SXSW 2013: Free Energy on Crowd Participation

'It's like an improv show. They give you three nouns and you have to run with it'

Philadelphia-basd rockers Free Energy stopped by the Rolling Stone Rock Room at SXSW to talk crowd dynamics and their approach to playing live. "The energy that comes back from the crowd is pretty essential to most of the shows. It's pretty unique, unlike a recording that's there forever," said singer Paul Sprangers. "I see it more like an improv show," added guitarist Sheridan Fox, "where you ask for crowd interaction and they give you three nouns, and you have to run with it." 

Interview by Eric Danton; text by Joe Pinsker

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Katy Perry Warms Up Crowd for Obama

Katy Perry performs at an Obama campaign rally in Las Vegas.

Katy Perry has long since outgrown opening-act status, unless the president is headlining: The pop star last night warmed up the crowd for President Obama at a free rally in Las Vegas, according to The Hollywood Reporter, where she performed "Let's Stay Together," "Part of Me," "Teenage Dream," "Wide Awake" and "Firework."

Wearing a tight dress fashioned to look like a ballot (with the Obama/Biden square filled in, of course), she encouraged the crowd of 13,000, particularly first-time voters, to cast their ballots as part of Nevada's early-voter iniative. "You know, I've got my poll outfit sorted," she said. "When I go the polls in California, it's going to be on point. It's going to be red, white and blue, for you-know-who. So you'd better do it, or I'm going to come and get you."

Later, Obama arrived to deliver a version of his stump speech – augmented by a kiss on the cheek from Perry's 91-year-old grandmother.

The rally was the third stop on a three-day campaign trip through swing states for the president, who flew to Las Vegas from Los Angeles after taping an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno earlier in the day.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Katy Perry Warms Up Crowd for Obama

Katy Perry performs at an Obama campaign rally in Las Vegas.

Katy Perry has long since outgrown opening-act status, unless the president is headlining: The pop star last night warmed up the crowd for President Obama at a free rally in Las Vegas, according to The Hollywood Reporter, where she performed "Let's Stay Together," "Part of Me," "Teenage Dream," "Wide Awake" and "Firework."

Wearing a tight dress fashioned to look like a ballot (with the Obama/Biden square filled in, of course), she encouraged the crowd of 13,000, particularly first-time voters, to cast their ballots as part of Nevada's early-voter iniative. "You know, I've got my poll outfit sorted," she said. "When I go the polls in California, it's going to be on point. It's going to be red, white and blue, for you-know-who. So you'd better do it, or I'm going to come and get you."

Later, Obama arrived to deliver a version of his stump speech – augmented by a kiss on the cheek from Perry's 91-year-old grandmother.

The rally was the third stop on a three-day campaign trip through swing states for the president, who flew to Las Vegas from Los Angeles after taping an appearance on The Tonight Show With Jay Leno earlier in the day.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Song Premiere: Ben Folds Five, 'Draw a Crowd'

Listen to Ben Folds Five's "Draw a Crowd":

Ben Folds Five have reunited to deliver their first new album in 13 years, and all that time off hasn't detracted a bit from quirky geek appeal of the band's signature piano-driven alt-rock. On "Draw a Crowd," the group's cheeky sense of humor rides strong, with Folds singing, "If you're feeling small and you can't draw a crowd/ Draw dicks on a wall," with grinning confidence. Though they're getting older, their attitude from their early days still shines through.

"Draw a Crowd" is on Ben Folds Five's upcoming album, The Sound of the Life of the Mind, out September 18th. It'll be the band's first album of new music since 1999.

To read the new issue of Rolling Stone online, plus the entire RS archive: Click Here

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Premiere: Fatboy Slim Dazzles Hometown Crowd With 'Praise You'

Premiere: Fatboy Slim Dazzles Hometown Crowd With 'Praise You'DJ filmed concert movie 'Live: From the Big Beach Bootique' at new soccer stadium $(document).ready(function() { $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .email-content').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.email').hide(); } ); $('.socialActionsTop .pageActions .print-page').hover( function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').show(); }, function() { $('.socialActionsTop .bubble.print').hide(); } ); }); By

Fatboy Slim says his new film Live: From the Big Beach Bootique captures "a momentous moment in my career." 

The film documents DJ Norman Cook's June 2012 two-night stand at the new Amex Stadium in his hometown of Brighton, England. Watch this exclusive five-minute clip from the movie, which plays in theaters around the world for one day only August 31st. The gigs were the first at the stadium, which opened in 2011.

Cook says the DVD of one of his previous Brighton shows, 2006's Big Beach Boutique II: The Movie, helped launch his international career and hopes the latest film will provide a similar "calling card" for his new stadium-sized stage show. "It was the biggest production we've ever done," says Cook. "When you look at Big Beach Boutique II, there's an awful lot of people and not very much show. But technology has allowed us to make things much more visual. A triumphant conquering of your home football stadium has to be worth having down for posterity."

The Amex is the new, permanent ground for Cook's beloved soccer team Brighton & Hove Albion, which had been homeless for 14 years. "I'd been on marches, I'd taken petitions to Downing Street to try and get planning permission," says Cook. "It was an emotional moment just having the stadium, but being able to christen it was every schoolboy's dream."

The video clip captures the show in full swing, with Cook pumping out "Praise You" in a set that included "Put Your Hands Up" and "Fucking in Heaven" for a wildly enthusiastic crowd. But despite headlining recent festivals including Miami's Ultra and New York's Electric Daisy Carnival, Cook says his future plans are focused on "weirder and stranger" rather than "bigger and bigger."

"Tonight, I played to 350 people at a beach bar," he says. "Last night I played to 8,000 at [Ibiza nightclub] Space and four nights ago I did the Olympic Closing Ceremony to one billion people worldwide – and enjoyed them all equally. I've scaled most of the heights a DJ is ever going to scale, so I'm just making a bucket list of things I haven't done."

Despite some criticism of the Olympics closing ceremony in the U.K. media, Cook said appearing was "a total mindfuck and an honor."

"I felt I was representing Team GB for Club Culture," he says. "Although when you embark on a career as a DJ you never really envisage yourself on top of a psychedelic bus, being engulfed by a 40 foot high fluorescent octopus. That wasn't what I was thinking of when I was learning to beat match!"

Cook doesn't rule out a return to his recording artist career, which brought him hits including "Praise You" and "The Rockafeller Skank."

"When I've got something that I really want to say, I'll release [it], but at the moment I'm not inspired in the way I am by the life of a DJ," he says. "When I was younger I could be an artist, remixer, produce other people and DJ. These days, I don't know how I ever found the hours in the day!"

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