Happy New Year! Our Last Festival Predictions of 2015...

[Updated 1/4]

One more update as we head into 2016. We are quite confident in many of the predictions below, moreso for most of the earlier festivals than many of the later ones. We have added several festivals, and shaken up our predictions for the big NYC festivals, dropping the planned Panorama Festival in NYC, which is on the rocks and possibly canceled, and restoring to our list the Governors Ball, though our headliner predictions for that one are particularly shaky.

Watch this space over the next week for a much fuller Coachella lineup prediction, as well as a preview of some big non-festival gigs we anticipate in 2016...

Ultra

Chemical Brothers

Coachella

Guns 'n Roses

LCD Soundsystem

Calvin Harris

Lana del Rey

A Tribe Called Quest (with the Roots)

Deerhunter

Gary Clark, Jr.

Grimes

Halsey

Jean-Michel Jarre

The Kills

The Libertines

M83

Major Lazer

Missy Elliott

Of Monsters and Men

Savages

St. Germain

SZA

Twenty One Pilots

New Orleans Jazz Fest

Allen Toussaint tribute featuring Boz Scaggs
Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Bob Seger

Bonnie Raitt

Lauryn Hill

My Morning Jacket

Neil Young + Promise of the Real

Paul Simon

Van Morrison

Sasquatch

The Cure

J. Cole

Mumford and Sons

Ween and/or Wilco

Governors Ball

Pearl Jam [and/or The Dead Weather]

A Tribe Called Quest (with the Roots) (unless Panorama is revived)

Chemical Brothers or The Prodigy

The National and/or MGMT

PJ Harvey

A$AP Rocky

Big Grams

Chvrches

D'Angelo and the Vanguard

Death Cab for Cutie

Disclosure

Father John Misty

M83

Matt and Kim

Miike Snow

Of Monsters & Men

Purity Ring

Tame Impala

Bonnaroo

Pearl Jam

Dead & Company 

LCD Soundsystem

J. Cole

Death Cab for Cutie

Ween

Big Grams

Leon Bridges

Of Monsters & Men

Portugal. the Man

Tame Impala

Primavera Sound

LCD Soundsystem

Sigur Ros

Glastonbury Festival

Adele

Coldplay (with special guest Rihanna?)

Jeff Lynne's ELO

Muse

Lollapalooza

Guns 'n Roses and/or Pearl Jam

LCD Soundsystem (may play Pitchfork instead) or possibly Daft Punk

Radiohead

Deadmau5

Ellie Goulding

Kendrick Lamar

HARD Summer [and/or FYF Festival]

LCD Soundsystem

Outside Lands

Dead & Company
LCD Soundsystem

Radiohead

Duran Duran

Coming into focus...

Updated 12/11

The 2016 festival picture is getting clearer. Below is an update of our bigger-name artist predictions for most of the major and some of the less major American music festivals, as well as a note about a European festival or two. 

Newly-included are several big festivals, including Lollapalooza, Glastonbury, Outside Lands, and Miami's Ultra Music Festival. We have also dropped a number of headliner predictions from our previous post; you can count most of those names out now. We'll have new predictions soon about a festival or two we've dropped momentarily, including Governors Ball.

Scroll to the bottom for an extra word about next year's reunions, big and smaller.

Ultra

Chemical Brothers

Coachella

Guns 'n Roses

LCD Soundsystem

Twenty One Pilots
Calvin Harris

Lana del Rey

The Arcs

A$AP Rocky

Chic

Death Cab for Cutie
Deerhunter

Gary Clark, Jr.

Grimes

Halsey

Jean-Michel Jarre

The Kills

The Libertines

M83
Major Lazer

Of Monsters and Men

St. Germain

New Orleans Jazz Fest

Bob Seger

Bonnie Raitt
Paul Simon

Van Morrison

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Sasquatch

The Cure

Mumford and Sons

Wilco

Bonnaroo

Dead & Company 

LCD Soundsystem

Zac Brown Band

J. Cole
Ellie Goulding

Death Cab for Cutie

Ween

Big Grams
Blood Orange

Of Monsters & Men

Portugal. the Man

Tame Impala

Jason Isbell
Leon Bridges

Panorama (if it happens)

LCD Soundsystem

Mumford and Sons

Glastonbury Festival

Adele

Coldplay (with special guest Rihanna?)

Jeff Lynne's ELO

Muse

Lollapalooza

Muse
The Prodigy

Outside Lands

Dead & Company 

About those reunions, and additional possibilities.... 

