Foo Fighters close final day of Life is Beautiful on an ultimate high

Foo Fighters close final day of Life is Beautiful on an ultimate high
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 30, 2014


“We haven’t played here in a long f*cking time,” Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl said early on in the final performance of Life is Beautiful’s three-day festival in downtown Las Vegas. “So you know what that means? We are about to play a bunch of songs we normally don’t get to play. And we’re going to play as many songs as we can until they shut us down.”

Grohl made good on those words, as the band played beyond when the posted set times said they’d finish up. He was also right – it had been six years since the Foo Fighters played Las Vegas – at the Hard Rock’s awesome in-door venue The Joint.

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Life is Beautiful day two ruled by rap, balanced by Lionel Richie, and blown away by Flaming Lips

Life is Beautiful day two ruled by rap, balanced by Lionel Richie, and blown away by Flaming Lips
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 26, 2014


Outkast hadn’t played Las Vegas in more than a decade when they headlined Saturday’s Life is Beautiful smorgasbord on the second day of the downtown Las Vegas festival.

Outkast had made the festival rounds on their reunion this year, to mixed results. Their week one Coachella set was knocked for being a bit shaky, but their Saturday set in Las Vegas showed them at their best. The Atlanta duo went through their large array of hits without breaking off time for the weird Andre 3000 solo stuff that stunted their Coachella set.

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Life is Beautiful day one capped by -- what else -- a Kanye rant

Life is Beautiful day one capped by -- what else -- a Kanye rant
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 25, 2014


Downtown Las Vegas’ second-year music festival Life is Beautiful kicked off Friday capped by a typically awesome and rant-filled Kanye West set.

Now three days after being just two in its inaugural year, the festival has grown in more than just length of time. The festival grounds felt like they have doubled in size and there was a much larger international contingency than last year as well. Two British gals from London told me they came out to Vegas specifically to see Kanye.

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Trindon Holliday signs with Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Trindon Holliday signs with Tampa Bay Buccaneers
Mark E. Ortega
NFL.com
October 21, 2014

Return specialist Trindon Holliday has signed with the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, according to NFL Media Insider Ian Rapoport, per a source informed of the deal. Holliday was previously with the New York Giants this season, who released him on Oct. 6 without him appearing in a game.

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An interview with Broods: Their meteoric rise will continue with release of new album Evergreen

An interview with Broods: Their meteoric rise will continue with release of new album Evergreen
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 20, 2014

Just eight months ago, the New Zealand sibling synth-pop duo Broods was making their U.S. debut at Bardot’s It’s A School Night. This past Tuesday, they headlined the El Rey Theatre in front of a sold-out crowd to celebrate the U.S. release of their first full-length album Evergreen, which came out on these shores on Oct. 7.

Prior to their sound check, I caught up with Broods, whom I had seen twice and had previously reviewed for Grimy Goods at The Observatory in Santa Ana. The way they finish each other’s sentences is no surprise given their chemistry both on stage and in the studio.

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Damien Rice breaks hearts, surprises with laughter at Cathedral Sanctuary

Damien Rice breaks hearts, surprises with laughter at Cathedral Sanctuary
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 15, 2014


There’s a reason why tickets were sold out within minutes of being offered for Damien Rice‘s intimate Oct. 9 show at the beautiful Cathedral Sanctuary at the Immanuel Presbyterian Church. Since emerging on the scene in 2001, people have turned to Rice’s music when needing to deal with a wide array of sad emotions. Those lucky few hundred that were able to witness Tuesday night’s performance got their fair share of eye-wiping in. They also experienced plenty of something maybe they weren’t anticipating: laughter.

While Rice ripped through a 17-song set of some of his latest and many of his greatest, he also mixed in an unexpected amount of comedic banter that kept things light. This, while just seconds before touching the depths of people’s souls with his often tragically-tuned songwriting.

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An interview with Craig Nyman: Get to know Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas

An interview with Craig Nyman: Get to know Life is Beautiful Festival in Las Vegas
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 9, 2014


Last October, Las Vegas played host to the inaugural Life is Beautiful Festival — a two-day fiesta of music, art, food, and learning that took place on the city streets of the rejuvenated downtown Strip. The festival was such a success that this year’s festival has been expanded to include a third day and will take place Oct. 24 through Oct. 26, headlined by Kanye West, Foo Fighters, and Outkast.

This has made extra work for Craig Nyman, the Head of Music and Live Performances for Life is Beautiful, who is tasked with putting together the music lineup along with Another Planet Entertainment for the unique and up-and-coming festival. After talking to Nyman for this feature, it became clear immediately that the additional workload was exciting rather than stressful.

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Lorde shows tremendous growth at Greek Theatre, delivering spectacular performance

Lorde shows tremendous growth at Greek Theatre, delivering spectacular performance
Mark E. Ortega
GrimyGoods.com
October 7, 2014


A few songs in front of her headlining set at The Greek Theatre on Monday night, teenaged sensation Lorde acknowledged that the last time she played Los Angeles “proper”, she was at The Belasco and The Echoplex, just a little more than a year ago.

There was no better way to note how far she’d come in that one year. Lorde said that playing Coachella this year was a moment where she felt her band had “made it,” and headlining The Greek was another such moment in a career that will undoubtedly feature many more ups along the way. It is actually quite stunning how far she’s come even just since that Coachella set in April.

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