Blue Man Group Extend Successful and Widely Acclaimed Tour Into the Fall! The Eight-Week Trek to Visit 37 Cities in North America.Entertainment Editors/Business Editors BOSTON--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Sept. 8, 2003 Coming off their successful and widely acclaimed spring and summer concert dates, BLUE MAN GROUP will continue to thrill audiences by extending "The Complex Rock Tour" with an eight-week trek visiting 37 cities in North America North America, third largest continent (1990 est. pop. 365,000,000), c.9,400,000 sq mi (24,346,000 sq km), the northern of the two continents of the Western Hemisphere. this fall. Launching September 29th in Calgary, the tour is an outgrowth of their recently released THE COMPLEX (Lava Records Lava Records is an American based record label, owned by Warner Music Group, and operates through Atlantic Records. Company history Lava Records was established in 1995 as a joint venture between Jason Flom, who began his career with Atlantic Records. ), their first, full-fledged rock album that has spawned the radio tracks "Sing Along" and "The Current." Opening acts on the tour will continue to be Tracy Bonham Tracy Bonham (born 16 March 1969 in Boston, Massachusetts) is a Grammy-nominated American musician best known for her single "Mother Mother". Raised in Eugene, Oregon, Bonham is a classically trained violinist and pianist. and Venus Hum Venus Hum is an electronic pop music group from Nashville, Tennessee, consisting of vocalist Annette Strean and multi-instrumentalists Kip Kubin and Tony Miracle. Miracle has a rare heart condition which results in perpetually hearing his own heartbeat in his ears. , both of whom will also join BLUE MAN GROUP onstage for their performance, just as they do on THE COMPLEX album. Ticket information for the Clear Channel Entertainment tour can be found on www.blueman.com and www.cc.com. The BLUE MAN GROUP's precedent-setting touring rock spectacle--separate from their ongoing theatrical productions in New York New York, state, United States New York, Middle Atlantic state of the United States. It is bordered by Vermont, Massachusetts, Connecticut, and the Atlantic Ocean (E), New Jersey and Pennsylvania (S), Lakes Erie and Ontario and the Canadian province of , Las Vegas Las Vegas (läs vā`gəs), city (1990 pop. 258,295), seat of Clark co., S Nev.; inc. 1911. It is the largest city in Nevada and the center of one of the fastest-growing urban areas in the United States. , Boston and Chicago--combines performance art with a percussion-heavy rave-rock band (featuring their wildly inventive trademark tube instruments) plus state-of-the-art lighting and special effects special effects, in motion pictures, cinematographic techniques that create illusions in the audience's minds as well as the illusions created using these techniques. conceived by Marc Brickman (Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Genesis, Nine Inch Nails). Hailed by The Cincinnati Post for "brilliantly translating their long-running theater act to the big venue...It was a show that played on a magnificent number of levels ranging from silly rock spoofs to cerebral messages of self-identity (Rick Bird, July 28, 2003)." On THE COMPLEX --"a wild ride worth taking" (Blair Fischer, Chicago Tribune, April 23, 2003) -- the themes range from isolation in the modern urban landscape to the mind-numbing effects of information overload A symptom of the high-tech age, which is too much information for one human being to absorb in an expanding world of people and technology. It comes from all sources including TV, newspapers, magazines as well as wanted and unwanted regular mail, e-mail and faxes. . THE COMPLEX explores the "cultural mask," or the "persona," that we all live behind in order to fit into life's big ant hill. The BLUE MAN GROUP's first, full-fledged rock album features guest vocalists Dave Matthews, Gavin Rossdale, Tracy Bonham, Venus Hum, Esthero and Josh Haden. "The Complex Rock Tour," which was unveiled at the Coachella Valley Music And Arts Festival The Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival (commonly known as Coachella) is a three-day (formerly a one or two-day) annual music and arts festival held at the Empire Polo Fields in Indio, California. in Indio, CA in late April, was followed by a summer tour of primarily amphitheaters wrapping up August 31. Critics have said about the tour: "This Blue Man Group 