Are the Philadelphia Flyers really that good? Or were the Pittsburgh Penguins just that bad? That’s the question everyone’s asking after the Flyers were thrown out of the playoffs by the New Jersey Devils in just five games.

In last night’s elimination game, the Flyers looked defeated from the moment they stepped onto the ice, and it was a far cry from the highly aggressive, high scoring team that we saw in the first round. And once the Devils got two shots past Philly goaltender Ilya Bryzgalov, the Devils pretty much had it in the bag.

You can credit the 27 saves that Martin Brodeur made for the win, or maybe the fact that Claude Giroux, their best player, was out on a suspension. But what really made the difference in this game was that the Devils knew what they had to do: play a completely different game than Pittsburgh did.

While Pittsburgh was all about engaging in the emotional side of the game with Philly, getting into scrums after the whistle and giving hits that walked the fine line of the penalty box, New Jersey would have none of it. They were extremely focused and if one teammate forgot that for just a moment, there was another one there to pull him away, reminding him what they were to do. It was what’s needed against a team like Philly, and it was enough to effectively shut them down.

The New Jersey Devils have been to the Stanley Cup Finals seven times, and have won six. The last time was in 2003 when Martin Brodeur carried his team to the title, and his performance this season has made all the retirement talk long-forgotten.

“I don’t think he was ever a guy that was going to retire,” said Devils’ forward David Clarkson. “He’s won us some games in the playoffs. He’s held us in. He’s exciting to watch.”

While New Jersey has moved on, they still don’t know who they’ll face — the Washington Capitals, or the New York Rangers. That Game 7 will be played on Saturday and the winner will move on to face New Jersey.

If the announcement that Vince Gill was going on tour wasn’t enough for country music fans, the fact that he’s returning to his bluegrass roots will have them picking up their own banjos and mandolins to join him. The tour will be entirely bluegrass and, Vince says, it’s all in tribute to a musician he’s looked up to his whole life.

The bluegrass tour Vince will embark on begins on June 13 at the Lewis Ginter Botanical Garden in Richmond, Virginia and will wrap up on June 30 in Wabash, Indiana. So what prompted the tour? Aside from the fact that Vince said his current goal is “to make ten times the music that I’ve made at this point,” there’s another reason for the tour; and that’s Earl Scruggs.

Earl Scruggs was a musician that made bluegrass music famous in the 1940s and even styled his own style of picking his banjo with three fingers. This style became so popular that still today it’s known as “Scruggs style.” After Scruggs passed away in March of 2012, Vince knew what the inspiration would be for his next tour.

“After the passing of Earl Scruggs, it means the world to me to do these dates with this world-class band playing the music that Earl defined,” Gill said when speaking about the tour. “I absolutely adore this music.”

Vince Gill playing music he adores for fans that adore him; sounds like a great night of country music!

In the game between the L.A. Lakers and the Denver Nuggets on Sunday night, there was a lot of weirdness to go around. The first weird factor may have been the fact that the Lakers were down by six points at halftime against a team that they should easily beat. While that situation rectified itself, what was definitely even weirder was the disoriented fan that walked out onto the court just before halftime.

First, game talk. The Lakers definitely proved why they’re the better team of the series when they took the game 92-88 and came back from a small deficit in the first half. Kobe Bryant put up 22 points and Andrew Bynum was just behind him with 19 of his own. But the Lakers needed more than just their big guns last night, and everyone stepped up to the plate. Or the net, rather.

Jordan Hill put up 12 points and his 11 rebounds proved to be huge in such a close game. Ramon Sessions and Steve Blake both had 3-pointers late in the game that prevented the Nuggets from coming out on top; and they did so in a huge way. With Kobe setting up each of these three in the third quarter, and all of them coming up short, they certainly redeemed themselves.

The fact that Kobe spoke like a coach afterwards saying, “I was ticked. I was and didn’t think I would trust them at the end of the game to knock down those shots, but they stepped up and knocked them down,” was also a little weird, but so were his teammates reverence for him.

“It’s always good when you get a hug from Kobe,” said Blake, referring to the hug Bryant had given him during a timeout. “It means you did something right.”

But no comments, or even plays on the court for that matter, could be as weird what happened late into the second quarter, when a fan walked onto the court.

The woman, a 20-year-old named Savannah McMillan-Christmas, walked right out onto the court during the middle of play, when the referee blew his whistle to stop the game and have the woman escorted off the court. Everyone was baffled about it, including the announcers who thought maybe the woman had dropped something. While being taken off the court, the woman repeatedly asked “Where’s Kenyon?” seeming to ask about Kenyon Martin, who used to play for Denver. The police later charged her for trespassing, as allegedly she’s been banned from the stadium due to the former stalking and following players.

Hopefully fan interference won’t be something either team has to deal with when the series goes back to Los Angeles for Game 5 tomorrow night.

