Plies and Kia Shine are going to be coming to Rupp Arena to perform. The event will take place on August 22, 2008 at 8:00pm EST. Tickets go on sale on August 1st Read the rest of this entry »

Starting this Monday (July 28) and continuing on through Tuesday (July 29) the Rupp Arena Blog will be running a special ticket promotion for the upcoming Nine Inch Nails concert on August 31st. Read the rest of this entry »

The Raising Sand Tour amazed fans this past Friday at Rupp Arena. Enjoy the following slideshow from our photos of Robert Plant, Alison Krauss, T Bone Burnett and Sharon Little. (House Photographer: Michael Wright)

Plant and Krauss Rock the House

If you’ve spent any time listening to Robert Plant and Allison Krauss’ collaboration, Raising Sand, I’d say the show at Rupp Arena was just what you were looking for. After all, with two such talented musicians (not to mention their supporters and back up band members), watching the orchestration of all the sounds into the familiar jams is a great part of the enjoyment. And they certainly didn’t disappoint.

T-Bone Burnett, a country/rock-n-roll songwriter/producer/musician was stand-out, even as a supporter, Krauss brought her trademark fiddling and soulful voice, and mandolins, steel guitars, banjos, acoustics, electrics all added to the country-rock-symphony–and then there was Plant.

Even having heard the album, there is something more than faintly odd about seeing Robert Plant singing gospel. Perhaps pleasingly odd, but odd nonetheless. And, what about the dirge-like backcountry cover of Black Dog? The harmonies, the haunting qualities, the surprise–embodies the character of this collaboration.

Many in the seats next to me were enthusiastic about the performance and yelled out their sentiments. I even saw a few lighters going. I’ve also heard comments on the other side of things with attendees citing an uneven pace or stating they just kept waiting for it to pop.

While I personally couldn’t disagree more, I can see where they’re coming from. I think that this particular kind of collaboration is one that takes both the artists and their audience outside a comfort zone–and the reactions are bound to be mixed. Overall, though, the performances were stellar, and we in Lexington are exceptionally fortunate to have the opportunity to see a show of this magnitude.

Thanks Allison, Robert and Rupp arena for a great night!

Sharon Little opens for Robert Plant & Alison Krauss on Friday, July 18. Guest blogger for the show, Anne Sabatino, talks about the upcoming show and an opening act you shouldn’t miss. Read the rest of this entry »

The Horsemen had a big game this past Saturday against the Green Bay Blizzard. Winning it would secure them a place in the playoffs. This was probably easily the best game I have seen all season. Both teams were on top of their game and almost equally matched. The game was close near the beginning, but then Green Bay got a lot of scores and were leading 34-14 at half time. Things looked very grim. the horsemen really turned on their ‘A game’ when they came back on the field for the second half. It seemed like the team as a whole was cohesively working together toward a win that they really wanted, and that they really needed.

Coach Mike Harmon had this to say on HorsemenFootball.com:

“I’m typically not a big yeller, but I challenged our guys at halftime,” Horsemen head coach Mike Harmon said. “We told our players at halftime that Green Bay was playing for the title and we were just watching. Everyone got their minds right and really performed in the second half. We had a lot of great individual efforts.”

The Horsemen came back from their 20 point deficit and tied the Blizzard sending the game into overtime. Fans were going crazy. the players were really excited and provoking the fans to make more noise. The Horsemen won the coin toss and elected to have Green Bay receive the ball first. Greenbay battled hard and ended up coming up with a touchdown, making them ahead of the Horsemen by seven points. The Horsemen struck back with some amazing plays giving them a touchdown for themselves. Now came the clutch decision, should they risk a loss and go for the two point conversion for the win? they opted to go for the two point conversion. When they got a penalty it put everyone on their edge of their seats. Luckily it wasn’t bad so they set up for an attempt. With an amazing play they managed to get the two point conversion and end the game.

The Horsemen’s win against Green Bay put them in a tie for first place in the af2 American Conference Midwest Division. I have to give credit where credit is due and say that the Green Bay Blizzard really brought an amazing fight. I don’t think anyone likes to see one team walk all over the other and I think what made this game so good was that both teams were playing at their best and really challenging each other. This Saturday’s game is sure to be excellent as well. It also happens to be the Horsemen’s last home game of the season, so I would highly recommend checking it out if you haven’t made it out to a game before.

Below are photos from the Horsemen vs. Blizzard game:

This past Friday WWE Raw was at Rupp Arena for their Summerslam event. It was my first wrestling event I had ever been to, so it all seemed a bit new to me. Although I am not the biggest wrestling fan, I actually did enjoy the show quite a bit. Some of the lesser known wrestlers overdid things a bit and mouthed off at the crowd a few times, but as the night went on, and the wrestlers became more interesting, things were more entertaining. It seems as if as wrestlers become more famous they grow into a trully unique identity. The lesser known wrestlers both looked the same: average muscular bodies, a simple personality, and overly bright one-piece costumes. Match after match the wrestlers became more interesting. They each had very different dynamic personalities and often very different body builds. One wrestler was small, skinny and wearing what looked like an Arabian costume. His opponent came out in dress pants, a top hat (looking so much like Slash), and was a HUGE man, both tall and muscular. That is just an example of the variety which allows for the viewers to pick their favorite and get invested in their success instead of picking between to very similar people.

It was cool seeing various people who’s names I recognized. People like Shawn Michaels are known of even by those that don’t watch wrestling, so I had an appreciation for seeing him in person. It amazes me at the amount of moves people can pull off, especially after they have been throwing each other around for 25 minutes. It amazes me that after all of that they can still manage to climb one of the corners and do a backflip and land on someone. It makes me think about how challenging it must be to be a professional wrestler and how much endurance and strength it must take.

I must say that I was a bit surprised at how entertaining the event was and how much it drew you into the show. It was also great seeing Mickie James face off against Beth Phoenix and win her match. Mickie was such a nice person and great to hang out with earlier, so I was really cheering her on.

If you were at the show, we would love to know what you thought of it. Feel free to post any comments (good or bad) about the show. Also, if you have any photos you took then we would love to see them. Please email them to rupparenablog(at)gmail(dot)com.

See anything different? We were hard at work this past week working on a new version of the blog. We wanted one that could handle delivering you more content, while making it all easily viewable. Welcome to the new Rupp Arena Blog. Read the rest of this entry »

WWE Summerslam was this past Friday, July 11 at Rupp Arena. As with every event, we at the Rupp Arena Blog do our best to get as much behind the scenes coverage as we can available to you. On Friday though, I was able to ride along with WWE Diva Mickie James as she traveled around Lexington to meet up with fans. Read the rest of this entry »

WWE Summerslam was just at Rupp this past Friday and we have all the photos for you to check out. With this new version of the blog, we will no longer have to direct you to Flickr, we are bringing the Flickr to you. Browse through the slideshow below to view photos from the event. (House photographer: Michael Wright; From the Stands: Paul Hooper)