White Trash Beautiful Makes is Debut...

The clothing line brainchild of Richie Sambora and Nikki Lund makes its debut tonight at the Sunset Gower Studios in LA. If you happen to be there, be on the lookout for Ava, she is making her first ever appearance as a model!

Richie Sambora and Nikki Lund to duet on the runway

We've spent so much time over here at Rage Central trying to get the Los Angeles Fashion Week schedule nailed down, we nearly forgot to mention that the runway show kicking off Los Angeles Fashion Weekend at Sunset Gower Studios Friday evening (that's tonight) is the debut of rocker Richie Sambora's foray into the fashion world -- as well as the modeling debut of his daughter (with Heather Locklear) Ava Sambora.

The Bon Jovi guitarist -- who we're told as of press time is "stuck in Canada" and won't actually be in attendance at the show -- has collaborated with Los Angeles-based designer-musician Nikki Lund to create a women's contemporary clothing line called White Trash Beautiful.

We caught up with Lund -- whose apparel resume includes Eccentric Symphony, a line she created with professional surfer Maikai Makena -- in advance of the debut to get a few questions answered. An excerpt appears below.

All The Rage: OK, so where did a name like White Trash Beautiful come from?

Nikki Lund: It was a title to a song that Richie and John [Bon Jovi] had done, but they felt it was a little misogynistic. At some point Richie said to me, ''That sounds like a clothing line" and it just went from there. And that's also what we're calling our musical collaboration right now too.

ATR: So this is more than just a clothing collaboration?

NL: We decided to do music together -- it's kind of like the Eurythmics a little bit – and [Friday] night at the show the public will get to hear it for the first time.

ATR: Describe the White Trash Beautiful woman.

NL: The clothes are sophisticated and strong, sexy woman -- for the femme fatale. I believe every single woman has a little bit of white trash in them and that every single woman wants to be sexy, and these clothes are designed to let a little bit of that diva out.

ATR: What about men's clothes?

NL: It's just women's for now -- only Richie and John have the men’s [pieces] -- that’s the rule! We made a really beautiful variegated geometric blazer for John for the London shows at the O2 in London in the British colors, and Richie's got a bunch of conductor jackets and military jackets.

ATR: Why did you choose to launch the line during Los Angeles Fashion Week?

NL: This is our hometown. I'm from here, Richie lives here, and everybody's been so excited about the line we knew we could bring the buyers out and we could rev up fashion week and make it cool.

ATR: Is collaborating with a musician on clothing a lot different than collaborating musically?

NL: Either way you either have chemistry and a connection or you don't. You need to see the same overall big picture.

We'll get a snapshot of that big picture -- and hear a few tracks from the audio portion of their multimedia collaboration -- when White Trash Beautiful debuts at Sunset Gower Studios at 8 p.m.

source

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Have Your Tickets for Philly?

No?  Well you still have a chance. 

Philly radio station 94 WYSP will be giving away tickets all weekend and Danny Bonaduce will be giving away tickets Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday starting at 7:00 a.m.

It’s a Bon Jovi Weekend on 94WYSP! When you hear 2 Bon Jovi tunes back-to-back this weekend, be the 94th Caller to 215-592-9494 to win tickets to see Bon Jovi Wednesday night at the Wachovia Center!

PLUS – Danny Bonaduce will be giving away Bon Jovi tickets Monday, Tuesday, and Wednesday morning at 7am!

Bon Jovi plays the Wachovia Center this Tuesday & Wednesday night, March 23rd & 24th.

Good luck!!

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Story Update...

A new chapter of Sweet Dreams is up for your reading pleasure.  Read on my darlings...

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For My Friend...

If you read Hath's post, Condolences, you know what happened early this morning.  For that Tara, we are deeply sorry.

I was lucky enough to get to meet Tara's mom back in October.  She was a wonderful lady who will be sorely missed by all who knew her.

Tara, we are all thinking of you and sending our thoughts and prayers to you and your family on this most difficult day.  We are all here for you, whatever you need.

If you want to offer up your condolences you can twitter her @TaraLeigh, drop her a note on her blog TaraLeigh's FanFic Playground or on her newest story blog (Devotion).  You could also stop for a minute and offer up just a few silent words of prayer (if you're the praying type) or just a few kind words for her today.

We love you Tara and we're here for you, not just today, but every day.

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Review: Bon Jovi at Palace at Auburn Hills, Detroit

From the Detroit News:

Bon Jovi rocks through old and new tunes

Bon Jovi opened its sold-out concert at the Palace of Auburn Hills on Wednesday with "Blood on Blood," a 22-year-old song cut from the "New Jersey" album.

