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The weather was lousy — cold, wet and windy — and the location was new, about a dozen subway stops north. But the Allman Brothers Band brought the springtime — sunshine, peaches and robust harmony guitars — to New York, as they have virtually every March since 1989, on the second night of their 2010 residency at the United Palace Theater in Harlem on Friday.

Watch Warren Haynes rock an acoustic set and get the lowdown on this year’s Allman Brothers’ run.

The Allmans opened with a dig at their usual home this time of year: New York skyline shots on the screen behind the band during the first-album medley of “Don’t Want You No More” and “Ain’t My Cross to Bear” included one of the Beacon Theatre with a red circle and a slash through it. (The venue has been taken over by a Cirque de Soleil production.) The audience booed accordingly. There have been troubles uptown too: The Allmans cancelled their March 22-27nd shows at United Palace because of an “unforeseen family matter,” according to a statement issued last week. The run ends on March 20th.

But the group was, from the start on March 12th, at peakin’-Beacon strength. Gregg Allman’s voice — precociously fierce and weathered in 1969, genuinely raw and vulnerable for the last couple of decades — carried “Ain’t My Cross to Bear” with scarred authority, against guitarist Derek Trucks’ snake-crawl lines of slide guitar and bursts of fuzzy sustain. Trucks and guitarist Warren Haynes hung together, spitting licks as the rhythm section built up to the segue into “You Don’t Love Me,” and ended the song by trading choruses like gunfire — an effect as familiar as the version on 1971’s At Fillmore East but fresh and stunning on impact.

Grab all of Rolling Stone’s essential guitar coverage.

In the Allmans, Trucks and Haynes — who have done their own lifetimes of playing — bring distinct personal energy and invention to the roles established by founding guitarists Duane Allman and Dickey Betts. You hear tradition, not recitation. In “Midnight Rider,” Trucks played a slide break that sounded more like the buzzing glide of a sarod. There has been a collective effect, too, on nerve and dynamics. The heart of the first set was a connected excursion through jet-black turbulence slashed with guitar lightning: Bob Dylan’s “Blind Willie McTell,” Allman and Haynes singing the chorus in keening harmonies; an instrumental cross, in 6/8 time, between “In Memory of Elizabeth Reed” and John Coltrane’s “Afro Blue”; and Dr. John’s “Walk on Gilded Splinters,” propelled by drummers Jaimoe and Butch Trucks, bassist Oteil Burbridge and percussionst Marc Quiñones like a New Orleans graveyard march, detoured through central Africa.

For the second set, Trucks’ wife Susan Tedeschi stepped up — and out — on vocals and guitar for a couple of numbers, including Delaney and Bonnie’s “Coming Home,” and the Allmans marked the fortieth anniversary of their second album, Idlewild South, with “Revival” and “Leave My Blues at Home.” But the real ascension and deep blues came in a “Mountain Jam” that dropped, from elegant hovering guitars and jubilant drumming, to a mean electric-Mississippi roll through Howlin’ Wolf’s “Smokestack Lightning,” then eased into a spell of Jimi Hendrix’s “Third Stone From the Sun” — Trucks and Haynes’ guitars rendering the melody with liquid yearning — before jumping back into the cocky delight of the Donovan hook from “There Is a Mountain.”

It was music at once absolutely familiar and vigorously new, with an impulse and telepathy bonded with muscle and experience and charged by a belief that the best work is not yet done. It was still raining and gusting hard outside after the show was over. But spring, at last, was here.

Photo: Bank/WireImage
“Carnegie Hall, I apologize for what I’m about to do,” said surprise guest Patti Smith last night at a Who tribute concert at the famed New York venue before launching into a snarling punk version of “My Generation,” during which she spit on the hallowed stage at least three separate times. (Iggy Pop did some damage to the very same stage at the Tibet House benefit last week.) Earlier in the night, Bobby McFerrin did the same song, though he used no instrument other than his mouth and the sound of his hand banging against his chest. Patti’s was stronger (mainly because it didn’t bear resemblance to the Cosby Show theme), but it proved that the Who’s vast catalog is strong enough to survive nearly any re-interpretation.

Check out our huge collection of Who photos.

The night — which was a benefit concert for numerous organizations including Music Unites — began with a children’s choir and the house band performing “Overture” and “Tommy Can You Hear Me.” They were followed by Living Colour, who did an absolutely killer funk-metal “Eminence Front.” It was a hard act to top, but Robyn Hitchcock’s acoustic “Substitute” and the Smithereens’ fierce one-two punch of “The Seeker” and “Sparks” came pretty close with an incredibly frantic energy. Bettye LaVette slowed things down with a beautiful torch ballad rendition of “Love Reign O’er Me” that was definitely the vocal highlight of the night.

