Rockstar Newswire

(Catch Red Dead Redemption's Ashtar Command & Jamie Lidell this summer performing at Lollapolooza and elsewhere)
 

With July upon us and those of us in NYC "enjoying" a sweltering heat wave this week, the summer season is in full effect: cook outs, the beach... and of course some healthy air-conditioned indoor Red Dead Redemption multiplayer action to be had. 

For music aficionados like us, summer also means lots of great live music events and festivals to hit up.  There’s a wide variety of summer concerts, music festivals and tours across the country and worldwide featuring many of our friends with tunes featured in recent Rockstar Games soundtracks.

Here's a quick rundown of just a few we recommend you might want to check out if they're happening in your area.  By no means is this a complete list, so do make sure to check artist official sites and festival and venue sites for events near you...

In case you missed Red Dead Redemption soundtrack artist Jamie Lidell’s US dates in June, he’ll be back state-side in August, after doing several dates in Europe this month.  Jamie will be performing at a variety of festivals across Europe this month including the Latitude Festival in Suffolk, UK and other festivals in Belgium, Ireland, Germany and more - before returning to the US and rocking Lollapolooza in Chicago in August - you can check out his full list of show dates at his official website here.  Ashtar Command will also be performing in Chicago at the Debonair Social Club in Wicker Park at the Lollapolooza Opening Party. To round out the Red Dead ensemble, you can catch Jose Gonzalez this summer at several shows across Europe - including the Grassroots Festival on the isle of Jersey - and the Kulturkalas Festival in Gothenburg, Sweden in August. 

If you’re into the sounds of Afrobeat, Femi Kuti (as heard on as heard hosting Grand Theft Auto IV's IF99 International Funk radio station and son of the legendary godfather of Afrobeat, Fela Kuti) is performing across the US this summer with a range of dates you can keep up with at his MySpace Music page - including the All Good Music Festival this very weekend in Virginia and other appearances in Philly and at Lincoln Center in NYC.  There’s also the highly recommended FELA! on Broadway play in NYC that chronicles the life of his father playing in Times Square.  Meanwhile, Dwele (as heard on the Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack via Kanye's "Flashing Lights") will be headlining a show in support of his new ablum in L.A. at Key Club on July 15th.

For the rude bwoys, a few of our notable reggae and dancehall artists - Barrington Levy, Damian Marley, and Bunji Garlin are performing in the US and Canada this summer as well.  Barrington Levy will be rocking at BB Kings in Times Square NYC on July 14th, while Damien Marley will be performing with Nas as part of their Distant Relatives album tour at the Williamsburg Waterfront in BK on July 31st.  Up in Ontario, Bunji will be performing with more than 20 other reggae acts at Carnival in Yuh Backyard on July 31st during the world famous annual West Indian festival Caribana in Toronto that weekend.

Toronto is also home to electro and house producer/performer Deadmua5 (of the Chinatown Wars soundtrack) who will be performing all over his native Canada with shows in Calgary, Edmonton, Vancouver and more this July - before heading out to tour more of the US and Europe in August - you can stay up to date with Deadmau5's tour sched at his official site here.  For more great and eclectic dance rock, fans of The Ballad of Gay Tony's Major Lazer can catch Diplo & Switch putting it down at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago on July 19th.

Meanwhile, here in New York, there’s show after show after show of great free music in Central Park and other city parks thanks to the Summerstage series of concerts which seem to get better and better every year. The Lost and the Damned's Funkmaster Flex backing up rap legends EPMD, Public Enemy (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas Soundtrack), and The Black Keys (Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack), are just some of the artists performing for free (or for benefit) in city parks across the boroughs, as well as the Charlie Parker Jazz Festival (Grand Theft Auto IV soundtrack) being held in historic Marcus Garvey Park in Harlem on August 28th (site of the recent Rockstar presented Harlem Skyscraper Cycling Classic). 

For hip-hop heads, you can catch Masta Ace (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas soundtrack and Midnight Club II soundtrack if you want to get old school) and Skyzoo (Grand Theft Auto: The Lost and Damned soundtrack) at the Brooklyn Hip Hop Festival this weekend on July 10th.  Skyzoo will also be performing as part of the Duckdown Records 15th Anniversary Show at BB Kings in Times Square along with Sean Price (Grand Theft Auto III Soundtrack) next week, July 13th.  P!  Last but not least, you can’t leave out the biggest summer rap tour in the US - Rock The Bells which has 4 US dates in Frisco, L.A., D.C. and New York.  Snoop Dogg (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas), DJ Premier (host and DJ of The Classics from Grand Theft Auto IV), Murs (Midnight Club Los Angeles), Method Man (Grand Theft Auto: Liberty City Stories), Ghostface Killah (Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars), Rakim (Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas) will all be performing at the day-long festival - made all the more special with the announcement that Snoop, Wu and Rakim will be performing their seminal debut albums in their entirety. Oh, and the elusive Lauryn Hill will be there too. BONG.

If you know of any other live appearances by Rockstar soundtrack artists this summer that we've missed, we encourage you to share 'em with us and everyone else below in comments.  Enjoy - and feel free to report back here if you wind up attending any of these or other great shows!