Raphael Saadiq Talks Upcoming Album 'Stone Rolling'

Raphael Saadiq's upcoming album Stone Rolling on Columbia Records arrives May 10th.

B.o.B: Guardian UK Feature

'This is the gateway," says an animated Bobby Ray Simmons Jr, rearranging glasses of water on a table in a central London hotel to represent a portal. The rapper, already a veteran at 21, is trying to explain why his career to date has been defined by the tussle between his experimental inclinations and commercial realities, between going his own way and following the gangs/guns/girls crowd. And in so doing he is providing an object lesson in how hip-hop – once a music defined by its resistance to compromise – operates as an increasingly dysfunctional business in 2010.

"You have everybody filing in," he continues, marching a pepper pot and a salt cellar between the drinks to represent the rappers who are content to simply supply music to the mainstream market. "And it's easy, because it's just straight up-and-down, everybody followin' the format. But when you wanna do something different, you have to go all the way around …" At which point Simmons picks up his own drink – an Earl Grey Martini, rather than the rapper stereotype of Moët or brandy – and sweeps it to the left, around the side of the gateway.

"And a lot o' people don't wanna do that," he smiles. "They'd rather just go straight in, rather have a surefire way of makin' it as an artist. I kinda started that way, but it was like, 'Aargh! I just can't do it!' I can't. I can't conform, it's not in my nature. So it took me a long time."

Read the full feature here:
B.o.B - Guardian UK

Ne-Yo Previews 'Libra Scale' Upcoming Album For UK Press & Media

Report and main photo courtesy of Social Writers.blog

Last night (Thursday July, 8th) we had the pleasure of being invited to the album playback for Ne-Yo's forthcoming new album, 'Libra Scale', at The Hospital Club, Covent Garden.

Ne-Yo himself hosted the event and told us the concept behind his fourth album; the album is based on a short story which he wrote. In short the story is about three rubbish cleaners, Clyde, Leroy and Jerome (who is played by Ne-Yo), who are given super powers by a mysterious man and they are known as The Gentlemen (very clever of Ne-Yo to continue his 'Year of The Gentleman t'heme).There's three rules that they must abide:
1) They must protect the city
2) They can't tell nobody about their powers
3) They can't fall in love
Jerome ends up falling in love with a lady called Pretty Sinclair, so he breaks one of the three rules which then caused a disruption within the equilibrium. After Jerome sleeps with Pretty Sinclair the backfire of falling in love begins; she turns mentally mad, some of Jerome's super powers are given to her and her eyes turn into diamonds. Pretty Sinclair believes Jerome made these things happen to her on purpose so she intends to destroy him and everything his loves, so she becomes his enemy and is known as Diamond Eye. Diamond Eye goes about destroying the city and Clyde and Leroy end up working for her. Jerome does nothing to try and stop her because he loves her.

The mysterious man re-appears as Jerome broke one of the rules and gives Jerome two options to choose from - he must kill Diamond Eye and Pretty Sinclair to make time reverse, or time is reversed and Pretty Sinclair lives, but Jerome must die.

This is the cliff hanger that Ne-Yo left us on.......urging us to want to know what happens next.....

Whilst telling the story, Ne-Yo played us six tracks off of 'Libra Scale':

Champagne Life - represents the 'American Dream' that The Gentlemen are living.

One In A Million - An addictive beat full of drums and base laced with Ne-Yo's signature voice. The track is based on how Jerome feels about Pretty Sinclair.

She Is -A guitar rifted track giving the track a mid tempo yet ballad feel at the same time. Represents when Jerome and Pretty Sinclair are falling in love.

Cause I Said So - An up-tempo club banger filled with funk and RnB. This is Diamond Eye's theme song.

Beautiful Monster - Ne-Yo's current single. Represents Diamond Eye as she's evil but so beautiful you have to have her.

What Have I Done - This track is very Michael Jackson-esque, reminds me of 'She's Out Of My Life' by MJ. The track represents when Jerome is down in the dumps about Diamond Eye/Pretty Sinclair.

The concept of the album is great - fresh, innovative and different! The tracks sound very much like something Michael Jackson would've done, both melodically and lyrically, which was done on purpose. So far only collaboration to feature on the 'Libra Scale' is with rapper Fabolous.....I guess we'll have to wait till September 21st to find out if anybody else will feature.

Photo links:
Punch Bowl
WENN Photo

Also read That Grape Juice's report on the event here.