Mose Allison, looking pretty spry for 82, was the only performer who did an original. He played “Young Man Blues” (which was a staple of the Who’s set list in the 1960s and ’70s) and its recent sequel “Old Man Blues.” Beatles cover band Fab Faux stepped one inch outside of their comfort zone by playing “Tommy’s Holiday Camp” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Every note and harmony from the Tommy finale was hit with stunning precision. The Gaslight Anthem tore into “Baba O’Riley” Pearl Jam style, while Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould dipped deep into the Who’s catalog for a frenzied cover of “Can’t Reach You” from The Who Sell Out. The night ended with all the performers jamming on a sloppy but fun “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” featuring an unprecedented two primal screams — one by Willie Nile and another by Nicole Atkins, who nailed it better than Daltrey has in quite some time.

“Carnegie Hall, I apologize for what I’m about to do,” said surprise guest Patti Smith last night at a Who tribute concert at the famed New York venue before launching into a snarling punk version of “My Generation,” during which she spit on the hallowed stage at least three separate times. (Iggy Pop did some damage to the very same stage at the Tibet House benefit last week.) Earlier in the night, Bobby McFerrin did the same song, though he used no instrument other than his mouth and the sound of his hand banging against his chest. Patti’s was stronger (mainly because it didn’t bear resemblance to the Cosby Show theme), but it proved that the Who’s vast catalog is strong enough to survive nearly any re-interpretation.

Check out our huge collection of Who photos.

The night — which was a benefit concert for numerous organizations including Music Unites — began with a children’s choir and the house band performing “Overture” and “Tommy Can You Hear Me.” They were followed by Living Colour, who did an absolutely killer funk-metal “Eminence Front.” It was a hard act to top, but Robyn Hitchcock’s acoustic “Substitute” and the Smithereens’ fierce one-two punch of “The Seeker” and “Sparks” came pretty close with an incredibly frantic energy. Bettye LaVette slowed things down with a beautiful torch ballad rendition of “Love Reign O’er Me” that was definitely the vocal highlight of the night.

Mose Allison, looking pretty spry for 82, was the only performer who did an original. He played “Young Man Blues” (which was a staple of the Who’s set list in the 1960s and ’70s) and its recent sequel “Old Man Blues.” Beatles cover band Fab Faux stepped one inch outside of their comfort zone by playing “Tommy’s Holiday Camp” and “We’re Not Gonna Take It.” Every note and harmony from the Tommy finale was hit with stunning precision. The Gaslight Anthem tore into “Baba O’Riley” Pearl Jam style, while Hüsker Dü’s Bob Mould dipped deep into the Who’s catalog for a frenzied cover of “Can’t Reach You” from The Who Sell Out. The night ended with all the performers jamming on a sloppy but fun “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” featuring an unprecedented two primal screams — one by Willie Nile and another by Nicole Atkins, who nailed it better than Daltrey has in quite some time.

Photo: Tracy Ketcher
About 30 seconds into his opener “The Passenger” at New York’s Carnegie Hall Friday night, Iggy Pop declared, “Aw, fuck this shirt,” tore off his black V-neck sweater and tossed it stage right to a waiting Patti Smith, who caught it and giddily hopped up and down while swinging like she’d just caught a wedding bouquet.

It was a rare moment even for the Tibet House Benefit Concert, an annual event that raises money to preserve the country’s threatened culture. The benefit, now in its 20th year, has hosted unlikely collaborations like Moby and David Bowie performing “Heroes” in 2003 and Ray Davies and Debbie Harry trading verses on “Lola” in 2007. This year marked the 60th anniversary of the 1950 Chinese invasion of Tibet, and the show kicked off with several Tibetan monks performing a haunting chant in front of a large painting of the region’s sprawling Potala Palace.

The setup was sparse: most performers shared the same drums and amps, and the Patti Smith Group acted as house band. Early in the night, composer Phillip Glass introduced Irish singer Pierce Turner, who sat at the grand piano and performed the soaring, Bowie-reminiscent “Yogi with a Broken Heart.” Regina Spektor later played an apocalyptic set including the bone-chilling “Laughing,” which featured gloomy strings. The 30-year-old Bronx singer joked about finally making it to the legendary hall. “I’ve always wanted to play Carnegie Hall,” she said. “And now I have lipstick on my nose.”

Gogol Bordello followed with an acoustic set of revved-up Eastern European punk. Soon, Smith was onstage, looking like a road-tested gypsy. In a baggy white shirt, black vest and work boots, she kicked off with a joyous sing-along of the O’Jays classic “Love Train,” and proclaimed, “Come on everybody! Join hands!” Between songs, someone shouted “Happy birthday.” Smith, who turned 63 more than two months ago, replied, “As the Mad Hatter would say, it’s my un-birthday.”

Smith closed with the epically building “Gloria,” busting out spastic dance moves as the crowd belted the chorus. Afterward, Smith thanked all of the veterans of the cause, then she introduced Pop as “One of our sacred veterans, soon to be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.”

Pop’s three-song set will likely go down in Carnegie Hall history. During “I Wanna Be Your Dog,” he completely defiled the place. He strutted across the stage in tight black jeans, ass crack fully visible, and then dove into the crowd (nobody caught him). As the song later descended into chaos, he smashed his mike stand into the iconic, wood-floored stage repeatedly, trying to make a dent. He gave up and hurled the stand at the grand piano.

