Riverbend Blog Home

So instead of disappearing completely after our season is over, I’ve been trying to keep the Facebook and Twitter pages alive. Luckily, I am still receiving many photo submissions from fans that I’ve been posting on Facebook and MySpace (does anyone use MySpace anymore?), but for Twitter it’s a little more difficult since people usually update every hour or so on there. We follow most of the bands that were at Riverbend this year and that have Twitter pages, so I have been able to retweet some cool things that they are up to. I’ve found some cool things that I thought I might share with the rest of you. Most of these things you may already know, but some of them you may not! So here we go…what our 2009 artists have been up to…

Dave Matthews Band released another live album in their ”Live Trax” series. Live Trax Vol. 16 was recorded HERE at Riverbend Music Center in 2000! Here’s the link for the DMB store to preview the album and purchase it. I listened to several of the previews and am really impressed at how polished the songs sound for being recorded live. I can see why so many people come back year after year to see these guys. Their live shows are definitely their forte.

Next up, Creed has a new album coming out in a little less than a month. Their first album since getting back together this year titled, Full Circle, will be out on October 27th. They released one single, “Overcome”, as their tour started this summer and just posted another, “Rain”, on their MySpace page. Check it out. It doesn’t hit the radios until October 6th so get an exclusive listen a week early! Creed is also still touring up until the release, so if you feel like checking them out again you can view the rest of their dates on their MySpace as well.

Toby Keith also has a new album, American Ride, coming out on October 6th. You can pre-order an autographed copy on his website, but I hear tonight is the last night!

I just got my iPhone a few months ago and am always excited to find cool new apps. Lil’ Wayne apparently has one called “Be Like Lil Wayne”, where you can take a picture of yourself, turn yourself into Lil Wayne, and even add your own bling…complete with several styles of grills. Here’s a look.

It’s available to download in the App Store or on iTunes for $1.99. I’ve yet to download any apps that aren’t free so I can’t tell you too much about it. But if I was a big Lil Wayne fan I just might download it. It looks somewhat entertaining.

That’s what I’ve got for now. I’m sure there are many more exciting things going on in the music world right now. Feel free to share things you’ve found with us. As I stumble upon more updates and cool things I will definitely send them your way. We may not have any more concerts coming up for a while, but The Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra does. Their season is just getting started! Check our their website  for all the info. Thanks for keeping up with us and don’t forget about us over the winter!

Yay, it works!

So I left off at the end of July. August was yet another exciting month for PNC Pavilion. On the 7th we had Tool, which SOLD OUT in less than 15 minutes! Another awesome thing about us building PNC Pavilion is that we can book our own shows. This, in addition to Stone Temple Pilots…another big show, was one of them. Not that we wouldn’t have loved to cram an additional 4,000+ people in there, but I loved the intimate feel that the pavilion gave to this band. Every person in the place was incredibly excited to see Tool (after all they were quick enough to get tickets in 15 minutes!). The energy for this show was almost like nothing I had seen all season. Two friends of mine had tickets in the upper bowl, which I’m told was still an amazing view, and a great experience all around. Something I really love about PNC is that it’s an outdoor venue that FEELS like an arena. Tool definitely did it justice, and gave an amazing performance. No photos allowed at this show…so I will share an awesome quote from a fan:
“I’ve seen Tool many times, but never at such a nice small venue. My friends and I were in the pit and it was one of the most amazing shows I have ever been to in my life”
Oh, and I lied…I do have a picture. Here is one of our Street Teamers, Eric, and his friend before the show!

aaaand I’m also going to give you a Tool video…not at PNC Pavilion (no videos allowed either!), but it is the day after at Lollapalooza in Chicago…so I imagine it’s pretty much the same as it was here.

Next we had Pat Benatar, Blondie, and The Donnas here on August 15th. If you have never seen Pat Benatar live before, you definitely don’t know what you’re missing. She still has an amazing voice. I heard her soundcheck from my office earlier that day and was so impressed that I wanted to stay for the entire show. If a sound check can make me want to do that, I think that’s impressive. She definitely didn’t disappoint all night. Benatar sounds the same…actually BETTER than she did years ago. Next time she comes to town, it’s definitely something you don’t want to miss.
Also, we had another free, pre-show cookout before this concert. Here are a few pictures..
 