Sade: The Engimatic Singer Walks Through Her Life & Career With London's Times

Sade is so very private, so extremely wary of the press that her friends - all of whom are bound to silence - have nicknamed her Howie, after Howard Hughes. The most reclusive British singer of the 1980s has kept such a low profile since her Smooth Operator days - one tour in 14 years - that, when we meet at the London office of her record label to hear the songs from her new album, Soldier of Love, I am the only person in the room who has met her before.

It’s 10 years since her last album release, the 2000 offering, Lovers Rock. Despite or maybe because of that, the reverence she commands is palpable. She is the most successful solo female artist Britain has ever produced: she has sold more than 50m albums in a career that stretches back 27 years. And more than half of those albums were sold from the mid-1990s onwards, when Sade all but disappeared from view. Since then, she has only surfaced a few times — and this is the only face-to-face interview she will consent to now.

Paradoxically, in person she is open, friendly and relaxed - she’s happy to let me into her spacious Georgian house in leafy north London - and willing to laugh at herself. Unlike her songs, which are often freighted with introspective sadness and regret, her conversation is punctuated with a lively and very English self-mockery. She tells me about a graffitied poster of herself that her guitarist Stuart Matthewman spotted in New York. Above her glamorous image, some wag had sprayed the observation: “This bitch sings when she wants to.” Sade thinks this hilarious. It sums up her career pretty well. She makes music on her own terms.

She doesn’t look to have aged much during her long absence. On the eve of her 51st birthday, her face is unlined and she is still striking. Taller in person than she appears on stage (she is about 5ft 8in) with that large, domed head, wide-set eyes and coil of jet-black hair, she has an exotic allure that she professes not to care a fig about. “People always used to say, ‘What’s it like to see your face on the cover of a magazine?’ But it doesn’t mean anything to me at all. I don’t really see it. I’m not trying to promote an image.”

Read the full article here:
Times Online - Sade emerges from her country retreat

Lil Wayne: The Guardian UK Blast The Guitar Laden 'Rebirth'

You might think Limp Bizkit's oeuvre and their ghastly fanbase of hooting fratboy morons might act as a dire warning to anyone trying to meld hip-hop and heavy metal, but apparently not. Artistically, at least, rap-metal seems to be pop's own Red Bull Flugtag: the best you can hope for is an inglorious plummet, with a load of berks in big shorts cheering you on, but that doesn't seem to stop people getting involved. Either people view it as a challenge or they've noted that, ever since Walk This Way revived Aerosmith's career and catapulted Run DMC to mainstream stardom, it's carried the promise of untold riches: you might think Limp Bizkit's records are unlovable by anyone who isn't an idiot, but their sales figures suggest there might be a lot of idiots knocking about the place.

And perhaps Wayne Carter can trans form rap-metal's image. After all, he's big on confounding expectations. It wasn't just that 2008's Tha Carter III bucked hip-hop's declining commercial fortunes by selling more than a million copies in a week, it's that it did it with a sprawling, strange, wildly inventive and brilliant album: it succeeded by challenging the listener, rather than pandering to the lowest common denominator. That said, the omens for his rock album Rebirth augur ill. It's been endlessly delayed. Collaborations with Lenny Kravitz and Pete Wentz, of trainer-bra pop-punkers Fall Out Boy, were announced, then scrapped.

Instead, the album relies on a host of hip-hop producers and session musicians drawn from the recording world's most rarefied echelons, where your talent demands an amazing nickname: Eddie "Krack Keys" Montilla, Calos "Apocalypto" Hernandez, Edward "Jewfro" Lidow and the thought-provokingly named Finis "KY" White. But here, poor old Apoclaypto, Jewfro, KY et al have been employed to try and copy the sound of a heavy metal band trying to copy the sound of a hip-hop record. Too much Xeroxing invariably degrades the image: the result crawls agonisingly along like a bloke on a donkey cart in the São Paulo rush hour. There's no punch, no brute force, a state of affairs not helped by a mix that places the band far behind Carter's vocals: they sound as if they've been locked in a cupboard. But he sounds even worse. No great shakes as a singer, he's slathered himself in Auto-Tune, which turns out to be one of the least appealing conjunctions of technology and human voice imaginable. On Tha Carter III, he demonstrated an audacious genius by taking horrible sounds – not least the repetitious sample that drove A Milli – and turning them into inexplicably compulsive listening. Here he seems to have pared down this technique by the simple expedient of not bothering with the audacious genius/inexplicably compulsive listening bit.