LCD Soundsystem will make its triumphant return at Coachella, but that will be just the beginning of the road for the band. In addition to Bonnaroo and Panorama festival (or perhaps Global Citizen if the Queens festival's permit is denied), the band will travel overseas for an appearance at one or more European festivals including, we believe, British Summer Time in Hyde Park, London and perhaps Barcelona's Primavera Sound. They will also make an appearance or two later in Summer at some smaller American festivals including HARD Summer and perhaps Chicago's Pitchfork festival.

The story is similar with Guns 'N Roses. Assuming its volatile personalities hold together, the semi-reunited band will play some very big gigs on at least three continents over the next year or two, including festival appearances in South America and Europe, where the band has been tipped to headline the Download and Isle of Wight Festivals in not 2016, but 2017. Whether and how many shows beyond Coachella occur in the US in 2016 remains to be seen, but we would not be surprised by a Lollapalooza headlining slot. The new lineup reportedly will feature a mix of old and new members including Slash and Duff McKagan, but perhaps neither Izzy Stradlin nor either of the drummers from earlier lineups.

As for other potential 2016 reunions, we'll mention that we do expect Fleet Foxes to reform in some fashion within the next year or two, perhaps as soon as next Summer. We also would not be surprised if Jack White and Alison Mosshart's The Dead Weather also makes one or two live appearances next Summer, at Lollapalooza and/or Bonnaroo.

Stay tuned for more soon, including a much longer-form Coachella lineup prediction later in the month.

The Dead Keep on Living

Quick on the heels of their successful Fall Run for the Roses comes news that most of what's left of the Grateful Dead will head down the road again when the roses return in 2016.

We expect that the band featuring three surviving Dead members and surprise guitar hotshot John Mayer will make additional appearances at a number of festivals next year. These likely include Bonnaroo, where we have added them as a replacement for Eric Clapton in our prediction post below, Outside Lands, a new and as-yet-unnamed festival in Queens' Flushing Meadows Corona Park the weekend of June 24-26 (not the Panorama Festival there the weekend before), and perhaps the New Orleans Jazz & Heritage Festival, which will surely also celebrate the life and work of the late, great Allen Toussaint.

Autumn Leaves are Falling...

As we approach the end of the year and head into lineup announcement season, it's time to update our predictions for top US festivals in the first half of 2016. 

Several months ago, we heard that next year's Coachella festival would feature a big-time reunion among its headliners. We initially reported that that act would be Guns 'n Roses. Within days, we crossed that name out, replacing it with the more hotly-tipped LCD Soundsystem. As we suspected, however, we weren't wrong about either act. We expect Coachella 2016 to feature not one but two big reunions among its headliners. 

Without further ado, some of our topline predictions for big US festivals through next Spring, including the new Panorama Festival in New York City, one of several big new festivals whose debut we anticipate in 2016, including June's America Rocks in Rhode Island and the Arroyo Seco Music and Arts Festival at the Rose Bowl...

Coachella

Guns 'n Roses

LCD Soundsystem

Lana Del Rey

Calvin Harris

Twenty One Pilots

The Arcs

A$AP Rocky

Chic

Gary Clark, Jr.

Halsey

Jean-Michel Jarre

The Libertines

Major Lazer

Of Monsters and Men

St. Germain

[11/16 Update] New Orleans Jazz Fest
Van Morrison

Sasquatch

The Cure

Mumford and Sons

Wilco

Governors Ball

Radiohead 

Phish

[11/16 Updates:
A$AP Rocky
Justice
Of Monsters & Men]

Bonnaroo

Dead & Company Eric Clapton

Calvin Harris

Phish
[11/16 Update: Ween]

Panorama

LCD Soundsystem

Mumford and Sons

Firefly

Kings of Leon (making up their canceled performance this year) or Green Day

Mumford and Sons 

Florence and the Machine

[11/13 Update] America Rocks

Green Day or Kings of Leon

Hollywood Vampires

We'll leave our festival predictions there, but name a few more artists we expect to be active to one degree or another in the US in or around the Summer of 2016: Adele, Avicii, Beyonce, Coldplay, the Dixie Chicks, Drake, Ellie Goulding, Eric Church, Foo Fighters, Frank Ocean, Gorillaz, Iggy Azalea, Kanye West, J. Cole, Justin Bieber, Macklemore & Ryan Lewis, Metallica, My Morning Jacket, The National, Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Skrillex and Tom Morello.

Whether additional reunions will follow at Coachella or other festivals remains to be seen, but we will also name a few additional acts whose return next year would not shock us: A Tribe Called Quest [11/13 Update: We expect them to appear at one of the New York festivals], Fleet Foxes, N.W.A., Pavement.