Florence & The Machine are just about to finish the U.S. leg of their current tour before heading to Australia; but they’ll be back and when they are, they’ll be performing shows that are all about the music!

Even though The Machine’s current U.S. leg included fifteen stops and some of the biggest cities in the country including Las Vegas, New York, New Orleans, and Minneapolis, some fans were disappointed that the band didn’t make a stop in their town. When they come back in the fall though, there will be 13 more stops and plenty more chances for fans to see this dynamic group. Those stops will still include some of the biggest spots in the country including Atlanta, Tampa Bay, Kansas City, and Los Angeles. The second U.S. leg will begin on September 14, 2012 in Mansfield, Massachusetts and will wrap up on October 10, 2012. The band will also be returning to the U.S. and Canada for a few festival stops in July.

Florence & The Machine has always been a band to be counted on for a huge show, but fans can expect something a little different this time; and with a focus on music, it might be something they enjoy even more. When talking about the tour lead singer Florence Welch said, “In a way, it’s not going to be too big a production. We’ve done a lot of quite extravagant stuff, and that’s been amazing, but for this tour, it’s definitely going to be about showcasing the music. The songs are going to be the most important thing.”

It’s refreshing to hear a band talking about how their tour won’t be “bigger and better than ever before;” but that’s just par for the course with this band, who have been doing things differently ever since they hit the scene — and proving why it works.

Nicki Minaj has always been an opening act but now she’s taking center stage and headlining one on her own. The tour will be called “Pink Friday” and is in promotion of her second studio effort “Pink Friday: Roman Reloaded,” which was released last month.

The tour begins on July 16 in Chicago, Illinois and from there Nicki will head out on fourteen different stops around on thirteen different spots in the United States. Nicki will perform on August 11 in Seattle, Washington and that will be her last stop in the U.S. before she heads to the last stop of the tour. That will be in Vancouver, BC, Canada on August 12 at the Queen Elizabeth Theatre. To get the full listing of Nicki Minaj tickets and tour dates, visit StubPass.com.

Tickets will go on sale this Friday and along with general admission and VIP packages will also be available. For the most avid fans, VIP ticketholders will be able to be the first through the doors and they’ll also receive a Nicki laminate and lithograph. Along with those special perks, Nicki has also promised that she’s going to have a meet and greet session at all shows for selected guests.

While the actual tour is still some time away, fans are going to have tons of opportunities to get their Nicki fix. She’ll be on a radio tour with stops in Los Angeles on May 12; Philadelphia on June 1; Boston on June 2; and New York on June 3.

Just about every kid is a fan of “the world’s biggest preschool band,” The Wiggles, and as the group prepares to turn 21 this year, they’re taking their act on the road and are bringing some old friends along for the ride.

The tour will start on July 12 at the Valley View Casino Center in San Diego and will run for five weeks around the United States with stops along the way including Los Angeles, Phoenix, Orlando, and Atlanta. On each stop, children can expect to be delighted by some of the band’s biggest hits off any one of their 40 albums, including hits like Hot Potato, Toot Toot Chugga Chugga, and Rock a Byer Your Bear. Familiar friends such as Dorothy the Dinosaur, Captain Feathersword, Wags the Dog, and Henry the Octopus will all be there as well to go on adventures and play with The Wiggles.

Someone else very special joining the band this time is Greg Page, the original Yellow Wiggle. Page has been unable to travel with the band over the past five years after complications of a hernia had him facing some very serious health issues. Back to full health, Page says, “I’m so excited to be back with my friends and to be entertaining our incredible fans again.”

This isn’t the first time The Wiggles have been on tour to celebrate their summer birthday; last summer they trekked across the country on the “Big Birthday Summer Tour.”

Standing outside of the Broadhurst Theatre you may think that you’re just going to see the latest revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. Then step inside, and you’re transported to the middle of the French Quarter in New Orleans, in that little ol’ dingy apartment of Stella and Stanley’s. And that whole multi-racial element that was so talked about during the show’s promotion and pre-production phase? Completely forgot about, the few tweaked details aside.

Blair Underwood, taking on the part of Stanley, brought to the stage all the roughness and “animal-like” characteristics that define Stanley’s very core character; yet when around Stella, played by Daphne Rubin-Vega, he completely breaks down into a man of completely vulnerability, but completely unlike the boyish qualities possessed by his on-screen predecessor, Marlon Brando. And if you’re waiting on the edge of your seat for that iconic “Stella-aaaaa” howl, you’ll get it. But Underwood makes it his own by donning a red t-shirt instead of the white tank Brando made synonymous with the play.

Rubin-Vega holds her own to Underwood’s Stanley, helping portray the complete disillusionment and denial in which she and Stanley continue to live. When Stella’s fragile southern belle sister Blanche, played by Nicole Ari Parker, comes to town to shed some light (and reality) on the situation, she does it flawlessly. She’s the very one who calls Stanley “animal-like” to the blind Stella yet ironically, is also the one carted away to the psyche asylum at the end of the play.