On Tha Carter III, the words tumbled out in a torrent of surreal images and non sequiturs so dizzying it provoked one critic to compare him to Marcel Duchamp. Here, there's a dispiriting number of hackneyed rock'n'roll cliches about groupies and "the road". Given that everyone knows Carter can do so much better than this, it all smacks a bit of condescension, of locating a different audience, then talking down to them. It's hard to work out whether he's doing this as a result of ignorance – perhaps he hasn't bothered to listen to many rock records and actually thinks that's what the lyrics have to be like – or the opposite: perhaps he's done a lot of market research, noted the kind of character that constitutes rap-metal's fanbase and come to the conclusion that the dizzying flights of Dadaist invention might be pitching it a bit high.

Alternatively, he might just be feeling uninspired. When he stops with the sub-Mötley Crüe stuff, he offers the odd great line – Drop the World hinges on a conceit about commandeering a spaceship in order to pick up a planet and throw it at the head of an ex-lover – but elsewhere, things take a turn for the mundane: "Born and raised in the USA, where the president is B-L-A-C-K," he offers. Official figures suggest this makes Lil Wayne the 4,068th rapper to mention that Barack Obama is African American; apparently they're worried that everyone outside the hip-hop world thinks he's Swedish.

There are still flashes of inspiration on offer, but rather tellingly, they tend to arrive when Carter abandons the widdly-woo solos and plodding drums. The guitars on Da Da Da switch grippingly from hyperactive funk to weird atonal crunching. On Fire is a bizarre cocktail of hiccupping breakbeats and Giorgio Moroder Eurodisco, which reminds you what Lil Wayne can do. For the most part, though, Rebirth underlines what he can't: the problem of rap-metal remains unsolvable, even by him. (source)

Dr. Dre Discusses Headphones & The Delayed 'Detox' With The Guardian UK

With a reputation that precedes him, it's a daunting experience awaiting Dr Dre. Over six feet tall, with shoulders wider than Joan's during Dynasty's heyday, it's not only his physical presence that's commanding. Boasting a back catalogue of some of the best rap records ever created, the man's a hero, a myth, and a legend.

Today, Dre is found in a carpeted and cavernous Best Buy in New York's Union Square, where he's holding a press conference not to promote his long-awaited album, Detox, but for his electronic consumer brand, Beats By Dre. It's an incongruous location to find a multi-millionaire genius; a bit like going to see Robert De Niro promote Freeview in Argos. Yet, judging by the queues and the trilling sound of the tills, it's been an effective event for a brand which includes headphones, laptops, speakers and DJ software. Surrounded by fans, label reps and assorted Beats staff, it's a relief when he muscles through the melee with a warm grin and a firm shake of the hand.

"Aftanoooon," he smiles, attempting an affable British accent of the Dick Van Dyke variety. "'Ow are ya?"

Andre "Dr Dre" Romelle Young is perhaps the only producer to have changed the course of music over three decades (maybe four, if he ever releases Detox). In the 80s he bought us unbridled rage and provocative refrains via LA rappers NWA. Next, he ushered in the marijuana-marinated "G-Funk Era", both on his own album, The Chronic, and Snoop Dogg's seminal debut Doggystyle. In 1999, he proved worthwhile white rap wasn't just limited to the Beastie Boys and 3rd Bass with his protege, Eminem, before unleashing 50 Cent on to the world in 2003. In the pop sphere, he's worked with everyone from Gwen Stefani to Tupac, Nine Inch Nails to Jay-Z, plus Mary J Blige and Burt Bacharach. His eye for a star and ear for sound is arguably second to none; stabbing, sample-free synths, heart-stopping drums and tense, taut percussion being among the Doc's trademarks.

"Engineering and mixing are absolutely key," he says of the post-production process that helps ensure such perfection. "Once a song is done, for me personally, it's usually two or three days to get the mixdown." Indeed, Dre has produced scores of sonically indelible records. He raps, too; Eminem, Snoop and Jay-Z are all rumoured to have ghostwritten tracks for Dre.

