Not until January, but it was just announced that the Lady GaGa / The Monster Ball Tour will come to Atlantic City at the Borgata.
Lady GaGa (Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta) had two smash hits in 2008 with “Just Dance” and “Poker Face.”
According to Wikipedia, “To date she has sold over 20 million digital singles and 3 million albums worldwide, which makes her one of the biggest-selling artists of 2009.”
The Ryders at the Jamfest on Saturday at Mac's
Tony Mart’s Rock ‘N Roots Jamfest, held at Mac’s in Somers Point, featured a fine night of music, food (like the 400-piece birthday cake for Jerry Garcia; it was his birthday) and friends. Many in the crowd gathered to see Donna Jean Godchaux, the former back-up singer in the Grateful Dead. But the first two acts warmed up the stage for Godchaux and her band. Look out for a story on the event soon — including images from the cake and video — at acweekly.com.
I watched a great documentary film on the late musician Joe Strummer (The Clash, The Mescaleros) called Let’s Rock Again! last night. An hour long and directed by Dick Rude (who played the character Duke in the extraordinary cult classic Repo Man), the film follows Strummer on tour with his band the Mescaleros towards the much-too-early end of his life in December 2002.
One of the coolest parts for someone who works in the Bayport One building on the Black Horse Pike (where the Atlantic City Weekly offices are located as well as numerous radio stations) was to see Strummer — en route to a gig at The Shell at Trump Marina in Atlantic City at the Trump Marina in August 2002 — roll up to the front door of the Bayport One building — after turning to the camera from his car seat and saying “Welcome to Pleasantville” — to plug his show on the local rock station WZXL 100.7. Unannounced.
With it being a weekend, the doors were locked, so Strummer (and cameraman Rude) went behind the building where the back-door entrance and intercom is located. We see Strummer try the back door, dial up the station on intercom, get brushed off by someone there (a WAYV part-timer at the time) and then — finally — inside the station talking on and off air with DJ Steve Raymond (who was two songs away from playing a Clash tune!) about The Mescaleros’ new album and the show in Atlantic City. Later in the doc, we see Strummer on the Atlantic City Boardwalk handing out fliers to his own concert (video link at end of this post). Only one person seems to recognize the legendary punk-rock bandleader.
So….although it’s print deadline day for us here at AC Weekly, I had to go downstairs to talk with Raymond about the experience. I just did.
“I wasn’t supposed to work that day,” Raymond told me. “My wife and I were headed to Delaware for the day when I get a call that the part-time weekend DJ called out sick. I was so upset, but I had to come in. I was spitting nails coming up the Parkway.”
A little later that day, Raymond, as he put it, “was in the right place at the right time.”
As the film shows, Raymond goes to the back door of Bayport One and greets Strummer — in awe. “It turns out he was the greatest guy. I just wished I had prepared more for an interview!”
Strummer was finishing up a tour in Atlantic City and was headed to Japan. He died four months later.
“So it turns out that I — [along with the DJ from KROQ in Los Angeles, also shown in the film] — was the last American radio DJ to interview Strummer before he died,” said Raymond. He recalls Strummer signing a copy of his latest “biscuit” Global A Go-Go (released in July 2001) and WZXL giving it away to a lucky caller that same day. Strummer also signed a Rolling Stone music encyclopedia for Raymond.
WZXL DJ Steve Raymond holds up his Joe Strummer autograph inside his radio booth
For fans of the Clash, Atlantic City miscellany or Strummer, the very thoughtful, funny and talented man, add Let’s Rock Again! to your Netflix queue right now. Check out the great clip below of Strummer pitching his show on the Boardwalk circa August 2002:
The Roots
The Borgata announced today that The Roots (”most recently known for their tenure as the house band for Late Night with Jimmy Fallon“) will hold a residency at the Borgata Hotel Casino & Spa beginning Friday, July 24. The rap band is set to play an exclusive series of shows at Borgata’s Music Box. Each show will feature a special guest. Following each performance, the band will host an official Borgata Nightlife afterparty, the first to be held at MIXX, with music by guest DJ and Roots’ member, Questlove.
