Month: April 2009

Kings of Leon World Tour underway!

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Following their amazing sold-out performance at the Madison Square Garden in New York, Kings of Leon are currently touring the United States to promote their newest album Only By The Night from which their lead single “Sex On Fire” has lit up the Billboard “Modern Rock” chart for nine weeks and counting. Once finished with their current North American leg of the tour, they will head over to Europe and play in a number of shows in the UK, Germany, Scotland and others, before returning back to North America.

Response has been huge in Vancouver when the Kings of Leon tickets officially went on sale today; they will be playing on August 15th at GM Place to a soon-to-be sold out crowd.

Plenty of their shows are sold out, although most of the dates still have tickets available. However, with a band as popular as these guys have gotten, that won’t last for long; after winning the 2009 Grammy for best rock performance by a group, their continued success has yet to show signs of slowing.
The tour — which has 45 stops left — will continue until September 14th when they play their last show in Uniondale, New York.

ShowTimeTickets.com attends the Tourism Vancouver Showcase

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Entering it’s twenty-fourth year in the business ShowTimeTickets.com, one of the top ticket re-sellers in Canada, attended the Tourism Vancouver Showcase this past Wednesday to promote it’s Concierge and Affiliate plans, as well as to connect with other locally owned businesses. Amidst the frenzy of attendees surrounding their booth was ShowTimeTickets’ representative at the show, Colin Hanes, and Founder and CEO, Mario Livich. Over the course of the four-hour event, locally owned businesses and concierges from hotels approached the booth and were introduced to the opportunites available to them through partnership with the Vancouver-based company. Many of the guests had had previous experience buying and selling through ShowTimeTickets and seemed very interested in the possibility of new entreupenurial ventures.

There were nearly 100 individual booths showcasing the many attractions and services the city has to offer to both tourists and locals alike, ranging from tours, to shows, to natural attractions. The show took place at the newly completed Vancouver Convention Centre on the waterfront in downtown Vancouver, offering a beautiful view of Vancouver as it prepares itself for the upcoming surge in Tourist activity as the 2010 Olympic games fast approach. Overall the convention was a great success as friendships were formed and business contacts were made, suggesting a bright future for local businesses and tourism in the coming years.

Flames re-ignite their playoff hopes

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The Calgary Flames opened their 2009 first-round playoff series with the Chicago Blackhawks rather poorly, failing to impress in the first two games, leading to a 2-0 series deficit. Their lack of aggressive play and the inability to harness their veteran supremacy over the young Chicago team quickly dampened the Flames’ fire, a situation they hoped would reverse when they returned to home-ice in games three and four.
The Flames did just that, pleasing their fans in the Pengrowth Saddledome with a 4-2 win over the Blackhawks, cutting their series lead to 2-1, and reinvigorating the downtrodden Calgary team. All it took was the “C” of Red’s display of support, and the understanding that the team has to play more physical in order to win the puck, and eventually the game. Their drive for the puck is reflected in the physicality of their game, having made 30 hits in game 4 (two times as many as Chicago) and giving up only four penalties, the Flames proved to be a hard-hitting and disciplined veteran team.
Although they gave up three unanswered goals in the second period after going ahead 4-1, the Flames rallied their efforts and took back the lead halfway through the third off a goal from Eric Nystrom, and an empty-netter by Jarome Iginla with 11 seconds left in the game. This win brings with it a lot of momentum for the Flames as they head back to the “Windy City” for game 5 in the hopes to steal the series lead.
Game 5 will be played on Saturday at 7:00 PM PST.

Cinderella story swept off it's feet as Blues exit playoffs

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It was on the minds of just about every St.Louis Blues fan and sports analyst leading into the series: the Blues could be this year’s Cinderella story. Having come out of the Christmas break in January in last place in the West, and after losing lead goaltender Manny Legace, back-up goaltender Chris Mason rallied the Blues in the second half of the season, going 25-9-7 in their last 41 games of the season and finishing sixth place in the West. Blues fans had high hopes for their reinvigorated team after jumping nine places in the standings to make the playoffs, but the team lost its luster in the post season, dropping four straight games to the superior Vancouver Canucks.
Last night saw the end of the Blues’ playoff run, as well as the Canucks’ first four game series sweep in franchise history — it was also the first time since the 1994 playoffs that St.Louis suffered a four game sweep. Despite the result, St.Louis played their best game of the series facing elimination, driving the puck to the net and following it through, something failed to do in the first three games. Their aggressive play led to their tying of the game at two in the second period with back-to-back goals less than four minutes apart. It also led to an astounding 49 shots on Luongo — compared to the Canucks’ 36 on Mason– throughout three periods of regulation and one frame of overtime.
However, Luongo’s disciplined composure kept his head in the game after the Blues kept crashing the net, single-handedly keeping the Canucks from facing a loss on numerous occasions, especially during the 4 minute penalty caused by Ryan Kessler’s high-stick in overtime. The man-advantage was definitely where the Blues went wrong this series, squandering their chances through all four games (they went 1 for 24). At the end of the night, it was the Canucks who truly impressed, with Burrows scoring the winning goal with 19 seconds to go in overtime, giving the Canucks the win and the 4-0 clean series sweep.
Vancouver Canucks tickets for the second round will go on sale soon once their opponent is decided.