A few days later on August 17th we had Heaven and Hell and then Kathy Griffin on the 21st. I already commented somewhat on these two shows a few posts back, so I will refer you to that. Feel free to leave me some comments on these shows as well! I will leave you with a picture of the Kathy Griffin party favors.

fun, huh?

The last show of the season at PNC Pavilion was An Evening With The Moody Blues. This is another concert that I surprisingly enjoyed. The Moody Blues are one of those bands, where you’ve heard their name a thousand times. For me…I know I know who they are…but I probably couldn’t have told you a song they played. My mom and step-father were here for this concert, so I sat with them for about an hour of the show. I really was just with them so I could spend time with them, but turns out I knew and enjoyed EVERY song they played! It was a great night (definitely great weather too) to sit in the pavilion and enjoy a concert. These guys are legendary and great performers. I had a great time sitting and listening to the music…and of course spending time with my mom.
Here’s a pic of my mom (Linda) and Bob.

And here’s a YouTube video of “Tuesday Afternoon” from the concert.

I hope you had a great time if you attended a concert at PNC this season! It was our second, and definitely BEST season so far. Can’t wait to make next season even better! Stay tuned for next year’s lineup and stay connected with PNC Pavilion on Facebook, Twitter, and via our Website.

See you next year!
Amy

So with Lil Wayne and Toby Keith, the season comes to an end. That’s such an odd combination, but hey, they were both great shows! Lil Wayne & co. was a very late add and I think we were all surprised that we got a show of this genre and that it did SO well. Hopefully it will lead to much more diverse seasons in the future. I’m not personally a fan of hip hop or rap at all, but I do appreciate that we can bring so many varieties of music to Riverbend and still reach such large audiences. I know this concert brought a lot of people to Riverbend who had never been here before. I love that, and I hope we can keep bringing new acts to Riverbend and continue to reach diverse crowds in Cincinnati. I have quite a few photos from the awesome City Beat photographer, Amy Harris, but first, please tell me what you thought of this show! Especially if it was your first trip to Riverbend! What did you think about the venue? Good place for hip hop/rap??
Soulja Boy
   
Young Jeezy
  
Lil’ Wayne
     

Then, the week after Lil’ Wayne, we had Toby Keith with Trace Adkins. This is a show we’ve had for the past…6 years? Does that sound right? I think so. I’m not a big country fan either (am I a fan of anything?) I kind of assumed that this show would be a strictly younger crowd, like with Rascal Flatts and even Brad Paisley, but it was definitely a crowd of all ages! While I did see many young people there were also a lot of older people as well. I love that. I think it’s awesome when an artist can speak to such a wide group of people. I have a few photos that fans submitted via facebook (isn’t technology amazing?), so I will share those with you now. Let me know what you thought about this show as well!
   
(from Vicki Alford, Shawna Kopp, and Joe Wilder)

So. That’s all for Riverbend this season. Sad, I know. I’m sorry we got a late start to the blog, but hey, at least I got to try it out this season! I hope some of you are starting to read this, and if you are one of my lucky readers, please tell me what I can do to make this better! I want to be very active with this as the 2010 season begins. One of my initial ideas was to take little videos of people having fun at concerts…in the lawn…talking to people as they arrive and after the show. What else would you like to see video of? Unfortunately I cannot record the concert, or take pictures OF the artists. However, I have had a lot of luck getting pictures from fans and professional photographers, and I have been able to find a lot of cool videos on YouTube. I have a few other marketing ideas for next year. One is putting together a texting service. You know where you text 5 random numbers to another 5 random numbers and then you get cool messages from us? Like, we could do polls and contests during concerts, send out reminders for when tickets go on sale, and even send coupons and discount codes. Does that sound like something cool? Would you sign up? Another idea…I want to get an AIM (AOL instant messenger) screen name just for Riverbend…that way (between the hours of 9-5, Monday through Friday…and later on show days) you could log onto AIM and ask me questions. Like..”when do doors open”, “when do tickets go on sale”, “how much are tickets”, etc. and you would receive an immediate response. I think that’s a cool idea. Anyway…let me know your thoughts. I’ll also be somewhat active on our Facebook and Twitter page over the Fall/Winter so be sure to keep checking out those pages from time to time. Thanks so much for a great season! I have enjoyed working here this year more than you know and can’t wait for 2010!