Yes, with the latest A Streetcar Named Desire you definitely forget about the multi-racial cast that was so highly touted during its early production phases, and can enjoy simply being transported back once again into the world that was Tennessee Williams. The fact that Stanley’s Polish last name has been taken out, and that the original segregated bar was replaced with one that was not, are the only reminders that this play was originally more about hype than real, raw talent — and that’s exactly what this play is from start to finish.

The Civil Wars, speaking of singer and songwriters Joy Williams and John Paul White (not referring to the American Civil War, mind you), are currently on the rising track to fame to international fame.  The duo’s voices often intertwine on their tracks (as heard in the album Barton Hollow) and this is one of the most interesting aspects about these Nashville upstarts.  While Williams was born in California and White in Alabama, the duo found their way to music in Nashville.

How did this wonder-band come to be?  With just a little luck and fate in fact, as the two singers met at a song writing session in Nashville, Tennessee and they just “clicked” upon meeting.  The band chose its name The Civil Wars as they felt it described the tumult of married life and the direction their music was going in.

Their first album has already taken off and recently won two Grammy Awards in 2012, one for “Best Country Duo” and the other for “Best Folk Album.”  Adele, the queen of the Grammy Awards this year, and Taylor Swift the current teen music darling, have also lavished praise on the band and have turned many of their fans on to them as well.  Things just keep looking up for this band!

The TV show Grey’s Anatomy got the duo off and running as their song “Poison & Wine” was featured in one of the series pivotal episodes.  Currently, you can hear one of the Civil Wars’ songs on the soundtrack of the popular tween flick, The Hunger Games.  “Kingdom Come” is one of their most soulful selections and definitely worth a viewing on YouTube if you haven’t heard the song or seen the movie yet.  If the smash hit movie is any indication of the sales of the soundtrack, the band couldn’t have picked a better album to start their career!  The album is currently number one on the album charts.

Come experience the Civil Wars in person and find out why they are the talk of the Grammy’s, the highlight of the Hunger Games and one of country’s true crossover stars!

It was sad news to Dispatch fans when they announced in 2002 that they’d be taking an indefinite hiatus, after months of rumors of inner-band conflicts occurring during their Who Are We Living For? tour. At the time, fans couldn’t have expected for the hiatus to go on for over a decade but now after 12 years of being apart, the band has reunited and they’re putting out an album with a tour soon to follow.

The album, called Circles of the Sun, is Dispatch’s fifth studio effort and is currently slated for release on August 21. Nearly just one month later on September 20, the band will launch their tour in Vancouver and will travel around to big stops in the United States including Seattle, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New York, Boston, and Philadelphia.

For nearly the first two weeks of the tour, Sleeper Agent will join the band as their opening act; on September 29, Good Old War will pick up the opening slot and will remain with Dispatch throughout the rest of the tour.

Throughout their hiatus Dispatch has gotten back together a few times to play festivals and one-time events. This tour though is sure to see some of the biggest rock crowds yet. The band’s final concert, one that was held for free and called “The Last Dispatch” in 2004 went down in history as the largest concert in independent music history, with 100,000 people in attendance. While the venues they’re visiting on this tour might not allow for those kinds of crowds, they’re sure to be packed to the rafters on this one!

The 90’s was a time of some good alternative rock music. If you love 90’s music then no doubt you’ve heard of the band Sugar Ray. These guys hail from Orange County, California and originally had a more metal sound. In 1997 however, their song “Fly” became a big summer hit with its more alternative and pop sounds. This song went all the way to number one on the Billboard Hot 100. This success eventually led this band in a new direction musically, away from heavy metal and more into the alternative music scene.

After the bands big hit in 1997, many critics labeled the band as nothing more than a “one hit wonder”. Their album 14:59 (a reference to their 15 minutes of fame) which was released in 1999, would change all that. “Every Morning” was a track that got a lot of airplay that spring and eventually went all the way to number 3 on the Billboard Hot 100. After that the next single “Someday” also got a lot of attention and reached number 7 on the chart. The album was considered a success and actually outsold their previous efforts. The band still wasn’t done with the hits yet, as their 2000 album titled simply “Sugar Ray” had the hit “When It’s Over” that reached spot 13 on the Billboard chart as well as other well liked songs like Under the Sun, and Answer the Phone.

After that success, the band took a break for a while, with members pursuing new avenues. Lead singer Mark McGrath even landed a nice little role as an anchor on Extra, helping to dish out all of the newest celebrity gossip. In 2012, the band is going back on the road as part of the Summerland tour. The tour will be featuring a lot of the 90’s summer hit bands including Everclear, Gin Blossoms, Lit, Marcy Playground, and of course Sugar Ray.

Can you believe 1997 was over 15 years ago? Why not enjoy a little nostalgia and check out Sugar Ray when they are once again in your neck of the woods during the Summerland Tour?