City: Asheville, NC
Address: 101 Biltmore Ave.
Capacity: 1100
Coolest Feature: Its private club, Pulp, which displays a live feed of shows taking place on the main stage

Located in downtown Asheville, The Orange Peel is a shining jewel of the South. The building has a history as an epicenter for entertainment, as it served as the Skateland Rollerdome for over a decade beginning in 1950. Its origins as a concert venue began when it became home to several R&B and soul clubs, the most popular of which was (you guessed it) The Orange Peel. Early performers included The Commodores—imagine watching Lionel Richie & Co. croon their asses off during their early days, mutton chops and all.

After nearly three decades of vacancy, the spot reopened in 2002, bearing the same name as a tribute to the venue’s history. It quickly established itself as one of the best live music clubs in not only the South, but the entire country. In 2009, renovations increased its capacity to 1,100 and added a smoking deck to the club’s north side. Management also went the extra mile and added Pulp, a private club located on The Orange Peel’s lower level. Pulp compliments its full bar with an HD television that displays all shows taking place on the main stage above. The Orange Peel has a history of putting on new talent as well booking the legends, so everyone from Ice Cube to the most obscure acts have blessed the stage. The original managers would be damn proud.

Click here for the full list.

Asheville, North Carolina isn’t exactly a cultural hub for rap music; it’s a hippie college town, full of bohemian street buskers and hipster hookah bars. But nobody seems to have informed Big Boi, whose commanding, career-spanning performance at the Orange Peel – the second date on his Shoes for Running Tour – briefly transformed the city into a buzzing hip-hop haven.

After emerging to a fanfare of triumphant horn samples, the rapper – decked out in a red baseball cap and massive gold chains – launched into a fiery version of “Objectum Sexuality,” an electro-pop stand-out from his most recent album, last year’s Dangerous Lies & Vicious Rumors. “ATL in the mothafuckin’ house!” he shouted to the sold-out crowd, strutting across the stage in front of a five-piece band. In typical Big Boi fashion, he rarely paused to catch his breath from that point forward.

The set was a blur of bravado and charisma, blending a bevy of sizzling new joints with classics from his pioneering former group, Outkast. Getting lost in that stream of verses was disorienting, in a good way: In one of several medleys, “Objectum” merged seamlessly into a string of early-day gems (“ATLiens,” the spellbinding “Skew it on the Bar-B,” the Dirty South anthem “Rosa Parks”), offering the evening’s most breathless highlight.

“We got so many hits!” Big Boi bragged moments later, doling out front-row high-fives like Halloween candy. “What the fuck y’all wanna hear next?” As it turns out, they wanted all of those hits, from a sing-along take on the soulful “Mrs. Jackson” to a breezy run through “The Way You Move” to a painfully short tease of the hypnotic “B.O.B.” to an ultra-funky “So Fresh, So Clean.” It’s easy to forget just how many hip-hop classics this guy’s written – that is, until you hear them all live, cranked to a deafening blast.

Big Boi’s sturdy spread of backing musicians (guitarist, drummer, big-haired vocalist, turntablist, and hype-man BlackOwned C-Bone) offered muscle and dynamics, rescuing the monotone moans of “Apple of My Eye” and beefing up the Dirty South grind of “Tom Pettie.” But there’s no chance of out-classing Big Boi himself: Pound-for-pound, he’s the most technically gifted rapper on the planet – a virtuoso of flow. His rhymes unfurl in acrobatic mazes of rhythm, like jazzy drum solos: triplet rolls, metronomic pulses, counter-beat contrails. And, like his old partner-in-crime, Andre 3000, he has the effortless cool to match. Whether he’s rhyming about oral sex or ranting about the evils of government, it’s hard to take your eyes and ears off him.

There were a few minor speed-bumps – mostly when Big Boi gracefully offered to share the stage with his Dungeon Family brethren. Birthday-boy Killer Mike successfully hyped up the crowd with a rousing mini-set: Between songs, he joked about his weight (“I ain’t got no hype man, and my doctor says this counts as cardio”), ranted about evil cops (a double-bird “Fuck the police!”), and bathed the crowd in heartfelt praise. But his abrupt appearance mid-way through Big Boi’s set (performing the sex-fantasy “A.D.I.D.A.S.”) came off like a jovial buzz-kill. (Ditto C-Bone’s lackluster “College Park.”) But that didn’t phase the rowdy Asheville crowd, whose presence grew in intensity with each track, tipsy ladies grinding on their men, bespectacled indie-rock dudes unleashing their inner groove.