And you know what? They can do that. Having outlived several major sea changes in music over the last few decades, the New Jersey four-piece has proved its durability and lasting power to several generations of fans. So "Blood on Blood" -- a song about brotherhood, loyalty and the endurance of friendship -- made perfect sense, and the more than 18,000 fans greeted it with open arms.

Bon Jovi bounced between newer material and songs from the band's deep catalog Wednesday, performing on a circular stage positioned at the back of The Palace. The stage allowed for 360 degrees of seating, and the band gave it up to all sides of the arena, with high-tech video screens that attached and detached like Legos and five video screens positioned on robotic arms that transformed into a walkway for lead singer Jon Bon Jovi.

Jon was in high spirits Wednesday, challenging his band to perform an impromptu rendition of the Doors' "Roadhouse Blues" and apologizing to the crowd for flubbing the words during Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." "I don't deserve that, but thank you," he said when the crowd showered him with cheers after the song.

Midshow, with his guitarist Richie Sambora in tow, Jon made his way to the center of the half-circle catwalk that extended into the audience for a several-song suite, including a stripped-down "I'll Be There for You."

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A Chat with Richie...

From the Detroit Free Press:

Bon Jovi circles back, endures
Richie Sambora discusses songwriting, guitar-playing and longevity as his band prepares to play the Palace

BY BRIAN McCOLLUM
FREE PRESS POP MUSIC WRITER

Few bands have managed the endurance game like Bon Jovi. Nearly three decades after cutting its teeth on the New Jersey bar scene and its reign atop the late-'80s rock scene, the group continues as one of the world's top touring draws.

After a slight dip in the early '90s -- temporarily displaced by the rise of grunge and alt-rock -- Bon Jovi returned to superstar status through a series of best-selling albums and hit-laden shows. Latest is "The Circle," featuring new blue-collar arena anthems from Jon Bon Jovi and guitarist Richie Sambora.

An upbeat Sambora spoke with the Free Press last week from a Kansas tour stop, as the band set its sights on tonight's Palace show.

QUESTION: The band just finished sound check and the show starts in a couple of hours. After all these years, do you still have nervous energy as you prepare to step onstage?

ANSWER: It's excitement, not nerves, really. On this particular tour we want to make sure we cover a lot of ground. We've got 15 albums with so many songs to choose from. Before the tour, Jon sent a list to everybody with 70 songs on it. ... You've got to keep it fresh, and we try to integrate new songs into the set every evening, taking requests off our Web site. We have a different set every night. Jon is always calling audibles. He's like a quarterback up there.

Q: The new album returns your guitar work to a more prominent role. How do you think your playing has changed over the years?

A: Honestly, there are a lot of good guitar players out there, but they're not all songwriting machines. They're more technical guys. I choose, because I'm a songwriter, to play what's going on with the song. With "The Circle," it's a very guitar-oriented record. I got to stretch a little bit, get a little more technical. You grow with the music you write.

Q: Is the songwriting process different for you and Jon nowadays?

A: We approach it very, very simply -- a couple of guitars, a piano and vocals, the two of us in a room knocking it out that way. ... This record, we couldn't have written at another time in our career. It's about how people are reacting to the change. It's not a political record, but with (President Barack) Obama getting elected, we were able to write "Work for the Working Man," "When We Were Beautiful," "We Weren't Born to Follow." ... We were going with the currents of what's happening in the world. "Living on a Prayer" -- there's a social aspect that has more lyrical relevance now than it did back then. So we have songs that have transcended the ages and generations of fans, really.

Q: Did you guys know -- when you'd just finished writing a "Living on a Prayer" -- that you had a song that would persevere a quarter-century later?

A: It didn't even occur to us. When we made "Slippery When Wet," we knew we'd made the best songs of our career. We figured, "OK, cool, we'll be able to go out there and maybe headline arenas, maybe sell a couple million albums." ... But lo and behold, 17 million records later, "Slippery" was this phenomenon. We toured for 16 months and became a household name. ...

One thing we did right was just be us. You can't go out there and try to bend with the trend. We're on our own evolutionary path as a band.

Q: Speaking of perseverance, how do you prep for a long tour like this? Even just physically, it's a real investment.

A: We're in shape. We work out; we've got Oscar De La Hoya's chiropractor on the road. You gotta put Humpty together again after falling off the wall. (Laughs) We're looking at basically 18 months out there. Hey, who can do that now -- who can be out on the road so long and still say they're sold out? Any time you get to the place where you're doing cities with multiple nights, it's crazy.

Our last tour was the largest grossing in the world.

Q: Are you conscious of not letting it get too routine? It's still rock, after all.

