The 360 Tour crew began construction of “The Claw” at 9am Wednesday morning.
PHOTO BY ANNA HARRISON

With anticipation building, ticket prices lowering, and four days of pre-production underway, the night before the Charlottesville’s biggest rock show is far from a night off for U2’s crew.

Headed by longtime production manager Jake Berry, the day before a show is the true marathon. Despite four days already notched prepping Scott Stadium’s field, it will take twelve hours to get the stage– nicknamed “The Claw” by the crew and “The Spider” by the Hook– assembled. 150 feet tall, including the center pylon, with a circular video screen hanging just below (more)

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RSWA lawyer Kurt Krueger defined “flow-control” for Board members at their September 22 meeting.
FILE PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

Rivanna Solid Waste Authority director Tom Frederick has long contended that the Authority’s now $20 million RICO lawsuit against Peter Van der Linde has nothing to do with the competing trash facility the private businessperson opened last December, an $11 million Materials Recovery Facility that quickly captured the local market for construction debris and commingled recyclables. But on the eve of Van der Linde’s opening of an expansion that would also take household trash for recycling— a move that could potentially siphon off the Authority’s remaining revenue stream— the Authority is now discussing an option that could put the recycling entrepreneur out of business.

“If they hand over Ivy to Waste Management, Allied, or some other big company with a flow-control guarantee,” says Van der Linde, “I’m doomed.”

Unaware of flow-control? Don’t worry, several Board members, including (more)

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The iS music venue lasted barely a year before shutting its doors Monday morning.
PHOTO BY HAWES SPENCER

For the little venue that could, the iS music lounge announced Monday that it iS no longer in business.

When managers Stew Hartman-Mart and Chris Dunbar announced in September 2008 the re-opening of the Starr Hill music venue as the Si restuarant/iS music lounge double whammy, the regional music scene rejoiced for the re-addition of the venerable venue back into the live music scene. But perhaps those who claim Starr Hill was cursed are right— as Sunday night, September 28, the Twitter feed of the venue’s booker, Jeyon Falsini, announced that Is was closing.

According to Falsini, Sunday night’s show featuring Tennessee-based punk rockers Black Diamond Heavies and local hard-rockers Corsair and Channel 43 was the venue’s final (more)

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Bono and bassist Adam Clayton perform September 16 in Toronto.
Photo by MelicansMatkin

Less than a week before the Charlottesville U2 show, the event hadn’t sold out, and the prices appeared to be dropping. Some $30 tickets were offered for $19, the $95 tickets for as little as $71, and the $250s appeared as low as $130. And with just six days before Charlottesville’s own U2 concert, the head of the world’s biggest ticket reseller was advising would-be concert-goers to hold off a little longer.

“Wait out the weekend, and see where ticket prices fall,” said Joellen Ferrer, the communications director for StubHub, the eBay-owned service that links ticket buyers and sellers.

As of Friday, September 25, StubHub members were advertising nearly 1,800 tickets for the October 1 show at Scott Stadium. If the venue holds 60,000, that’s about three percent of all seats.

“That’s actually quite a high amount,” says Ferrer, and that’s why she was predicting (more)

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Legendary New Yorker music critic Sasha Frere-Jones brutally laid the smackdown on Red Light’s high-flying major-label Charlottesville pop-rockers Parachute August 15 via Twitter. But despite the depths of his disdain (he actually coined the phrase “MIT poop wizard” in their honor), he has just been trumped here by what essentially amounts to a music review SWAT team.

The Singles Jukebox, a blog which started as a column in the now-defunct online music mag Stylus, is a sort of roundup rodeo in which several prominent critics from publications like Pitchfork and Rolling Stone review current pop singles, leaving behind one short blurb apiece and an aggregate score.

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