Road Rage Tour

The Road Rage Tour was a concert tour co-headlined by The New Cars and Blondie in the North America in 2006.

Road Rage Tour

Tour by The New Cars and Blondie
Associated album	It's Alive! (The New Cars) Greatest Hits: Sound & Vision (Blondie)
Start date	May 12, 2006
End date	July 1, 2006
Legs	1
No. of shows	29 in North America 18 performed
Blondie tour chronology
UK Tour (2005) Road Rage Tour (2006) Asia Tour (2006)

Background

The Road Rage Tour was The New Cars' first tour, the first time an incarnation of The Cars has toured in seventeen years. VH-1 Classic sponsored the tour, and commercials were aired frequently on VH-1 and its sister channels to draw attention to the tour.

The tour featured a unique internet promotion. With each online ticket purchase through VH1classic.com or Ticketmaster.com a full album The New Cars and Blondie: Road Rage was offered to free download from eMusic.com. The album included five songs performed by The New Cars (four classic songs of The Cars, recorded live and the newly penned studio track "Not Tonight") and five songs performed by Blondie (four previously unreleased live tracks and one new studio cover of Roxy Music hit "More than This").^[1] Currently eMusic offers a shortened version of the album in a form of 4 track EP.^[2]

Set

The New Cars set was reportedly designed by drummer Prairie Prince. It featured large, circular, metallic rings with screens in them suspended above the stage. The rings were meant to resemble a stop light. The drummer sat in a large glowing ring, and the keyboards were elevated behind the center of the stage. The set was concealed when Blondie performed by a large black tarp, meant to resemble the New York City skyline.^[3]

Tour cancellation

On June 5, 2006, the driver of The New Cars' tour bus swerved to avoid a collision with a vehicle, resulting in the New Cars' guitarist Elliot Easton suffering a broken left clavicle.^[4] Easton played four more shows despite the injury, but when it became apparent that he needed surgery, the rest of the tour was cancelled. Easton had surgery in New York on June 12.^[5][6]

Set list

Blondie average setlist (data from 5 shows)

1. "Call Me"
2. "Dreaming"
3. "Hanging on the Telephone"
4. "Accidents Never Happen"
5. "Atomic"
6. "Pretty Baby"
7. "More than This"
8. "Good Boys"
9. "Maria"
10. "The Tide is High"
11. "Picture This"
12. "Rifle Range"
13. "In the Flesh"
14. "Rapture
15. "One Way or Another"
16. "Heart of Glass

Notes

• The songs "Shayla" and "Union City Blue" were also performed on some dates.
• On the 20th of May Blondie covered The Ramones song "Havana Affair".^[7]
• On the 6th of June Blondie covered The Rolling Stones hit "Paint It Black".^[8]

The New Cars average setlist (data from 4 shows)

1. "Hello Again"
2. "Let's Go"
3. "Shake It Up"
4. "My Best Friend's Girl"
5. "Candy-O"
6. "I Saw the Light"
7. "Dangerous Type"
8. "Moving in Stereo"
9. "All Mixed Up"
10. "Black Maria"
11. "You Might Think"
12. "Drive"
13. "Bang the Drum"
14. "You're All I've Got Tonight"
15. "Bye Bye Love"
16. "Not Tonight"

    Encore

17. "Just What I Needed"
18. "Open My Eyes"
19. "Good Times Roll"

Tour dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
North America
May 12, 2006	Robinsonville	United States	Grand Casino Tunica Event Center
May 13, 2006	Grand Prairie		Nokia Theatre
May 17, 2006	Phoenix		Dodge Theatre
May 19, 2006	Las Vegas		Aladdin Theatre for the Performing Arts
May 20, 2006	Los Angeles		Gibson Amphitheatre
May 23, 2006	Alpine		Viejas Casino
May 25, 2006	Saratoga		Mountain Winery
May 26, 2006	Reno		Reno Events Center
May 27, 2006	Kelseyville		Konocti Field Amphitheater
May 30, 2006	Greenwood Village		Coors Amphitheatre
June 1, 2006	Hinckley		Grand Casino Amphitheatre
June 3, 2006	Highland Park		Ravinia Pavilion
June 4, 2006	Cuyahoga Falls		Blossom Music Center
June 6, 2006	Vienna		Filene Center
June 7, 2006	Boston		Bank of America Pavilion
June 9, 2006	Wantagh		Jones Beach Music Theater
June 10, 2006	Holmdel		PNC Bank Arts Center
June 20, 2006	Buffalo		Rockin' at the Knox^[A]

