Welcome to Something for Nothing

After what seems a really long wait, tickets for ABDC tour can finally be purchased by the general public on Saturday August 16th. You can go straight to buy ABDC tour tickets on Ticketmaster or take a look at the full list of ABDC Tour venues and click on the specific tour stop you’re looking for.

Here’s the list of ABDC tour locations:
Sep 18 Miami, FL: Waterfront Theatre at the American Airlines Arena - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Sep 19 Tampa, FL: Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center
Sep 20 Atlanta, GA: Boisfeuillet Jones Atlanta Civic Center - Buy Your TicketsOnsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 12:00 PM EDT
Sep 21 Clemson, SC: Littlejohn Coliseum - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Sep 23 New York, NY: WaMu Theater at Madison Square Garden - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Sep 25 Boston, MA: Citi Performing Arts Center
Sep 26 Atlantic City, NJ: Adrian Phillips Ballroom - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Sep 27 Sewell, NJ: Commerce Bank Arts Centre - Buy Your Tickets (On Sale Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT)
Sep 29 Washington, DC: DAR Constitution Hall - Buy Your TicketsOnsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Sep 30 Newark, NJ: New Jersey Performing Arts Center
Oct 1 Albany, NY: The Palace Theater - Buy Your Tickets (On Sale 8/16 10:00 AM EDT)
Oct 3 Detroit, MI: Masonic Temple Theatre - Buy Your TicketsOnsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM EDT
Oct 4 Milwaukee, WI: Milwaukee Theatre - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 11:00 AM CDT
Oct 5 Rosemont, IL: Rosemont Theatre - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 12:00 PM CDT
Oct 6 Kansas City, MO: Midland Theatre - Buy Your Tickets (On Sale 8/15 10:00 AM CDT)
Oct 8 Denver, CO: Wells Fargo Theatre - Buy Your TicketsOnsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM MDT
Oct 11 Oakland, CA: Paramount Theatre of the Arts - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM PDT
Oct 12 Los Angeles, CA: Nokia Theatre L.A. LIVE????? - Moved to Oct 16???
Oct 14 Portland, OR: Rose Quarter - Theater Of The Clouds
Oct 15 Everett, WA: Comcast Arena at Everett Events Center
Oct 16 Los Angeles, CA: NOKIA Theatre LA LIVE - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM PDT
Oct 18 San Diego, CA: San Diego Sports Arena - Buy Your TicketsOnsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM PDT
Oct 19 Phoenix, AZ: Dodge Theatre - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM MST
Oct 22 Grand Prairie, TX: Nokia Theatre At Grand Prairie - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM CDT
Oct 23 Houston, TX: Jones Hall - Buy Your Tickets Onsale to General Public: Sat, 08/16/08 10:00 AM CDT

I figured I might as well round out my Elisa Toffoli posts (see my previous coverage of Elisa’s music on So You Think You Can Dance) by listing all of Elisa’s Canadian tour dates and US tour dates. I’m sad that she won’t be coming to Las Vegas, but there’s a decent chance that I could be in Salt Lake City on November 15th and it would be a lot of fun to catch Elisa in Salt Lake City.

Wed. Oct. 29 Toronto, ON - The Mod Club - Buy Tickets
Thurs. Oct. 30 Montreal QC - Le Savoy
Sun. Nov. 1 Allston, MA - Great Scott - Buy Tickets
Tues. Nov. 4 Vienna, VA (D.C.) - Barns of Wolf Trap
Wed. Nov. 5 New York, NY - Bowery Ballroom - Buy Tickets
Frid. Nov. 7 Philadelphia, PA - Johnny Brenda’s - Buy Tickets
Tues. Nov. 11 Chicago, Il - Martyrs’
Wed. Nov 12 St. Louis, MO - Off Broadway - Buy Tickets
Sat. Nov. 15 Salt Lake City, UT - Venue TBD
Wed. Nov. 19 Los Angeles, CA - The Roxy - Buy Tickets
Thurs. Nov. 20 San Francisco, CA - Café Du Nord - Buy Tickets
Sat. Nov. 22 Portland, OR - Doug Fir Lounge
Mon. Nov. 24 Seattle, WA - Triple Door

Here’s a quick biography of Elisa Toffoli:
Italian-born singer-songwriter Elisa, a multi-platinum, award-winning star in her native country, will launch her first tour of the United States and Canada on October 29. As acclaimed internationally for her powerful live performances as for her inspired, emotionally direct pop-rock recordings, Elisa has appeared on various world stages with music legends including Andrea Bocelli, Luciano Pavarotti and Tina Turner. To date, though, her only North American engagements have been singing the Italian national anthem at the closing ceremony of the 2002 Salt Lake City Winter Olympics and two sold-out shows at NYC’s Joe’s Pub in April 2008. Elisa’s highly anticipated upcoming tour is in support of her North American debut album Dancing, released July 15 on Sugar/Universal.