Stay with us as the season gets under way!

Enjoy the Fruits of our Labor: Our 2016 Long-Range Festival Forecast

We hope you are enjoying the holiday brought to you by the American labor movement. As part of our own late-summer break, we are taking a moment to share a brief forecast of some of spring 2016's US festival headliners and sub-headliners. It's early days yet, but we are now in a position to make some preliminary calls regarding several major festival lineups for next year. 

For each of the festivals below, we have selected a number of acts that we categorize as either Likely (no guarantees, but we have good reason to believe that they will headline next year) or Possible (far more speculative, but not simply picked out of a hat) to Probable (still speculative, but we have particular reason to think their stars will align). Additionally, under the Don't count them out heading, we name two or three acts that we think just might join LCD's reunion/revivification party in 2016.

Coachella

Likely: LCD Soundsystem, Lana del Rey

Probable: Dan Auerbach's The Arcs, The Libertines

Possible to Probable: Radiohead, perhaps The National

Possible in addition or instead: any one and perhaps two of Coldplay, Gorillaz, Iron Maiden, Kanye West, Metallica, and maybe Mumford and Sons, Beyonce, Paul McCartney, or the Rolling Stones. 

Don't count them out: N.W.A., or maybe Guns 'n Roses

Jazz Fest

Possible: The Dixie Chicks

Governors Ball

Likely: Radiohead and/or Phish

Probable: Lana del Rey

Possible: The National, The xx

Bonnaroo

Likely: Phish

Possible to Probable: The Arcs, Drake, Lana del Rey, and perhaps AC/DC or Black Sabbath

Don't count them out: Fleet Foxes

Keep in mind that it is difficult to make predictions at this early date and that circumstances may change. 

It is even less advisable to forecast festivals later in 2016, but we will nevertheless note a few interesting Lollapalooza possibilities, including a headlining appearance by hometown favorite Kanye West (and/or a reunited N.W.A.), a performance arising out of the new electronic dance music project from another native Chicagoan, Rage Against the Machine's Tom Morello, and what might be a rare 2016 show by Jack White and Alison Mosshart's The Dead Weather. 

As for Outside Lands, we think that there is a decent possibility that it will feature local heroes Green Day and/or one of the new groups from local legend Carlos Santana. And we take interest in the prospect of a new "America Rocks" festival in late June in Rhode Island, with organizers bandying about names like Metallica, The Black Keys, and Arctic Monkeys. The last, if they return in 2016, will also be top prospects for one or two of the later festivals above.

We will be back later in the year and early the next with more as information develops...

Desert Sands are Swirling...

We here at the Festival Forecaster have been quiet for several months.

During that time, we saw the Rolling Stones tour and Grateful Dead shows we predicted come to pass, including the secret LA Stones gig (and some other appearances that turned out to be private or non-performing) and the follow-up "Dead & Company" shows this Fall. Unfortunately, the big Live Earth event we expected in NYC in June was canceled in its entirety, but the city will see big names at its Global Citizen Festival next month, including two headliners - Coldplay and Pearl Jam - that we predicted all the way back in April.

We hope to back soon with more about the Fall Dead tour, future Stones events, and predictions for the 2016 festival season. But we already have one grain of sand that just can't wait: we believe that there is a strong possibility that Guns 'n Roses LCD Soundsystem will reunite and headline the 2016 Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival. Developing...

Waiting for Wednesday

This coming Wednesday, May 20th, may see two big-name surprise shows, one on each coast of the U.S., and both potentially featuring the biggest names in rock 'n roll. 

The Stones in Hollywood...

The Rolling Stones, set to kick off their North American tour one week from today, are busy rehearsing in the Los Angeles area, and are set to play a warm-up gig or two in that city this week. We believe that the first of two events will be going down Wednesday night at the historic Fonda Theatre on Hollywood Boulevard. Tickets to this (these) show(s) will not be easy to come by, as the venue fits just 1,200 people, and we're not sure that many (or any) will be made available to the public. We're also not sure that the Fonda is the place to line up for them - tickets may be sold instead at the El Rey or the Roxy, among other places (maybe you'll have to pull one out of a hat at the Magic Castle) - if anyone asks, tell them you're just waiting on some friends. Watch the band's twitter tomorrow morning for a special announcement, though that seems more likely to discuss the recording of a new Rolling Stones record than to contain any details regarding these theatre gigs. 

