You know something's rotten in D.C. when indie bands like Something Fierce have no choice but to cancel much-anticipated summer tours over mind numbing gas prices. "Once I ran the numbers it was a 'There was no [expletive] way' kind of moment," the band's 23-year-old singer-guitarist Steven Garcia tells USA Today after pulling into a Houston gas station to fill up the band's Dodge tour van.
The Police announce a contribution to MillionTreesNYC with Mayor Michael Bloomberg.
Gas prices are making a serious dent in our summer music fun. It's not just the bands that can't pony up the travel fees, it's us fans who're already so tapped out 'cause of pump prices that we're hard pressed to buy live music tix without breaking the bank. As Mike Meyers' cooler than "The Love Guru" alter ego Wayne used to say; "That's mental."
But before we spew, vomit or hurl over our sorry state of the union, let's take the high road and do the glass half full thing. Like opting to spend our hard-won greenbacks on the acts that can afford to tour and who're doing it eco-correctly.
Put on the Green Light
If you missed The Police while they were out on their top-grossing 2007 reunion tour, you can catch their last round of U.S. shows in July and August, with Elvis Costello as the opener.
The August 7 finale is at NYC's Madison Square Garden (with The B-52s opening) because, says the group: "We kicked off our very first American tour at CBGB's in 1978, and this summer, 30 years later, our journey will come full circle as we play our final show here in New York City."
Of course, Sting is no stranger to green efforts -- having established The Rainforest Foundation in 1989 with wife Trudie Styler -- and along with bandmates Andy Summers and Stewart Copeland, will donate $1 million to a NYC program that aims to plant 1 million trees by 2017. "We have a long history here. We wanted to leave a gift with our last performance that would keep on giving year after year, decade after decade -- the gift of trees does do that," said the frontman in looktothestars.org.
Though after this it's Adios, Policia, the group reportedly plans to release a live DVD of concert footage shot in South America.
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