Amy

I promised I would be back, and here I am! I didn’t realize I had only made it through one month on the last post, so here’s hoping I can give you the rest of the season in this post! There were a few shows in July that I didn’t watch completely…so for those I will be relying on YOU for your comments.

Next up, Gary Allan with Craig Morgan on July 2nd. I watched very little of this show, but I did find someone on YouTube who apparently recorded the whole thing! So here’s a video from them..

July 6th we had The Counting Crows with Augustana. I have always really loved the Counting Crows for some reason. They’re not really similar to most of the music I enjoy, but I own a few of their albums, and I always enjoy their radio music. This night was actually pretty quiet. Not bad, just quiet. I remember it being nice weather too; a great night to sit back and enjoy an outdoor concert. Feel free to send me pictures or any interesting comments you have from this concert!

Two days later…a very different show, Stone Temple Pilots. Definitely not quiet. I had been looking forward to this show for a while, it felt like we all had. Surprisingly the show wasn’t a sell out, but it had to be close because the pavilion was PACKED. Packed and ridiculously full of energy. This wasn’t STP’s official reunion tour…that was last year, but the crowd in Cincinnati was still thrilled to see this band back together. I think the smaller size of PNC Pavilion really favored STP. Scott Weiland was amazing, and the show went off without a hitch. I heard nothing but great reviews of this show. I watched it myself…but I was never a huge STP fan. I did have about 8 friends in the pit though who ARE and told me it was one of the best concerts they had ever been to. What do you think? Here are some pictures from them..
  

Next up we had some old metal bands, Judas Priest and Whitesnake, on July 21. I was actually pretty excited about this show. I love seeing the bands that have been around for years. I love seeing if they’ve still got it. Judas Priest definitely did. They had a really exciting show and sounded just like they do on all of those VH1 specials. ha. Seriously though, it was a great show…and the crowd seemed to love it.
From our Facebook Fan George Mandros Jr.
   

Next up was Video Games Live on July 27th. It was a first for us to have a concert like this at PNC and it was the first time VGL had been in Cincinnati, so we were eagar to see what the day would be like! One of the greatest parts of the day was the hour and a half pre-show festival! We had gaming set ups from Game City 360, Game Crazy, and a whole tent full of games from Best Buy. In addition to games, the festival including costume contests which brought a varitey of fun people to PNC. The show itself was video game music…from Pong (yes, really) and Tetris, to Mario, to World of Warcraft and Halo. It was amazing seeing this music being played live with video on three screens. Members from the Cincinnati Symphony and May Festival Youth Chorus did an amazing job of bringing this music live to Cincinnati.
Here are some pictures from the festival…
    

The next day at PNC Pavilion we had our first of three “An Evening With” concerts with Jackson Browne. Basically that means no openers…just a whole night with Jackson Browne. I personally love these types of concerts, especially with an artisit like Jackson Browne that has been around for a while and released so much amazing music. It’s hard to hear all the songs you want to hear in an hour set, so having him for a whole THREE hours is definitely a great time. Also, we had our second FREE pre-show cookout this night. The cookout series was sponsored by Kroger and Bluegrass Quality Meats and there was a ton of great free food and entertainment. All in all, a great night.
Here are two pictures from our Facebook Fan, Dave Toomey.
 