'rock tour' is fascinating-a kaleidoscope of images and sounds that is exciting, visceral and, most of all, entertaining. It's techno without the tech, rock without the trends, a rave without the hazy drive to the desert. And it's downright fun." -- Erik Pedersen, Hollywood Reporter, May 30, 2003 "From the infectious dulcimers that started the show to the thundering crescendos that ended it 90 minutes later, the Blue Man Group and its eight-piece percussion-heavy backup band delivered what a bevy bevy a flock of birds. of 'real' rock bands consistently fail to deliver--awesome musicianship enhanced by unadulterated un·a·dul·ter·at·ed adj. 1. Not mingled or diluted with extraneous matter; pure. See Synonyms at pure. 2. Out-and-out; utter: the unadulterated truth. good humor and fun." -- Jae-Ha Kim, Chicago Sun-Times, July 21, 2003 "The tuned PVC PVC: see polyvinyl chloride. PVC in full polyvinyl chloride Synthetic resin, an organic polymer made by treating vinyl chloride monomers with a peroxide. tubes, big bass drum and even a propped-up baby grand piano body banged on with large mallets anchored and colored the music in front of the accomplished rock band's more conventional (but also percussive-heavy) sound." -- Steve Hochman, Los Angeles Times Los Angeles Times Morning daily newspaper. Established in 1881, it was purchased and incorporated in 1884 by Harrison Gray Otis (1837–1917) under The Times-Mirror Co. (the hyphen was later dropped from the name). , May 30, 2003 "A happy confluence of low art and high art, Blue Man Group mixes surrealism and dada-inspired imagery with tribal drumming; rock 'n' roll rock 'n' roll: see rock music. power chords; Japanese comic book-inspired imagery; vaudeville; the collision of art and technology; junk-food-consumption-as-live-theater; elaborate homemade percussion instruments; and more." -- George Varga, San Diego Union Tribune, August 8, 2003 "The blue Man Group is coming to town with their staggeringly popular show 'The Complex Rock Tour'...a rock concert that borrows from circus traditions, conventional theater, performance art, percussion, science, vaudeville and an indeterminable number of other genres to creat a show that no one can really define or explain, though 'trippy' might be an appropriate adjective." -- Mary Monigold, Dallas Observer, August 12, 2003 "Bits of performance art, nostalgia art and pure rock spectacle converged at the Marcus Amphitheater Wednesday night, when the late-'80s-founded underground New York performance-art band Blue Man Group performed to a greatly entertained and at times even entranced crowd of 7,500." -- Nick Carter, Milwaukee Journal Sentinel The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is a daily morning broadsheet printed in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. It is the primary newspaper in Milwaukee, the largest newspaper in Wisconsin and is distributed widely throughout the state. , July 31, 2003 "What first appeared a clutter of PVC pipes and instruments (the core trio was augmented with an eight-piece backing band, four of them drummers) actually proved to be a pretty, well, complex design, full of dozens of rectangular monitors and innovative lighting ranging from skinny video screens to a vivid, almost holographic See holographic storage. effect that brought animated stick figures, jellyfish jellyfish, common name for the free-swimming stage (see polyp and medusa), of certain invertebrate animals of the phylum Cnidaria (the coelenterates). The body of a jellyfish is shaped like a bell or umbrella, with a clear, jellylike material filling most of the and dragonflies to life." -- Joshua Klein, Chicago Tribune, July 20, 2003 "...another eye-opening, over-the-top affair, a fun ride definitely worth taking." -- Philadelphia Daily News The Philadelphia Daily News is a tabloid newspaper that began publishing on March 31, 1925, under founding editor Lee Ellmaker. In its early years, it was dominated by crime stories, sports and sensationalism. By 1930, daily circulation of the morning paper exceeded 200,000. , July 28, 2003 "One of the best concerts the venue has ever hosted...Blue Man Group should be playing stadiums. It's that good. " -- John Hayes, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, July 15, 2003 "...one of the best pure entertainment spectacles ever conceived." -- Tony Hicks, Contra Costa Times The Contra Costa Times is a daily newspaper based in Walnut