Author: Jae-Ha Kim

Q101’s Jamboree 97

Jae-Ha Kim

If some of the teenage fans at Q101’s Jamboree 97 were a little distracted Sunday at the New World Music Theatre, it was understandable. Rather than basking in the sun at the first major outdoor concert of the summer, the kids huddled under blankets as if they were at a football game or, more often than not, shivered in their summer shorts and T-shirts. (The cruelest joke was that many had more clothes in their cars, but they weren’t allowed to leave the venue to get them.)

“Getting High: The Adventures of Oasis” by Paolo Hewitt

Jae-Ha Kim

In Great Britain, Oasis isnt just any band–it is the band. To get a perspective of how popular they are in their homeland, check this out: The five-man group from Manchester performed two nights at Englands Knebworth Park to more than 250,000 people. It was the largest audience for any single band in Britain.

Ticket to ride

Jae-Ha Kim

The most coveted item at rock shows isn’t a pair of decent earplugs. It’s the backstage pass. We want those round (or square, or triangular) stick-on adhesive passes that are our entree into rock ‘n’ roll nirvana for the same reason we want Porsches, 15-carat diamond engagement rings and brainy significant others who are dead ringers for supermodels. We covet what we can’t have.

Eyes, ears feast on U2: Show’s missteps forgivable

Jae-Ha Kim

U2 started off its six-song encore with a mighty lemon drop – literally. Riding in the giant mirror ball, the musicians left more than a few fans wondering whether they might have a “Spinal Tap” moment and get stuck in the contraption. (They didn’t.) Rather than “Lemon” – the obvious choice – they played a slowed-down version of “Discotheque” that stripped the song of its oomph. Much better were the haunting ballads “With or Without You” and “One,” which closed the show.

Susan Silver steers careers toward rock stardom

Jae-Ha Kim

In a business that is dominated by men onstage and off, Susan Silver is an anomaly. For most of her adult life, the 38-year-old has guided the careers of superstar groups such as Soundgarden, which recently disbanded after 12 years together, and Alice in Chains. Silver got into band management for the love of music. Money wasn’t an issue. Until six years ago, Silver maintained secondary jobs to make sure the bills got paid.

Band blurs line between British and U.S. rock

Jae-Ha Kim

Blur – which also includes guitarist Graham Coxon and drummer Dave Rowntree – is not as abrasive as Oasis’ Noel Gallagher, whose wish that Albarn and James contract AIDS and die was blown up to front-page news in England. Gallagher downplayed the statement, saying the quote was taken out of context and that Blur was OK. Damon Albarn’s not buying it.

Blur

Jae-Ha Kim

Blur has always been a band that mainstream America just didnt get. Maybe it was vocalist Damon Albarn’s exaggerated accent or the quintessential British characters he likes to write about, but it seemed that Blur’s fate was to play to a small group of Anglophiles who adored them. That should change with their self-titled record, which was released last week. At their sold-out show at the Riviera Theatre Saturday night, the four-man group (supplemented by a keyboardist and a two-man horn section) went top heavy on cuts from Blur, which is the most accessible of their five albums. They gave their fans a deliriously fun 1-hour 40-minute set that had music, style and showmanship.

The Baby Myth

Jae-Ha Kim

When you’re a 20-year-old coed, you can barely hear your biological clock ticking. At that age, most young adults worry about summer jobs, graduating and trying not to get pregnant. But Sylvia Ann Hewlett’s book Creating a Life: Professional Women and the Quest for Children (Talk Miramax, $22) warns women of all ages that having babies must be timed at least as carefully as career choices.