Five decades of Raw Power: Iggy Pop and the Stooges in photos.

At the afterparty, Spektor admitted, “I never thought I’d really get to play. I’m used to listening to things from the nosebleed seats. Just being there on that stage is a mind trip.” Smith’s guitarist Lenny Kaye was still glowing from the special night. “I got to play ‘I Wanna be Your Dog’ with Iggy!” he said. “I’ve been waiting 40 years to play that.” Later, Bordello’s Eugene Hutz added, “It was an atom-smashing experience.”

Related Stories:

• Patti Smith, Vampire Weekend Pay Tribute to Buddy Holly at 2009 Tibet House Benefit
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• Full Report: 1999 Tibet House Benefit

Photo: Coppola/Getty

John Mayer the musician has been carefully cultivating John Mayer the brand over the last 10 years. He’s merged his acoustic singer-songwriter persona with his blues-virtuoso alter-ego, developed the logos on his tour T-shirts and spat out streams of 140-character tweets that broadcast his most off-the-cuff musings. But though he clearly knows how to get results on his own terms, sometimes the terms aren’t his to define — and as his recent Playboy misadventure demonstrated, even Mayer can hit a painfully wrong note. But at a pair of packed shows at New York’s Madison Square Garden late last week, Mayer proved sometimes he’s able to just let his music do the talking.

John Mayer Uncensored: photos of his most outrageous moments.

“You’re looking at the clean me,” Mayer announced midway through Thursday night’s set. Then he launched into a solo acoustic medley of “My Stupid Mouth,” “Daughters” and “3X5″ that was immediately followed by a groovy cover of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine” on electric guitar. It was an impressive display of his sharp guitar playing, appealing sing-alongs and personable wit, and the audience responded generously. Mayer was clearly grateful for the crowd’s warmth. “It means the world to me you’re here,” he said on Friday. “I mean it from the bottom of my dumb heart.”

Mayer was less concerned with sending messages via his song selection than picking tracks that showed off his evolution as an artist: the acoustic (”Why Georgia”), the bluesy (”Crossroads”), the groovy (”Vultures”), the heartbroken (”Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”) and the hopeful (”Perfectly Lonely”). Mayer also acknowledged his inspirations with covers of Tom Petty’s “Free Fallin’ ” and Fleetwood Mac’s “Dreams,” which he cleverly slipped into the Mac-flavored “Half of My Heart.”

Though his winter arena tour comes with hi-tech production — a massive lighting rig, mesh curtain and a giant projection screen — Mayer switched the set up each night, keeping the focus on the music. On Thursday, he honored a fan chant with an impromptu version of his love letter to the city, Room for Squares‘ “City Love,” and pulled in lyrics from Jay-Z and Alicia Keys’ “Empire State of Mind” during “Gravity.” On Friday he exuded a more relaxed energy, breaking out a sultry take on “I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)” and a buoyant “Good Love Is on the Way.”

Go inside Mayer’s recent RS cover shoot.

On both nights, Mayer seemed to savor the audience’s reaction to the line “It’s a long night in New York City” from “Who Says.” And perhaps feeling safe in his adopted hometown, Mayer got vulnerable during Friday’s show-closing “Gravity,” and debuted new lyrics that seem inspired by his Playboy fallout. He explained his new theory, that “lovelessness leads to loneliness, which leads to sadness, which leads to anger, which leads to hate” and spoke of imperfect batting averages. Then he sang:

“When you got hurt/it made you beautiful/the cracks around your heart/they let the light shine through./When you got hurt/in pieces on the floor/put them back together/even better than before”

The moment over, he finished the show in expected Mayer fashion: with an explosive solo that had him jamming on his knees with his guitar on the floor, moving forward, in the best way he knows how.

Set Lists:

Thursday, February 25th:
“Heartbreak Warfare”
“Crossroads”
“Vultures”
“No Such Thing”
“Perfectly Lonely”
“Slow Dancing in a Burning Room”
“Assassin”
“My Stupid Mouth” -> “Daughters” -> “3×5″ (medley)
“Ain’t No Sunshine”
“Waiting on the World to Change”
“Bigger Than My Body”
“Why Georgia”
“City Love” (tease)
“Gravity”
Encore:
“Who Says”
“Friends, Lovers or Nothing”

Friday, February 26th:
“Heartbreak Warfare”
“Good Love is On the Way”
“Vultures”
“Perfectly Lonely”
“I Don’t Trust Myself (With Loving You)”
“Comfortable”
“Free Fallin’”
“Waiting On The World To Change (w/ Michael Franti)”
“Assassin”
“Crossroads”
“Belief”
“Half of My Heart”
“Why Georgia”
“No Such Thing”
Encore:
“Who Says”
“Gravity”

Related Stories:

• John Mayer Apologizes for Using “N-Word” in Raw Interview
• John Mayer Debuts Battle Studies at Intimate New York Gig
• John Mayer on His Biggest Hits, Tabloid Enemies and Endless Search for Love

Photo: Mazur/WireImage

As the final notes of “Cocaine” rang through Madison Square Garden last night, Jeff Beck quietly walked onto the stage next to Eric Clapton, sarcastically saluted his fellow guitar legend and launched into a jaw-dropping cover of Elmore James’ “Shake Your Money Maker.” For the next 40 minutes the former Yardbirds guitarists traded licks on songs by everyone from Willie Dixon to Sly Stone to Henry Mancini as the sold-out crowd reached a state of air guitar nirvana never before witnessed by man. At the end of the night they bowed to each other, as if they had just completed a karate match.