...and Elsewhere

If you don't make the surprise Stones gig in LA, you won't necessarily have missed your chance to see them in a smaller venue this summer. We expect at least one more surprise gig in and around the coming stadium tour, and perhaps several, primarily in the major cities that the band is skipping this time around North America. Chicago, for instance, could see a surprise appearance during the five nights off between the first two shows in late May, or perhaps the four in mid-June, coincident with the great Chicago Blues Festival, though that period would also be ripe for a surprise gig in New Orleans between shows in Orlando and Nashville. As we have said for months, we believe the New York area will see an appearance on June 18th as part of the big Live Earth event, and perhaps additional shows tacked onto the end of the tour (the 7/20-29 timeframe looks ripest), though we no longer quite expect the latter. Once the tour is over, we also expect a celebratory return to Toronto, perhaps at historic Massey Hall around the last weekend of July. And don't be shocked by a more abbreviated return to the States next year, perhaps in the spring.

The Beatles back on Ed Sullivan?

Meanwhile, on late Wednesday afternoon on the East Coast, David Letterman and Paul Shaffer will be taping their last episode of Late Night at New York's historic Ed Sullivan Theater. That theater, of course, is most famous for musical appearances by Elvis Presley and the Beatles, among other early rock legends. No guests have been announced for the final show - Monday's features Tom Hanks and Eddie Vedder, while Bill Murray and Bob Dylan appear on Tuesday - but assuming that Dave hosts one or two final performers (which is not a given), we think that they may well include Sir Paul McCartney (and perhaps his pal Ringo Starr?), perhaps reprising Macca's 2009 outdoor appearance on the theater marquee (originally inaugurated by Phish in 2004). Other possibilities include Jay-Z, who canceled a marquee appearance in 2013 and will be fresh off two promotional club gigs this weekend, and the Foo Fighters, who have been termed Letterman's favorite band, ingenuously or otherwise, and could play on their own or serve as backing band to one or more other artists before heading off to Europe to start their long summer tour. While a marquee appearance will be best heard outdoors, we recommend a call to the show's standby phone number to those in the New York area looking to score a free ticket to one of the final Letterman shows.

Very Big Announcement(s) Coming Soon?

This Wednesday is Earth Day, and it may bring with it the announcement of the potentially huge Live Earth: Road to Paris event. The picture for that event is getting even clearer, and we've updated our lineup predictions here. In the meantime, you can join an intended 1 billion people demanding climate action by signing the petition at liveearth.org.

Additionally, now that April 20 has come and gone, the Grateful Dead appear to have sold out their Fare Thee Well event in California and announced nationwide theater simulcasts, and Phil Lesh has announced a concert at Central Park Summerstage in September - we were right that he would play the venue this year, but wrong about the month - watch for the additional shows we've forecasted to be announced very soon. However, as we've said all along, we've never been entirely sure that the tour will happen in June. If it is not announced within the next week or so, look for a similar tour hitting New York, Colorado, and more to happen later this year, probably around late September and early October.

Austin City Limits Festival 2015

We expect the lineup for 2015's Austin City Limits Festival to be announced within days, and once again ACL threatens to be one of the last but far from the least of the major festivals. Here are our abbreviated predictions for the headliner lineup and some of the bigger names on the undercard...

Headliners

Paul McCartney (or maybe Elton John)

AC/DC (or maybe Metallica)

Foo Fighters

Mumford and Sons 

Florence and the Machine and/or My Morning Jacket

Kendrick Lamar and/or The Weeknd (but don't count out Drake or Kanye West)

Bassnectar

Undercard

Alabama Shakes

alt-J

Angus and Julia Stone

Banks

Ben Harper

Dillon Francis

Father John Misty

Future Islands

Gary Clark, Jr.

George Ezra

Glass Animals

Hozier

Of Monsters and Men

St. Paul and the Broken Bones

Stromae

Sturgill Simpson

Sylvan Esso

TV on the Radio

Twenty One Pilots

The War on Drugs

and a few maybes: Alesso, A$AP Rocky, Charli XCX, Chet Faker, Cold War Kids, fka Twigs, Kygo, Tove Lo

New York, Got the Ways and Means - More Dead to Come!

As we predicted, the Grateful Dead have announced two additional shows at Levi's Stadium in Santa Clara, California, south of San Francisco, on June 27th and 28th. Now what about those additional tourdates we predicted that were not announced with them? Well hold on, Dead fans, more are coming!