And that gets us through July. I’ll be back in a few with some recaps on the shows in August! I have very few pictures and other media from them right now so I’ll work on tracking that down. Let me know your thoughts and if you attended any of these awesome shows in July! Until next time…

Amy

With The Moody Blues on Saturday, our second season here at PNC Pavilion has come to an end. Since our little Blog wasn’t up for most of the concerts this season, I’m going to try to do a little recap with some of my comments on the shows and also share some pictures and videos with you. I hope you enjoy. Please also comment with your stories from the season! I’m not sure if you can post pictures in your comments…but if you can please do! Either way we would love to hear your feedback and comments. Thanks!

So we begin with Kings of Leon, the first SOLD OUT show at PNC Pavilion, on May 12th. I wrote a pretty lengthy test Blog on this show, but I will give you now a clip from YouTube of the show…enjoy…

On June 13th we had O.A.R. with The Wailers. O.A.R. was here the previous year and I heard very good things about them as musicians and as people. I was fortunate enough to talk briefly with a few of them while helping with their meet & greet and they were definitely some very nice guys; very sweet and very humble. They’re great personality made me enjoy the show even more. My favorite part of the night: the acoustic version of “Love and Memories” and well, their entire acoustic set in general. Here are a couple of pictures from a friend.
 

Next up was quite possibly the coolest week of shows ever for me (personally). I’m a huge punk fan so having Rise Against and Rancid on the 22nd and then The Offspring and Dropkick Murphys on the 24th was very amazing. My best friend also came up from Tennessee to spend the week with me. That’s probably irrelevant to the rest of you, but exciting for me. Anyway, needless to say I thought both of these concerts were killer. I spent the night (after work of course) in the pit and loved every minute. I can’t tell you why I love punk so much, I think it’s the energy and connection between the bands and the fans. Whether it’s the collective fists in the air during Rise Against or singing along to “Kiss Me..” with the lead singer of Dropkick Murphys IN the crowd, it’s a great feeling, and makes for an excellent week of concerts.
Rise Against and Rancid photos by Keith Klenowski:
     
     
Dropkick Murphys photos from (my lovely friend) Dorothy Montague:
 
Offspring photos by Facebook Fan, George Mandos Jr.:
   

On June 29th we had our second SOLD OUT concert at PNC Pavilion, The Fray and Jack’s Mannequin. Both of these bands are really easy to listen to, and also have many many popular songs, so it turned out I knew (and enjoyed) nearly every song this night. I was really impressed at Andrew McMahon of Jack’s Mannequin. It’s difficult enough for me to play piano…and to sing, let alone do them both at the same time WHILE rocking out more than most guitarists do during intense solos. The Fray was really impressive as well. Each song sounded just as good, if not better than they do on the radio. I also especially loved the four video panels over the stage that showed shots of each member via their personal camera. That was a very cool touch. Actually, all of their lighting rigs were very cool. Agree? Here’s a few pictures…from several people.
  
  

I’m going to stop here for now. This gets us through the month of June. More reflections to come tomorrow! Let me know your favorite moments from these shows and if you remember mine! Until next time…

Amy

This summer, like always, we’ve had the pleasure of hosting many many amazing acts. We’ve also been able to host many artists in 2009 that have stood the test of time, whether it’s keeping the band together over decades like Chicago, Heaven and Hell, and Def Leppard, or bringing a band back from the dead like Blink-182, Stone Temple Pilots, and Creed.

Last night Creed played their very anticipated first show in Cincinnati in 7 years. You could tell on each members’ face that they felt so humbled and so blesssed to be performing again. After every roar of applause and cheer singer, Scott Stapp, would very genuinely thank the crowd with is hands held close to his chest in gratitude or arms reached out (arms wide open, if you will?) as if you try to give the crowd back a piece of the joy they were giving him. Seeing the sheer happiness on each of the members of Creed’s faces last night was enough to make anyone in the room feel lucky to be there and be able to share in such a great moment.