Forty years ago these two men — who are currently sharing the cover of Rolling Stone — were widely regarded as the two greatest guitarists of their time. After brief back-to-back stints in the Yardbirds (Beck replaced Clapton) they went on to the Jeff Beck Group and Cream, laying the groundwork for Led Zeppelin and all blues rock that followed. Since the early 1970s, however, the two men took radically different paths as Clapton made highly commercial rock and pop while Beck churned out highly un-commercial jazz-fusion and other instrumental projects. Beck went far off the pop grid, but his reputation survived fully intact and when he announced a co-headlining show with Clapton in Japan last year it created a frenzy that lead to a brief international tour.

Check out all of Rolling Stone’s guitar coverage and join the debate: who’s the best of all time?

Beck took the stage first, opening with “Eternity’s Breath” by the 1970s jazz-fusion group the Mahavishnu Orchestra. It’s hard to keep the attention of massive arena with a 40-minute instrumental set of largely unknown songs, but Beck pulled it off — aided by his killer band and a large string section. Some members of the crowd screamed for anything remotely familiar, like Beck’s famous cover of “People Get Ready,” but most sat quietly in awe as Beck’s guitar soared on songs like “Corpus Christy Carol” and the Puccini aria “Nessun Dorma.” The only song familiar to a classic rock audience was the Beatles “A Day In The Life,” which earned Beck a Grammy a few weeks ago.

After a brief break, Clapton opened with a brief acoustic set that mixed blues standards (”Driftin’ Blues,” “Nobody Knows You When You’re Down And Out”) with Clapton originals like 1983’s “I’ve Got A Rock And Roll Heart.” He plugged in for a five-song set highlighted by the Derek and the Dominoes chestnut “Tell The Truth” and his famous cover of “I Shot The Sheriff.” The Bob Marley cover and J.J. Cale’s “Cocaine” were the only nod to his arsenal of radio hits, leaving tunes like “Wonderful Tonight,” “Tears In Heaven” and even “Layla” and “Sunshine Of Your Love” behind. Every basketball arena in this country has seen those songs about 87 times and he wisely realized enough’s enough.

The show reached a whole other level when Beck came out, as both guitarists were clearly playing at the absolute top of their game. An unexpected “Moon River” was particularly otherwordly, as Beck played the vocal melody on his guitar before Clapton stepped up to the mic and did his best Andy Williams. Cream’s “Outside Woman Blues” rocked significantly harder than when Cream themselves played it at MSG five yeas ago, and Sly Stone’s “I Want To Take You Higher” had the two guitarists trading solos back and forth so quickly it was often hard to tell who was playing what. It ended with Robert Johnson’s “Crossroads,” a song that hasn’t had much oomph for Clapton since his Cream days — but with Beck playing about three feet away from him it sounded fresh again.

Related Stories:

• Jeff Beck, Eric Clapton and the Way of the Guitar: The New Issue of Rolling Stone
• Eric Clapton On Jeff Beck’s Singing and Having An Old Man’s Voice
• Eric Clapton Announces 2010 Crossroads Guitar Festival: Jeff Beck, B.B. King, John Mayer, More

Photo: Mazur / Wireimage

Just before the final song of Yoko Ono’s first performance in four decades with founding members of the Plastic Ono Band, at the Brooklyn Academy of Music on February 16th, her son Sean told a short story: At soundcheck that day, Sean remarked to guitarist Eric Clapton that he had never played slide guitar before and wanted to know how Eric and Sean’s father, John, played slide on the early, chaotic Plastic Ono Band records. Clapton replied that, at the time, he had no idea what he was doing.

Yoko turned to the BAM crowd with a coquettish grin. “I knew what I was doing,” she cracked. Then she leaped into the white-noise boogie of “Don’t Worry, Kyoko” from 1969’s Live Peace in Toronto with rusted shrieks and air-raid-siren whoops as Sean and Clapton played twin grinding slide guitars over a steady thundering rhythm section: original Plastic Ono bassist Klaus Voorman and drummer Jim Keltner, who played on John and Ono’s 1972 album Sometime in New York City.

Check out photos from the Plastic Ono Band show.

