 15 minutes before the show, the line to enter the venue winds from the Zoo Amp’s main gate all the way around the adjacent Science Museum Oklahoma.
A number of concert-goers have shared stories of arriving an hour or so before the 6 p.m. show time and missing the entirety of Cheap Trick’s energetic opening set. Even starting the concert 30 minutes late didn’t help many ticketholders, and some even missed part of Heart’s mind-blowing middle act.
I guess you could call them the lucky ones. Despite making prior arrangements to attend, our photographer assigned to cover the show wasn’t allowed into the venue at all. (That’s why you’re stuck with AP and publicity shots. Sorry, guys.)
Mind you, the rock fans that spent those long, hot hours in line weren’t people waiting to buy tickets; they had already shelled out their hard-earned cash to see the show. The concert was declared a sell-out weeks ago, and despite fair warning that 10,000 people would be there, the organizers clearly weren’t adequately prepared.
Don’t get me wrong, I think the Zoo is a great place to catch an outdoor show. (It is an amphitheatre, so complaining about the weather isn’t really fair.) And I’ve been impressed with the quality of talent they’re bringing in these days.
But keeping people who have tickets in hand waiting for an hour and half to two hours just to get inside the gate simply isn’t going to cut it. Having only two or three lines of staffers to take tickets, search purses and inquire about possible weapons isn’t the mark of a premier venue.
More lines, more entry points, more staffers and more security were desperately needed at the show to prevent the mob scene outside the Zoo Amp, as well as inside. During the concert, people crammed into the wide aisles trying to get as close as possible to the stage, making it nearly impossible for people to squeeze through the press of partying humanity. That just didn’t feel very safe, particularly when you see a pair of medics struggling to wade through the crowd to check on an under-the-weather attendee.
I’ve heard some of Wednesday’s concert-goers say they won’t go back to the Zoo. That’s a shame, since it’s a venue with a great history that offers some great shows.
Hopefully, the organizers will work harder to accommodate the crowds. Of course, we as concert-goers need to do our part by getting there early. If the show’s a sell-out, getting there 15 minutes ahead of time isn’t going to cut it, either.
And I don’t know if it’s comforting or maddening, but OKC isn’t the only place where the packed houses for this show have created headaches. In his July 12 review, Tom Wharton of The Salt Lake Tribune reported that thousands of fans there missed Cheap Trick’s set because they were “battling the usual frustrating traffic and parking woes.”
I guess it’s tough out there for a rock fan. But we keep on rocking anyway.
-BAM
Movie review: “The Flight of the Red Balloon”
From Thursday’s The Oklahoman.
‘Flight of Red Balloon’ pops before getting off ground
With “The Flight of the Red Balloon,” Taiwanese writer-director Hou Hsiao Hsien creates an arthouse film meant to evoke emotion through improvised dialogue, minimalist plot and lyrical, lingering shots of the non-tourist parts of Paris.
Unfortunately, the emotion his film most consistently prompts is frustration.
Hou made the film as a tribute to the 1956 Oscar-winning French short film “The Red Balloon.” We know his film, which is in French, is an homage because one of the characters flat out tells us, a puzzlingly direct moment in an oblique film.
The opening moments seem to promise an intimate, child’s eye-view of life as Simon (Simon Iteanu), 7, tries to coax a red balloon down from a tree with the promise of candy.
But the Hou soon puts aside this approach for a detached telling of a struggling Paris family. He shoots many of the scenes through glass or reflections, keeping the audience at a distance from the characters.
Simon’s harried single mother Suzanne (the great Juliette Binoche) works as a voice actor for a Chinese puppet theater. and is harried by the demands of single motherhood. His father moved away two years ago, leaving behind only a freeloading boarder (Hippolyte Girardot), the bane of Suzanne’s existence whom Suzanne spends much of the movie trying to offload.
The frazzled Suzanne hires a Chinese film student named Song (Song Fang) as Simon’s nanny. The ever-serene Song takes him on long walks, fixes him pancakes and films him for her tribute to “The Red Balloon.” Along the way, the red balloon bobs through Simon’s life, a kind of silent observer and specter of loneliness.
The slice-of-life story features some solid family drama and glimpses everyday beauty, but the nearly two-hour film is overly long and poorly paced.
Interminable, self-consciously arty long shots lead to sudden, disorienting jump cuts. Scenes of Suzanne’s puppet show or a train ride slowly build and then abruptly end just as they get interesting. Pointless dialogue deflates moments of quiet drama. A moment of quiet drama invoked by the moving of a piano is deflated with pointless dialogue.
