August 24, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

MARTIN SCORSESE TO RELEASE NEW STONES DOCUMENTARY IN 2008


Taking a short break in their Bigger Bang Tour playing to sold-out venues across the U.S.A., The Rolling Stones played two shows in New York City’s famous Beacon Theatre, and Oscar winner Martin Scorsese was there to capture the moment. Titled ‘Shine A Light’, the documentary culled from the two nights of performances is attempting to be extremely acurate in capturing the magic of a live Stones show. After all, there is a reason The Stones keep selling out stadium after stadium, tour after tour, no matter what the country, longer than any other musical group, dead or alive. As a fan who has been to a number of Stones tour shows, and two this past BB Tour, I’m looking forward to see if this celebrated director with the cute fuzzy catapillar eyebrows will get me ‘Stoned’.

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August 24, 2007 by PT Rothschild.

A GREAT IDEA SPREADS NORTH


Several years ago I got a phone call from Bill Gould telling me that he was going to start ‘throwing shows’ at this little coffee house named Madlins. He said, “We’ve (Keenwild) played a number of places and I know what I don’t like about venues (and promoters). Our shows are not going to be like that, bands won’t have to ‘pay-to-play’ or sell tickets, and they will get to keep all their merch money. I want them to be able to just play their music with a good frame of mind. We played our best shows at cool venues.” I thought that sounded like a good idea at the time, and Full Value Entertainment was born.

Flash forward to this past Saturday and I’m up in San Bernardino, CA, a large older industrial city area that was built up in the days of the great railroads, The Santa Fe and the Union Pacific. I’m in a scouting party of Ivan McClain’s and with me is the ever lovely Keirah Robbins. We are the advance team. With Ivan Promotions on a forced sabbatical via The Vault shutdown (archive here or any local print zine for the various details of the back story), and all the media storm around ‘bad boy’ Ivan, it’s no surprise that people outside the valley of Barbie Land have taken notice and said, ‘hey’. Dennis Lucas is one of those people. Having been just featured in a piece by Inland Empire Weekly 8/16-8/22, ‘No More Pay To Play – Respect Thy Youngsters’ (Phil Fuller), Dennis is the CEO of Bad Monkey Entertainment, a company that recently launched a very successful teen dance night at Club Gotham. “We’re getting 1500 kids in here with just a DJ. I want to start doing live (music) shows here,” he motions around with his arms at the vast expanse of Gotham. Though it is the first time I have stepped into this huge industrial interior decorated and very gothic nightclub that is big enough for a ‘national act’, Gotham has been around for years. “I came here when I was around 16,” says Dennis, grinning from ear to ear. This show is his first live show and is being put on from 2PM -8PM. “I’ve found that the parents around here don’t mind the kids being gone during that period. I want to bring in maybe six bands and not charge them to play. We’ve got places set up for them to sell their merch. We’ve got sponsor booths. For the newer bands I’ll help them to merchandise themselves. I’m in a band myself.”As we are shown to the V.I.P. area, (very nice, very very nice), the club is alive with the frenzy of hardcore kids, band t-shirt vendors setting up their wearable art, bands checking in, and security, all managed by Dennis, his diminutive wife Sofia, the Bad Monkey President; Vivian Khnanisho, Media Relations; and the family go-to guy, Gage, the teenage son of Dennis. This is Bad Monkey Entertainment, but they are not promoters per se, which is the reason for our little trip. Like Riccardo (The Vault) and Johnny (Cuppy’s), BME wants to provide a safe alternative music experience in a controlled party atmosphere. The interesting interior design which features large, slowly twirling turbine fan blades behind see-through screen emplacements, plant style ductwork, a taller than average stage, and fenced-off areas of dripping ‘industrial waste’ is just to keep the kids from getting bored.

Also helping with this grand music undertaking was Vinyl Red Rehearsal Studios (909.923.9588) and the other energy drink company, EX Drinks US, LLC, out of Anaheim Hills in Orange County (877.251.3541), and the Inland Empire Weekly was represented by Vince Guzman.
Gotham’s band line-up for this coming Saturday’s 2-8 PM live show is:

• FATAL ERA
• EVERLYNN
• CYANIDE PUNCH PARTY
• THE HACKSAW CIRCUMCISION
• TRAGIM
• AMONG THE FALLEN CASKET
• BROUGHT TO RUIN
• THE ATONEMENT

www.myspace.com/badmonkeyentertainment http://www.exdrinksus.com/ http://www.vinylredstudios.com/

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