Coming two days before her 77th birthday, “We Are Plastic Ono Band” was a two-set revue of Ono’s musical life, with the first half focused on her new album, Between My Head and the Sky. The second part featured friends and disciples performing songs from her previous records, as far apart in temper and touch as “Mulberry” – a wordless memoir of Ono’s World War II childhood in Japan, in raw ecstatic yelps to the free-guitar discord of Sonic Youth’s Thurston Moore and Kim Gordon – to Bette Midler’s canny rearrangement of “Yes I’m Your Angel” from Double Fantasy into a saucy sister of “Makin’ Whoopee.” You could almost hear the clinking of martini glasses amid the brass and penthouse-party piano.

The connective momentum in Ono’s art is her declarative instruction and participatory assurance, from the early-Sixties action works shown in a biographical film at the start of the night – Cut Piece; the ceiling painting with a microscopic “Yes” at the center – to recent songs in the first set like the victory mantra “Rising” and “Higa Noboru,” a ballad from the current album. “I write/I light/My message/On an invisible wall/Of prison cell hell,” she sang in the latter, in a tender but direct voice to Sean’s firm piano work. And inside the extreme confrontation of records like 1970’s Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band and 1971’s Fly was always a love of surging rhythm. At BAM, her new Plastic Ono Band – led by Sean, now 34, and including drummer Yuko Araki and Yuka Honda on keyboards – updated the railroad racket of Ono’s 1972 single “Mind Train” with percolating dancefloor electronics. Ono shimmeyed to the beat as she wailed.

Performance artist Justin Bond turned “What a Bastard the World Is” from 1973’s Approximately Infinite Universe into a blur of gender: a man dressed like a 1920s ingenue, singing a song of feminist outrage, in a hard deep tenor dotted with girl-ish flutter. Paul Simon and his son Harper, made a short poignant medley of “Silverhorse” from 1981’s Season of Glass, the album Ono made after John Lennon’s death, and his “Hold On,” from John Lennon/Plastic Ono Band record. Played like a pair of traditional English folk ballads, with familial harmonies and two acoustic guitars, the songs captured, without melodrama, the weight of Ono’s loss and her faith in unbroken connection.

The three-song set with Sean, Clapton, Voorman and Keltner was hardly as ragged as that ‘69 Live Peace show. But it was good rough fun – Voorman was beaming all through “Yer Blues,” the only Beatles song of the night – and Clapton soloed in the Approximately Infinite Universe blues “Death of Samantha” with sharp tortuous cries, like the song was an old Mississippi Delta lament.

The evening ended with Ono and Sean leading a full-cast singalong to “Give Peace a Chance.” But the audience gave its own encore too: a spontaneous rendition, for Ono, of “Happy Birthday.” Her “Yes” piece had come to life.

Photograph by Mary Rehak

It was a sweltering 97 degrees last night when Spoon took the stage at Stubb’s in Austin for round one of SpoonX3, an All Tomorrow’s Parties-type fest with Spoon as both headliner and opening-band curator back-to-back-to-back nights. It was a mere 67 degrees in Portland, where frontman Britt Daniel spends half his time, but after last night yielded such a massive, adoring crowd, he’s likely not regretting sweating through some new tunes headed for the band’s upcoming seventh album, slated for release on Merge next spring.

First came opening sets by Black Joe Lewis and the Honeybears, an Austin big band combining the funk of the J.B.’s and the strut of the Blues Brothers, and Quasi, a Portland trio featuring former Sleater-Kinney drummer Janet Weiss and ex-husband Sam Coomes. Then Spoon emerged with an unpopular opener: “My Little Japanese Cigarette Case,” a slow-building, ambivalent number from the band’s most recent album, the wildly popular Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga. But the group quickly redeemed itself with “Don’t You Evah,” a cover by the band the Natural History, and then with “Got Nuffin,” the brilliant new single released June 30th.

“Got Nuffin” epitomizes classic Spoon. A propulsive, hypnotic drumbeat accented by spiky keyboard and jagged guitar in a combination that recalled the best of the ’80s alternative scene gave way to Daniel singing, “I’ve got nothing to lose but darkness and shadows.” The band went on to traverse its catalog, highlighting songs from the albums Gimme Fiction, Kill the Moonlight and Girls Can Tell, interspersing new songs throughout. Among them was a stabbing track about waking up in a supermarket, with the refrain “Are you quite certain enough?” called “Is Love Forever?” and “Written in Reverse,” wherein a hiccuping beat gave way to Daniel howling at the moon and beckoning somebody to call the hearse. As if on cue, a pasty-faced young girl on the verge of collapse was ushered out of the killer heat by paramedics.

Photo: Lovekin/Getty
In the world of rock guitar gods, two-time Rock & Roll Hall of Famer Jeff Beck stands alone in terms of scope and style. And in the first of two shows at the Montreal International Jazz Festival’s half-way mark, he demonstrated his awesome power. He did it, mind you, with some serious help from what might be his perfect band. While every sustained note, tremolo lurch, tapping display and outburst of controlled feedback was received with noisy reverence from the 3,000-strong audience, Beck had help delivering his guitar gospel from the stellar trio of musicians that backed him up on last year’s Live at Ronnie Scott’s disc: drummer Vinnie Colaiuta, keyboard player Jason Rebello and 23-year-old force-of-nature bassist Tal Wilkenfeld. Together, they played a wonderful set that closely mirrored the selection of Beck career favorites chosen for the live CD.