Cinderella story swept off it’s feet as Blues exit playoffs

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It was on the minds of just about every St.Louis Blues fan and sports analyst leading into the series: the Blues could be this year’s Cinderella story. Having come out of the Christmas break in January in last place in the West, and after losing lead goaltender Manny Legace, back-up goaltender Chris Mason rallied the Blues in the second half of the season, going 25-9-7 in their last 41 games of the season and finishing sixth place in the West. Blues fans had high hopes for their reinvigorated team after jumping nine places in the standings to make the playoffs, but the team lost its luster in the post season, dropping four straight games to the superior Vancouver Canucks.

Last night saw the end of the Blues’ playoff run, as well as the Canucks’ first four game series sweep in franchise history — it was also the first time since the 1994 playoffs that St.Louis suffered a four game sweep. Despite the result, St.Louis played their best game of the series facing elimination, driving the puck to the net and following it through, something failed to do in the first three games. Their aggressive play led to their tying of the game at two in the second period with back-to-back goals less than four minutes apart. It also led to an astounding 49 shots on Luongo — compared to the Canucks’ 36 on Mason– throughout three periods of regulation and one frame of overtime.

However, Luongo’s disciplined composure kept his head in the game after the Blues kept crashing the net, single-handedly keeping the Canucks from facing a loss on numerous occasions, especially during the 4 minute penalty caused by Ryan Kessler’s high-stick in overtime. The man-advantage was definitely where the Blues went wrong this series, squandering their chances through all four games (they went 1 for 24). At the end of the night, it was the Canucks who truly impressed, with Burrows scoring the winning goal with 19 seconds to go in overtime, giving the Canucks the win and the 4-0 clean series sweep.

Vancouver Canucks tickets for the second round will go on sale soon once their opponent is decided.

Fans with class need only apply in games on Monday

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It’s true that teams strive to attain hometown advantage in order to gain the upperhand in a tough series, and last night’s two games involving the Montreal Canadiens and the Calgary Flames were perfect examples of a team who needed to hear from their fans to turn the momentum of the 2-0 series deficit they both faced. Despite the obvious presence of supporters in both the Bell Centre in Montreal and the Pengrowth Saddledome in Calgary, only the latter benefitted from the noise, perhaps partly due to their demeanor.
The Calgary Flames were able to fight off the Chicago Blackhawks for the first time in the series, cutting the lead to 2-1, when Rene Borque scored an ugly goal to put them ahead by one late in the second — a lead the Flames would not let go of. And of course, the “C” of Red was in full force that night, cheering on their boys in Cowtown to propel the team to the win. Unfortunately, for the other Canadian team on the ice that night, things didn’t turn out so well, especially without thanks to the fans.
In the Bell Centre, the night opened with a roar of “boos” in an unlikely and disrespectful place: the American National Anthem. Believing they were supporting their team — and that the anthem represented the opposing Boston Bruins — the fans in Montreal made their voices heard much to the chagrin of home team GM Bob Gainey.
“I feel like there’s a confusion there with our fans,” says Gainey. “They feel like booing the anthem is supporting our team, in that the anthem represents the Boston team. And I think if they could separate those two things, then we could respect the anthem of the United States of America and they could still participate loudly in whatever way they want to disrupt the Bruins.”
The show of “support” from the fans seemed to have been counter-intuitive to the Habs’ efforts; the Boston Bruins delivered a 4-2 loss to the Canadiens’, possibly inspired by the anthem-antics that began the night. Although Montreal has one more chance to begin making up lost ground in their current 3-0 series deficit, they will definitely need their fans to rally behind a cheer that will actually motivate their struggling team. As for the Flames, their fans seem to have already found that secret to success.
Both teams hit the ice once again in game 4 on Wednesday.