Finalists from America’s new hit television show ‘The Voice’ will continue to showcase their talents together on tour, performing at six different venues across the U.S. this summer. (more)

Major venues in the greater Boston area are lined up to host to a number of popular artists this summer. Ace Ticket has the best deals around between concert events at the Comcast Center, Bank of America Pavilion, TD Garden, Orpheum Theatre, Citi Peforming Arts Center – you name it. (more)

Pop sensation Ke$ha just recently announced her 2011 summer tour schedule, which will kick off at the Delaware State Fair July 26th and conclude at the Comerica Theatre in Phoenix September 20th. (more)

Vampire Weekend crafts the sound of summer, seamlessly recreating the memories of their college summer escapades to Martha’s Vineyard and strolls through Harvard Yard in the form of bright, breezy beats. Providing the perfect soundtrack to sipping Arnold Palmer’s on a front porch swing, Vampire Weekend is currently on the road, ready to give summer a run for its money before breaking out the cardigans. Boston ought to be a memorable venue for Vampire Weekend, a band that so frequently throws punches at the boarding-school prep lifestyle of Harvard scholars, with references to lavish weekend excursions to Cape Cod and run-ins with the cougars of Cambridge. Vampire Weekend’s latest album, January’s Contra is a consistent, comprehensive follow-up to their debut. “Giving Up the Gun”, the second single off the album, is the telling of a washed up character living the tennis-playing, fraternity life they ponder and in turn criticize, with a video featuring cameos of Jake Gyllenhaal and Joe Jonas.  A show taking place in the city the band’s sung about so blissfully, “I’ve held dreams of Boston all of my life”, will be the cherry on top of a summer-long promotional tour, for the band and fans alike. (more)

While finding out that a concert has a great opening band is good, what could be better than two fantastic co-headliners on one tour? English singer-songwriter David Gray and Nashua, NH native Ray LaMontagne are coming together in two weeks for two back-to-back performances at the Bank of America Pavilion before continuing their US tour schedule through mid-September. David Gray first became popular with the release of his 1999 album White Ladder, featuring “This Year’s Love,” “Babylon,” and “Sail Away.”  White Ladder went on to become the year’s biggest selling record in Ireland and topped the UK charts for 151 consecutive weeks. His latest album, Draw the Line, originally released in September of 2009, was rereleased in July, preceded by the digital release of “A Moment” on May 30th.  The two-disc reissue features a bonus CD with live tracks, never-before released tracks and the B-sides “Jitterbug” and “Second Halo”. Gray is already working at a follow-up album, tentatively titled Foundling, to be released September 2010 and incorporating his new tracks into the tour set. Ray LaMontagne has fewer years under his belt in the music industry, but in the short while has gained just as much experience. LaMontagne’s debut album, Trouble, was picked up by RCA Records and released in the fall of 2004. Two years later the single “Trouble” became a top 40 hit and the album finally achieved popularity. That year LaMontagne released his second album Till the Sun Turns Black featuring the song “Three More Days.” Ray is currently touring and promoting his latest album Gossip in the Grain, featuring “You Are the Best Thing”. You can catch the husky vocals and emotional tracks of LaMontagne as well as the somber, romantic lulls of Gray as the two songwriters co-headline for two nights at Boston’s Bank of America Pavilion August 17th and 18th.

Boston waterfront’s favorite outdoor amphitheater, the Bank of America Pavilion, is hosting all ends of the rock spectrum this week- beginning with Slightly Stoopid. As Sublime’s protégé, Slightly Stoopid was signed to Skunk Records while the members were still in high school, a young start for a band that’s making quite an impact on the music world by appealing to such a wide audience. A touch of psychedelic and acoustic rock with brushes of reggae, dub and punk rock, the band has become a staple to nationwide music festivals of all genres and performed sold out stadium shows over the years in Australia, Japan, Portugal and the UK. As a band best known for their nonstop touring schedule, this year is no different: beginning the month-long Legalize It 2010 tour with two nights at the Pavilion, July 22nd and 23rd alongside opening acts Cyprus Hill and Collie Buddz. Next up, American jam band Widespread Panic will be performing on July 24th as part of their summer tour wrapping up at the end of July. With typical comparisons to “road warrior” bands like the Grateful Dead and Phish, Widespread Panic are also constantly on the go, having set the record for most sold out concerts in two major US arenas. The band released their eleventh studio album since the start of their career in 1988 this May, titled Dirty Side Down (2010), commemorating what will be 25 years together as a band. Reviewer Bill Clifford calls the album, “a return to form and the band’s roots. It’s the strongest songwriting of the band’s career, an album of multi-layered textures that will provide for extensive improvisation in performance.” Although the band lost founding member and guitarist Michael Houser to pancreatic cancer in 2002, the band continued writing, recording and performing together, as was Houser’s wish. Not only are the ticket profits going to charitable causes, but the band is also hosting a food drive at the door, so make sure to have canned goods in tow. (more)