Hou’s film is meandering and contrived, to work on its own, but hopefully, it will prompt viewers to see the short that inspired it.
“The Flight of the Red Balloon” is showing today-Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art.
NOW PLAYING
“The Flight of the Red Balloon” is showing at 7:30 p.m. today and 5:30 and 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday at the Oklahoma City Museum of Art’s Noble Theater, 415 Couch Drive.
Tonight’s showing will be preceded by a special pre-feature screening of the 1956 Oscar-winning short film “The Red Balloon” at 7:30. The short was the inspiration for the 2007 feature film.
For more information, call 236-3100 or go to www.okcmoa.com/film.
- BAM
What to do in Oklahoma for July 24
Today’s featured event:
Hear English metal band Dragonforce at 7 p.m. today at the Diamond Ballroom, 8001 S Eastern Ave.
For more information, go to www.diamondballroom.net.
For more events, go to www.wimgo.com
-BAM
Concert review: Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick
Journey
A potent brew of crowd-pleasing hits, dynamic showmanship and bone-rattlingly loud rock ‘n’ roll cast a spell on the Zoo Wednesday night.
The triple-threat of Journey, Heart and Cheap Trick – all rock bands that have been making music for more than three decades – attracted a sell-out crowd of 10,000 sweat-soaked, sun-scorched rock fans to the Zoo Amphitheatre. Near 100-degree temperatures didn’t dissuade the masses from waving their arms, bobbing their heads and shouting along with the classic rockers.
The packed venue was not for the claustrophobic or feint of heart, particularly once headliners Journey and the consummate rocker chicks of Heart commanded the stage.
As Journey started its set at dusk, local fans got the chance to see if new front man Arnel Pineda could match the vocal prowess of former vocalist Steve Perry. From the opening lines of “Only the Young,” the Filipino singer, whom the band discovered on YouTube, proved not only a worthy successor but a virtual vocal doppelganger.
Most fans seemed to welcome Pineda with open arms, and his wide smile, indefatigable stage presence and passionate performances seemed to win over any detractors. One female fan even snuck onto the stage to steal a quick embrace before security guards hauled her away, leaving the grinning Pineda to quip, “Anyone else?”
By the time the band played favorites such as Don’t Stop Believin’,” “Lights” and “Anyway You Want It,” most everyone was singing along, with Pineda’s voice soaring above all others and original guitarist Neal Schon burning up the solos.
The highlights of the set – apart from Pineda’s continual leaping, spinning and microphone flipping – were an extended version of “Wheel in the Sky” and the new and appropriate track “A Change for the Better.”
Heart may have been playing in the second slot, but the ever-impressive Wilson sisters and their band proved they are second to none, not even the night’s headliners.
Through their hits “Crazy on You,” “Never” and “Straight On,” Ann Wilson belted out vocals with seemingly effortless power, while Nancy Wilson’s fleet fingers kept coaxing heady rock out of her guitar as she bounced tirelessly around the stage. Ann’s tuneful wailing on “Magic Man” elicited goosebumps even in the heat, and she proved she is one of the only vocalists worthy to cover Led Zeppelin with her achingly lovely “Going to California.”
The band wowed the crowd with a potent cover of The Who’s “Love Reign O’er Me” leading into a scorching rendition of “Barracuda.”
Although the concert was set to start at 6 p.m., many fans were still lined up around the neighboring Science Museum Oklahoma waiting to get in at show time. When opening act Cheap Trick took the stage at 6:30, the rock quartet really took over the stage.
Despite some issues with the sound mix and balance, the band, whose lineup has remained largely unchanged since 1968, warmed up the overheated crowd with rowdy rockers “I Want You to Want Me,” “Surrender” and “Dream Police.”
Tuxedoed guitarist Rick Nielsen punctuated the performance with his energetic showmanship, cracking wise, tossing picks into the crowd to playing an array of outlandish guitars, including a double-necked axe shaped like a man.
- BAM
Rockers and pop stars to salute fashion
A diverse lineup including Beyoncé, Black Eyed Peas, Chris Brown, Kid Rock, Duffy, Fergie, Justin Timberlake, L’il Wayne, Keith Urban, Mariah Carey and Rihanna will perform at the fifth “Fashion Rocks,” according to a news release.
The concert special, which celebrates the close bonds between fashion and music, will be broadcast from 8 to 10 p.m. Sept. 9 on CBS (KWTV-9 in Oklahoma City).
Presented by Conde Nast Media Group, the star-studded event is sure to feature a bevy of both industries’ top trend-setters. More performers and presenters will be announced closer to the air date.
Ticket proceeds from will benefit the charity Stand Up To Cancer.
-BAM
