Madison Square Garden

Friday Night: W&W at Stereo Live

W&W Stereo Live May 3rd, 2013 It's a good time to be Ward van der Harst and Willem van Hanegem, the duo collectively known as W&W. On the festival scene, they've played Ultra in Miami and will be headed to EDC Las Vegas in a few weeks. Their friendship with Armin Van Buuren (who will be in town on ... More >>

(UPDATED) The NBA Announces Their 2013 Hall Of Fame Finalists; UH's Guy V. Makes The Cut

(Updated with statement from Guy V. Lewis' family.) Today at the Hilton Americas just steps away from the Toyota Center, the NBA announced their nominees for induction into the Basketball Hall of Fame. The formal announcement of inductees doesn't come until April 8th at the Final Four festivities i ... More >>

Texas Blues Hero Jimmie Vaughan Recovering After Heart Attack

Guitarist Jimmie Vaughan, a founding member of the Fabulous Thunderbirds and one of the nation's leading solo blues artists, has been discharged from a California hospital after being treated for a heart attack, according to a statement from his management Thursday morning. Gretchen Barber, Executi ... More >>

The 5 Worst Disasters In Benefit Concert History

Benefit concerts are great. The practice of bands playing to raise money for a cause can be as local as helping a fellow unsigned musician pay for their son's hospital bills to as international as world hunger. Though we may pinch our noses at the perceived sanctimoniousness of people like Bono and ... More >>

Happy E-Day: What If Elvis Had Lived?

Note: Elvis Presley would be 78 years old today, if he had not (supposedly) died in Memphis in August 1977. This article originally appeared as part of Rocks Off's "Elvis Week" in January 2011, and still seems plausible two years later. Do you realize that Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, the dude who w ... More >>

Rockets 120, Bulls 97: Offensive Juggernaut Routs Another Defensive Powerhouse

Don't look now, but the team no one can see on Houston TV is looking pretty damn good right about now. Winning their fourth game in a row, which included routs over the Knicks and the Grizzlies, the Rockets beat one of the best defensive teams in the league, the Chicago Bulls, by 23, at one point le ... More >>

Rocket Roller Coaster Continues with Wins, Losses and a Trip Back to NYC for Lin

Check out pictures form the

Week 12 Highlights of FFL (Fan Fighting League): Giant-On-Packer Violence Zapruder Analysis

As I take a break from the Aggies inundating my email inbox and Twitter timeline on the heels of my playful Johnny Manziel teleconference recap on Monday, let's take a hard left turn and hit on a sport that we haven't discussed here in quite some time -- Fan Fighting! Perhaps spectators at major sp ... More >>

Living on the Edge: 10 More Onstage Oopsies

Rock stars are just like the rest of us. They eat, love, poop, age, and sometimes they just embarrassingly go ass over tea kettle. Rewind: When Gravity Attacks: 13 Memorable Onstage Stumbles The difference between them and us, besides, you know, money, fame, security, and the like, is that when w ... More >>

Macy's, Houston Celebrate Carlos Santana's Style

Twenty years ago, while digging through my father's music collection, I found an album that I still regard as one of my all-time favorites. The crying guitar notes and inspired Latin rhythms I heard that afternoon were a vast departure from the corridos and cumbias I was almost exclusively listening ... More >>

In Honor Of Tonight's RAW 1000, The Definitive Timeline Of WWE's Victory In The Monday Night Wars (w/ VIDEO)

I don't know that any television product has changed the way we visually consume it more times than professional wrestling. For a majority of its history (which I am counting as the period from "dawn of time" until around 1978 or so), syndicated television was basically a weekly commercial for whate ... More >>

CongraduLINtions, Houston: It's a Point Guard!

