If only Jon Lovitz still had The Critic. He could go miles with Hoobastank.

Growly rockers Hoobastank indulge in free-concert shenanigans tonight when they set up poolside at the Rio’s VooDoo Beach. You can score your free tickets from SpyOn. Or, if you like your hard rock a little harder and a lot more metalcore-y, there’s Lamb of God over at the House of Blues along with Hatebreed and 3 Inches of Blood. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

After they lost their eighth guitarist that tour, Filter opted to build stages that don’t slant toward the pit.

Two more poolside concert series are gearing up to join the you-got-water-wings-in-my-music fray as the VooDoo Beach series returns to the Rio May 27 with Filter. Yet there’s a newcomer too, to join VooDoo and the Hard Rock’s Friday Night Live — the Cruzan Campfire Concert Series, which starts June 17 with the Spin Doctors. That should finally satisfy the need you’ve had for the last 19 years to hear “Two Princes” live.

VooDoo follows up July 8 with Hoobastank and Aug. 19 with Crash Kings and Vertical Horizon. No other dates for the Cruzan series have been announced yet. Those Palms shows, though, are $30 — or $50 for a VIP ticket that gets you into a special viewing area and a free cocktail. The VooDoo shows, on the other hand, are free with a printed ticket from 107.9 FM.

There is, of course, someone out there who has Pocket Full of Kryptonite posters all over their bedroom taped next to pictures of Chris Barron with the eyes erased who’ll gladly drop 50 bones on that show. And another $20 on a T-shirt. And possibly ask Barron if his rag smells like ether. We’re just not sure who else socks away 50 bucks in Spin Doctors money these days.

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Al Powers | SpyOnVegas.com)

Man, you know the recession is getting bad when fruit prices are so high the Carmen Miranda look has to be improvised.

By Jason Scavone

Yeah, you know me.

Pool season: Desperately hanging on by its fingertips. Pool concert season: Well, you don’t need a bikini to rock. (Although we strongly recommend it.)

Our Lady Peace heads things up at the Rio’s VooDoo Beach tonight with a free concert tied up in the SpyOnVegas.com Open Bar. Go score yourself a free ticket here.

Incidentally, shouldn’t these guys drag Third Eye Blind with them around on tour to play “Kryptonite” before they come on stage for their big “Superman’s Dead” finale? Also, are we the only ones who think lead singer Raine Maida sounds like a prepubescent Muppet? No? Just us? Fine. Be that way.

By Jason Scavone

It’s like Piet Mondrian threw up on prom tuxes. Art joke! (Via myspace.com)

If you want to understand why we won the Cold War, all you need to do is look at two bands. The Presidents of the United States of America named themselves after a collection of politicians whose office is routinely described as that of “Leader of the Free World.” Gorky Park named themselves after the Soviet version of Six Flags Over Texas. Plus, Gorky Park totally sucked.

The Presidents are at VooDoo Beach at the Rio tonight along with a band named for the second-greatest icon of American culture, The Ataris, and just for good measure the SpyOnVegas.com Open Bar is running concurrently from 6 to 9 p.m. Go ahead and get your free ticket here, confident in the knowledge that this is the reason the Berlin Wall fell.

By Jason Scavone

Lookit ‘em. They’re casting devious stares. RIGHT IN YOUR DIRECTION.

The ’90s were unquestionably full of super-dumb lyrics posing as arty free verse (we’re looking at you, Collective Soul) but there isn’t any combination of two words that send us into an apoplectic rage quite like “disco lemonade.” So, well done, Marcy Playground.

Also: Perhaps when you’re writing the words to your hit single, maybe you shouldn’t give the song a title that makes everyone else on the planet immediately think of a pedophile van. But what do we know, we never had an ubiquitous alt-rock hit 10 years ago.

Regardless, the “Sex and Candy” guys are at VooDoo Beach inside the Rio for a free show tonight to open up for Nine Days — with Open Bar courtesy of SpyOnVegas.com. Get your ticket here.

By Jason Scavone

At least they didn’t do that stupid ‘Bittersweet’ song. That was Big Head Todd. Worst. Lyrics. Ever.

Toad the Wet Sprocket comes out of that dark corner of the ’90s when serious, earnest, acoustic-playing slow-jam bands were somehow lumped into the alternative section instead of being confined to the ghetto where bands played on your dentist’s receptionist’s radio belong. See also, Maniacs, 10,000; Blossoms, Gin; and the Blowfish, Hootie. At least they got their name from a Monty Python bit, but we will, for the rest of our life, always confuse them with Big Head Todd and the Monsters. The show is at 7 p.m. tonight at the Rio’s VooDoo Beach (keep your shirt on) and runs concurrently with the SpyOnVegas.com Open Bar from 6 to 9. Get your voucher here. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Al Powers | SpyOnVegas.com)

This is how you end up with a rice necklace.

By Jason Scavone

Still searching the world over for their Eurotrash girl.

What the world needs now is a Cracker show at the Rio’s VooDoo Beach, apparently. David Lowery hit the scene in 1984 with Camper Van Beethoven. When that band split in 1990, he returned in ’92 with Cracker. Now 17 years and nine studio albums later, we’re going to go ahead and assume he still hates his generation. To get yourself up to that level of surliness, the SpyOnVegas.com Open Bar runs from 6 to 9 p.m. before the show. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Ray Alamo | SpyOnVegas.com)

One, somwhere Joey Chestnut and Kobayashi are sizing this guy up as a potential challenger for the throne. And two, this being the internet, there has to be at least one Burrito Deep Throat fetish site, and this pic will be making the rounds for months.

By Jason Scavone