(Read Beck’s entry on our 100 Greatest Guitarists here.)

Beck kept his onstage patter to a simple “merci” and an introduction of his bandmates near the end of the 90-minute show. Otherwise, all communicating with his audience was done through his fingers. From the moment the group opened with “Beck’s Bolero,” the man of the hour slid into the high registers, eliciting squeals and screams from his instrument. As the evening moved on, he sprayed clusters of growling low notes into the hall on the reggae scorcher “Behind the Veil,” took the Beatles’ “A Day In the Life” to strange and wonderful places and wound down with the lonesome “Where Were You”. The night ended with a rollicking version of “Peter Gunn Theme.”

Earlier in the day, Beck had received the first Tribute award from the Festival’s Guitar Show. During a question-and-answer session following the presentation, he fielded a question about the spontaneity of his technique. “It’s a form of musical Tourette’s, I think,” he said, to general laughter. “It’s an involuntary spasm. Probably, it’s a form of insanity.” But with every howling note so exquisitely placed, we’re talking crazy like a fox.

Check out our first report from the Montreal Jazz Festival here:

• Stevie Wonder Ignites Montreal Jazz Festival With Classic Grooves, Salutes to Michael Jackson

Related Stories:

• Jeff Beck Opens Up About Rock & Roll Hall of Fame Gigs With Clapton, Jeff Beck Group Reunion Prospects
• Rod Stewart Reunites With Jeff Beck at Los Angeles Concert
• Metallica, Run-DMC, Jeff Beck Join the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame at Wild Induction Ceremony

Photo: Hussein/Getty
Over a decade ago, two groups of young musicians wrestled over the hearts of Britain. But last Thursday, at Blur’s first of two shows at London’s Hyde Park, the answer (for the assembled masses, at least) was clear: Oasis who?

Frontman Damon Albarn took the stage in his unofficial uniform — a black-and-yellow Fred Perry polo and loose-fitting jeans — prompting the ocean of fans into rapturous cheering. Before their 2009 reunion, it had been seven long years since the four original members of Blur performed together (Graham Coxon left in 2002 citing internal conflict and alcoholism). While Albarn had busied himself with Gorillaz and assorted projects, fans continually clamored for more Blur — the band is, after all, an Anglo-Saxon institution as inherently English as tea. And without much acknowledgment to the crowd, Coxon, the long-missed axe-wielder, came out onstage and started the night with the decidedly old school “She’s So High,” the Manchester-influenced opening track for 1991’s debut Leisure and the band’s first hit single.

It wasn’t until the second song — no, not “Song 2″ — that the masses maniacally leaped in the air in unison. “Girls & Boys,” the global synth-pop hit from 1994’s Parklife, sounded charged and immediate. It was becoming obvious that Hyde Park’s sound system was not overwhelmingly loud, so the band and crowd would have to compensate with their own respective energy. Albarn, the charmer, ran into the photojournalist pit and then ran over to the fans, prompting screams and zombie-like reaches.

This was the only way to make an unending audience feel somewhat intimate. “The last two weeks have been extraordinary,” the frontman told the fans, seeming sincerely appreciative, “but we’re here now,” and went straight in to “Tracy Jacks” allowing the song finish the thought for him. Last week Blur closed Glastonbury with a set list quite similar to the Hyde Park gigs.

Unusually, it wasn’t until the seventh song that Blur ventured over into material from their more experimental, less Britpoppy latter-phase. The echoey riff for “Beetlebum,” from 1997’s self-titled lo-fi-flavored album, elastically bounced around the park. Then, they performed “Out of Time,” the only song that night from 2003’s underrated and mostly Coxon-free Think Tank. “Tender,” an epic highlight, followed with an inspiring gospel-like sing-along, loud and anthemic like a 50,000 person backing choir had been hired for the gig. And while the two stage-side video screens mostly focused on Albarm and Coxon throughout the night — after all, this was ostensibly their reunion — drummer Dave Rowntree and bassist Alex James, both who never left the band, held down the rhythm section. James’ beefy and precise bass was the perfect compliment to Coxon’s sometimes frenetic and unhurried guitar playing.

The overall chemistry of the band was, ironically high and poignantly epic at the 1994 ballad “To The End.” “And it looks like we might have made it,” Albarn crooned to his bandmates, “Yes it looks like we’ve made it to the end.” Let’s hope that that’s not the case. America next?