“The energy in this room is mothafuckin’ incredible!” Big Boi observed. Well after midnight, as the rattled masses stumbled out into the streets of their mountain home, the party only seemed to be warming up.

Despite his best efforts to try to continue touring, Morrissey has to take a hiatus and will not be able to continue on the rest of the tour. Morrissey thanks all of his fans for their well wishes and thoughts. Refunds for the remaining shows are available at point of purchase.

Morrissey is recognized as one of the most prominent artists of his generation and is an idol for people around the world. Pitchfork has called him “one of the most singular figures in Western popular culture from the last twenty years.” Morrissey’s influence can be seen and felt throughout the music of countless artists who have noted him as their inspiration.

The following Morrissey North American Tour Dates have been pulled down:

3/18 Lawrence, KS @ Liberty Hall

3/19 Lincoln, NE @ Rococo Theatre

3/22 Minneapolis, MN @ Orpheum

3/23 Chicago, IL @ Chicago Theater

3/27 Clear Lake, IA @ Surf Ballroom

3/29 Nashville, TN @ Ryman Auditorium

3/30 Atlanta, GA @ Cobb Energy Center

4/2 Asheville, NC @ Orange Peel

4/3 Richmond, VA @ National

4/6 Philadelphia, PA @ Tower Theater

4/8 Flint, MI @ Whiting Auditorium

4/9 Indianapolis, IN @ Murat Theater

4/12 Beaumont, TX @ Jefferson Theater

4/13 Pharr, TX @ Pharr Entertainment Center

4/15 Dallas, TX @ Palladium

4/16 Austin, TX @ Austin Music Hall

4/19 Phoenix, AZ @ Marquee Theater

4/20 Las Vegas, NV @ The Chelsea at The Cosmopolitan of Las Vegas

4/23 El Paso, TX @ Tricky Falls

4/26 Denver, CO @ Temple Hoyne Buell Theatre

4/28 Salt Lake City, UT @ Kingsbury Hall

4/30 San Francisco, CA @ The Warfield

“One of the most gratifying parts of Bonnaroo is knowing that we were part of a band’s early success and able to help nurture them in their development stages,” said Superfly’s Rick Farman. “We want the Bonnaroo365 Tour to underscore this part of the festival and to hopefully give emerging artists yet another platform from which to grow their careers.”

“Samsonite provides students with bags that stand up to their fast-paced lifestyle – from the classroom to musical festivals like Bonnaroo365,” said Stephanie Goldman, Director, Marketing Communications, Samsonite. “We’re thrilled to support artists that are poised to make a lasting impression on the music world, in the same way Samsonite bags stand the test of time.”

Confirmed Dates (all dates include White Denim and Maps & Atlases):

October 24, Granada Theater, Lawrence, KA #
October 25, Bourbon Theater, Lincoln, NE #
October 26, University of Wisconsin, Madison, WI #
October 28, Lincoln Hall, Chicago, IL #

44 Wall Street 22nd Fl. New York, NY 10005 Tel: 212.619.1360 Fax: 212.619.1669

Big Hassle

Page 2

October 29, The Bluebird, Bloomington, IN $
October 30, A&R Music Bar, Columbus, OH $
October 31, The Visulite Theatre, Charlotte, NC $
November 1, Lincoln Theatre, Raleigh, NC $
November 2, Jefferson Theatre, Charlottesville, VA $
November 3, Orange Peel, Asheville, NC %
November 5, Georgia Theatre, Athens, GA %
November 6, The Lyric Oxford, Oxford, MS %
November 7, One Eyed Jacks, New Orleans, LA %
November 8, Lola’s, Fort Worth, TX %
November 11, Antone’s, Austin, TX %

# w/ Team Spirit / $ w/ Tiny Victories / % w/ Asherel

Open for Sum 41 on the Orange Peel’s stage

Sum 41 is on tour now and will be playing a show on our stage Saturday, December 1st! This tour is to celebrate the 10th anniversary of their hit album “Does This Look Infected?” And, they want one of YOU to be their opening act…yeah you heard it right. You could be opening for Sum 41 on our stage! So get your bands ready and start those video cameras because you could be the next big thing on stage! (…and if you want to really impress Sum 41, they suggest doing a cover of one their songs)! Upload to TopBlip.com

Sum 41 is excited to see who they will share the stage with! Let the contest begin! Start uploading now!