A: With us, rock 'n' roll is a contact sport. ... It's about the contact between artist and audience. ... That kind of communication and excitement still exists. And for guys like us, it's in our blood. ...

We're ... very blessed that we're still making relevant music, and we vowed to each other a long time ago that we'd never become that county fair act. The fact that Jon and I are still writing songs that are still touching people, with records still coming in at No. 1 -- we're just tickled. A lot of great achievements have been happening, and it encourages us to be excited.

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Review: Bon Jovi @ Sprint Center, Kansas City

From the Kansas City Star:

The news about ticket sales in the weeks preceding this show was ominous: via one or two on-line specials, fans could get tickets in the cheaper seats for as much as half-off. Plus, all the media were running ads for the show the weekend before.

Those blue-light specials and fire sales must have tipped the scales for some Bon Jovi fans. Monday night, a crowd of roughly 12,000 came to the Sprint Center to witness a band that was in town for the third time in less than two years. So the crowd was respectably large, and the band indulged it with a show that justified the price of most of the seats: about two and a half hours and more than two dozentunes, including all of its early, blockbuster hits. But given the pulse of the show -- there were several lulls and sit-down moments -- it also demostrated that it's tough to get fired up and nostalgic over something that's still pretty familiar.

They opened with "Blood on Blood," a track from the 22-year-old  "New Jersey" album, now 22 years old, then something brand new, "We Weren't Born to Follow," from last year's "The Circle." Neither was a hit, and neither set the room on fire. The place didn't really ignite until "You Give Love a Bad Name," about 15 minutes into the show.

And so the pace was set: something recent, like "Whole Lotta Leaving" or "Lost Highway," something vintage for the diehards, like "Keep the Faith,'" and something gold or platinum for the entire house, like "Bad Medicine" or "Wanted Dead or Alive."

The stage was set up for success. Behind and above the band, video screens broadcast live and recorded images all night. One of the screens split itself into various squares and rectangles. At one point it was eight long ribbons of screen that each split into eight separate screens so there were 64 images shown all at once. And at least from the floor, the sound was crisp and clear.

Still, there was some down time and moments when the crowd acted like it was waiting for something bigger to happen, like during the stripped-down acoustic set. The band moved up stage and Tico Torres thumped a box and David Bryan played accordion and the boys sang "Something For The Pain" and "Someday I'll Be Saturday Night" and sounded a little to much like Rascal Flatts (the one band that might be more metrasexual than Bon Jovi).

Proving that one person's pain can be another's pleasure, Jon Bon Jovi executed an over-wrought and smarmy version of a song that has been covered more than the infield at Wrigley: Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah." And most of the room went bonkers over it, even when he did his best Bono-like heavenly gestures, over and over.

Gutiarist Richie Sambora got a nice hand for his generic hard-rock/blues number, "Homebound Train," but it, too, became a break-time moment for many. Those lulls wound everybody up for what was expected: more gold. Or at least something everyone wanted to hear and knew the words to, even something new like "Who Says You Can't Go Home."

They ended the main set with the lukewarm hymn "Love's the Only Rule." But they soon returned for a five-song encore that included three of their oldest and surest tracks: "Runaway," "Wanted Dead or Alive" and the song the crowd had been anticipating all night, "Livin' On A Prayer."
The crowd gave it the usual loud-and-rowdy sing-along, but to someone who has been at all three shows, this version didn't sound like it ignited the uproarious mania that the others did back in April 2008. In fact, nothing in this show reached the climaxes of either of those shows. Sure, you can always go home, but  you can also visit too often.

Dashboard Confessional: The emo king and his band opened, a pairing, it turned out, that wasn't as odd as it seemed, especially when they tore into Bryan Adams' "Summer of '69" (they also covered U2's "In The Name of Love"). But even when they sang one of their own, like "Stolen," "Vindicated" or "Widow's Peak," some of the younger folks in the crowd sang-along, winsomely.

Setlist: Blood on Blood; We Weren't Born to Follow; You Give Love A Bad Name; Whole Lot Of Leavin'; Born To Be My Baby; Lost Highway; When We Were Beautiful; Superman Tonight; We Got It Goin' On; Bad Medicine/Born To Be Wild; It's My Life; Homebound Train; Hallelujah; I'll Be There For You; Something For The Pain; Someday I'll Be Saturday Night; Keep The Faith; Work For The Working Man; Who Says You Can't Go Home; Love's The Only Rule. Encore: Runaway; Wanted Dead Or Alive; I Love This Town; I'll Sleep When I'm Dead; Livin' On A Prayer.

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Happy Now...

The debut of Happy Now from Fargo...

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Watch Daughtry Live on Facebook!