"You know, it's real weird. I've looked at pictures that my mom has of me, from when I was four years old at the turntable," says the former DJ of his transformation. "I'm there, reaching up to play the records. I feel like I was bred to do what I do. I've been into music, and listening to music and critiquing it, my whole life." Of his fastidious approach to production – Detox has been some eight years in the making (so far) – he's at a loss to describe how he does what he does. "Once that sound is right, once that mix is right, it's a feeling that you get, here," he says tapping in the general direction of his heart. "It's unexplainable."

This painstaking process isn't the only reason Dre has kept his fans waiting. For the last three years, he's been waylaid wading through designs and technology for the range of headphones he's been producing alongside Interscope Records chairman Jimmy Iovine, who's with him at Best Buy today.

"If you know about Dr Dre, these headphones weren't coming out until they were perfect, or else we would have had Detox five years ago," cracks Iovine. The Pacino to Dre's De Niro, at first glance they're an unlikely duo; the wiry, wise-cracking, fast-talking New Yorker, and the self-contained, quiet Californian, straight outta Compton. Yet though Iovine may talk a mile a minute while Dre is somewhat more muted in his musings, this polar-opposite pairing are a powerful partnership. Iovine signed Lady Gaga, Pussycat Dolls, Gwen Stefani, and Timbaland, while Dre owns Aftermath, distributed by Iovine's industry goliath; Eminem and 50 are among his signings. Not only partners in money-making, the two have been friends for over 19 years.

"Our kids play together and everything," says Dre (who also points out that Iovine's tea-making abilities are "the sh*t"). "We're pretty close."

"I didn't know a lot about hip-hop in 1990, I was from the rock world," shouts Iovine, a former producer for Simple Minds and U2. "I'd listen to hip-hop and sonically it sounded terrible. A guy brought in a tape and the first thing that hit me was the sound. I said, 'Whoever's combining these worlds like this, is doing something no one's done before. I gotta meet this guy.' And that's what got me interested in Dr Dre."

Distilling Dre's innate sense of sonic precision led the pair to devise a different way of reversing the record industry's loss-making mishaps. "I'm just trying to be a creator in among all this shit that's going on," Dre says about hawking high-end headphones. "I just want to get my music out and make sure that it's heard in the right way. That's all I give a f**k about."

Rather than the tried and tested trainers and tracksuits that most artists flog when they begin to merchandise themselves, they brought Beats By Dre back to the essence of the Good Doctor's brilliance.

"Three years ago we were talking about the deals that acts do," Iovine remembers. "We said, 'We gotta do something about sound.' We went from analogue to digital and the digital revolution all went terribly wrong. So we said, 'Screw the sneakers, lets get into headphones and speakers.'"

Jimmy and Dre's main reason for wanting to diversify is because the way in which we listen to music has deteriorated so dramatically.

"[I did this] because it's sound. And I know a little bit about that," Dre chuckles, before explaining that an MP3 downloaded from the internet, particularly illegally, can be as much as 10 times lower in quality than vinyl or even a CD. Coupled with the fact that many are listening to music on mobile phones or through tinny speakers, it all makes Dre disgruntled. "Once it gets to your computer, everything's compressed. It's like smashing sound," he explains. "So we're trying to fix that."

Beats phones are proving quite a celebrity draw, with Lady Gaga and P Diddy designing their own lines. Iovine and Dre have also pulled in some famous pals today to spin for the crowd after they've finished their press conference; twice during our interview Iovine, mid-sentence shouts "WILL.I.AM" as Will.I.Am walks by the green room we're sequestered in. "DAVID GUETTA!" he yells again a few minutes later, telling the assembled throng of staff that "Elvis just walked in the room!" And to me, "You don't know what you've hit on here. No one will ever have these two guys together again." Indeed. However, putting the dance DJ and Dre together does elicit more insight from Dre. He apparently "had a ball" at Guetta's F**k Me, I'm Famous night that he runs with his wife in Ibiza.

"I have to go out to clubs now," he says, referring to preparations for Detox's release. "You need to understand what people are listening to."

Which brings us, neatly, back to the album; headphones are all well and good but what everyone wants, including the kids who queued for hours to see Dre in Best Buy, is Detox. When is it dropping? There's a shy grin and a little nod: "I'm working hard on it. I'm stopping to work on other artists in-between, but the minute it's done and I feel it right here," he says patting his heart again, "that's when it will come out. Hopefully the beginning of 2010." (Needless to say, a few weeks after our chat he releases a statement to say it probably won't be before 2011 now. Sigh).