Over the last few weeks -- and, frankly, for quite sometime before that -- the name Jeremy Lin has been twisted to fit any number of ridiculous puns (check out HPBasketball's Twitter feed on Tuesday for some hilarious examples), Linsanity chief among them as the young phenom brought crowds at storie ... More >>

Drops In the Bucket List: 5 Venues To See a Show In Before You Die

I'm not much of a traveler. Outside of a few trips to Vegas, I've never been on a real grownup-type vacation. Every year it's a struggle to think of something to do with my vacation days, one that eventually leads to a few four-day weeks and a couple of midweek shows. Now that I'm getting older, I' ... More >>

Squared Circle: Top 5 Songs About Pro Wrestling

Although the wrestling boom of the late '90s is a fading memory, the absurd mix of sport and theater continues on in bingo halls and arenas across the country. Every night, under the bright lights, someone is trying to avoid being hit with a steel chair. It should come as no surprise that there are ... More >>

Watch Out Big East, Here Come the Cougars

The Cougars are going to have a new home starting in 2013.​The expansion of the Big East has been a long-expected announcement, especially seeing as how several members of the conference are on the verge of departure. And one of the long-rumored names of this expansion has been the University ... More >>

Saturday Night: Santana & Spearhead At The Woodlands

Photos by Marco Torres​Santana, Michael Franti & Spearhead Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion September 10, 2011 Timeless. Classic. Legend. OG - all classifications that tend to be distributed loosely in the music industry these days. Yet for Carlos Santana, the skinny Mexican kid who played at ... More >>

Last Night: Arcade Fire At Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion

Photos by Marc Brubaker​Arcade Fire, Explosions In the Sky Cynthia Woods Mitchell Pavilion May 4, 2011 It was a sort of homecoming for titanic indie-rockers Arcade Fire Wednesday night in the Woodlands, as the band returned to Houston after five momentous years to play songs from The Suburbs, ... More >>

Shot In The Dark: The Ones Who Got Away (So Far)

UPDATE (3:23 p.m.): Promotional video by Monica Fuentes added after the jump. Jay LeeLittle Joe Washington at the Continental Club's 10th anniversary, July 2010​Slowly but surely, Rocks Off has been getting ready for our "Shot In the Dark" photo exhibition at Warehouse Live's Studio next Thur ... More >>

Justin Bieber Movie Reveals Pop Star Shaves, Has Hot Mom

"OMG you can reach and touch his face" ​Thursday night, Rocks Off went to the first midnight screening of Justin Bieber: Never Say Never, in 3D no less. Yes we had a chaperone, but the late hour and the theater's location wasn't conducive to masses of screaming girls. The location we saw it ... More >>

Future Elvis: What If The King Had Lived?

​Do you realize that Woody Allen, Julie Andrews, the dude who was in the Darth Vader suit, and Ron Paul are all the same age as Elvis Presley would be on Saturday? Look at Woody Allen next time you see him on TMZ and just think, he's as old as Elvis. In order to get in the frame of mind to t ... More >>

Guns N' Roses, Rolling Stones, Prince Coming In 2011?

Sind Axl und Slash wieder Freunde geworden?​Rocks Off is in the concert business for all intents and purposes. We scour Pollstar and other Web sites and almost hourly looking for new shows and tours to tell you about around the clock. In the span of writing this introduction we just listed Luc ... More >>

Springsteen Web Site: '78 Summit Show Best Video Ever

​ Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band, "Fire," live at the Summit 12/8/78 Since one of the extra goodies is a complete video of Bruce Springsteen & the E Street Band's December 1978 concert at the Summit, Rocks Off is sure Houston's Boss fans don't need much more reason to buy the expande ... More >>

FAIL: Kings Of Leon, Pigeons, Bush

Photo illustrations by John Seaborn Gray​Kings of Leon Respond Poorly to Mother Nature's Criticism: Last weekend, bro-rock champions Kings of Leon were three songs into a set when a pigeon in the rafters of St. Louis' Verizon Wireless Amphitheater made its opinion known by taking a dump direct ... More >>

Adios Houstonist, Hello H-Town Rock

Keep Houston Rich posts this video from Chingo Bling and Fade Dogg's new collaboration, "Let Me Know". The song is featured on Chingo's new mixtape, Stuntin 4 The Summer. As you well know, the HMPAs are coming up in the next few weeks, but you can find out what Texas bands from north of the Sam H ... More >>

Game Time: 2010 World Cup -- USA Wins! Now Awaits Conference Expansion Invite To Become Part of South America

Photo by Monica Fuentes Catching Cup fever this morning​"Soccer is about to cement its place as the worst 'sports bar sport' EVER..." -- Me at the 89-minute mark of the USA-Algeria game today"THIS IS AWESOME!!!" -- Me hugging strangers at the 91-minute mark of the USA-Algeria game today A ... More >>

