August 20, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

LOCAL BOY MAKES GOOD, AGAIN

Los Angeles, CA, (PRWEB) August 15, 2008 – The Malibu Music Awards, an innovative songwriter competition which is part of the Malibu Arts Festival has awarded singer-songwriter-rock violinist, Antonio Pontarelli the “Grand Prize”. A panel of industry professionals judged the event which drew a crowd of over 12,000 people over the weekend. Other notable awards given were ‘Breakout Artist of the Year’ which went to Colbie Caillat who was recently number one on Billboard and ‘Female Music Legend’ which went to Pat Benatar. The “Grand Prize” was presented by TV legend Dick Van Dyke. Winning awards is not new for Pontarelli who has won dozens of awards over the years as a songwriter as well as a performing artist. He won his first national championship at age 13 when he became the Grand Champion of “America’s Most Talented Kids” which included American Idol winner Jordan Sparks. In 2005 and 2007 he won the ASTA National Alternative Styles Competition for “Best Rock” and the Southern California Music Award for “Best Instrumentalist”. In January Pontarelli won the 2008 Inland Empire Music Awards for “Best Rock Band”. Earlier this year he was the ‘People’s Voice’ Winner of the International Songwriting Competition (ISC).

Pontarelli has been involved with numerous projects over the past year, including collaborating with Grammy award winners including Serj Tankian, the voice of “System of a Down” (SOAD) where he added rock violin madness to Tankian’s solo CD “Elect the Dead”. Tankian stated “Antonio Pontarelli is a great musician that brought ambiance to the music”. The album peaked at four on the US Billboard charts. Pontarelli’s passion as an artist extends beyond the concert stage. In 2002 he created a non- profit foundation to fund projects that put music into the lives of those who are less fortunate. He has done workshops at schools and universities throughout the US and has made Grammy Red Carpet appearances promoting Grammy Camp and music in the schools. On August 30th his band will take a break from their tour to be a special guest of NAMM’s Museum of Making Music in Carlsbad, CA. Pontarelli will be giving an “Informance” that reveals some of his secrets to bringing the haunting timeless magic of the violin to popular music. Pontarelli will be playing some unique electric violins from his own collection and unveiling a few from the museum’s special exhibit. Advanced ticket purchase recommended at www.museumofmakingmusic.org or (760) 438-5996, ext. 212.

The band will be making other local appearances at Dos Logos Amphitheatre at the Promenade in Corona. CA on August 23^rd from 7-9. The event is underwritten by a generous grant from Walkers Motors and is free to the public. On August 29 they will be playing with the English Beat at Wiens Winery in Temecula in a fundraiser that benefits the California Family Life Center. Tickets can be purchased at www.goldencrownproductions.com. September 13^th at 6 PM. they will be headlining the Blue Jay Jazz musical scholarship fundraiser to be held at a prestigious estate in Lake Arrowhead. Ticket information can be found at www.bluejayjazz.com For more artist information on Antonio Pontarelli please visit www.antoniomusic.com or www.myspace.com/antoniopontarelli.

Posted in Our Favorite Things, Music, News | Print | No Comments »

August 20, 2008 by Bill Gould, Publisher.

Claremont, California - So, as planned, I set out on a Last Summer Escape on August 16 and 17 2008 to a new Hotel, a new Restaurant, a new Band and Warped Tour with Jeney and Apryl. The Hotel, as reviewed earlier, was great. Clean and funky-cool, it was a hit with the whole crew.

Next up we headed to The Press, a vegetarian friendly restaurant in Claremont California for some tasty vittles. We had made reservations earlier in the day so that we could get a seat in the room The Woolly Bandits were playing in. The keyboardist, John Langdon, is a buddy of mine. We have played in a couple of different bands together in the past and he had invited me out.

The place is located in what looks like a 100 year old barn and has a unique style about it. We started the meal with ‘Press Fries’, a collection of yams and potatoes cut in various ways and deep fried. They were not quite crunchy, but tasty. We also ordered a ‘Musicians Salad’ and it was perfect by all accounts. For a beverage, Apryl ordered a ‘fresh squeezed’ lemonade that was $4, bland and boring. Sadly enough she ended up using it to flavor her ice water. I ordered a California Black Beer; it was great, so much so that I later ordered one with dinner. Jeney enjoyed a Sierra Nevada Porter with her meal and reported it was great as well.

Apryl’s dinner consisted of a bowl of soup, potato spinach soup to be exact. To my surprise she ate the entire bowl with only a little help from Jeney and I. The bite or two I had I enjoyed very much. Jeney ordered a slice of Vegetarian Lasagna; it was rather large and flavorful. My meal was a pesto noodle stir-fry with seasoned tofu. I loved my dish and wish I could have some right now. Upon my request I had them cook the tofu extra crispy and it was perfect.