“As Philly natives, we have been to Borgata before and know it’s the leader in the Atlantic City nightlife scene,” Questlove is quoted as saying in the press release. “We couldn’t be more excited to make Borgata our new home,”
Tickets for the first performance on Friday, July 24, are priced at $49.50 and will go on sale Saturday, June 27 at 10am. The performance at The Music Box will start at 10pm. Visit The Borgata’s site for more.
In a funny blog post (about an unfunny subject) on the Rock Turtleneck blog there’s a list of “Rock’s Six Greatest Smokers.”
The blog post reads:
“A few days ago Congress passed a bill giving the FDA unprecendented control over the tobacco industry. Curiously, all tobacco flavorings are to be outlawed (they make smoking appealing to young people), except for menthol, which is reportedly the preference of our cig-sneaking leader Barack Obama. That’s power for you.
This law will no doubt save many lives. But what has gotten lost in the talk of the dangers of smoking is that some rock musicians have been able to turn cigarette smoking into an art form. So in celebration of this dying (literally) art, Rock Turtleneck is counting down Rock’s Six Greatest Smokers.” Check out the list.
Taylor will be at Ego at Trump Taj Mahal all summer
Singer Doreen Taylor has signed an exclusive contract to perform at the Taj Mahal’s Eho nightclub from July 3 to Sept. 5. She will be appearing every Friday and Saturday from 5-9pm.
Malcolm Tent
UPDATE: Local punk accordion player (who opened up for the Ramones in a pizza shop in Pittsburgh back in the ’70s) Malcolm Tent will take over Stockton College’s airwaves this afternoon at 5pm (Wed., June 24) for a live radio concert. If you can’t get the station 91.7 to come in, you can listen live to live Webcast on wlfr.fm. The live broadcast was supposed to be last Wednesday, but has been rescheduled for this afternoon. Enjoy!
Atlantic City’s been an A-list town of late when it comes to mega-headliners bringing tours here. Rolling Stones, Madonna, Elton John, The Who, Gwen Stefani, The Who and Gwen Stefani.
WAIT! Did we just write The Who and Gwen Stefani twice? That’s right. Each is coming back.
Pete Townshend and Roger Daltrey must have enjoyed their gig at Boardwalk Hall on Nov. 24 because The Who is coming back on March 9 (tickets go on sale tomorrow 12/2 at 10am).
As for Ms. Stefani, who made her AC debut in November of 2005 (the show was totally wicked… the Harajuku Girls rocked!), she’ll “Hollaback” on Memorial Day weekend to get AC’s summer concert season kicked off in style. Stefani releases her new album “The Sweet Escape” next week and announced the schedule for her tour in support of the new album on her website yesterday. The schedule includes two area tour stops, including one in AC:
May-24 Philadelphia, PA – Tweeter Center at The Waterfront
May-26 Atlantic City, NJ – Borgata Hotel and Casino
“Let me hear you say, this shit is bananas, B-A-N-A-N-A-S”
Yesterday, Rod Stewart announced he will embark on a 56-city North American tour – but it looks like local fans of the sex-symbol-cum- born-again-crooner will have to travel to Philly or New York to see him as he will not be returning – as of now – to our neck of the woods. Perhaps he was miffed about a recent AC Weekly article mentioning him?
Tenacious D, the acoustic rock and comedy duo composed of Jack Black and Kyle Gass, has canceled its Atlantic City show originally scheduled for December 2 at the Borgata. No reason has been given for the cancellation and there is no mention of it on the band’s web site.
This comes on the heels of last week’s postponement of the Rolling Stones show at Boardwalk Hall (rescheduled for November 17 – tickets for the Oct. 27 show will be honored at the rescheduled performance).
If this is a sign of an epidemic, it might not be all bad considering that Kevin Federline’s show at House of Blues has also been canceled. According to ETonline.com, K-Fed’s shows in Atlantic City and Cleveland, OH were canceled due to poor ticket sales.