From Sonyslim:

Live Sets Feat. Daughtry

Rock’s reigning kings brought to you by Sony make.believe

Type:

Music/Arts - Performance

Date:	Thursday, March 18, 2010
Time:	9:20pm - 10:30pm
Location:	Streaming live at Facebook.com/Sony

Description

Tune in to watch Daughtry rock in an exclusive LIVE online performance at Facebook.com/Sony - March 18th at 9:20PM EST. Become a fan to see more Live Sets brought to you by Sony make.believe.

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Richie Answers Questions... Again!

Ask MusicRadar: submit your questions for Richie Sambora
Bon Jovi's hit-making partner holds court

Two years ago, Bon Jovi's Richie Sambora sat down with MusicRadar for an extended podcast interview during which he graciously answered questions from readers.

Well, some of them. The number of responses from MusicRadar viewers was so overwhelming that there was no way we could put all the questions - even ever a quarter of them - to Richie.

But we're going to try again. In a little over a week, Sambora is going to hang with MusicRadar for another comprehensive interview. We'll talk about Bon Jovi's latest album, The Circle, and the massive 18th-month tour that will see the pride of the Garden State play three dates at the brand-new Meadowlands Stadium (in New Jersey, natch) along with - get this! - 12 dates at London's O2 Arena.

And, oh yes, we'll put to him as many of your questions as we can.
What do to now

Get involved! Choose your question for Richie Sambora, and submit it like this:

Via MusicRadar (log in and leave a comment below with a link as usual)

Via Twitter (follow @musicradar and tag your submission with #askmusicradar)

Via Facebook (become a fan at http://www.facebook.com/musicradar and post suggestions on our wall)

Or via ask@musicradar.com (just send an email the old-fashioned way)

We'll pick the very best questions and ask them during the interview. Good luck!

source

I sent my question in already.  I hope I get an answer! 

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Review: Bon Jovi - Fargodome

The Morris Sun Tribune had this to say about last night's show...

A singin’ and shakin’ Bon Jovi delights 23,000 fans at dome


Nobody tells Jon Bon Jovi he can’t go home, but the 23,000-some fans at the Fargodome will welcome him back here any time.

Two years after the New Jersey rocker and his band made their Fargodome debut, the quartet returned to a packed house of open arms.

The arms were open partially because the lead singer almost doubles as an aerobics instructor, strutting and dancing around the elliptical stage, throwing his hands up in the air or out to the crowd, and fans returned the gestures.

The group opened with “Blood on Blood” from 1988’s “New Jersey” and played a good mix of old tunes and new numbers from last year’s “The Circle” – though the crowd was more familiar with “You Give Love a Bad Name” than the new single “Superman Tonight.”

And they didn’t stop with their own catalog. During “Bad Medicine,” the group launched into a chugging cover of The Doors’ “Roadhouse Blues.”

Jon Bon Jovi has taken a nod from his idols, particularly New Jersey’s older favorite son, Bruce Springsteen. In addition to Springsteen’s rock ’n’ roll revival preaching, Bon Jovi adds motivational speaking.

He and guitarist/singer Richie Sambora don’t just write arena-rock anthems, they write pearls of populist positivity, like “It’s My Life” and “We Weren’t Born to Follow.” It wouldn’t have been a surprise if they covered Journey’s “Don’t Stop Believin’.”

Instead, the singer returned from a break in a fresh shirt – none of his shirts seem to button up – on the outer loop of the stage to sing Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” It was a fine rendition, but this song is so overdone it’s lost any resonance. For the sake of the song, retire it.

The other members joined the singer out front for an acoustic set of “Something for the Pain” and “Someday I’ll Be Saturday Night.”

Non-fans in attendance would have to admit Jon Bon Jovi is a top-notch entertainer, even if some of his stage posturing, particularly during “Work for the Working Man,” seemed like something out of “Glee.” But his stroll through the crowd at the end of the regular set to shake hands and hug one little girl was a genuine act of appreciation for his fans as was playing to the cheap seats behind the stage during the set.

He was also appreciative of the Fargodome staff, thanking them for decorating the backstage area before the encore song "I Love this Town." He dug deep for the group's first hit, '84's "Runaway," and added a cover of the Beatles "Twist and Shout" to the mix before shaking maracas to "Keep the Faith."

He and Sambora play off each other impressively, especially on “Who Says You Can’t Go Home" and later in the second encore "Wanted Dead or Alive." He dedicated that song to the cowboys in the room, asking the crowd, "Haven't you had enough," but no one was tired during the 2-hour, 40-minute show which ended with "Livin' on a Prayer."

There was no doubt what fans came to see, and the singer acknowledged it early in the show explaining why he wouldn’t do much talking.

“What you want me to do is sing and shake my ass,” he said.

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