SXSW Aftermath: Alex Chilton Haunts A Festival Full Of His Musical Children

Dan OkoThe line for the Black Keys outside the Mohawk Saturday afternoon... we have no idea about the pinata truck, either​ After the mega-shows last SXSW with Metallica and Kanye West, the 2010 version of SXSW launched struck your humble badgeholder as busier than last year, just on a smaller ... More >>

Game Time: The Knicks And Tracy McGrady...Shortest Honeymoon Ever

​Those who know me know that I have an unhealthy fascination with Britney Spears, unhealthy to the point where I found myself strangely attracted to her even through her hefty "Xanax and Frappucino for breakfast" phase back in 2007. One of my favorite Britney stories ever was her "marriage" to boy ... More >>

El Arte de la Elegancia: The Best Latin Records of 2009, Part 1

​It's been a year of surprises in Latin music. Reggaetón continues fading, albeit slowly, and the industry's mainstays aren't garnering the attention they used to. Case in point: Don Omar's summer release iDon (no relation to your phone), which remained quiet after its first single, "Virtual Diva ... More >>

Eyeballin: Get Yer Ya-Ya's Out! - the Rolling Stones In All Their Late-'60s Satanic Majesty

In late 1969, the Rolling Stones were at a musical crossroads. They were two years away from the deep blues of Sticky Fingers and its follow-up, the majestically scuzzy Exile On Main Street. Mick Jagger and Keith Richards were still very much tinkering with their new bluesier direction that would t ... More >>

Get Lit: Three More for That Already Groaning Springsteen Bookshelf

Daniel KramerThe Big Man, the Boss and Mighty Max Weinberg at Toyota Center, April 2009​ Just as Bruce Springsteen winds down a frenzied period of back-to-back album and tour marathon - despite the death of Springsteen's cousin/assistant tour manager earlier this week in Kansas City, he and the E ... More >>

Sounds of the Universe

Synth-pop icons Depeche Mode do read their reviews.

Tapeworm? What Tapeworm?

If you want musical comedian Neil Hamburger to play your benefit, you better have proof.

Aftermath: Eric Clapton and Steve Winwood at Toyota Center

Photos by Daniel Kramer Two words came into Aftermath's head shortly into the show uniting these former Blind Faith bandmates and arguably two of classic rock's biggest stars: peerless musicianship. They stayed with us for the rest of the concert. While we can appreciate the bombast and big show of ... More >>

Girl Star, Grown Up

Still proud of her family band, Susan Cowsill does her own thing now.

Local Motion: Top Sellers at Cactus Music, Sound Exchange, Soundwaves, Sig's Lagoon and Vinal Edge

Cactus Music 2110 Portsmouth, 713-526-9272 www.myspace.com/cactusmv1. Ryan Bingham, Roadhouse Sun 2. Dave Matthews Band, Big Whiskey & the Groo-Grux King 3. Steve Earle, Townes 4. Grizzly Bear, Veckatimest 5. Elvis Costello, Secret, Profane & Sugarcane 6. Eric Clapton & Steve Winwood, Live at Madiso ... More >>

Voodoo Child: He Ain't Not Heavy

Exploring the phenomenon of the lesser showbiz brother

Houston Dog Shows Up All Them New York Bitches (And Dudes)

The winner of the big prize at Madison Square Garden's prestigious Westminster Dog Show is a spniel from Houston who should be retired and who goes by the true Texas name of Stump.His formal name is Clussexx Three D Grinchy Glee, but then again no one calls Racehorse Haynes by his given name either. ... More >>

Aftermath: The Killers at Verizon Wireless Theater

Photos by Torey Mundkowsky Next year this decade will be over, and very few new bands have distinguished themselves either at the turnstiles or the cash register. Even one of the main ones that has, the Killers, chose to hit the theater circuit this winter after releasing its th ... More >>

Beyonce: Still Trippin’

Rockets Should Improve, But Will It Matter?

George Clinton

Q&A with the master of funk

Letters to the Editor

If It's Not Scottish, It's Crap!

Wack puts this whole Franz Ferdinand thing into context

F-Bomb Scare

Travis starts cussing, but otherwise remains the same

This Week's Day-by-Day Picks

A New Tune

After September 11, some new songs just don't sound the same

Static

The Year of Living Anxiously

Are We Having Fun Yet? Or is it just the jangly buzz of advanced urban stress syndrome?

The Menu from Hell

A retrospective of the dishes that made us shudder, not salivate