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Variety has reported that this year's most highly anticipated video game, Grand Theft Auto IV, will have opening numbers that could put Hollywood to shame. The game is expected to sell over six million units and exceed $400 million in its first week. That would be close to, if not greater, than the No. 1 box office opener of all time, Pirates of the Caribbean: At World's End, which grossed $404 million. We'll see if GTAIV can complete that mission after its April 29 release. -- Oscar Pascual
There's a murdertrain a comin', and Dethklok is on board. The animated metal band whose income equals the 12th largest economy in the world plans to rain carnage on SF this summer. Bang your head at the Fillmore on June 5 and prepare to get your face bloodrocuted. Tickets go on sale this Sunday, April 20. -- Oscar Pascual
Tift Merritt
Great American Music Hall
Review and photos by Ashley Harrell
April 15, 2008
Showing up solo at a Tift Merritt show seemed like a bold move.
The alt-country singer/songwriter from Chapel Hill, North Carolina, writes her songs mostly about longing and heartbreak, and her lyrics are – well – let’s just call them sincere.
But Lisa, a lawyer who dreams of opening a bakery, didn’t know that when she won tickets on KFOG Tuesday morning. She had only heard the one song on the radio: Merritt’s current hit single, “Broken,” from her new album, Another Country, which Merritt composed in Paris, seemingly while grieving for (another) lost love. The song reminded Lisa of the country music she liked while growing up in West Virginia. So although she couldn’t find a date, Lisa decided she would go anyway, drink some wine, and enjoy the music.
Now Merritt was on the Great American Music Hall stage before Lisa, belting her anguished lyrics.
Click here for more photos.
Cat Power
April 15, 2008
The Warfield
Review by Jennifer Maerz
Photos by Gretchen Robinette
Better Than: All those times Chan Marshall couldn’t get through a show without curling up into a ball.
Can we just call off the hot messes for a while? Sure, there were years when seeing your idols break down on stage was kinda silly fun. But lately the ladies have just been too much -- between Britney and Winehouse and Lindsey, we’ve heard all too much about the singer who can’t handle the stage. Better then to make like Meg White and cancel the tour completely than throw all your neuroses and anxieties into the public sphere. Or even better yet, work through them to the degree that you can perform a disaster free show, as Cat Power proved could be done last night at the Warfield.
