Friday night at The National, classic grunge band Alice In Chains rides into town. Tix are $40, doors open at 8, show starts at 9 with opener Middle Class Rut. The show is SOLD OUT but you may want to check later to see if any tix open up. Of course the band is missing deceased lead singer Layne Staley, with William DuVall taking over the lead vocals spot. Reports from a friend who saw the show in the DC area said "It was really good, Tony! Not Layne Staley amazing, but really good. :-) William DuVall did him justice at least." (Thanks, Beth!)
I'll share with you my brush with fame Alice In Chains story. In '92, I was working for WZZO in Allentown and was helping out with our broadcast backstage from the Ozzy Osbourne / Alice In Chains / Motorhead show at the Allentown Fairgrounds. Great show from all the bands. Met Ozzy when he did a meet & greet for some contest winners and he couldn't have been a nicer guy, taking Polaroids with all the winners, giving them a special live CD and signing stuff, including my "Diary of a Madman" album. Later on, I got Alice In Chains to sign my "Facelift" CD booklet and ended up talking with Mike Starr, the bassist (at that time) for the band. I was dying for a beer at this point and he invited me on the tour bus to grab one. We got on the bus and in the candlelit, back room of the bus, I could see Layne Staley and a shady looking guy & girl, all looking a little creepy. They looked up and closed the door to the room and Mike said, "Bad shit going on back there" with a chuckle. It didn't take a brain surgeon to realize that some drug use was probably about to ensue and as time would later tell, it was probably heroin. I'm glad they shut the door.
Here is a track from their latest album, "Black Gives Way to Blue", called "Your Decision":
Tin Pan Alley bluesman Leon Redbone comes to the The Cultural Arts Center at Glen Allen on
Saturday night. Show starts at 7 PM and tix are $30, but this show is reporting as SOLD OUT also. Again, you may want to double check to see if tix pop up. Brush with fame #2. In the summer of '91, I worked at a bar called "The Hearth" in Pipersville PA, outside of Doylestown. Leon played The Hearth a couple times and while The Hearth didn't have much of a dressing room, the place always extended as much hospitality and good food and drink as they could to the artists. Leon, however, in keeping with his mysterious ways, would politely decline and would stay on his tour bus (might have been an RV) until it was time to go on, requesting only a bottle of liquor. So I never met Leon but he put on a fine show. If you don't recognize Leon's name, you'll certainly recognize his voice (or maybe his whistling):
You've got your first outdoor event of the season (and it looks like the weather will cooperate) in conjunction with the Colonial Athletic Association (CAA) basketball championship tournament going on at the Richmond Coliseum this weekend. I have not had a brush with fame with the CAA. The CAA Championship Fan Fest will be held in Festival Park, right next to the Coliseum, all weekend. Here's the dope on that from Venture Richmond:
"The Fan Fest will feature four large flat-screen TV's to watch all the action, live music - including CAA school pep bands, Wii games, Pop-a-shot basketball – all FREE! Food and beverages will be available for purchase too. There will also be free face painting and balloon sculptures, so bring the whole family!"
Fan Fest Tent Hours:
March 5, 11am – 9pm
March 6, 11am – 9pm
March 7, 2pm – 5pm
March 8, 5pm – 7pm
Live Music Line Up:
Friday, March 5
4:00-5:30 – DJ Mordecai
6:15-8:30 – See Double Eh! Allstars
Saturday, March 6
11:30-1:00 – Bush League
1:30-3:00 – Neatles
3:30-5:00 – Road Kill Roy
6:00-9:00 – Lightfields
Sunday, March 7
2:00-4:30 – Brand New Groovement
Monday March 8
5:00-7:00 – Debo & Friends
On Tuesday, DJ Willims Projekt has their regular gig at Cafe Diem. The gig starts at 9:30 PM.
A couple videos to share with you. Here is Grace Potter and The Nocturnals covering Jefferson Airplane's "White Rabbit" from the "Almost Alice" album, an album of songs "inspired by" the new "Alice In Wonderland" movie. They, of course, had to have this song. Its a pretty faithful cover, a great version, and always nice to look upon Grace. Remember, they will be a the Dominion Riverrock Festival on Brown's Island on May 14.
Lastly, I'll leave with the new video from OK Go, who you may remember from the video on the treadmills a couple years that was a huge YouTube hit. For their latest song, "This Too Shall Pass", they have set up a Rube Goldberg-esque contraption of massive proportions. If this was truly done in one take, someone deserves a medal or an Oscar or a Grammy or a nice cup of coffee, because this is cool as hell:
That's it. Have a great weekend!
Tony Jordan
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