To be sure, the Santa Clara shows will be the only additional shows to feature the "Fare Thee Well" lineup featuring all four surviving members of the Dead with Trey Anastasio. But, as said previously, we expect additional shows featuring a slightly different lineup to be announced later this month, and that they will include some or all of the following previously-mentioned dates:

6/13 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Manchester, TN 

6/15-16 Mann Center for the Performing Arts, Philadelphia, PA

6/18 Live Earth: Road to Paris, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ

6/19-21 (2 shows) Citi Field, New York, NY

6/22-25 (3 shows) Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

These shows will feature at least two and probably three members of the Dead - Bob Weir, Bill Kreutzmann, and perhaps Mickey Hart - but in most or all cases not the fourth member, Phil Lesh, who will be replaced by a rotating cast of Dead-inspired fill-ins. Anastasio will also be absent from most of these shows, we believe, though keyboards will remain handled by one or both of the Fare Thee Well team of Bruce Hornsby and Jeff Chimenti. 

So who else will fill Garcia (and Lesh)'s big shoes? Bonnaroo, which reportedly unsuccessfully offered $3 million for an appearance by the full Dead, might instead land a Lesh-less lineup with members of Southern favorites like the Allman Brothers, the Black Crowes, and Widespread Panic filling in as part of a "superjam". If the band plays smaller shows in Philly and perhaps elsewhere in the Northeast, meanwhile, look for a smaller-time lineup that may feature Weir and Lesh's Furthur sideman John Kadlecik on lead guitar, backed by members of his Golden Gate Wingmen band, which includes Chimenti. As for Colorado we are more confident of a stand there than an appearance at either of the above, and expect the Red Rocks lineup to feature pop star John Mayer (who may feature in earlier shows as well), Phish's Mike Gordon, and long-time Dead-world guitarist Steve Kimock. 

The New York area is the only additional location that might see an appearance from all four members of the band, more likely at the big Live Earth event than at any shows that may follow over the weekend. We expect Mayer to join the band at Live Earth and perhaps Citi Field as well, though again we would not be shocked if Anastasio joined there too. If Lesh does not play New York, we could see the bass being handed to Aaron Dessner of Brooklyn's The National.  

And that may not be all. As we have said for weeks, we expect more tribute events akin to May's "Dear Jerry" concert in Maryland to take place this year, including after the Soldier Field shows. While we are relying very heavily on our spidey sense for this one, we believe that one of these may be an all-star tribute to the Grateful Dead at New York's Central Park Summerstage on June 22, possibly featuring Phil Lesh and Friends, plus big names like Paul McCartney, Robert Plant, Sean Lennon, Los Lobos (whose David Hidalgo could appear on guitar at one of the Dead events), Dwight Yoakam, the Indigo Girls, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn, Todd Snider, one or more members of Sonic Youth and The National, and more.

One final note on all of the above. Some have expressed great skepticism about the notion that additional dates will be announced. We note that similar skepticism was expressed before the Santa Clara shows were announced, and even before the Soldier Field shows we predicted became public. We make no promises and acknowledge an element of guesswork in our predictions, but we do not post them without serious indications that something of the sort is in fact going to happen. While we won't share precisely what we've been told, or by whom, we will note a few supporting tea leaves, including the fact that Hornsby has recently canceled performances planned for June 19th-26th, that Gordon's recently-announced solo tour includes a conspicuous break from June 22nd-25th, that Kadlecik and Chimenti warm up together in the Northeast the weekend of the 12th-14th, and that many of the artists above have rehearsed with one or more members of the Dead in recent weeks. 

Look for various additional shows above to be announced within the next few weeks, perhaps as soon as tomorrow, but more likely after the Santa Clara shows sell out. The week of April 20th seems like a good bet.

Central Park's Summerstage and More in 2015

New York City's Summerstage is set to announce its 30th anniversary lineup of mostly free performances at Central Park's 5000-capacity Rumsey Playfield (among other locations thorughout the five boroughs) this Wednesday. 

Below, we've put together a list of the top-billed acts at shows we anticipate at Summerstage and elsewhere in Central park this Summer (with by-admission benefit shows marked $). Note the potentially huge June 22nd gala, and read down to the end for possibly the biggest event of all.

[Updated 4/7-8]

5/18 Tedeschi Trucks Band

5/19 Mastodon $

6/6 Blue Note Jazz Festival featuring Me'shell Ndegeocello and Roy Hargrove

6/7 Emmanuel Jal

6/12? NPR's Ask Me Another

6/13 Soul Rebels Brass Band

6/13 New York Mississippi Picnic (on Dead Road between the Meadow and Bandshell)

6/14 John Prine?

