Latest news with #CrystalBallroom
Yahoo
11-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
Rock band reinvites Trump voters to shows after getting death threats
The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus is reinviting Donald Trump fans to shows after the band received an influx of death threats for previously banning Trump voters. 'Yo, what's up?' frontman Ronnie Winter said in a video posted to the band's Instagram Wednesday, July 2. 'Tour was rescheduled due to death threats. I'm going to go live tonight.' 'It's called a pivot guys,' the singer concluded. The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus has shows scheduled through November, according to their website. The band will perform at Crystal Ballroom in Somerville on Aug. 24. Winter said in an Instagram video posted Saturday, June 14 that 'if you are a Christian and you're watching this and you voted for Donald Trump,' then 'you are not allowed to come to my shows.' 'I don't want you there. It's awesome that you love 'Face Down.' Its not for you. It's not your song,' the frontman said, referring to his band's most popular song. 'If you voted for Donald Trump, do not come to my shows forever, not just like these four years. Don't come to my shows because you are going to hear a lot of woke propaganda, and you are going to hear the actual words of Jesus,' the singer continued. 'You are going to see a lot of words of acceptance from all areas of life and races. You are just going to see a lot of harmony, OK. That's not what you are about. Don't come. Refunds are available. Forever don't come.' In the days since Winter first forbid Trump supporters from attending the shows, The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus shared a different message on social media. 'GOD's invitation of LOVE into its heavenly kingdom is open to EVERYONE,' the band wrote in an June 17 Instagram post. 'Let's stop trying to manipulate the Heavenly Fathers invitation,' the post reads. 'For a second didn't it feel weird to not be invited to our events? Let it sink in guys. Obviously EVERYONE is invited to our events but leave the dividing topics out.' By that time, Trump fans had already been firing back at The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus. 'Now you're Dead jumpsuit apparatus cus you killed your career,' one comment read. Another individual wrote, 'The Left loves to market itself as the movement of peace, love and up until you disagree.' The band and Winter also faced backlash for disabling comments on certain Instagram posts and privatizing their X accounts. 'Smart move turning off comments...,' another comment reads. 'Your entire fan base from the 2000s' are all tired of the liberal BS and you make the stupid mistake of pandering to the wrong side? Good luck, boys.. Good Luck...' 'Hey Ronnie Winter, first you block anyone who disagrees after you speak about love and tolerance. Now, you turn off comments' another commenter said. 'Sounds hypocritical. You need to come to terms that not everyone thinks like you. Accept disagreements and move on.' The Red Jumpsuit Apparatus formed in 2003 in Middleburg, Florida. The emo-pop band is best known for its 2006 major-label debut, 'Don't Fake It.' The platinum-certified project peaked at No. 25 on the Billboard 200 and contained the smash hit 'Face Down.' The single peaked at No. 24 on the Billboard Hot 100 and has since been certified five-times platinum by the RIAA. The band has released four more albums — 'Lonely Road' (2009), 'AM I the Enemy' (2011), '4″ (2014) and 'The Awakening' (2018) — but none have matched the success of their debut. Iconic '80s band makes surprise appearance at pop star's UK show Famous rock singer responds after booed at historic farewell concert Groundbreaking punk band plays final live show in Amsterdam Influential '90s rock band loses member after 27 years: 'We wish him well' '60s pop icon 'feeling much better' after hospitalized with 'extreme pain' Read the original article on MassLive.
The Age
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- The Age
‘She just conjured electricity': Celebrating Divinyls legend Chrissy Amphlett
Before Madonna talked sex and sexuality on stage, a working-class girl on the other side of the globe was shocking audiences with her fierce and powerful performances. Chrissy Amphlett was unlike anything Australians had seen when she burst on the stage in 1980 as lead singer of Divinyls. Without her it's hard to imagine Amy Taylor from Amyl & the Sniffers, or Amphlett's fellow Geelong-born rocker Adalita. A new show opening next week called Amplified showcases the work of the late artist – Amphlett died from breast cancer in 2013, aged just 53 – as well as her extraordinary impact and legacy. Making the work has been a wonderful process, says Sheridan Harbridge, who stars in the show, and co-created it with acclaimed director Sarah Goodes and musical director Glenn Moorhouse (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Trawling through YouTube and watching old performances by the Divinyls and Amphlett solo, Harbridge says there are hundreds of comments from people writing things such as 'I saw them at the Crystal Ballroom and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen'. 'And then women saying, 'I'd never seen a woman act like that and I didn't know you could',' the actor-singer-writer says, adding that 'equally for men, they were watching something quite electric'. 'I spoke to someone who worked with her and they said, 'she just conjured electricity'.' Raised in a Pentecostal Christian family in Gippsland, Harbridge wasn't allowed to watch shows like The Simpsons and The Golden Girls, but thankfully her mum didn't know what Rage was, so that was where she first came across Amphlett.