Creek, California. The paper serves Contra Costa and eastern Alameda counties, in the eastern part of the San Francisco Bay Area. (CA), May 31, 2003 "For pure visceral electricity, nothing beats the stunning, tension-building 'Above,' which uses silhouette lighting to create what has to rank as one of the most exciting show-openers of all time...the three Blue Men are front and center, the whites of their eyes spookily bulging, while an arsenal of lights, video and computer-generated visuals play out behind them. This makes for quite a spectacle, the likes of which represent the zenith of early 21st century stagecraft stage·craft n. Skill in the techniques and devices of the theater. stagecraft the art or skill of producing or staging plays. See also: Drama Noun 1. ." -- Chuck Darrow, Courier-Post (NJ), July 25, 2003 "...the kind of spectacle that Pink Floyd once evoked." -- Steve Heisler, Sarasota Tribune (FL), August 18, 2003 "You don't have to go to Vegas anymore. If...you've been dying to partake of the multimedia, drum-based spectacle that is the Blue Man Group, your time has come. With Tracy Bonham in tow to lend her wondrous vocals to the show, a huge video screen behind the band, and, yes, those Blue Men with the eerie bulging eyeballs, plus a light and special-effects show to rival any other, these guys are the real deal." -- Tim Ball, San Jose Mercury News The San Jose Mercury News is the major daily newspaper in San Jose, California and Silicon Valley. The paper is owned by MediaNews Group. Its headquarters and printing plant are located in North San Jose next to the Nimitz Freeway (Interstate 880). , May 5, 2003 BLUE MAN GROUP's Extended Fall 2003 Tour Date City Venue 9/29 Calgary Southern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium 9/30 Edmonton Northern Alberta Jubilee Auditorium 10/2 Vancouver, BC Queen Elizabeth Theatre 10/3 Seattle, WA White River Amp. 10/4 Portland, OR Memorial Coliseum 10/6 Sacramento, CA Memorial Auditorium 10/8 Denver, CO Pepsi Center 10/10 Omaha, NE Orpheum 10/11 Kansas City, MO Starlight Amphitheater 10/13 Grand Forks, ND Alerus Center 10/14 Minneapolis, MN Target Center 10/15 Ames, IA Stephens Auditorium 10/17 Moline, IL Mark of the Quad Cities 10/18 Champaign, IL Assembly Hall 10/20 South Bend, IN Morris Performing Arts Center 10/21 St. Louis, MO Fox Theatre 10/22 Madison, WI Kohl Center 10/24 Indianapolis, IN Murat Center 10/25 Grand Rapids, MI Van Andel Arena 10/26 Dayton, OH Nutter Center 10/27 Pittsburgh, PA AJ Palumbo Center 10/29 Buffalo, NY Shea's Buffalo Theater 10/30 Rochester, NY Auditorium 10/31 Hershey, PA Giant Center 11/1 Syracuse, NY Landmark 11/3 Wallingford, CT Oakdale 11/4 Manchester, NH Verizon Wireless Arena 11/6 Charleston, SC N. Charleston Coliseum 11/7 Charlotte, NC Ovens Auditorium 11/8 Greenville, SC Peace Center 11/9 Nashville, TN TPAC 11/11 Tampa, FL Performing Arts Center 11/14 San Antonio, TX Verizon Wireless Amphitheatre 11/16 Oklahoma City, OK Thelma Gaylord Theater 11/17 Dallas, TX Nextstage 11/18 Houston, TX Hobby Center 11/20 Little Rock, AR Alltel Arena 11/21 Biloxi, MS Beau Rivage Casino 11/22 Biloxi, MS Beau Rivage Casino Additional Cities To Be Announced. Itinerary subject to change. About Clear Channel Entertainment Clear Channel Entertainment, a leading producer and marketer of live entertainment events is a subsidiary of Clear Channel Worldwide (NYSE NYSE See: New York Stock Exchange : CCU CCU abbr. 1. coronary care unit 2. critical care unit CCU critical care unit. CCU Critical care unit, see there ), a global leader in the away-from-home advertising industry. Clear Channel Entertainment currently owns, operates and/or exclusively books approximately 130 live entertainment venues, including more than 100 in North America and 30 in Europe. In 2002, more than 65 million people attended approximately 29,000 events promoted and/or produced by the company, including: Live music events; Broadway, West End and touring theatrical shows; family entertainment shows; and specialized sports and motor sports events. The company, which operates throughout North America, Europe, South America and Australia, also owns independently operated athlete representation businesses, which provide management, marketing and financial consulting services to many of the world's top professional athletes. More information may be found by visiting www.cc.com and www.clearchannel.com. |
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