Notes

• A^ This show was Blondie only without The New Cars^[9]

Cancelled dates

Date	City	Country	Venue
North America
June 13, 2006	Orlando	United States	Hard Rock Live
June 14, 2006	Clearwater		Ruth Eckerd Hall
June 15, 2006	Hollywood		Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino Hollywood
June 17, 2006	Atlanta		Chastain Park Amphitheater
June 18, 2006	North Charleston		Oyster Shell & North Charleston Coliseum
June 21, 2006	Toronto	Canada	Molson Amphitheatre
June 23, 2006	Montreal		Bell Centre
June 24, 2006	Atlantic City	United States	Borgata Event Center
June 25, 2006	Uncasville		Mohegan Sun
June 30, 2006	Clarkston		DTE Energy Music Theatre
July 1, 2006	Saratoga Springs		Saratoga Performing Arts Center

Road Rage Winter Tour

After the original tour cancellation The New Cars and Blondie went separate ways. Blondie went on short tour to Asia in September with single stops in USA before and after,^[10] while The New Cars continued the Road Rage tour in winter^[11][12] without Blondie with Persephone's Bees as a supporting act.^[13] The winter dates were scheduled to be of much smaller, theatre, venues, than large-scale arenas of the summer leg. Kasim Sulton was not featured on several shows due to his touring with Meat Loaf in support of Bat Out of Hell III: The Monster Is Loose album with Atom Ellis filling for him.^[14]

Promotion

VIP Tickets, a popular feature during the summer tour, was available for most venues of the winter leg, with the exclusion of the Count Basie Theatre in Red Bank. Reserved fan-club seating was also available at most venues, except the Count Basie. A ticket pre-sale began on September 18, 2006. Ticketmaster supplied the tickets for most of the venues, although Seatadvisor and various box offices did carry tickets for others.

Personnel

Blondie

• Debbie Harry – vocals
• Chris Stein – guitars
• Clem Burke – drums
• Kevin Patrick – keyboards
• Leigh Foxx – bass
• Paul Carbonara – guitars

The New Cars

• Todd Rundgren – lead vocals, rhythm guitar
• Elliot Easton – lead guitar, backing vocals
• Greg Hawkes – keyboards, backing vocals
• Kasim Sulton – bass guitar, lead and backing vocals
• Prairie Prince – drums, percussion

References

1. "THE NEW CARS CRUISE INTO THE FAST LANE WITH ROCK & ROLL HALL OF FAMERS, BLONDIE "ROAD RAGE TOUR 2006" PRESENTED BY VH1 CLASSIC". blondie.net. March 14, 2006. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
2. "The New Cars and Blondie: Road Rage". emusic.com. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
3. Michael Harkins (19 May 2006). "THE NEW CARS & BLONDIE – ROAD RAGE TOUR 2006 Review". trconnection.com. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
4. "NEW CARS' ELLIOT EASTON GOES IN FOR REPAIRS NATIONAL ROAD RAGE TOUR CANCELLED". blondie.net. June 16, 2006. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
5. "NEW CARS' ELLIOT EASTON GOES IN FOR REPAIRS NATIONAL ROAD RAGE TOUR TAKES A PIT STOP". blondie.net. June 12, 2006. Retrieved 2017-07-25.
6. . classicrock.about.com. June 21, 2006. Archived from the original on January 12, 2014. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
7. "Blondie Setlist at Gibson Amphitheatre, Universal City, CA, USA". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
8. "Blondie Setlist at Wolf Trap, Vienna, VA, USA". setlist.fm. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
9. "Blondie ambition for rockin' Albright-Knox event". bizjournals.com. May 1, 2006. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
10. "CALENDAR & TOUR SCHEDULE 2006". deborah-harry.com. Archived from the original on 2014-01-12. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
11. "New Cars Back On The Road". pollstar.com. September 14, 2006. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
12. "The New Cars Resume Touring With 'Road Rage Winter Tour'". starpulse.com. September 26, 2006. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
13. "Persephone's Bees to Join The New Cars on Road Rage Winter Tour". prnewswire.com. Retrieved 2014-01-12.
14. "The New Cars Road Rage Tour 2006 (featuring Kasim Sulton)". kasiminfo.com. Retrieved 2014-01-12.