Dessert was unique. As a kid, Apryl went very traditional and had vanilla ice cream with chocolate syrup. I don’t eat ice cream, but based on her fast eating it must have been great! Jeney and I split a slice of vegan chocolate cake. I enjoyed it, although it could have had a bit more rich flavor and it would have been delightful.

About the time we finished the dessert the band had begun playing. I had really come to see the band after all. The Woolly Bandits began tearing through an explosive set of rock and roll with singer Christa dancing on the tables and getting crazy with her tambourine. It was way awesome to see my good friend ‘Johnny Keys’ playing with such a cool, fun and hip band. It was about this time that a server came over to me and mentioned to me that we were going to need to leave because my daughter was only 7. I was a little stunned seeing as how I just spent over $100 on dinner and that the band was only 4 songs into an hour long set. I basically told her ‘no’ and asked to speak with the manager. The manager came right over and we went outside to talk; a talk that would last like 15 minutes and waste precious minutes of an amazing rock and roll stampede that I could hear from even out back.

The manager in short order told me that I had to leave because that was the restaurants policy. I then explained about how I drove 60 miles from my home to come see the band, not come to the restaurant. I explained that HER employee Ashley had told me it was fine for us to be there for the band after I called and made a reservation for 2 adults and a child at a table in the room that the band was in. I told her that in LA County it was legal for ‘under 21’s’ to be in an establishment after 9pm; if that establishment also serves food. I then asked if the City of Claremont had an ordinance barring my daughter from being there and she replied ‘no’, because it is a restaurant and not a ‘bar’. We bickered back and forth for a few more minutes until we reached a compromise in allowing us to stay until midnight so I could at least see a few more songs. Either way I was not at all happy with missing a good portion of the bands set and would caution against people going to see bands at this venue unless everyone in your party is over 21.

This particular incident irritated a spot in my soul from a verbal altercation over the phone earlier in the week with a band who was scheduled for a show on August 16. This band (who does not deserve the name mention in this article) canceled a show with only 36 hours notice because ‘they didn’t know if it was worth their time to drive from Riverside’. Well, well, well, poor band that scheduled an entire show themselves (at their request) and then craps out and the last minute. I have no pity for you. You should have shown up and played and been big boys about it.

This made me begin to loose the faith I had in new music. This loss of belief began months ago as our local scene has imploded in many ways. Bands breaking up, getting married, going to college, having kids and just giving up and getting regular jobs have all caused our local Temecula Valley scene to fall apart in the recent past. This coupled with the douchebaggery of the Riverside band this week and the attitude of the management at The Press on Saturday night had pressed me to the limit and truly eroded my faith in good old rock and roll - you know, the kind your parents hate and you love. My last chance at salvation was a ‘little’ festival called Warped Tour. It was so fitting that the last day of this year’s tour was on a Sunday, as I was in need of rock and roll ‘church’ to cleanse my soul of the evil that had crossed my path this week and tainted my love for loud guitars, great songwriting and mosh pits.

To be continued…

Posted in Food, Family Attractions, Hotels, InViews, Music, Commentary, News | Print | No Comments »

August 19, 2008 by PT Rothschild.

DIRT TOUR CLEANS UP ‘BRO’ IMAGE, SORT OF

Perris, CA – Have you ever seen that concert footage where the singer moves down across the front of the stage and slaps the hands of screaming fans in the crushed front row, and wondered just how it felt? Well, I can tell you, because I was one of those fans this past Saturday night at the Dirt Alliance Dirt Tour during Mickey Avalon’s headlining set. But first, let me set the stage for the event, an event that one friend said, “guess what three things you will see today, Dickeys, black socks, and fights!”

My friend got two out of the three right but I’m happy to say that I saw nary a fight. Not bad for the maybe six policemen I saw at various spots around the venue. A few things were ‘lost’ but the general atmosphere was like if you mixed one part truck stop, one part gypsy swap meet, one part late summer fair show, and one part burlesque. Of course I was backstage most of the time when Corie aka ‘Corndog’ made the observation and said, “I wear more clothes at the beach then I see the girls in here.”

Besides, it was fun hanging with the band Inhale after their set got some of the crowd over to the main stage area and, well you know, inhaling, not to mention chiefing down the delicious pizza for the munchies that was available to the bands and VIPs. The backstage scene was very entertaining as most of the MPBBE crew was there, the Inverse RV had cold beer with a two story beer bong tube, with a place to sit out of the hot Inland Empire sun where the night does NOT cool down as it does in French Valley, T-town, or Murrieta.


Travis, one of the co-owners of Dirt Alliance ‘is a velvet monotone which is a rare strain but a damn good trait to have’ said Jamaal, Ivan Promotions’ video camera person. It was during No Dice’s set (“Hey, hookers got feelings too”) watching a crowd of kids mosh to the band’s songs that were anchored by a stand-up old school bass that I saw a kid on a crutch moshing with the rest of his friends. Then a couple of songs later when another mosh pit started, one of the other kids, a bigger boy, picked him up and put the kid on his shoulders so he could run around in the mosh circle without any distractions like the other two legged kids.