After more than a decade of constant touring, O.A.R. isn’t quite ready to leave the road yet. Preparing for their seventh studio album following 2008’s All Sides, the band feels most comfortable amongst large crowds, which is why they’ve extended the American leg of their 2010 tour. O.A.R.’s summer tour launched July 8 in Indianapolis, following a special July 1-2 stint at Summerfest in Milwaukee. The second leg of the national tour begins September 15 at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater, FL, and wraps up October 9 at Fox Theater in Oakland, CA. The 15-date addition running through October 9th focuses primarily on the Gulf Coast and West Coast. O.A.R, short for Of a Revolution, was formed when the band mates were in school together, in 8th grade gaining its essential members and in 11th grade the band’s name and bassist. The band’s latest release Rain or Shine is a live album recorded last June in Chicago, Il. A four disc release, the album includes the 37-song set list from the two night performance that was almost cut short by a horrific thunder storm that caused a two-hour delay. “This Town”, from their latest studio album All Sides, has been their most commercially successful song to date, with features in NASCAR ads as well as ESPN and Fox Sports recaps. The album was the band’s highest charting album to date, debuting at #13 on the Billboard 200 and ranking in at the band’s second best selling alum. Their upcoming album is expected to be released in early 2011. O.A.R. will be appearing in Boston on July 29th and 30th at the Bank of America Pavilion.

Whether they’ve tempted you or asked for your number, chances are Brit-pop band Squeeze won you over back in the ‘70s with their classic chart toppers like “Tempted”, “Hourglass” and “853-5937. The band reunited for tours through the United States and United Kingdom in 2007, and this touring version has continued into 2010. Squeeze will be headlining a show with Cheap Trick at Boston’s Bank of America Pavilion on July 14th. Squeeze has been apart longer than they’ve been together, so when on tour, seeing Squeeze is a must. Beginning as a band playing local London venues as teens, Squeeze’s second album Cool For Cats, released in 1979, cemented their place as one of Britain’s most important and beloved bands. In 1981 the band put out perhaps their best-known album, East Side Story, featuring radio hit “Tempted”. The third incarnation of Squeeze was in promotion of the reissue of the band’s back catalog and has been touring ever since. Rather than taking the route of writing new material, Squeeze is embracing their past, playing a greatest hits collection and proving just why today’s British acts name Squeeze a huge inspiration. Front men Difford and Tilbrook’s relationship is one of the most fruitful partnerships in the history of pop songwriting, having written well over 1000 songs together. Don’t miss your chance to witness Squeeze and Cheap Trick live at the Bank of America Pavilion.

After playing some of the biggest festivals and venues to start off the summer, the Disco Biscuits have decided to stay on the road, announcing just last week the addition of a late summer tour. The band revealed that their late August/September run of dates will take them to some familiar places as well as new ones, including Mountain Park in Holyoke, MA and the Bank of America Pavilion in Boston in September. As one of the most successful bands on the jam-band circuit, the Disco Biscuits sprang out of University of Pennsylvania party scene in the mid-‘90s. They have since brought together the music worlds of jam bands and electronic music with its “trance-fusion” sound that mixes free form improvisational jazz and the hypnotic rhythms that inspired the rave culture. In the process the band has acquired critical acclaim and a loyal fan base. The band’s latest studio album, Planet Anthem (2010), is the product of three years, in which they absorbed everything from hip hop to pop to indie rock into their sound. They also took a much more collaborative approach than their usual songwriting technique, resulting in what the members call some of the best songs of their fourteen year catalog.   Rather than trying to translate their live jam-electronica shows into a studio album like they’ve been doing for years, the band took an opposite approach, leading to their most successful release to date. Planet Anthem debuted at #157 on the Billboard charts. Don’t miss your chance to rock out with the Disco Biscuits live at the Bank of America Pavilion! Tickets are now available!

The Bank of American Pavilion, Boston’s favorite outdoor amphitheater, is hosting at least 30 of the summer’s hottest rock acts, ranging from original classic bands like Meatloaf and the Doobie Brothers to alternative’s newer additions, Vampire Weekend and MGMT. While the month of July is set to host the original rock bands that dominated the charts in the ‘60s, ‘70s and the ‘80s: kicking off the month with Ringo Starr and his All Starr band, the Doobie Brothers and Chicago, Squeeze and Cheap Trick, Chris Isaak, Band Company and Heart. July finishes off with the Black Keys, a band that puts a modern spin on a classic bluesy sound, with heavily distorted vocals and raw, seductive guitar solos. Reminiscent of Jimi Hendrix and Led Zeppelin, the Keys’ lyrics are accessible and vintage. Their music can easily take listeners to another era, one that screams Woodstock. The Black Key’s 2010 release, Brothers, remains consistent with this antiquated sound. Wrapping up July’s concert calendar, the Black Key’s will hit the stage at the Bank of America Pavilion with the Morning Benders on July 31st.   Arcade Fire kicks off the month of August on the 1st by playing a sold out show as part of their first headlining US tour in three years. Fronted by Canadian husband and wife duo Win Butler and Regine Chassagne, Arcade Fire recently revealed the title of their highly anticipated upcoming album, named The Suburbs, due out August 3rd. They also leaked two tracks, “We Used to Wait” and “Ready to Start” which incorporate the band’s distinguished use of amplified organs with the lessening of all other elements for a more comprehensible outcome. The band is highly recognized for their multi-instrumentalist band members and uplifting, larger-than-life musical arrangements.   (more)