As you all know by now, tickets go on sale this Friday at 1pm.  Tickets for this show will sell out FAST! Keep in mind that unfortunately, not everyone who wants tickets for this show will get them – demand will exceed supply. Once the fan club pre-sale is accounted for, the venue has less than 1000 tickets to sell. There are probably 5 times that many people in the Asheville area alone who want to buy tickets.

The good news is, you have several options for ticket purchasing. Tickets will be on sale at The Orange Peel Box Office at 1pm (people will line up early, so be prepared to wait in line), over the phone (1-800-514-3849), and online (see ticket link below). If you choose to come to the box office, our advice is to arrive the earliest you can. The people who wait the longest will be the ones most assured of getting tickets, so bring a camp chair and get comfy!

If you are planning to purchase tickets online, we’d like to share a couple tips for success. 

First, go directly to the Etix website to purchase the tickets at 1pm – do not go through The Orange Peel site as this is just an extra step that will slow you down.  Here is the link for the Etix listing: bookmark this page! Secondly, we do not recommend using a smart phone to purchase tickets. Our website is not (yet) mobile optimized, so we highly recommend using an actual computer for online purchasing, not a cell phone browser. If you only have a phone, your best bet is to call Etix at 1-800-514-3849.

Once you go to the ticket link, clear your computer’s browsing history. See the bottom of this post for directions on how to do this on various browsers. Doing this should reset the page so it will be ready for your purchase at 1pm.  If this listing still reads “OFF SALE ONLINE” at 1pm, quickly clear your history again.

Finally, be sure that you enter your credit card billing information accurately in order to avoid an error in processing your order. Online shopping carts will probably fill up with most of the tickets online VERY quickly, within 1-2 minutes – so good luck!

How to clear your browsing history:

Internet Explorer 8 and above

1.      From the Safety menu in the upper right, click Delete Browsing History... .

2.      Deselect Preserve Favorites website data, and select Temporary Internet files, Cookies, and History.

3.      Click Delete.

Internet Explorer 7

1.      From the Tools menu in the upper right, select Internet Options.

2.      Under “Browsing history”, click Delete... .

3.      To delete your cache, click Delete files... .

To delete your cookies, click Delete cookies... .

To delete your history, click Delete history... .

4.      Click Close, and then click OK to exit.

Firefox 3.5 and above for Windows

1.      From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History... .

2.      From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.

3.      Click the down arrow next to “Details” to choose what history elements to clear (e.g., check Cookies to clear cookies). Click Clear Now.

Firefox 3 for Windows

1.      From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History... , and then select the items you want to delete (e.g., Browsing & Download History, Cache, Cookies).

2.      Click Clear Recent History... .

Chrome

1.      In the browser bar, enter:  chrome://settings/clearBrowserData

2.      Select the items you want to clear (e.g., Clear browsing history, Clear download history, Empty the cache, Delete cookies and other site and plug-in data).

You can choose the period of time for which you want to clear cached information from the Obliterate the following items from: drop-down menu. To clear your entire cache, select the beginning of time.

3.      Click Clear browsing data.

Safari

1.      From the Safari menu, select Reset Safari... .

2.      From the menu, select the items you want to reset, and then click Reset. As of Safari 5.1, Remove all website data covers both cookies and cache.

Firefox 3.5 and above for Mac OS X

1.      From the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History.

2.      From the Time range to clear: drop-down menu, select the desired range; to clear your entire cache, select Everything.

3.      Click the down arrow next to “Details” to choose which elements to clear. Click Clear Now.

Firefox 3 for Mac OS X

1.      In Firefox, from the Tools menu, select Clear Recent History.

Select the elements you want to clear (e.g., Browsing & Download History, Cache, Cookies), and then click Clear Private Data Now.

http://content.usatoday.com/communities/popcandy/post/2012/03/the-pop-traveler-ten-reasons-to-visit-asheville-nc/1#.T2j4LcX2bSg

Alex Finlay is a tech at The Orange Peel, a renowned Asheville venue. We checked in with him to discuss Moogfest, the local scene in Asheville, and Moog’s influence in general. Alex will be working at the Moogoplex during the concert, demoing synths and theremins for festival goers, and will also be volunteering for the Moog Foundation in local schools. He still hopes he can find time to check out some of his favorite acts at the fest, including Amon Tobin and the Flaming Lips.

