By Peter Delevett

pdelevett@mercurynews.com

Posted: 06/03/2011 06:59:08 PM PDT
Updated: 06/03/2011 08:47:59 PM PDT

Tech investor Roger McNamee has jammed for some pretty big crowds in his side gig as a rock ‘n’ roll musician.

On Tuesday, he’ll play perhaps his grandest stage yet when his band Moonalice opens in Oakland for U2 — which is only the biggest rock band since maybe the Beatles.

How does a long-haired multimillionaire who’s better known for backing the likes of Facebook and disk-drive maker Seagate rate such a gig? Well, it helps that U2 frontman Bono is a partner in McNamee’s Sand Hill Road investment firm, Elevation Partners.

“He’s seen our band, and a year ago he invited us to play,” McNamee said. “You could have knocked me over with a feather.”

This actually isn’t the biggest crowd Moonalice has performed for, says McNamee — that honor goes to the gigs they’ve played at festivals like Hardly Strictly Bluegrass, where last year’s attendance was a reported 600,000. The band puts on about 100 shows a year, performing original music and marketing itself heavily on Twitter and Facebook.

Still, considering that Moonalice’s other recent shows include the Redwood Mountain Faire in Felton and a free show in San Francisco’s Union Square, it’s fair to say Tuesday’s gig at the Overstock.com Coliseum — which also includes funk rocker Lenny Kravitz — represents a step up in weight class.

Moonalice is McNamee’s second attempt to get a band together in a serious way. In the late 1990s, he and brother Giles founded the Flying Other Brothers, which regularly jammed with members of the Grateful Dead. (Roger McNamee, who calls himself “unapologetically eccentric,” had spent years advising the Dead on business and technology issues.)

Moonalice was founded a decade later as a reflection of McNamee’s desire to make serious, albeit seriously fun, music. The band’s current lineup features longtime collaborator Pete Sears (ex-Jefferson Starship) and former bandmates of the Dead’s Phil Lesh (as well as Roger’s wife, Ann, who has a Ph.D. in music theory).

The hookup to Bono came via Sheryl Sandberg, who at the time was working in the U.S. Treasury Department and helping the Irish rocker in his lobbying campaign for Third World debt relief. Elevation launched in 2004 to focus on entertainment investments, and after some admittedly bumpy years, its big wins have included Palm, Yelp and Facebook.

McNamee later returned the favor by introducing Sandberg to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg; she’s now the company’s chief operating officer and considered one of the most powerful women in Silicon Valley. So things worked out pretty well for everyone involved.

Contact Peter Delevett at 408-271-3638 or pdelevett@mercurynews.com. Follow him at Twitter.com/mercwiretap.

http://www.mercurynews.com

By Alex Young on January 31st, 2011

Arcade Fire haven’t been much of a secret since about 2005, but if you go by recent events, Win Butler’s crew are basically full-fledged super stars. They’re nominated for a Grammy, headlining Coachella, and can call U2 tour mates.

Arcade Fire will open for U2 at their July 30th concert in Moncton, New Brunswick, Canada. The concert will take place at Magnetic Hill, which was built for Pope John Paul II’s papal mass in 1984 and has since hosted the likes of The Rolling Stones, Bon Jovi, AC/DC, and Eagles, among others. Tickets go on sale Tuesday, February 8th.

The two outfits have appeared together on stage once before. In 2006, Arcade Fire opened three shows for U2?s “Vertigo Tour” and joined them in Montreal for a performance of Joy Division’s “Love Will Tear Us Apart”. Watch the clip below.

According to U2’s manager Paul McGuinness, Moncton will mark the final date of the U2 360° Tour in North America. Also below, you can find both bands’ respective touring itineraries for 2011.

Arcade Fire 2011 Tour Dates:
04/16 – Indio, CA @ Coachella Music Festival
04/24 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion #
04/25 – Chicago, IL @ UIC Pavilion #
05/06 – New Orleans, LA @ New Orleans Jazz Fest
06/17 – Scheeßel, DE @ Hurricane Festival
06/18 – Neuhausen ob Eck, DE @ Southside Festival
06/21 – Zagreb, HR @ T Mobile InMusic Festival
06/22 – Wiesen, AT @ Festivalgelände
06/26 – Luxembourg @ Rock A Field
06/30 – London, UK @ Hyde Park * ^ $
07/02 – Arras, FR @ Main Square Festival
07/03 – Belfort, FR @ Les Eurockeenes
07/05 – Milan, IT @ Milano Jazzin’ Festival
07/07 – Novi Sad, SB @ Exit Festival
07/09 – Lucca, IT @ Summer Festival
07/17 – Benicasim, ES @ Benicasim Festival
07/30 – Moncton, NB @ Magnetic Hill !

# = w/ The National
* = w/ Mumford & Sons
& = w/ Beirut
$ = w/ Vaccines
! = w/ U2

U2 2011 Tour Dates:
02/13 – Johannesburg, ZA @ FNB Stadium
02/18 – Cape Town, ZA @ Cape Town Stadium
03/25 – Santiago, CL @ Estadio Nacional +
03/30 – Buenos Aires, AR @ Estadio Unico de La Plata +
04/02 – Buenos Aires, AR @ Estadio Unico de La Plata +
04/03 – Buenos Aires, AR @ Estadio Unico de La Plata +
04/09 – Sao Paulo, BR @ Estadio Morumbi +
04/10 – Sao Paulo, BR @ Estadio Morumbi +
04/13 – Sao Paulo, BR @ Estadio Morumbi +
05/11 – Mexico City, MX @ Azteca Stadium #
05/14 – Mexico City, MX @ Azteca Stadium #
05/15 – Mexico City, MX @ Azteca Stadium #
05/21 – Denver, CO @ Invesco Field $
05/24 – Salt Lake City, UT @ Rice Eccles Stadium $
05/29 – Winnipeg, MB @ CANAD Inns Stadium $
06/01 – Edmonton, AB @ Commonwealth Stadium $
06/04 – Seattle, WA @ Qwet Field !
06/07 – Oakland, CA @ McAfee Coliseum !
06/17 – Anaheim, CA @ Angels Stadium !
06/18 – Anaheim, CA @ Angels Stadium !
06/22 – Baltimore, MD @ M & T Bank Stadium &
06/26 – E. Lansing, MI @ Spartan Stadium &
06/29 – Miami, FL @ Sun Life Stadium &
07/02 – Nashville, TN @ Vanderbilt Stadium &
07/05 – Chicago, IL @ Soldier Field ^
07/08 – Montreal, QC @ Hippodrome ^
07/09 – Montreal, QC @ Hippodrome ^
07/11 – Toronto, ON @ Rogers Centre ^
07/14 – Philadelphia, PA @ Lincoln Financial Field ^
07/17 – St. Louis, MO @ Busch Stadium ^
07/20 – E. Rutherford, NJ @ New Meadowlands Stadium ^
07/23 – Minneapolis, MN @ TCF Bank Stadium ^
07/26 – Pittsburgh, PA @ Heinz Field ^
07/30 – Moncton, NB @ Magnetic Hill *

+ = w/ Muse
# = w/Snow Patrol
$ = w/ The Fray
! = w/ Lenny Kravitz
& = w/ Florence and the Machine
* = w/ Arcade Fire

http://consequenceofsound.net

http://www.jambands.com