6/15 Metropolitan Opera Summer Recital Series

6/?? Ibeyi? and Hollie Cook?

6/17 Lindsey Stirling $ 

6/17 New York Philharmonic conducted by Alan Gilbert, with Joshua Bell (on the Great Lawn)

6/17 New York Philharmonic conducted by Charles Dutoit, with Renaud Capucon (on the Great Lawn)

6/20 or 7/26 Caribou 

6/21 Fete de la Musique/Make Music NY (throughout the park)

6/22 City Parks Foundation gala tribute concert (potentially featuring Paul McCartney, Robert Plant and many more) $

6/23 The Knights (at the Bandshell)

6/24 The Kooks with Atlas Genius $

6/?? BattleFest Nation and screening of Flex is Kings

6/27? The Felice Brothers with the Barr Brothers

6/28 Lucinda Williams?

6/29 Ingrid Michaelson with Jukebox the Ghost $

6/30 Ensemble LPR and Simone Dinnerstein (at the Bandshell)

7/2 Laurie M. Taylor/Soul Movement

7/5 or 12? Body/Head, The Ghost of a Saber Tooth Tiger 

7/7-11 Latin Alternative Music Conference presents Systema Solar, Nacao Zumbi, and more

7/14 Boston Symphony Orchestra Chamber Players (at the Bandshell)

7/15 George Clinton and Parliament-Funkadelic

7/18? New York City Ballet?

7/19? Lake Street Dive, Bela Fleck and Abigail Washburn?

7/21 Orpheus Chamber Orchestra (at the Bandshell)

7/22 Milky Chance with X Ambassadors $

7/25 Bombino

7/26? Rock Steady Crew anniversary featuring Masta Ace?

7/27 Dawes, First AId Kit $
7/28 Rise Against $

7/29 Philadanco, TU Dance

8/1 Dr. John

8/2 Brasil Summerfest

8/4 Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center? (at the Bandshell)

8/5 Father John Misty with Angel Olson $

8/8 Gilles Peterson, Afrika Bambaataa

8/8 Great Jazz (on the Great Hill) 

8/?? Elvis Costello?

8?/?? Common?

8/15 or 16 Sharon Jones and the Dap-Kings?

9/24 Walk the Moon $

9/26 Global Citizen Festival feat. Coldplay, Pearl Jam? and more (on the Great Lawn)

Stones Unzipped, with the Dead on deck

The Rolling Stones have finally announced their Zip Code tour of North America. Here at the Festival Forecaster, we not only gave you all of the tourdates in advance, we were also the first to reveal the location plus date of many of the shows, including Atlanta, Dallas, Detroit, Kansas City, and Minnesota, many of which we listed several weeks before the band themselves did. Rather than simply pat ourselves on our back, though, we now have more information for you!

This "Zip Code" tour is so named not just for its visits to smaller cities, but also for its musical theme - the band's classic Sticky Fingers album, with its famous zippered cover, set for a rerelease the day after the tour opener. While we don't expect the band to play the album in its entirety on the tour, we do think that they may do so at a warm-up show in Los Angeles that we expect to be webcast and taped for later dvd release. 

We still expect the Los Angeles show (or shows) to take place in the week before the San Diego tour opener, around May 20th, and believe that it will occur at either the historic Shrine Auditorium, which has hosted the Academy Awards and the Grammys and is home to North America's largest proscenium stage, or at the nearly as large Nokia Theatre L.A. Live, which hosts the American Music Awards and is owned by the Stones' tour promoter, AEG Live. If the Stones prefer a more intimate setting, they may opt instead for AEG's smaller Club Nokia or the historic United Artists Theatre at the Ace Hotel downtown. Further details may be forthcoming later this month. 

And we don't think LA is all. We think the Stones will play more and possibly even smaller shows (we don't expect any additional large stadium dates) in and around the tour, including in or near big cities Chicago (a surprise club show between San Diego and Columbus on May 27th or 28th?), New York (the Live Earth Festival at MetLife Stadium on June 18 and perhaps additional shows at historic Forest Hills (tennis) Stadium at the end of the tour, circa July 18th-26th), and Toronto (an appearance at famous Massey Hall before or after the New York shows, perhaps?). We also wouldn't be shocked if the band made a surprise appearance in New Orleans between Orlando and Nashville. 

We also have more news on the upcoming Grateful Dead concerts this Summer. In our last discussion, we forecast additional events featuring some or all members of the Dead both in June and later this Summer and Fall. While we still anticipate additional anniversary events of some sort later this year, including at Summer festivals like Lockn' and perhaps The Peach (but not Outside Lands), we are now growing more confident in the possibility of a short cross-country tour in June, leading up to the July 4th weekend. 