Creed definitely earned their appluase and respect. I personally had never been a big Creed fan, I always thought their radio hits sounded like any number of songs on the radio. Maybe 7 years ago they did sound mediocre or maybe I just never noticed, but last night at Riverbend they were amazing. When I heard the soundcheck from my office I was even surprised that it was Creed. I then ended up sticking around for the entire show. Hits like “Higher” and “Arms Wide Open” which I would have immediately turned the radio dial on years ago made me excited to sing and dance along to. Even their new single “Overcome” impressed me, especially Mark Tremonti’s awesome guitar solo that was an amazing opener to the night. I saw so much excitement in the fan’s faces last night and so much energy on stage that I’m sure Creed will be sticking around for many more years. I’m not sure what happened to these guys in their 7 year hiatus but whatever it was, was definitely for the best. Creed is back, and I definitely think, better than ever.

I have a few fan cell phone pics from last night that at least give you a great idea of the crowd and the excitement in the room. We also had our friendly photographer, Keith Klenowski, here last night so he should have some great photos up soon from the show. Check out Keith’s website  for updates and past photos.
  

See you at the next show!
Amy

This past week was filled with a variety of very different shows. Tuesday we had Heaven and Hell, Wednesday Nickelback, and Friday Kathy Griffin. I wouldn’t say any of these three are on my top ten list, but I had a surprisingly good time at each show…

First, Heaven and Hell. I don’t know much about the metal bands like Heaven and Hell, or Black Sabbath for that matter. I can probably tell you who’s in the band, and sing along to a few of their songs, but I honestly predicted this to be a boring night for me. However, seeing Ronnie James Dio rock as hard as (I imagine) he would have 20 years ago was amazing. The minute they stepped on stage I saw an energy in the crowd that I never see with some of the younger crowds and with modern bands. Not that I think people who came to Blink, Coldplay, or Dave Matthews weren’t genuinely excited, but I think there’s a lot to say about a crowd that can be just as excited if not more so about a band as they were decades ago. And while I’m sure PNC Pavilion is a much smaller venue than what Black Sabbath of years passed was used to playing, the four members of Heaven and Hell put on an amazing show and connected with their fans in a way that really made me excited. I think everyone in the room that night could feel their energy, and it definitely proves that these guys aren’t passed their prime and definitely have many more years of rocking left in them.

Nickelback on Wednesday was a much different experience…a much larger one as well. It didn’t occur to me just how many Saving Abel, Papa Roach, Hinder, and Nickelback songs I knew until last Wednesday. I’ve generally thought up until this point that all four of these bands would sound exactly the same and be very unappealing. As the night progressed I really did notice each band’s individuality and was surprised at how much I enjoyed each of them. Saving Abel’s “18 Days” is a song I had heard a few times, really loved, but never knew who it was by, so I was really excited to hear that and thought they did a great job. Next was Papa Roach who I think surprised me the most. They came out a delivered an amazing set, getting into their music more than a lot of bands I’ve seen this year. I especially loved Jacoby Shaddix’s run through the pavilion during their third song. It’s hard to feel like you’re part of the show sometimes when you’re in the back of the pavilion or the lawn at Riverbend and I loved how he wanted to make sure each person there got their money’s worth and enjoyed the concert. Hinder and Nickelback played great sets as well. Both were filled with tons of songs that the whole crowd could sing along to (myself included) and an awesome presence that kept the crowd on their feet all night. It was a long night, but definitely a great one.

And Friday we had Kathy Griffin, our first comedian at PNC Pavilion. I also wasn’t expecting to enjoy this show as much as I did either. I generally dislike stand up comedy…I don’t understand why if you could be listening to music you would turn on stand up in the car, and I don’t understand why if you could be watching a movie or tv show you would turn on stand up on the tv. I suppose that’s just me…but luckily I was talked into listening to Kathy Griffin and (not that I didn’t know this already) she is hilarious! I guess one person, wearing black, standing alone on stage can be entertaining! I was having such a good time that the entire night passed by so quickly I almost forgot I had to leave to meet people that night! I love that having the smaller building enables us to have different shows like this one. The crowd was awesome that night and I’m sure we’ll be looking to bring some more comedians to the Pavilion next season!