Still, however and whenever it arrives, Dre feels he might have created the perfect song on this album. Almost.

"I don't think I've done that record yet. I'll know what it is when it comes; I know exactly what it is in my head, but I haven't done it yet. It's close."

We will, he assures me once again, hear it soon, though: "I got some sh*t coming, believe me." -- Hattie Collins (source)

(main photo courtesy of ABC News)

Gift Of Gab: London's Independent Newspaper Reviews 'Escape 2 Mars' Album

As reviewed by Andy Gill at London's The Independent

Gift of Gab - Escape 2 Mars (Cornerstone/R.A.S.) released November 3, 2009

"Escape to Mars, it's not too far," advises rapper Gift Of Gab, continuing the theme of 2004's 4th Dimensional Rocketships Going Up, an ongoing extension of the space-jazz schtick of such as Sun Ra and Parliament which offered a metaphor for the astronomical extent a black man needs to search to find enlightened, non-racist attitudes in the solar system.

A Sun Ra quote even heralds "Dreamin'," on which Del The Funky Homosapien and Brother Ali help Gab pursue his out-of-this-world quest – which turns out to be more out-of-body experience when at the end of his journey, he wakes up to find "it was all in my mind". He's more successful attempting "a little getaway from all the drama/so I can get some space/clean up my mental haze/and clean my karma" – but since the trip is only "In Las Vegas", he just ends up with a swollen liver and a shrunken wallet. He's fine when dealing this light-heartedly with aspirations, but Gab's footing becomes less firm when he tries to be serious: okay, so he avoids paying lip-service to hip-hop's bling culture, but if the alternative is the simplistic oppositional analysis of "Richman, Poorman", what's the point? And as for the readiness to believe conspiracy theories about the supposed suppression of holistic cures for cancer, aids and diabetes in "Electric Waterfalls", that's not so much out-of-body as out-of-mind.

MC Solaar: French Rapper Live In London, UK Concert Recap

As reported by Toby Green at London's Independent (photo courtesy of the Independent)

Five years have passed since arguably the world's most famous non-English-speaking rapper performed a solo show in the UK, so it was no surprise that tickets were hard to come by for this three-night mini-residency at Camden's Jazz Cafe (January 8-10). What prompted MC Solaar – whose real name is Claude M'Barali – to cross the channel is not entirely clear. His most recent record, Chapitre 7, was released in 2007. But the crowd are happy to welcome him back.

It is certainly a treat to see a multi-million selling MC in such an intimate venue, although those who missed out on a ticket would be unlikely to agree. There are not too many 40-year-old rappers who can be said to be near the top of their game but Solaar – who is entering his third decade as a recording artist, having released his debut single, "Bouge de là", in 1990 – does not look his age as he opens with "Carpe Diem", from his last album.

Some gigs have seen him backed by a live band but tonight – sensibly so, given the space available – he is joined by a DJ, two MCs and his regular co-singer, Linda. It is she who comes closest to stealing the show, with her belting voice and ability to switch styles between songs. She even finds time for a few costume changes, appearing as a belly dancer for one song.

The sheer magnetism of Solaar, however, means that his position as the star of the evening is undeniable. Ever genial, often with a little smile playing on his lips, he charms the crowd between songs. The only problem for non-Gallic members of the audience is that he speaks almost entirely in French, leaving odd moments when half the crowd are in uproarious laughter while the rest look to them for translation.

Still, for the songs a lack of knowledge of French is much less of a hindrance – you may not know what he is saying, but Solaar's smooth and laid-back technique makes the language sound its most beautiful. He is such a compelling performer that he keeps the attention of the crowd even on songs where the beat is pretty average.

He changes his style regularly – one moment spitting super-fast rhymes, the next seeming more like a spoken-word performer – but whatever he does, his delivery is perfect. In terms of the night's pacing, there is a nice mix of lively numbers that get large sections of the crowd dancing and more introspective, moody tracks. The pick of these is the atmospheric "In God We Trust".

"Au Clair De La Lune" is similarly beautiful, but judging from the reaction from the crowd "Solaar Pleure", from the 2001 album Cinquième As, is the most anticipated song of the night. It lives up to the expectation and is a clear highlight with its distinctive guitar riff. As the song builds Solaar gets angrier and angrier, from verse to verse, until the powerful climax.

He jokingly threatens not to do an encore, but he then returns for another three songs. Even this is not enough for the audience, who are unwilling to let him go – after all, who knows when they will next see him in these parts?