The Tuned Inn: How long have you been in Asheville?

Alex Finlay: It’ll be 4 years this month. By now I’m sort of ‘the resident electronic music guy’ here at The Orange Peel.

TTI: What else do you do in Asheville, besides teching for shows?

AF: I moved to Asheville for the music scene, as a musician as well as for my job. I started off as a guitar player in high school, like many people do I guess. I have a project now with synth and piano and drums, dance-oriented with a classically influenced idea of form. Called the Graviton Project –  a graviton being the theoretical particle that explains gravity, in physics. Anyway, after high school I went to school to study music, but ultimately transferred to Middle Tennessee State to study recording. Then I worked in Nashville for a couple of years, but the country music scene wasn’t for me – it’s far too label-dominated. And since then I’ve been here.

“Back in the day they would do these boom box symphonies, where they would get 30 different boomboxes each playing a different take on different instruments, each played by a different person and they would conduct it like a symphony.”

TTI: What’s the best part of your job?

AF: Getting to meet guys from The Glitch Mob, Bassnectar, Derek from Pretty Lights  - quizzing them on theory and seeing how they visualize their music. The beauty of this kind of music is there’s as many ways of using the tech as there are people using it. Some bands are more inclined to make backing tracks and play solo instruments over those tracks, where other people are more DJ style, other people use more sequencing. With a guitar there’s only so many ways to play it and so many sounds you can make. I also saw Pretty Lights recently, who do these long form, almost symphonic form – much less loop-based than a lot of electronic musicians. He does a good job having the video tie in well with the song.

TTI: So the stage show is very important to you?

AF: Well that’s my profession, so yes. One of the down sides to electronic music is that it isn’t as exciting to watch as it is to watch someone running around the stage playing a guitar. So it’s important to show it in a cinematic way.

TTI: Is there anyone who has a particularly creative stage show?

AF: Many people – but The Glitch Mob comes to mind. They just have three multi-touch displays and drum pads – and a computer. It makes it more of a dynamic stage show. I think the interface is very important. One of my favorite things about the Moog instruments is the big knobs they have. It seems like a small thing, but then you can really grab it and make adjustments live. Also Livid Instruments [a company that builds handmade MIDI control devices], out of Austin, does cool stuff with interfaces.

TTI: What’s the hardest part of the job?

AF: When we’ve got the big truck load in – a semi worth of lighting gear. There’s a church that meets here Sunday mornings, so we have to set that up, and break it down afterwards and set up for a whole other show after. That’s like, 12 hours of work. But generally it’s actually a lot less difficult to set up for electronic music, because they mix it themselves from onstage. What gets tricky is mixing live instruments on top of that – it’s hard to get it to sound balanced and come through clearly in the mix.

“Part of it is getting out into schools and showing kids how to interface with this technology. Showing kids, hey look this is the science behind these strange sounds.”

TTI: What bands are you looking forward to at Moogfest 2011?

AF: This guy Amon Tobin, he has a really good act I have heard. He has this crazy 3D mapping visual set up. Also excited about seeing the Flaming Lips. I was a Flaming Lips fan since back in the mid ‘90s. Back in the day they would do these boombox symphonies, where they would get 30 different boomboxes each playing a different take on different instruments, each played by a different person and they would conduct it like a symphony. Also an album they came out with back then with four different albums meant to be played simultaneously.

TTI: Will any of your favorite acts be playing The Orange Peel?

AF: I’m not going to be working at The Orange Peel then actually – I’m volunteering with the Moog Foundation. It’s an organization that’s dedicated to teaching about the space where music and science collide. Part of it is organizing the archives of Moog’s work and designs, but part of it is getting out into schools and showing kids how to interface with this technology. Showing kids, hey look this is the science behind these strange sounds. The beauty of these synthesizers is you can just sit down and start turning knobs and get crazy sounds. It’s kind of a mystery to sit down with a box and imagine how it makes music, so we want to help them make that transition. Friday and Sunday I’ll be working at the Moogoplex, though, where they’ll have all the Moog instruments and theremins set up. Everyone should should check that out, it’s awesome.

TTI: What band did you like best at Moogfest 2010:

AF: Jonsi, he just had this amazing show. He got the company that does stage design for the Metropolitan Opera to do his stage design. Also Massive Attack had one of the best light shows I have ever seen. Nosaj Thing also had a really unique approach I got really into.