Sydney Morning Herald
06-06-2025
- Entertainment
- Sydney Morning Herald
‘She just conjured electricity': Celebrating Divinyls legend Chrissy Amphlett
Before Madonna talked sex and sexuality on stage, a working-class girl on the other side of the globe was shocking audiences with her fierce and powerful performances. Chrissy Amphlett was unlike anything Australians had seen when she burst on the stage in 1980 as lead singer of Divinyls. Without her it's hard to imagine Amy Taylor from Amyl & the Sniffers, or Amphlett's fellow Geelong-born rocker Adalita. A new show opening next week called Amplified showcases the work of the late artist – Amphlett died from breast cancer in 2013, aged just 53 – as well as her extraordinary impact and legacy. Making the work has been a wonderful process, says Sheridan Harbridge, who stars in the show, and co-created it with acclaimed director Sarah Goodes and musical director Glenn Moorhouse (Hedwig and the Angry Inch). Trawling through YouTube and watching old performances by the Divinyls and Amphlett solo, Harbridge says there are hundreds of comments from people writing things such as 'I saw them at the Crystal Ballroom and it was the most amazing thing I've ever seen'. 'And then women saying, 'I'd never seen a woman act like that and I didn't know you could',' the actor-singer-writer says, adding that 'equally for men, they were watching something quite electric'. 'I spoke to someone who worked with her and they said, 'she just conjured electricity'.' Raised in a Pentecostal Christian family in Gippsland, Harbridge wasn't allowed to watch shows like The Simpsons and The Golden Girls, but thankfully her mum didn't know what Rage was, so that was where she first came across Amphlett.
Calgary Herald
21-05-2025
- Entertainment
- Calgary Herald
Alberta superstar k.d. lang honoured for her 2024 induction into Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame
It was the mid-1980s during the Calgary Stampede when legendary record executive Seymour Stein went to see k.d. lang and The Reclines at the Crystal Ballroom of the Palliser Fairmont Hotel. Article content Article content Stein, who was the golden-earred co-founder of Sire Records and credited with discovering Madonna and the Talking Heads, had travelled to Calgary to see lang play and potentially sign her to his renowned label. Article content Article content 'He did a lot of cocaine and so forth,' lang said Wednesday morning at a private ceremony honouring her induction into the Canadian Country Music Hall of Fame at the National Music Centre. 'He fell asleep during my show. It worked out fine.' Article content Article content Stein, who died in 2023, did sign lang to his label and helped shape the early years of her remarkable 40-plus-year career as an internationally renowned singer-songwriter. It was a suitably strange and Calgary-centric anecdote for lang to reveal on Wednesday as the Canadian Country Music Association and the National Music Centre paid tribute to the artist with a ceremony that found her placing her name on the wall alongside fellow 2024 inductee Gilles Godard, who is president of Anthem Music Publishing Nashville. lang has won 10 CCMA awards, eight Junos and four Grammys, received the Order of Canada and became an international star selling millions of albums — but her career in the conservative country music industry has also had a rebellious nature to it. She expanded the boundaries of country music with a post-modern take on the genre that included nods to traditional country-and-western sounds and sophisticated modern influences such as pop and jazz. lang, who was born in Edmonton and grew up in the small town of Consort, has also been a vocal advocate for LGBTQ+ rights and an activist for animal rights during her career. Article content Article content On Wednesday, lang was surrounded by some memorabilia from her career that included the yellow tulle ballgown she wore in the video for her hit Miss Chatelaine from her 1992 breakthrough album Ingenue and a framed image of her famous 1993 magazine cover for Vanity Fair. Shot by renowned photographer Herb Ritts, it featured lang wearing a suit and tie and sitting in a barber chair having her face shaved by supermodel Cindy Crawford. It is considered an iconic image in queer culture. Article content 'I never felt like I belonged in the room, I still don't,' lang joked on Wednesday in a brief speech before putting her plaque on the wall. Article content 'I'm just so honoured to be here and to be amongst you and amongst the people on the wall and all the people in this building and all the youngsters that are making Canadian music and continuing to make Canadian music world-class and cutting edge,' she said. 'We are very, very blessed with our musical aptitude in Canada.'