As said before, we have some confidence that there will be "Grateful Dead" concerts the weekend before Chicago at Levi's Stadium in the San Francisco Bay Area, likely involving most or all of the same lineup featuring Phish's Trey Anastasio, the Dead's Phil Lesh, and Bruce Hornsby. If there are additional shows preceding those events, however, some or all may involve a slightly different lineup with different guitar, bass, and keyboard players. Assuming the deal goes down, we think the schedule will look something like this: 

6/13 Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival, Manchester, TN?

6/15-16 Mann Music Center, Philadelphia, PA?

6/18 Live Earth Festival, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ 

6/19-21 (2 shows?) Citi Field, New York, NY

6/22-25 (3 shows?) Red Rocks Amphitheatre, Morrison, CO

6/26-28 (2 shows, probably the 27th and 28th) Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA

We expect the Levi's Stadium and possibly additional shows to be announced very soon.

Live Earth: Road to Paris - 2015 (and the Planet)'s Biggest Concert

We've been dropping references for weeks now to this year's special Live Earth: Road to Paris concert, set to take place on six continents on June 18th, and now it's time to turn our attention to the full details. 

This mega-event, organized in cooperation with the United Nations and Al Gore's Climate Reality Project, transcends the concerns of our simple music blog, intended as it is to draw attention to this December's climate talks in Paris, perhaps world leaders' last best chance to reach an international climate accord saving humanity from the worst effects of global warming. But the concert, also co-organized by super-connected musical bizzer Pharrell Williams and Live Nation, is also shaping up to be the biggest event of this or many years. 

The massive 24-hour concert spectacular will be "anchored" from New York (MetLife Stadium in East Rutherford, NJ) and Paris (Stade de France), but the event will span the globe, with additional concerts in Australia (Sydney's Allianz Stadium), Brazil (Rio's Copacabana Beach), China (Beijing National Stadium), South Africa (Cape Town Stadium), and even Antarctica, where a band of resident research scientists will perform via satellite.

The New York lineup looks like it will lean heavily on the biggest names in classic rock (and country and hiphop), targeted to a baby boomer American audience, while Paris looks set to feature more of a younger, global pop sound, potentially including a very big local name - Pharrell's friends in Daft Punk. 

Here are some of the names we expect to be featured as part of this very, very big show [Updated 5/17]:

New York - Alicia Keys, Amos Lee, Angelique Kidjo, Billy Joel, Brad Paisley? Bruce Springsteen? Crosby, Stills, Nash, and (but separately?) Young, David Gray, Garth Brooks, members of the Grateful Dead with John Mayer, Jimmy Buffett, John Fogerty? Jon Bon Jovi, Kings of Leon? Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett, Melissa Etheridge? Paul McCartney, Rascal Flatts? Robert Plant, the Rolling Stones, The Roots? Sheryl Crow, Snoop Dogg, U2, Van Morrison

Paris - Ariana Grande? The Black Keys? blur? Chic feat. Nile Rodgers, Daft Punk? Duran Duran, Foo Fighters, Kanye West, Maroon 5, Of Monsters and Men, Paolo Nutini, Pet Shop Boys? Pharrell Williams, Robbie Williams? Royal Blood, Sam Smith, Taylor Swift? Youssou N'Dour

Cape Town - Dave Matthews Band, Hugh Masekela, Oliver Mtukudzi? OneRepublic? Vusi Mahlasela

Rio - Caetano Veloso? Gilberto Gil? Joss Stone

Likely but location uncertain (several in Sydney?) - Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals, Coldplay, The Eagles, John Legend, Lenny Kravitz, Metallica, No Doubt, Paul Simon, Sting, The Who

Some more possibilities - Arcade Fire, Axwell /\ Ingrosso (Paris?), Avicii (Paris?), Azealia Banks (Paris?), Bjork, the Black Eyed Peas, Bob Dylan, Bryan Ferry, Common (New York?), Counting Crows (Paris), Deadmau5 (Paris), Drake (Paris), Ellie Goulding (Paris), Emmylou Harris and Rodney Crowell (Sydney), Fleetwood Mac (Paris), Florence and the Machine (Paris?), Huey Lewis and the News (New York), Jay-Z and/or Beyonce (New York?), Kylie Minogue (Paris), Lana del Rey, The Libertines (Paris), Los Lobos (New York), Madonna, John Mellencamp (New York), Mumford & Sons (New York), Nas (New York?), One Direction (Paris), Paloma Faith (Paris), Pink, Pitbull (Rio?), Red Hot Chili Peppers, Rihanna, Roger Waters and/or David Gilmour, Santana, Shakira (Rio), Skrillex (Paris), Soundgarden, Steven Tyler, Stevie Wonder, TV on the Radio (Sydney), Usher

Expect details of this event to be announced within the month!