TTI: Any more thoughts on Moog?

AF: Moog is a presence. It definitely fosters a community of electronic music here. A pretty diverse mix of music comes through The Orange Peel – everything from Country to dance. But the presence of Moog the company and of Moog himself, that definitely draws a lot of people to Asheville – myself included, really.

Interview by James Kraft.

Asheville Pizza & Brewing on Coxe Ave. will host pre-parties at the Downtown location as gathering places for the fans and other restaurant goers before electronic music events at the Orange Peel this Fall!

Head to Asheville Pizza before Caspa on 9/16, Cut Copy on 9/26, Junior Boys on 10/11 and Skrillex on 11/6 to eat amazing pizza (we love the Shear Delight pie, ourselves…), enjoy some signature Asheville Brewing flavors, mix and mingle with other fans and maybe win some additional tickets to future shows!  For each of the shows in our electronic music series,  Asheville Brewing is giving away 2 pairs of tickets to the show, when available, to party attendees.

Find and fan Asheville Brewing Co on facebook – http://www.facebook.com/#!/asheville.brewing and follow their posts for MORE electronic music prize packs – inlcuding 3 pairs of tickets (6 total) for specific electronic shows at the Peel!

Look for Asheville Pizza folks at their table in the front hallway at the above shows and stop by and say hi! They’ll be meeting and greeting fellow electronic music fans and giving away some sweet promotional items – tshirts, chances to win signed posters, and more!

Launch the “Greening the Orange Peel” Environmental Initiative

The Orange Peel, the Southeast’s premier live music venue, is teaming up with Asheville GreenWorks to launch Greening the Orange Peel, a new program that will focus on composting and recycling the majority of the waste generated at Orange Peel shows, as well as other ecologically friendly changes, to be unveiled as the year goes on.

The composting program will turn Orange Peel 12 oz beer cups, paper plates, and pizza leftovers into high quality topsoil, diverting large volumes of materials from Buncombe County’s landfill.  And with the addition of #6 plastics to the recycling services offered by Asheville’s Curbside Management, the Orange Peel’s larger 16 oz cups will also be saved from the landfill.

In total, the new program will save about 50,000 cups from the landfill in its first year, or approximately 840 cubic feet of space or 32 cubic yards, in cups alone.  Paper towels, paper plates, and food waste will all be composted, and items collect for recycling at the Peel will include the larger beer cups, as well as aluminum cans and glass.

“Our composting and recycling efforts will keep all of the plastic cup waste out of the dump,” said Liz Whalen, Orange Peel Marketing Director. “We feel so much better knowing that, even with almost 200 concerts and events a year, we’ll be sending virtually no plastic cups to the landfill anymore.”

“When visitors attend Orange Peel shows, starting this Friday night, they’ll notice new Asheville GreenWorks recycling and composting stations inside the venue,” said Eric Bradford, Asheville GreenWorks’ Clean Communities Coordinator.  “For the first few shows this weekend and next week, we’ll have Asheville GreenWorks volunteers on site to help people understand which receptacle each item goes into and help them sort.  Over time, we hope to cut down to almost zero landfill waste at the Orange Peel.”

The new receptacles will be well signed and placed in various locations around the Orange Peel’s main floor as well as downstairs, at PULP, beginning at the Vieux Farka Touré show on Friday, September 2nd.

In addition to composting and recycling, the Greening the Orange Peel program will include other “green” changes, such as switching to automatic-sensor hand towel dispensers, which have been shown to reduce the amount of waste by 30% versus manual dispensers. The club already features a unique green cooling system, using the BigAss Fan and the ”Mountain Air Cooling” exhaust system: multiple large-scale wall and roof exhaust fans, located strategically to help cool the room overnight and create air flow in an environmentally friendly way.

“We’re really excited about these green improvements, and look forward to putting even more green plans into action in the future,” said Whalen. “The great thing is that we’re doing business in a town like Asheville where the community is already really environmentally conscious and we have some great partner organizations like Asheville GreenWorks and Danny’s Dumpsters, who handles the composting, to help us get there. Our goal is to become the greenest music venue in America.”

Make sure to take a look around, and explore the new features of the site including the podcast, easy to use design, improved calendar and ticketing and more. Our main goal is to serve you, so please don’t hesitate to contact us at info@theorangepeel.net with feedback.

Hope to see you soon at the Peel!