The itinerary kicks off with a show in Toronto on the 29th followed by one in Montreal the next night. The remainder of the tour encompasses coast-to-coast dates in the U.S., beginning with a Boston-area show at Great Scott in Allston on November 1. Highlights also include bookings at the Bowery Ballroom in NYC (11/5), Martyr’s in Chicago (11/11), the Roxy in Los Angeles, CA (11/19) and San Francisco’s Café Du Nord (11/20).

Stateside fans first became familiar with Elisa when Dancing’s title track was featured in a breathtaking routine on So You Think You Can Dance in June 2007. Organic fan reaction from that airing has since accumulated over 1 million views of the clip on YouTube, and propelled the song to the Top 20 on iTunes, where it reached close to 100,000 paid downloads prior to the album’s release. Another stand-out track from Dancing, “Rock Your Soul,” has also been featured on the hit program.

Other album highlights include the ethereal, hypnotic ballad “Rainbow,” which has a new video spotlighting Lacey Schwimmer, who originally danced to “Dancing” when it captivated music lovers on SYTYCD. Also featured are the passionate album opener “The Waves,” the heartbreaking “Broken,” the rock-flavored “Stranger” and an elegiac take on Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.” Another cover, Elisa’s dreamlike rendition of the Rolling Stones’ “Wild Horses,” is available exclusively on the iTunes version of the album.

To date, Elisa’s artistry has been honored with major awards including five from Italy’s prestigious Festival di Sanremo, an MTV European Music Awards Best Italian Artist win and a Tenco Award for Best Debut Album for Pipes And Flowers (’97). With her North American album and touring debut, Elisa is poised to win honors and hearts in the new world as well. “Having the opportunity to play here, especially, is very important because for me, it really comes down to the face to face with an audience,” says Elisa. “I’m very curious about what that will be like on the tour. I believe that we are all the same, that the world is one place. I want to see if that is true.”

I recently posted about Elisa’s music being on So You Think You Can Dance. I thought some people might be interested in some Music Videos that have been created with her music.

Here’s one of Elisa’s Song “Dancing” that was said to be created one really hot evening when they had nothing to do. Pretty cool video I think.

Elisa performing “Stay” at Festivalbar 2007 in Verona, Italy, on August 07, 2007. I love how Italian television covers these events. A little too much camera movement for me, but it’s different and interesting. Attending the concert would have been even cooler. Just look at the venue in Verona. Amo l’Italia!

Elisa live at the wind music awards. Song: Eppure sentire

Watching this stuff just makes me long to go back to Italy. There are so many things I miss about Italy and their own style of music is one of those things. I’m glad that Elisa is touring the US and I hope she does some of her Italian music. I also hope So You Think You Can Dance uses more of her music and even her Italian music. Great stuff!

I don’t know how many of you have been following my list of So You Think You Can Dance Music, but one of the interesting artists that’s had their music on multiple seasons of So You Think You Can Dance is Elisa Toffoli.

So far, Elisa Toffoli’s music has been on SYTYCD at least 3 times that I know of:
Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to Elisa’s song “Dancing” to Mia Michaels choreography. Here’s a video of Lacey Schwimmer and Kameron dancing to “Dancing”:

Some people have called this dance their favorite SYTYCD dance of all time. My favorite part is when Lacey leaps into Kameron’s arms at about the 1:15 mark.