Stones Set to Roll Tuesday

The Rolling Stones will officially announce their 2015 U.S. Summer Tour this coming Tuesday. Here is our updated list of anticipated show dates [Updated 3/30-31]: 

5/24 Petco Park, San Diego, CA

5/30 Ohio Stadium, Columbus, OH

6/3 TCF Bank Stadium, Minneapolis, MN

6/6 AT&T Stadium, Arlington, TX 

6/9 Bobby Dodd Stadium, Atlanta, GA

6/12 Orlando Citrus Bowl Stadium, Orlando, FL

6/17 LP Field, Nashville, TN

6/20 Heinz Field, Pittsburgh, PA

6/23 Summerfest, Marcus Amphitheater, Milwaukee, WI

6/27 Arrowhead Stadium, Kansas City, MO

7/1 Carter-Finley Stadium, Raleigh, NC

7/4 Indianapolis Motor Speedway, Indianapolis, IN

7/8 or 9 Comerica Park or Ford Field, Detroit, MI

7/11 (or 18) Ralph Wilson Stadium, Buffalo, NY

Plus at least a few more to be announced later...

5/16 Saturday Night Live, New York, NY (TBA late April), among other television appearances in surrounding days

5/18-21 The Shrine Auditorium, Los Angeles, CA (1-2 filmed shows, TBA mid-late April)

6/?? Saenger Theater, New Orleans, LA (TBA day/week of show)? 

6/18 Live Earth Festival, MetLife Stadium, East Rutherford, NJ (TBA mid-April?)?

7/9-19 (the 18th? 15th? 11th?) Festival d'Été de Québec, Québec City, QC (TBA 4/8)

7/?? Forest Hills Stadium, New York, NY (2-3 shows TBA mid-June?)?

7/?? Massey Hall, Toronto, ON (TBA day/week of show)?

7/?? Levi's Stadium, Santa Clara, CA (or O.co Coliseum, Oakland, CA) and/or CenturyLink Field, Seattle, WA?

Additional edits may follow in the next 24 hours, and we will have more on the globe-spanning Live Earth festival coming up very soon...

Lollapalooza...

[Update: Here's the lineup - http://www.lollapalooza.com/2015-lineup/. Paul McCartney! No Kanye, who may be in Europe this Summer, but count on him to open next year's festival season in the California desert...]

We are within 48 hours of a lineup announcement from the 2015 Lollapalooza festival! 

Here are our up-to-the-minute predictions:

Headliners

Metallica and/or Jack White

Kanye West or Drake

Sam Smith

Florence and the Machine

Beck

Bassnectar, Axwell /\ Ingrosso and/or The Weeknd

(But we don't rule out any of: Paul McCartney, Pearl Jam, Motorhead, The Prodigy, D'Angelo, The Strokes, The Black Keys, Deadmau5)

Undercard

Alabama Shakes

Alesso 

alt-J

Angel Olson

Angus & Julia Stone

Ben Harper and the Innocent Criminals

Benjamin Booker

Best Coast

Big K.R.I.T.

Brand New

Brandon Flowers

Broods

Coasts

Cold War Kids

Com Truise

The Decemberists 

The Delta Spirit

Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroes

Empire of the Sun

Faith No More 

Father John Misty

Flaming Lips

First Aid Kit

FKA Twigs

Flying Lotus

The Gaslight Anthem

G-Eazy

George Ezra

Glass Animals

Gorgon City

Grizfolk

Hot Chip

Jason Isbell

Jessie J

Kaskade

Kendrick Lamar

Kiesza 

The Kills

Lord Huron

Marina and the Diamonds, 

MØ 

Modest Mouse

ODESZA

Of Monsters and Men

Passion Pit 

Porter Robinson

Raury

SBTRKT

Schoolboy Q

Shakey Graves

Slow Magic

Sturgill Simpson

St. Vincent

Sylvan Esso 

SZA

The Tallest Man on Earth

Tame Impala

Toro y Moi

Tove Lo

Tune-Yards

TV on the Radio

Tycho

Tyler, the Creator

Walk the Moon

The War on Drugs

Ryn Weaver

Zebra Katz