Gaga’s ‘Jazz + Piano’ back for 8 dates
LADY Gaga wasn’t bluffing. The film and recording superstar said to her Dolby Live audience in September, “We’re gonna make a contract. Everybody on this stage will be here forever. We’ll do it. I’m not kidding. I make a lot of jokes on this stage. This is not one of them.”
The crowd cheered. Her musicians, including members of the Santa Fe & The
Fat City Horns, grinned and nodded.
Lady Gaga’s team made official what was reported in this space nearly a month ago. “Jazz + Piano” is back for eight dates: June 19, 20, 27,
29, 30; July 3, 5 and 6. Tickets go on sale at 10 a.m. Saturday at Ticketmaster.com.
As the jazz production continues, the status of Lady Gaga’s “Enigma” pop show is in doubt. That production originally juggled dates with “Jazz + Piano” when it opened on New Year’s Eve weekend in 2018.
The two shows have combined for nearly $100 million in revenue at Dolby Live. Lady Gaga, though, has not performed “Enigma” since New Year’s Eve weekend in 2019.
Lady Gaga most recently performed “Jazz + Piano” in a three-show run Oct. 1-5. She also led a version of the show at Raiders owner Mark Davis’ “The Dinner Show” at Fontainebleau during Super Bowl weekend. The production has been backed by a 30-piece big band, with vintage-style video of Lady Gaga retelling the history of Vegas entertainment alongside her musicians.
Acclaimed keyboardist and arranger Michael Bearden conducts the orchestra. Trumpet great Brian Newman has assembled the horn section and plays the show with his own backing band.
He opens for himself
Frankie Sidoris is joining Mammoth WVH and Slash Ft. Myles Kennedy & The Conspirators on their upcoming world tour, which opens in Dublin on Thursday night.
Sidoris, a Vegas native, posted: “The combining of both of my bands on one tour with @mammothwvh is going to take this entire thing up many notches.”
I have not heard of an artist playing both bands on a world tour, certainly not one from Las Vegas, so please prove me wrong.
Wu-tang Clan, for the win
Wu-tang Clan has extended its series at The Theater at Virgin Hotel on Sept. 28-29. This was a “Tease this …” note a few days ago. Headlining the first hip-hop residency in a Las Vegas theater, Wu-tang Clan has sold out four performances over Super Bowl weekend and again Friday and Saturday for March Madness. The run is titled “The Saga Continues …” So dramatic, but this show scores.
Keep on Ruckin’
Hootie & The Blowfish are setting up camp for a weekend at Bleaulive Theater.
Darius Rucker, Mark Bryan, Dean Felber and Jim “Soni” Sonefeld bring their “Summer Camp With Trucks” tour to the Fontainebleau venue Aug. 23-24. Ticket are on 10 a.m. Friday at fontainebleaulasvegas.com.
Founded in Columbia, S.C., in 1986, the band became famous a dozen years later with such hits as “Hold My Hand,” “Let Her Cry” and “Only Wanna Be With You.” Rucker most recently played Vegas at the 2021 iheartradio Music Festival at T-mobile Arena.
The two shows are characteristic of Bleaulive Theater’s booking strategy of bringing in touring shows or one-offs, rather than residencies. Live Nation Las Vegas holds the keys to the venue.
Benatar-giraldo to Palms
The ever-rocking married couple Pat Benatar and Neil Giraldo are coming back to Pearl at the Palms.
Dubbed “Funtastic 24,” Benatar and Giraldo are back Aug. 2. Tickets are on sale 10 a.m. Thursday.
Benatar and Giraldo were the first headliners to play the Pearl in its revival under San Manuel Band of Mission Indians ownership in September 2022. The show is in the resort’s exclusive partnership with Live Nation Las Vegas.
The couple marked their 40th wedding anniversary in ’22. They have been artistic collaborators, through Benatar’s commercial heyday in the 1980s, when she had hits such as “We Belong,” “Invincible,” “Love Is A Battlefield,” “Promises In The Dark,” “We Live For Love,” “Heartbreaker” and “Hell Is For Children.”
A shared message
Flavor Flav said his meeting with Bruce Springsteen on Friday at T-mobile Arena revived memories of their shared subject in two social-commentary songs: Public Enemy’s’ “41:19,” and Springsteen’s “American Skin (41 Shots).”
The songs addressed the Feb. 1999 death of Guinea native Amadou Diallo, who was shot at 41 times by New York police officers as he stood unarmed in the doorway of his Bronx apartment building. Diallo was hit 19 times.
Public Enemy was first out, releasing the song on their 1999 album, “There’s a Poison Goin’ On.” Springsteen and the E Street Band’s live performance was issued in April 2001, later recorded in the studio, and finally appearing on Springsteen’s 2014 album, “High Hopes.”
“Bruce’s song was out a couple years later, and it blew
up,” Flav said. “So we did talk about that, and he remembered our song coming out. It was an honor to know this man knew who I really was.”
Cool Hang Alert
Nikki Logan & Friends play Maxan Jazz at 7 p.m. Thursday. Logan is fierce; I first saw her as Michael Grimm’s backing singer/duet partner and sidekick at Myron’s. Maxan offers music six nights a week. For those nights, and other intel, go to maxanjazz.com.