Tonight, Arcade Fire will stream their concert at Madison Square Garden to likely millions of music fans. The rock critic favorites are not the first to stream a live concert live, but the show tonight could be one of the biggest live online webcasts in history. Arcade Fire will be the first to feature on the YouTube/VEVO concert web series “Unstaged”. The show is sponsored by American Express and will be directed by Oscar-nominated director Terry Gilliam. I’ve never seen a live online concert that has created as much excitement as tonight’s. I’ve seen tons of ads while surfing the web for the concert, and “Arcade Fire” has been trending consistently on Twitter for the past three days. The band’s new album, The Suburbs, was streaming live all day on Monday for free on NPR’s web series First Listen. Tonight’s show could be a big step for both Arcade Fire and for the future of concert webcasts.

On the strength our their debut album, Gorilla Manor, Local Natives’s fanbase is growing steadily. The Californian indie rock outfit has quickly risen from the Los Angeles neighborhood of Silver Lake to touring the both the US and Europe, playing festivals like Bonnaroo and the Leeds Music Festival. The five piece band seems to be apart of a new movement of American bands influenced by the Afro-Pop stylings of Paul Simon. The band crafts interesting multi-part harmonies of wandering lyrics that’ll have you huming before you know it. The band recently played a impromtu show at the East End of London that drew a crowd of 200 fans. The band didn’t even bring amplifiers, because they expected only like ten or so people to show up. Local Natives played six songs for the capacity crowd and even stuck around to have a few beers with audience members. The band will be on the road until at least October. Check out Local Natives’ upcoming tour dates here.

Acclaimed folk artist Josh Ritter released his sixth studio album, “So Runs the World Away”, this month to a warm critical reception. The 33-year-old American singer-songwriter got his break when Glen Hansard of The Frames invited him back to Ireland after seeing him at an open mic. Ritter’s folk sensibilities won over Irish audiences and his third album, Hello Starling, debuted #2 on the charts in Ireland. “So Runs the World Away” blew away NPR’s Bob Boilen and number of Irish, English, and American rock critics. Josh has dates in the US throughout June before returning to the Emerald Isle to play the Galway Arts Festival and the INEC Gleneagle Hotel in Killarney. In the meantime check out the video for “So Runs the World Away” track “Curse“.

David Gray and Ray LaMontagne might not be Top 40 radio regulars, but the singer/songwriters have been two of the most successful over the last ten years. It makes sense that the two team up and tour together this summer for 17 dates in the United States kicking off August 15th in Columbia, MD. David Gray is currently on the road in support of his recent release, Draw the Line, and has been selling out shows across the country. Ray LaMontagne put out Gossip in the Grain in 2009 to great reviews, bringing his live band more into the fray on the album. Both performers are skillful songwriters, but very different from each other, so audiences will get to enjoy two distinct styles. The bearded LaMontagne has one of the most soulful voices in music that can bellow a heart-renching ballad or funky blues number. Gray has a unmistakably sound and will be drawing from songs from his eight studio albums. The price of admission is well worth seeing two great musicians (who are both coming off great albums) perform together.

Following the release of The XXxs self titled debut album in 2009 they have earned buckets of praise from rock critics in the States and the UK. The Xx is currently on tour in America playing a number shows in preparation for playing at Coachella, Sasquatch! Festival!, and Bonnaroo. The indie rock group from London, England is also rumored to be playing Lollapalooza this summer in Chicago. The soft vocals of Oliver Sim and Romy Madley Croft complement each other perfectly. Their voices’ strong cohesion makes a listener often forget that they are singing a duet. Speaking to the Chicago Tribune’s Greg Kot,  Sim and Madley Croft talked about their music and there fears on stage.  At only 20-years-old the band has a great,  a big future is ahead of The Xx.

Radiohead lead singer Thom Yorke is embarking on short tour with his band of well known musicians including producer Nigel Godrich, Red Hot Chili Peppers bassist Flea, drummer Joey Waronker of R.E.M. and Smashing Pumpkins fame, and Mauro Refosco of Forro in the Dark. The tour will culminate when the group plays the Coachella Festival on April 18th. The group played a show in Los Angeles playing a multitude of tracks from Yorke’s 2006 album The Eraser. The super group has been named Atoms for Peace after one of songs of The Eraser. We shall see if this collaboration continues on after Coachella and if a new album is the result.

Two of today’s biggest living blues legends, B.B. King and Buddy Guy, are teaming up for a number of shows in 2010. B.B. King and his guitar Lucille are scheduled to play 27 dates this year with old friend Buddy Guy joining him for stretch of shows in February. The 12 show stint with the two blues-men will be a momentous occasion for music fans as it will be a rare opportunity to get to see two of the most influential guitar players in history. King, a innovator in the use of vibrato in electric guitar soloing, and Guy, famous for his unique Chicago blues playing, will likely jam together for a number of songs as the have done so in the past. The double headlined portion of the tour will start in Florida working its way up the eastern coast and eventually making its way to the Midwest where Buddy will play his last show at the Mid America Center in Council Bluffs, Iowa. B.B. King will continue on playing gigs in Chicago, New Orleans, and Los Angeles to name a few. The tour will be supporting King’s recent release, One Kind Flavor, produced by T Bone Burnett became the artist highest debuting solo album in his career when it was released in 2008.

When you see Sting in his new holiday show, you might be confused. He doesn’t seem like the pop icon Sting that you’ve come to know over all these years. His performance is of holiday music that you might not have heard recently. It’s a little bit unusual to hear this kind of music frequently at this time of year, avoiding all the reindeer, Santas and all that kind of thing. It’s an older traditional style of music and it’s very nice indeed. Have you heard Sting doing traditional music? He has been doing this more and more in recent years and he has shown his flexibility and dexterity through this new style. Hopefully he will keep doing shows like this, maybe for spring, in the future.

Billy Joel and Elton John have had a run of bad luck lately. First Elton was sick and so the pair had to cancel some concert dates. It might have been as many as half a dozen shows that were rescheduled or cancelled. Meanwhile, Billy Joel became sick almost immediately after it was announced that John was better. So a large part of their upcoming schedule was cancelled and rescheduled for the next little while. My understanding is that they will start up again in January of February and play some of the dates that they had to cancel and a fair number of new ones as well. While you might not like having to change your plans, it’s definitely worth the wait. These guys have some great music and they can make you really feel what they’re feeling each time!

When the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s conductor announced on Tuesday that his herniated disc would need immediate operation, they didn’t know what they were going to do. Daniele Gatti, the temperamental Italian conductor, was brought in, instead of going with a local Boston assistant, because the orchestra wanted someone special for the opening of the season. He was surprisingly good, considering he hadn’t practiced with the orchestra until just a couple days ago. The critics are pleased with the way the orchestra performed with him, and there were only a few points that they would have improved on first glance. Not bad for a 3 day rehearsal sequence. To be fair, the music was all familiar to the musicians and the conductor, so we don’t need to think that they were improvising. But still, getting everyone on the same page is very tough!