Miami & The Beaches Photo Blog

A 20-year old man was killed after being shot multiple times upon arriving at his Lauderhill home early Sunday morning.<p/> Lauderhill police did not immediately identify the man.

A man was shot and killed Tuesday night in Miami's Allapattah neighborhood.<p/> About 8 p.m., the man stepped out of his car and was heading to a friend's house in the 1300 block of Northwest 27th Street when someone shot him multiple times, said Jeff Giordano, a Miami police spokesman.

Police have identified a man who was shot multiple times in a parking lot apartment complex.<p/> Robert Anthony Carter, 22, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the complex in the 800 block of Northwest 155th Lane, Miami-Dade police said. Investigators concluded the victim was accosted by several people with guns about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Police have identified a man who was shot multiple times in the parking lot of an apartment complex.<p/> Robert Anthony Carter, 22, died of multiple gunshot wounds at the complex in the 800 block of Northwest 155th Lane, Miami-Dade police said. Investigators concluded the victim was accosted by several people with guns about 5 a.m. Tuesday.

Police have released the names of the two victims who died during a midday shooting Wednesday in Overtown.<p/> Jeremy Lowe, 21, and Dennis Hill, 20, were both shot multiple times when two men carrying assault rifles shot at a crowd gathered at Northwest 5th Avenue and 8th Street. A third person was also hit and remains in serious condition.

After an aggravating day of forced backtracking through the New York subway system on Saturday (thank you MTA construction), I finally made it to see Drummer play with the Royal Bangs at the Mercury Lounge on Houston Street. I guess I made the rookie mistake of showing up early and I was turned away from the door, and forced to catch a drink at one of the nearby pubs along the street. I made another attempt to get into the lounge at 9:00, when the show was scheduled, and had to wait again to get into the door. Feeling my patience growing even thinner, I opted to return later and began to wander aimlessly around the Lower East Side wondering why they wouldn’t just let me into the club so that I could have a drink before the show.

I had just happened to be walking by the club a little after 10:00 when the bouncer, who recognized me from my previous attempts at entry, called me over and said I could come in. Since I was covering the event, I was supposed to be included on the guest list; however, the ditzy girl who was in charge of checking people in couldn’t find my name on the list. I asked her to check the list multiple times, told her that I was from joonbug.com, and even dropped the name of the public relations person that I had been contacted through. She just looked at me and said, “Those names mean nothing to me.” Oh what a foolish, foolish girl you are.

I reluctantly paid the $12 cover and was pissed that I now had a limited cash supply in order to buy drinks. I took refuge from the crowd along the wall, cradling my plastic cup of beer, and waited for the Royal Bangs to start off the show. With their mustaches flared, they began to play their set which relied too much on the preprogrammed drum beats that overshadowed the live drums. In spite of their reliance on the drum machine, their set was a good start to the rock-filled evening and really took off when they opted to forego the electro beats and rock out with an extra floor-tom and snare drum to accentuate the drum beat.

When they broke from their set and the crowd exited for a necessary smoke, I had a chance to talk with a man named Nate Ranger, whom I thought was the most interesting individual there. He was much older than anyone in the young, hip crowd in attendance and came in brandishing two walking canes which he told me were due to a spill he took on his motorcycle. We discussed the state of modern indie music and how it held similarities with R&B music from the ’60s. The house music that was playing in the interim had a low, harmonica drawl that harmonized the melody and I couldn’t help but to agree with his statement. We talked more about this and that until the crowd resurged back into the lounge as Drummer began to ready themselves for their set.

They had the look of an “everyday-Joe” band, wearing regular t-shirts and even a thick pair of black-framed glasses, but when they started to play you could definitely hear the musicianship. They sounded much like a live version of their album, but with the kind of passion and enthusiasm that surpassed the sound on their record and made for a more exciting show. Singer/guitarist, Patrick Carney, had the delivery and control of a well experienced band leader who not only led the rest of the band, but the entire audience through a musical experience that none would be able to forget. The musical highs kept coming all the way until they had finished their set, and the audience looked around at each other in disbelief that it was over. If Drummer had decided to play even one encore song, it would have left a legendary memory on the minds of all that were in attendance.

Even though I was met with opposition by a less than competent list checker, I left the show content with the experience of which I had partaken. The music was performed exceptionally well; so well in fact, that I had now become a fan rather than simply a casual listener. As I walked back toward the subway station, I couldn’t help but think of something my new friend, Nate, had said about how he had to wait until he was in his 50s before he found good music that he could enjoy.

Better late than never, I guess.

The highly anticipated “Fame Kills” tour featuring Kanye West and Lady Gaga has been cancelled. Live Nation, who had been promoting the tour, have provided refunds to all ticket sales and have offered no explanation as to why the tour has been dumped before it had even begun. People are already speculating as to why the tour was called off so early and sources at TMZ have already claimed that the tour was called off due to ticket presale totals that “sucked.” TMZ even went so far as to say that, “’sucked’ happens to be a nicer version of the word we were told.”

The massive slump in ticket sales for such a prestigious tour seems difficult to comprehend, even with the events at last month’s MTV VMA awards when West stormed the stage during Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech and then apologized multiple times after the fact. This wasn’t the first “dick move” by the narcissistic pop star and his previous actions didn’t hurt the ticket sales of his “Glow in the Dark” tour, which sold out in spite of his previous outbursts. Lady Gaga is also rising swiftly up the ranks of pop superstardom. Her concerts are regularly sold out and she, herself, took home 3 VMA Moonmen after being nominated in nine categories.

But when West took the microphone from Swift, many thought that he had finally gone too far. Not that his misplaced enthusiasm was so deplorable that he should have a pair of those shutter-shades shoved down his throat (although some celebrities have said otherwise), but this was just another instance to check off on the “Reasons to Dislike Kanye West” checklist. Personally, I think that you only have to look at his mediocre rapping talent to form an opinion about how much credit he deserves, but radio stations in Florida and California have banned West’s music from their broadcasts due to his actions.

With so much public outcry and the cancellation of a major tour, are fans of pop music finally starting to scrutinize these over-hyped stars they are expected to fawn over? One can only hope.