The song Dancing sung by Elisa was also performed by Kelli Baker during the Salt Lake City/Dallas audition show:

Finally, Courtney Galiano danced a Top 6 solo to the song “Rock Your Soul” by Elisa

Well, it turns out that Lacey Schwimmer made an unofficial video for Elisa Toffoli’s song “Rainbow.” Honestly, I would have loved to see Lacey do a Rhumba to this song, but Lacey actually did a pretty credible job as an actor in this video. Enjoy:

Also, watch this blog over the next couple weeks, because I plan on giving away some free Elisa Toffoli CDs. My only hint is that if you want some free Elisa Toffoli CDs and music, then it would be a good idea to start adding thoughtful comments to my blog.

Tonight SoReal Cru and Super Cr3w went head to head. Emotions were high as the two crews had to dance three routines each.

Challenge one: Music from around the world.
Super Crew: I loved this routine. They incorporated 4-5 dance styles into one short routine. The choreography was excellent while hanging onto the B-Boy styles. I agree with J.C. that the ending was smart. They ended honoring African influence which is how they began the routine.

So Real Cru: I liked their routine; it looked like something you’d see a group of friends doing at a party. Lil Mama felt they struggled through the whole routine, which disappointed her at this point in the competition. Shane felt that they looked lost and showed that they did not have the true rhythm real dancers should have. J.C. was kinder and said they did shine in moments but it was not one of their best performances.

My first thought after these critiques was that we were heading for another Boogie Bots situation. Why would you tell a crew of dancers with two more challenges to perform, that they just proved that they didn’t have what it takes to be in this competition? Not a promising start to what should be an exciting show.

Challenge two: Start a dance craze by designing original music, lyrics and choreography.
Super Crew: They wanted to show the history of Super Cr3w and create a dance with their style that anyone could learn to do easily. Their track was called-S to the chest.

I really liked it. The S to the chest and S to the sky was easy to do and catchy. It was really funny when the camera would scan the crowd and show them trying to follow along. Talk about people with no rhythm. J.C. felt it might have represented Super Cr3w’s style a bit too much in the dancing moves but was identifiable. He said it was ok. Lil Mama thought it was fun but it wasn’t a great performance. She said they needed to stop thinking about the routines and start performing them because fans are still waiting for a great performance. Shane said it had what it needed to be a hit song and dance but he didn’t really like the performance. In fact, he thought it was one of their weakest performances so far.

SoReal Cru: They wanted to represent the dirty south. Their track was called Smash It Up.
I really liked the track and enjoyed the routine but it did border on too simple. I think it’d be a hit in the clubs though. Lil Mama, of course, didn’t find it exciting but did say she enjoyed it. Shane thought it was hot, something straight out of the hood. J.C. liked the track and thought the routine was well executed.

I agree with J.C. that the battle was now one win for each crew at this point. So now who brought it for the final challenge?

Challenge three: Last chance to prove why each crew was in the finale and should win the $100,000 prize.
Before each crew performed we saw a sympathy video with lots of crying about how much this win means to the dancers. I’ve become kind of jaded with TV editing these days and usually feel that I am being manipulated so I don’t really feel for them the way I should.

Super Cr3w: Danced to James Brown
Loved it. Lots of B-Boy moves, energy and great choreography. Just what I wanted from my favorite crew.

SoReal Cru: Danced to Lil Wayne
Loved it. Not only did they have their smooth groove but it seemed harder. It really felt like a battle everyone wanted to win.

If people were only voting for this show performance, picking a winner would be very hard. They both had good points and bad points but proved that they deserved to be in the final showdown.

VOTING INFO:
For the first time, text and phone voting will continue from last week and remain open until this Saturday, August 16th at 9am. So vote if you can!

For SoReal Cru - 1-887-RJCREW1
Text 1-22444

For Super Cr3w - 1-887-RJCREW2
Text 2-22444

Go to:
online voting

VOTING IS OPEN. Cast your vote for the hottest dance crew before polls close on Thursday, Aug 21 at 9:00 a.m. ET.

I can’t wait until next week to find out who wins!
I’ll be happy either way but my fingers are crossed for Super Cr3w.

Tonight, the remaining top two crews had to create a dance crazy from the bottom up. They had to design original music, lyrics and choreography that could be hot and start a dance craze, right now.

You be the judge.

Super Cr3w:
Song: S to the Chest

SoReal Cru:
Song: Smash It Up

Watch the people in the audience trying to do the moves.

NOTE: This will open a new window, taking you to MTV’s official site. The videos for Super Cr3w and SoReal Cru will begin after a few commercials.