Set list:

“She’s So High”
“Girls & Boys”
“Tracy Jacks”
“There’s No Other Way”
“Jubilee”
“Badhead”
“Beetlebum”
“Out of Time”
“Trimm Trabb”
“Coffee & TV” (introduced by Coxon humbly announcing, “Hi. I’m singing this next song”)
“Tender”
“Country House”
“Oily Water”
“Chemical World”
“Sunday Sunday”
“Parklife”
“End Of A Century”
“To The End”
“This Is A Low”
–
“Popscence”
“Advert”
“Song 2″
–
“Death Of A Party”
“For Tomorrow”
“Universal”

Photo: Mickshaw/FOX
Goth kids, soccer moms and diehard Idol junkies — including one superfan with Clay Aiken’s autograph tattooed on her shoulder — packed Portland, Oregon’s Rose Garden last night for the inaugural performance of American Idol’s summer tour. (Go behind the scenes with Lambert and Co. hours before showtime here.)

The two biggest stars of the show — winner Kris Allen and runner-up Adam Lambert — embraced what endeared them to millions of fans throughout Season Eight. “Glambert” was out in full force, with tight pants, his otherworldly wail and a tribute to the original rock androgyne, David Bowie. Wrapped in a plaid shirt and a pair of jeans, Allen kept it simple and real, embracing the stripped-down soul sound that elevated him from dark horse to worthy champion. (Get all of Rolling Stone’s Adam Lambert coverage — photos, video and more — here.)

An adorable montage of Allen’s baby pictures, plus David Cook’s new video and a few airborne beach balls, kept the audience entertained as Idol No. 10 Michael Sarver prepared to take the stage. Backed by a small band with a big sound, the full-voiced Texan kicked off the show in high spirits with Gavin DeGraw’s “I’m in Love with a Girl,” which he dedicated to his wife, Tiffany. Megan Joy took the stage for two numbers — and lots of shimmying — reprising one of her best Idol performances, “Put Your Records On.” Piano man Scott MacIntyre left his pink pants at home but his rendition of Vanessa Carlton’s “A Thousand Miles” — and his gentle mocking of Ryan Seacrest’s attempt to high-five him at the auditions — drew some of the loudest applause of the night.

Sure, the Idols can sing … but can they dance? As Rolling Stone reported from the Idol tour rehearsals, choreographer JaQuel Knight was putting the Top 10 through a workout, and Lil Rounds confessed pre-show that she was nervous about nailing the complicated choreography for Beyoncé’s “Single Ladies,” but her moves — and stylish cat suit — did the R&B diva justice. Luckily, the pulsating psychedelic patterns that backlit the stage weren’t enough to throw Rounds off her game. Throwing a bone to the older folks in the audience, Anoop Desai started off his set with a pitch-perfect “Always on My Mind,” the Willie Nelson crooner that wowed the judges during Grand Ole Opry week. But New Jack Anoop emerged — gyrations and all — with “My Prerogative,” the Bobby Brown track that got him through the Wild Card round and into the Top 13.

The Idol groove continued with a charismatic Matt Giraud, who got the crowd moving with his piano-pounding version of Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” then paid tribute to another soul great with an outstanding “Georgia on My Mind,” giving his elastic voice the full workout, from raspy growl to falsetto.

Following a group medley that ran the gamut from Billy Joel (MacIntyre and Giraud on dueling pianos) to a taste of rap from Rounds and Desai, Allison Iraheta took the series’ fairly tame group number “So What” and made it just as tough as Pink’s version. With wind in her pink and purple hair, guitar strapped across her torso and a voice like a pack of cigarettes, the youngest Idol showed off her rock moves like a true rock goddess in the making.

Amid a sea of glow sticks and handmade T-shirts floated the hokiest sign of the night: “I’m okey dokey with Danny Gokey.” The only Idol to perform a Michael Jackson song on tour, Gokey punctuated his “P.Y.T.” with funky spins. (Adam Lambert discusses getting the Michael Jackson news here.) Dressed in his Sunday best, the church music director waxed philosophic about following your dreams, closing his set with two crowd-pleasing Rascal Flatts ballads.

In true Robert Plant style, Lambert made his arrival known, punctuating his three-octave howl on “Whole Lotta Love” with pelvic thrusts and microphone straddling, then quickly switched gears for the haunting “Mad World,” showing off his crystalline falsetto against a moody backdrop of smoke and twinkling lights. After reprising “Slow Ride,” his energetic duet with “little sister” Iraheta, Lambert closed his set with a medley of Bowie songs, then sunk down into the stage to the loudest cheers of the night.

Marked by explosive bursts of noise and color, the countdown culminated in Season Eight champion Allen, who eschewed theatrics for a straightforward set of Idol favorites, from the soulful, percussive “Heartless” to his stirring piano-and-vocals interpretation of Bill Withers’ “Ain’t No Sunshine.” Calling for a sea of cell phones and lighters, Allen finished his set with a plaintive rendition of “Hey Jude,” bringing the rest of the Idols back on stage to close out the show with Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believing” … perhaps a tribute to former band member Randy “the Emperor” Jackson?

