Tag Archives: kansas

Features, Tours and Festivals

Kansas Announce “Leftoverture” 40th Anniversary Tour

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I grew up on the music of Kansas and was very happy to learn about this new tour for their legendary album “Leftoverture”. Check out the full press release and dates below the poster and I’ll return to discuss afterward.

Tour - Kansas - Leftoverture 2016

The Press Release:
KANSAS TO LAUNCH TOUR IN CELEBRATION OF 40TH ANNIVERSARY OF BREAKTHROUGH ALBUM ‘LEFTOVERTURE’ – SEXTUPLE PLATINUM ALBUM TO BE PERFORMED IN ITS ENTIRETY

America’s preeminent progressive rock band KANSAS will be touring select cities this fall celebrating the 40th Anniversary of their breakthrough album ‘Leftoverture.’ To celebrate, for the first time in history, the band will be performing the album in its entirety. The tour will showcase two hours of classic KANSAS music including hit songs, deep cuts, and new songs from their soon to be released album, ‘The Prelude Implicit.”

In 1976, KANSAS released the album ‘Leftoverture.’ Containing the smash hit, and million-selling single “Carry On Wayward Son,” along with fan favorites such as “The Wall,” “Miracles Out Of Nowhere,” and “What’s On My Mind,” ‘Leftoverture,’ became the band’s breakthrough album. The album peaked at #5 on Billboard’s Album charts and reached sextuple-platinum status for more than 6 million copies sold.
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Features, PiercingMetal Says

PiercingMetal’s “Best Of” 2012: The Concerts

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Looking back on 2012 as a concert going year I had to say that there were a lot of cool highlights for me. Sure I was compiling my “Year End Best Of” to cover all the different things that I’ve examined over the year but with the blog growing faster and faster and more contests happening on it for the crushing shows that hit our town, I decided to keep showcasing a number of the concerts that I saw during the course of the year. Bear in mind that these are my very favorite ones out of the whole bunch. I really had a great time seeing a number of shows but these stood out. Here we go.

1. KISS @ Live On Letterman: I don’t think that I need to go into how cool it is to see a band like KISS in the Ed Sullivan Theatre. The place holds 500 or so people and KISS sells out places that hold thousands more. See why I felt this was special. So yeah.

2. Nightwish and Kamelot @ Beacon Theatre: Nightwish and Kamelot both hold very special places to me as a music scribe and having them paired up for a tour was extraordinary.

3. Trans-Siberian Orchestra @ Prudential Center: This show was the debut of the new “Lost Christmas Eve” themed tour.

4. Roger Waters @ Yankee Stadium: My second time at Yankee Stadium for a massive concert and with Roger playing “The Wall” from front to back I stood awestruck.

5. KISS & Motley Crue @ PNC Bank Arts Center: This was a kickass pairing and the guys in The Treatment were pretty damned good as well.

6. Lamb Of God @ Roseland Ballroom: Metal laid waste to NYC this night.

7. Paganfest @ Gramercy Theatre: Turisas headlined this one and brought along Alestorm, Arkona and Huntress.

8. Sabaton @ Gramercy Theatre: This band is climbing the pole of popularity. Local support

9. Rhapsody Of Fire @ Gramercy Theatre: There was so much drama with the RoF division leading up to this show but you would never notice with the levels of kick ass Power Metal that was happening on the stage.

10. Marillion @ Irving Plaza: Leaders of the Neo-Progressive Rock movement. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen them and they even did “Kayleigh”.
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Music, Reviews

“Two For The Show” (remaster) by Kansas

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Artist: Kansas
Title: “Two For The Show” (remaster)
Label: Epic Legacy
Release Date: 7/1/2008
Genre: Rock
Rating: 4.5/5

In 1978 Kansas released “Two For The Show” which was a double vinyl live recording that truly captured an exceptional band at their best. The original recording was done during the tour that supported their album “Point Of Know Return” and it would be the first such release for the band but one that found them at what seemed to be the peak of their career with numerous hits already under their belt and support of mainstream Rock radio very much behind them. In order to celebrate the 30th anniversary of this release Epic/Legacy not only gave it a fantastic remastering job but also dug deep into the vaults for additional music which allowed the means for a full second CD to be included with it. In the end this made the full release now possess twenty four tracks and come off as what seemed to be a full show of the band. The first CD featured thirteen tracks and such juggernaut songs like “Song For America”, “Point Of No Return” and of course “Carry On Wayward Son” while the second disc features eleven more tracks from the gig. The interesting thing for the fans is that of these eleven tracks, only “Closet Chronicles” had been heard before on the original vinyl while the other ten were as yet unreleased gems from the bands repertoire performed on this tour. Another point of interest in that “Closet Chronicles” was omitted from the initial release of this CD and that has thankfully been rectified for the remaster. I must admit that my own exposure to Kansas during my youth was primarily focused around the bands hits which were all mainstays on Classic Rock and conventional Pop radio stations of the time because back then these were the kind of bands that one could easily find at the turn of a dial. Try finding the band easily in today’s realm and all you will hear is commercial drivel. The members of the band who recorded these selections are Phil Ehart (drums), Kerry Livgren (keyboards/guitars), Robby Steinhardt (violin/vocals), Dave Hope (bass), Steve Walsh (vocals/keyboards), and Rich Williams (guitar). Collectively the tracks do NOT come from a single performance are instead compiled from various shows over the span of three tours from 1977-1978.
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