If you had a chance to catch the shows last week let me know what you think. I would be very interested to see if true fans were just as impressed as I was with these three performances! And if you didn’t get a chance to check out Heaven and Hell, Nickelback, or Kathy Griffin, we’ve got Chicago with Earth, Wind & Fire coming up on Wednesday, Creed with Hoobastank on Friday, and The Moody Blues on Saturday! Should be another great week, hope to see you here!

Amy

So, as you can see we haven’t posted since our first show. The blog was barely up and running by then and I just wanted to test it out. Now things are looking pretty good so I’ll make a point to update on all of our shows left this season and hopefully this will lead to bigger and better things for 2010!

We had a very exciting past couple of weeks! Blink-182 on Thursday marked our sixth SOLD OUT show in a row! First was the 15th anniversary of the Vans Warped Tour on July 29th followed by Crosby, Stills & Nash at PNC Pavilion, Jimmy Buffett (always a great show) at Riverbend, Tool (sold out in less than 15 minutes!!!) at PNC Pavilion, Rascal Flatts, and Blink-182 at Riverbend. Having the new PNC Pavilion has defninitely given us a lot of new opportunities. We can bring a much wider variety of bands to Cincinnati and every seat in the bulding has a great view. And of course Riverbend shows are as rockin as always. Here are a few pictures from the last few weeks…

Warped Tour: The Devil Wears Prada, Anti-Flag, and All Time Low (Photos by Keith Klenowski)
 
    

Jimmy Buffett (Fan Photos)

Blink-182 (Photos by Keith Klenowski)

I hope you enjoyed these pictures. There are many more on our Facebook page. I’ve been keeping that as well as our Twitter page updated very regularly. So if you’re not already a fan or a follower, head over to those pages and check us out. We also do some pretty regular giveaways too. I’ll be updating our fancy new blog here regularly for the rest of the season, so if there’s something you’re wanting to see (pics from other shows we’ve had this season, reviews, etc.) let me know and I can hopefully scrounge up some more things and find a way to unarchive the memorable moments from my brain. I hope you’ve had a good summer, ours has been the best yet! See you soon!

Hello world! Welcome to the first ever Blog for Riverbend Music Center and PNC Pavilion in Cincinnati, OH. This is one of the first steps in creating a very personal connection with all of our great patrons. For the past 25 years it’s you who have made Riverbend the best place for summer concerts in Cincinnati and I hope this can be a great way for us to interact with each other, share, and enjoy great music. We are also working on some new additions to the website such as Video blogs and show recaps, a Fan photo, video, and review section, as well as a place for you all to exclusively win tickets to our concerts and other prizes.

Some things we already have in the works; a Facebook page with nearly 2,000 followers, a Twitter page, a MySpace page, and a Street Team up and running. (p.s. if you want to join the Street Team, let me know!).

So, we had our first concert of the season Tuesday and the FIRST sold out show ever at PNC Pavilion, Kings of Leon! I hadn’t had a chance to really get into this band yet, but I have to tell you, I was really impressed. They put on a great show and the 4,100+ fans there seemed to have an amazing time all night long. I took a few pictures of said fans with my personal crappy digital camera, but here are a couple that I liked..

The “Queen” of Leon, with her boyfriend…and apprently it was her birthday, happy birthday!

Barb and Robin, who are following the band around on a mini tour!

I wish I could give you the set list, but to be honest, I wasn’t keeping track. I’ll keep that in mind for next time. But they played all their hits that I know of, so that was pretty awesome. My favorite was “Sex On Fire”. I also assume they played some old stuff, anyone want to help me out with the set list thing? Thanks. I do have to say though, that PNC Pavilion looks pretty fantastic with a sold out crowd. The weather was great, the sound was great, and you, the fans were especially great. All in all a good night, and a very welcoming experience to my first concert as an employee of Riverbend. A few more pics before I leave you…thanks for reading. I hope this becomes a great way for us all to interact with each other!

Looking forward to seeing you all at the next show,

Amy

(p.s. I still have some work to do on making this blog look all fancy and Riverbend-like….so bare with me!)