Bob Dylan

Rock-and-roller/actor Meat Loaf [ tickets ] missed a handful of planned concert dates over the past week as he battled the flu, and he's since postponed the remaining Canadian dates on his itinerary.

The first cancellation for the 62-year-old artist came July 22 in Detroit. Postponements in Sault Ste. Marie, MI; Windsor, Ontario; Winnipeg, Manitoba; and Edmonton, Alberta followed. Five upcoming Canadian shows also were scrapped. ...continued


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Here's our look at some of the most noteworthy music events scheduled for the coming week.

July 30 Toby Keith [ tickets ], Trace Adkins [ tickets ], Gibson Amphitheater, Universal City, CA Does anyone cater to his audience better than Toby Keith? He opens his show cannon blasts and fireworks, sings in the bed of a pickup truck, he salutes the troops and performs songs that tell stories about drinking, girls and cowboys. With an audience that captive, Keith is no dummy -- he talks about his label and performs "I Love This Bar" while backdrops advertise his chain of restaurants. The audience walks in confident they know what they will be seeing, and 90 minutes later they are probably talking about his show exceeds expectations. It's predictable, but Keith is all about meeting the desires of his fans. ...continued

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Arcade Fire [ tickets ] fans will be able to Tweet questions to the band prior to their Madison Square Garden concert that will be streamed live on YouTube on Aug. 5. Terry Gilliam ("12 Monkeys," "Brazil") will direct the feed that viewers see.

Arcade Fire has also asked fans to submit photos of their suburbs for possible use onstage during the band's performance of one song off their new album, "The Suburbs." ...continued


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Isobel Campbell [ tickets ] and Mark Lanegan, who have been collaborating for more than seven years, will begin their first-ever North American tour on Oct. 13 in Boston.

The short outing is slated to hit a dozen U.S. cities, as well as two Canadian provinces by month's end. Details are shown at right. ...continued


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Seminal New Wavers The Cars, who issued their last album in 1987 and officially broke up the following year, could be pondering a comeback.

Earlier this month, a photo surfaced on Facebook that shows the band's four surviving members -- frontman Ric Ocasek, guitarist Elliot Easton, keyboardist Greg Hawkes and drummer David Robinson -- jamming in a studio. (The band's fifth member, bassist/vocalist Benjamin Orr, died in 2000 of pancreatic cancer.) ...continued

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