Set List:

Michael Sarver: “I’m in Love with a Girl” (Gavin Degraw); “Closer” (Ne-Yo)
Megan Joy: “Put Your Records On” (Corrine Baily Rae); “Tears Dry on Their Own” (Amy Winehouse)
Scott MacIntyre: “Bend and Break” (Keane); “A Thousand Miles” (Vanessa Carlton)
Lil Rounds: “Be Without You” (Mary J Blige); “No One” (Alicia Keys); “Single Ladies” (Beyoncé)
Anoop Desai: “Always on My Mind” (Willie Nelson); “Mad” (Ne-Yo); “My Prerogative” (Bobby Brown)
Matt Giraud: “Hard to Handle” (The Black Crowes); “Georgia On My Mind” (Ray Charles); “I Found You” (The Fray)
Group Medley
Allison Iraheta: “So What” (Pink); “Cry Baby” (Janis Joplin); “Barracuda” (Heart)
Danny Gokey: “P.Y.T.” (Michael Jackson); “Maria Maria” (Santana); “What Hurts the Most,” “My Wish” (Rascal Flatts)
Adam Lambert: “Whole Lotta Love” (Led Zeppelin); “Starlight” (Muse); “Mad World” (Tears for Fears/Gary Jules), “Slow Ride” with Allison Iraheta (Foghat), “Life on Mars,” “Fame, “Let’s Dance” (David Bowie)
Kris Allen: “Heartless” (Kanye West); “No Boundaries” (Idol coronation song); “Bright Lights” (Matchbox 20); “Ain’t No Sunshine” (Bill Withers); “Hey Jude” (The Beatles)
Encore: “Don’t Stop Believing” (Journey)

“You missed me?” Green Day lead singer and guitarist Billie Joe Armstrong bellowed in the face of a fan who beckoned him from the mosh pit during the opening night performance of the band’s U.S. tour, before replying with equal vigor: “Not as much as I fucking missed you, goddammit!” And as if releasing a wave of energy that had building up during their four-year hiatus from touring, Green Day poured all their heart and soul into a powerhouse two-hour set that mixed songs from their latest album, 21st Century Breakdown, with a clutch of other favorites from the band’s extensive catalog.

The stage at Seattle’s Key Arena appeared to be comparatively bare in contrast to the banner-draped stages of the American Idiot tours. But when the lights went out, and “Song of the Century” crackled over the speakers as if being beamed in from outer space, the black backdrop suddenly lit up to become a city landscape under a starry sky, and the subsequent “21st Century Breakdown” unleashed the first of the arena-sized explosions, flame pots, fireworks and strobe lighting that dazzled the audience throughout the entire show.

But the band’s obvious need to connect emotionally with their audience means they have an uncanny ability to make even a packed arena have the intimacy of a club gig. With the core trio of Armstrong, bassist Mike Dirnt, and drummer Tre Cool fleshed out by two additional guitarists, Jason White and Jeff Matika, and keyboardist Jason Freese, Armstrong was free to run around the stage and down a catwalk that extended into the audience with abandon, beseeching the crowd to wave, chant and sing. And by the time the band launched into “American Idiot,” Armstrong was confident enough to not even bother cuing the crowd, leaving them to sing the entire first verse on their own.

Green Day didn’t bring back their cover of Operation Ivy’s “Knowledge,” where they’d pull up audience members to play the instruments, but there was still plenty of crowd interaction. Armstrong was gentle with a clearly nervous young boy who’d been pulled onstage to “freak out and dance” during “East Jesus Nowhere,” and gamely accepted a full-on smooch on the lips from a delighted male fan chosen to sing a few verses of “Longview.” Most surprising, Armstrong found a young man in the pit who was able to play guitar through the entire nine-minute “Jesus of Suburbia” medley. “That was fucking amazing!” Armstrong said afterwards. “Tre, take him backstage and suck his dick!” Cut to Cool leaping from behind his drums, taking the young man by the band, and the two skipping together offstage.

For all the cryptic footage flashed on the rear screen (gasmasks, tanks, falling TVs), the show’s overall mood was upbeat and celebratory; amidst the hijinks of “Hitchin’ A Ride” and “King For A Day” (with its usual segues into “Shout” and “Stand By Me”) there was seemingly no room for 21st Century’s darker songs, like “Christian’s Inferno,” “Peacemaker” or “Restless Heart Syndrome.” The show was ultimately about Green Day reconnecting with the faithful, something they accomplished with effortless aplomb.

Set List:

“Song of the Century”
“21st Century Breakdown”
“Know Your Enemy”
“East Jesus Nowhere”
“Holiday”
“Static Age”
“Before the Lobotomy”
“Are We the Waiting”
“St. Jimmy”
“Geek Stink Breath”
“Hitchin’ A Ride”
“Brain stew”
“Jaded”
“Longview”
“Basket Case”
“She”
“King for a Day
(with “Shout,” “Stand By Me”)
“21 Guns”
“American Eulogy”

Encore:
“American Idiot”
“Jesus of Suburbia”
“Boulevard of Broken Dreams”
“Minority”
“Good Riddance (Time Of Your Life)”