Boston Globe
14-02-2025
- Entertainment
- Boston Globe
Celebrity Series's Stave Sessions defies easy classification, again
Seven years later, satisfying the AI — or whatever's powering the streaming service of the day's algorithm — has Get Starting Point A guide through the most important stories of the morning, delivered Monday through Friday. Enter Email Sign Up On Tuesday evening, the small audience entered to find the lights already dim, and Providence-based singer and composer (and Bent Knee cofounder) Courtney Swain's setup onstage blanketed with artificial roses. Swain stood behind a flower-strewn keyboard for most of her almost seamless one-hour set with collaborating guitarist Tim Doherty; with her hands so obscured and the layers of her supple, strong vocals wreathing the room, she often seemed to be coaxing music from the blooms. The apocalyptic but strangely consoling lyrics set against the gentle instrumental background made for a meditative, inward-looking experience. Only near the end of the set did she address the audience, hinting that this might be one of her last shows under the Courtney Swain name as she formalizes this new artistic project under a different moniker. Advertisement Singer, sound artist, and composer Courtney Swain at Somerville's Crystal Ballroom on Feb. 11, the first night of Celebrity Series of Boston's 2025 Stave Sessions. Robert Torres On Wednesday, That's a process in itself. So, unsurprisingly, the group's setlist mostly consisted of repertoire from its upcoming album, 'Rare Birds,' which releases March 15. There were two originals by Owls cellist and composer Paul Wiancko; a hearty arrangement of a piece by Norwegian/American folk duo Trollstilt; a fascinating and kaleidoscopic inverse-quartet arrangement of Couperin's harpsichord piece 'Les Barricades Mysterieuses.' The most memorable was Azerbaijani composer Franghiz Ali-Zadeh's ecstatic 'Raqs,' written originally for Kronos Quartet — which, not so incidentally, has 50 percent overlap with Owls by way of Wiancko and violinist Ayane Kozasa, and newly installed Kronos second violinist Gabriela Diaz was in the audience. The adventuresome, try-anything spirit of Kronos is clearly in capable and joyous hands. If the number of professional musicians-about-town in the audience was any indication, Owls just might be a member of your favorite orchestra's favorite quartet. Cellist Seth Parker Woods is also a familiar face around Boston, having collaborated several times with local organizations such as Castle of Our Skins; Thursday, he presented his touring program 'Thus Spoke their Verse,' consisting of three sections he called 'hypersuites.' These used sarabandes from Bach's cello suites as launchpads into mostly contemporary repertoire, with mixed but mostly satisfying results. Particularly striking was the transition from the Sarabande from Suite No. 1 into the plucked Calvary Ostinato from Coleridge-Taylor Perkinson's 'Lamentations, 'Black/Folk Song Suite,'' which Woods anchored with a hauntingly calm repeated bassline while making the higher strings wail and twang like a banjo. Advertisement Also unforgettable was Fredrick Gifford's 'Difficult Grace,' for layered cello and voice. Reciting excerpts from Dudley Randall's 1968 poem 'Primitives,' Woods adopted a vintage storyteller's resonant tones, which morphed on a dime into a ghostly whisper, all while adding eerie wordless commentary from the cello. I wished he had provided the text of the poem in his program notes — the message was clearly powerful, but chopped up into collage for artistic effect as it was, it wasn't easy to process individual phrases. Woods's keen stage presence helped bridge that gap, however; several times throughout the evening, it seemed he was looking right at me, and I wonder how many others felt the same way. There's an experience no AI can replicate. STAVE SESSIONS Presented by Celebrity Series of Boston. At Crystal Ballroom, Somerville. A.Z. Madonna can be reached at