It is the way of the young Bros and certainly not the image people outside the ‘bro scene’ expect, but isn’t that the way it is about any scene that outsiders have formed an ‘opinion’ about. Sure there were plenty of mammary glands exposed here and there to match all the ass cheeks that were in abundance on and off the mobile stripper poles, but that’s what you see from the outside looking in. What you see from the inside is ‘the heart’ of the Bros, not the ass of the hoes. Inverse played a good set which rocked. They debuted some new material and most people were unaware that two of the members had bad head colds, though their eyes looked like two piss holes in the snow if you looked really close. That’s the ‘show must go on’ professionalism of the local band (or any real band, for that matter. Remember when Keith Richards was electrocuted while playing a Rolling Stones show in the rain?)

Fashion-wise, the day of the bandana is done. It is now the day of the ‘Bruce Willis brim’ aka hat. Divide The Day hit the stage playing stuff from their just released CD of two days. The crowd filled in to the songs which reminded me of Ratt and Motley Cruë back in the day when they were hot and fresh. Music historians can take note that original members Joe and Billy once played with Finch at their ONLY Temecula show (at the Stampede) in a band called Ripshaw, and have played on a bill with Soulfly and HED PE. Next up for the group is Fullerton’s ‘Spare The Air’ on 8/30/08 with The Used, who will do an acoustic set there.

Band dad Joe lamented about the absence of the scene here as he remarked that there were ‘tons of bands coming out of the Inland Empire’ and that many used to be able to play in T-town when there was a venue here for them. Sometime after the Burning Man Project I will be reviewing the Colton/San Bernardino band’s new CD, so stay tuned, but now back to our regularly scheduled Dirt Tour review.

By this time evening was coming on and I caught the last part of OPM after again venturing into the outside crowd for a T-shirt or two, and another glance up at the thonged buns gyrating around the stripper poles. X103.9’s DJ Bobby Sato was the MC and his voice announced that Tattoo Junkies would be taking the stage. Now, Sports Fans, you have to understand that when you are a backstage person, you go where the general (paying) audience can’t go.

So I and several others, including ‘Corndog’, Ivan, and Jourdan, his still photog, had from time to time seen the bands from inside the security area. This is the area I returned to for the give-aways, scoring countless items while watching and bumping to hip-hop. A bit faded from the free beer and swigs from Nikki & Corndog’s bottle of vodka, I joined in dancing where Ivan was a free-styling whirling dervish but didn’t leave when he did. When Bobby the MC announced that Mickey Avalon would be right out, I was suddenly encased by screaming females, with girls to the left of me, girls to the right of me, girls to the rear of me, and a stage monitor in front of me. Somewhere deep in my brain I realized that this was going to be an American Bandstand moment, but truthfully Folks, in all the concerts that I’ve been to, this was the first time I have been wedged in like a male sardine being squished by female sardines. Later I would notice that my clothes smelled like a girl’s gym, which is not a bad thing.

I couldn’t see more than a few rows to my rear so I have no idea what or how full the general audience area was, but judging from ‘V.I.P. only’ crowd, I’d have to say the whole place was packed for Mickey Avalon, and I got a front, very front row seat as to see why. Mickey is hot, also smoldering and smutty, just the perfect performer for this crowd who loves playing in the dirt with dirty girls and listening to dirty lyrics. Being free to be ‘dirty’ is what makes this country America so great. I would have saluted the flag but with all the young bodies pressed so tightly up against me, I could barely move my arms except to hold out a hand to be slapped as Mickey strutted by rapping. (PS: Girls, he has the softest hands that you’ve ever felt, adding to the hype that Mickey Avalon could change a nun’s habit of being good to being forgiven). Meanwhile though, I was also caught up in the pandemonium going on onstage as the ‘Mick-ster’ rapped about making girls do the ‘Jane Fonda’.

His two cigarette-smoking Asian (?) dancers were doing their sensual Tai-Chi moves in satin outfits with fishnets (one dancer’s pair had some rips, further adding to the sexy Feng Shui moment). The stage wings were packed with people. Guys (where’d they come from?) would appear, run across the stage and then sail past me, diving into the crowd just a few rows behind me. At least four videos were rolling simultaneously and I have to wonder what Mickey will think when he sees the YouTube versions with a front row dude wearing a hat that says ‘Old Guys Rock’ among all the women. Some of the roadies chased people off the stage, even some of the girls who were flashing the crowd, but one plus size woman whipped out her twins and gave the crowd a real ‘Mutt & Jeff’ show while the roadies seemed rooted to their spots, giving her full access. Needless to say, I was horse the next day from all the hooting and hollering, so I’ll just say two things in closing here. First, forget about Global Warming gases, Mickey Avalon and crew could melt an ice cap all by themselves. And second, sign me up for the next Dirt Alliance Dirt Tour, just don’t tell my pastor!!

Posted in Family Attractions, Food, InViews, Music | Print | No Comments »