Mark Hoppus of blink-182 Kansas City isn’t a big enough town to host too many dilemmas for concert-goers, but on Friday night it had a doozie.  After putting out a fantastic, ambient soft rock album, Bon Iver played to a sold out 2,000 capacity Uptown Theater; way out on the side of town, the almost polar-opposite of a band, Top-of-the-World Pop-Punkers blink-182 played an amphitheater nine times as large that looked well-over half full.  The divide speaks to blink-182′s appeal – no one could ever argue Pop-Rock...

There is something about Kansas City that always confuses me, I would like to think of my home town as great place to see live music, and hell some times the place I call home surprises me. The Cults and Guards show at the Riot Room comes to mind. A time when I wasn’t expecting the city to show it’s face and it did. For a while there my city was right with me, we stood shoulder to shoulder and supported some great music. On Saturday night in Lawrence we lost touch, we had a fight and didn’t want to spend time...

I’m not sure who called the shots behind the scenes to determine the lineup at this year’s rendition of the now annual Buzz Beach Ball but by the time I left a not very full LiveStrong Sporting Park I had determined that they got it all wrong. Why that was I’ll get to in a moment but first some background. All week long I had been referring to the show as “nineties-palooza” thanks to its stacked headline roster of bands Bush, Incubus and Jane’s Addiction. These are all acts that if you be...

So the inaugural Kanrocksas is over and in the books. Will it return next year? Remains to be seen. Personally I really hope it does as I had a freaking blast. Before I go any further however allow me go ahead and clarify in the interest of full disclosure that I did attend this year’s festival for “free” as a credentialed member of the media doing my writing and editorial duty for the site you’re on now Lost in Reviews. That out of the way, would I have paid to attend Kanrocksas? Yes I would....

Check out our our video of all the day one excitement. Kanrocksas is over and we have all gone home, but that’s no reason to forget what happened on the first day of this wonderful festival. I just hope that this wont be the last time we think about Kanrocksas and rather just the beginning of an on going tradition. So here is to Kanrocksas with hopes that it returns for years to come, but for now enjoy this walk down memory lane. By Ryan Davis

As I walked to the Ad Astra stage to see OK GO I began to wonder if the walk would be worth it. Having never seen the band live fears that they were just another hype machine went though my head. These thoughts couldn’t have proved to be more wrong as OK GO set the bar for the rest of the bands for the day. It was almost as is if singer Damian Kulash was screaming to the other bands saying “top this!” The band did it all, everything from a hand bell performance, an acoustic moment from within the crowd, and even pulling...

Right from the beginning you could feel that day two of Kanrocksas was a bigger animal, the heat wasn’t keeping the thousands of people in attendance away from Kansas City’s biggest concerts. Day one was impressive, but nothing compared to day two. The line up was solid boasting band after band with must see potential. Running from stage to stage was a must as missing any of the bands would leave you with that “I wish I was there feeling,” but the show really didn’t start to heat up until Austin’s...

It’s day two of Kanrocksas!!! Congratulations you made it out of day one alive. Day two is a whole other animal, they turned up the heat and released a “Sabertooth Tiger”. The line up of day two has added up to what dreams are made of and you can see all the action in the photo-gallery below. It’s 7:00 PM, the sun’s about to go down, soon Muse will take the stage, but until then here are all the highlights from the day’s activities. Keep checking back with this page for more pictures of day...

Grumble all you want about the name. Just say it or attempt to, since many seem to have their own way of saying “Kanrocksas.” It’s abrasive, it doesn’t work, and in some cases, just down right pisses local folks off. Mix in the idea of having a music festival that is aiming for the big leagues, like the concurrently running and very similar lineup at Lollapalooza, or say Coachella or Bonnaroo, and having the fest at a Nascar race track and people seemed mixed. There were many things leading up to the inaugural...

Kanrocksas is off to a hot but fun start out at the Kansas Speedway in Kansas City, KS. By 5:30 things were humming along nicely as nine bands had already played sets on four stages spread across the speedway infield as crowds continued to grow early consuming tons of bottled water (and beer) but seemingly enjoying themselves in the heat with music playing form all over. Mother nature was also helping out with some cloud cover. Here are some photos we caught of the early goings on at the inaugural Kanrocksas. Keep coming back...

Arctic Monkeys and Young Buffalo at the Palladium in Dallas, Texas on August 1, 2011 Young Buffalo is a band that I had never heard of before being asked to review this concert.  There are so many little known bands nowadays.  I do not listen to radio much anymore due to the fact that Dallas does not have a decent alternative station.  Most of the music I have found recently is because of friends’ recommendations, hearing it somewhere on the internet, or in a movie.  Going to a concert and getting surprised by an opening...

Guards had grabbed me with their free debut LP and released cover songs earlier this year and ever since then the album has yet to leave my iPod. With their performance at The Riot Room on Tuesday the band has turned me into a believer. Before I had the chance to catch the show I was given the opportunity to talk with Richie the front man for the band. We talked about Gaurds’ new album, Stage decorations and made fun of My Space a bit. As always enjoy the interview and let me know what you thought in the comments below....

For a show that was on the verge of being canceled it seemed that nothing could stop Cults and Guards, not even a pre-show power outage claiming the whole street would keep these bands from rocking a near capacity crowd. I can’t imagine I was the only one shocked by the amount of people that filled the tiny bar. Cults and Guards have always felt like two bands that were my own little secrets. Though while one more than the other, I did enjoy thinking that I had these bands all to myself.  Even though this feeling of artist...

In light of the news from Comic Con that Jurassic Park 4 will finally see the light of day I was able to visit the park and talk with one of the best bands in the world, Foxy Shazam. Risking life and limb outside of one of the dinosaur’s cages we discuss the band’s new album, the future of Foxy Shazam, and their recent run in with the President. In all seriousness though if Foxy isn’t in your current iPod playlist I suggest you seek them out and if you know of the band and love the album you must see them live....

Everyone knows that sometimes the planets align and provide us with a perfect night of enjoyment. This just happened to me on Thursday night at the Record Bar in Kansas City. I had arrived to review an indie band called Empires and really knew nothing about them or the other acts they were playing with. They were the starting act for a line up that would also include My Gold Mask and a very interesting act that goes by the name Mark Mallman. The bar was, unfortunately for the bands, not at capacity for the show, but it was a...