Also, read Lisa Verrico at London's Times MC Solaar concert review here:
MC Solaar at Camden's Jazz Cafe

Fan shot footage below.



(video courtesy of osy98jb)

John Mayer Performs Acoustic Set In London, UK

To kick off John Mayer's UK tour, a promotional performance was scheduled at the Hard Rock Cafe in London (Jan. 11) for press/ticket give-aways sponsored by Q Music Magazine.

PHOTOS:
Getty Images
Wire Image
Rex Features

John Mayer Tour Dates:
Fri 01/15/10 - Manchester, UK @ Apollo Manchester
Sat 01/16/10 - Glasgow, UK @ O2 Academy Glasgow
Mon 01/18/10 - London, UK @ HMV Hammersmith Apollo
Tue 01/19/10 - Wolverhampton, UK @ Little Civic
Thu 02/04/10 - Sunrise, FL@ BankAtlantic Center
Fri 02/05/10 - Tampa, FL @ St. Pete Times Forum
Sat 02/06/10 - Jacksonville, FL @ Jacksonville Veterans Mem. Arena
Mon 02/08/10 - North Charleston, SC @ North Charleston Coliseum
Tue 02/09/10 - Birmingham, AL @ BJCC Arena
Wed 02/10/10 - Nashville, TN @ Sommet Center
Fri 02/12/10 - Auburn Hills, MI @ The Palace Of Auburn Hills
Sat 02/13/10 - London, ON @ The John Labatt Centre
Sun 02/14/10 - Toronto, ON @ Air Canada Centre
Tue 02/16/10 - Ottawa, ON @ Scotiabank Place
Wed 02/17/10 - Montreal, QC @ Bell Centre
Fri 02/19/10 - Uncasville, CT @ Mohegan Sun Arena
Sat 02/20/10 - Washington, DC @ Verizon Center
Sun 02/21/10 - Philadelphia, PA @ The Wachovia Center
Wed 02/24/10 - Boston, MA @ TD Garden
Thu 02/25/10 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden Arena
Fri 02/26/10 - New York, NY @ Madison Square Garden Arena
Sun 02/28/10 - Grand Rapids, MI @ Van Andel Arena
Mon 03/01/10 - Milwaukee, WI @ Bradley Center
Tue 03/02/10 - Saint Paul, MN @ Xcel Energy Center
Thu 03/04/10 - Omaha, NE @ Qwest Center Omaha
Fri 03/05/10 - Oklahoma City, OK @ Ford Center
Sat 03/06/10 - Houston, TX @ Toyota Center
Mon 03/08/10 - Austin, TX @ Frank Erwin Center
Tue 03/09/10 - Dallas, TX @ American Airlines Center
Wed 03/10/10 - New Orleans, LA@ New Orleans Arena
Fri 03/12/10 - Columbus, OH @ Nationwide Arena
Sat 03/13/10 - Louisville, KY @ Freedom Hall @ The Kentucky Expo Center
Mon 03/15/10 - Greensboro, NC @ Greensboro Coliseum Complex
Tue 03/16/10 - Charlottesville, VA @ John Paul Jones Arena
Wed 03/17/10 - Atlanta, GA @ Philips Arena
Fri 03/19/10 - Memphis, TN@ FedExForum
Sat 03/20/10 - St. Louis, MO@ Scottrade Center
Mon 03/22/10 - Kansas City, MO @ Sprint Center
Tue 03/23/10 - Denver, CO @ Pepsi Center
Thu 03/25/10 - Los Angeles, CA @ Staples Center
Fri 03/26/10 - San Jose, CA @ HP Pavilion At San Jose
Sat 03/27/10 - Las Vegas, NV @ Mandalay Bay Events Center
Tue 03/30/10 - Portland, OR @ Rose Garden Arena
Wed 03/31/10 - Seattle, WA @ KeyArena At Seattle Center
Thu 04/01/10 - Vancouver, BC @ General Motors Place
Sat 04/03/10 - Calgary, AB @ Pengrowth Saddledome
Sun 04/04/10 - Edmonton, AB @ Rexall Place
Tue 04/06/10 - Saskatoon, SK @ Credit Union Centre
Wed 04/07/10 - Winnipeg, MB @ MTS Centre
Thu 04/08/10 - Fargo, ND @ Fargodome

(video courtesy of greenlibra88)