Friday, January 18, 2008

Tone Loc gets wild


With a voice even raspier than I remember, rapper Tone Loc had dozens of fans jumping and singing at Buckwild Saloon in the University area on Thursday. I hadn’t been to the place since its grand opening last year, and I was glad to see that they serve food until midnight. I tried the B.L.T and French fries. They use Texas toast for the bread, and it was deliciously unhealthy. And so were the well-seasoned fries.

Slightly before midnight, Tone Loc took the stage. Surprisingly, the famed ’80s rapper joined by his hypeman/DJ/roadie performed his big hit “Funky Cold Medina” as the second song. His set consisted of covers of hip-hop classics such as “Rapper’s Delight” as well as an audience call and response to an AC/DC beat that Tone Loc rapped over. Larken and I wanted to hear Tone Loc’s other hit “Wild Thing,” but we left during the rapper’s “American Idol” style contest.

Get this, on Friday morning, I learned that after we left, Tone Loc suffered a seizure while performing. Paramedics treated him, and he finished the show. Now, that’s wild.

Jill Scott is coming - supposedly

I know some of you all have been wondering about the Jill Scott concert that was scheduled for March 1 and then unofficially postponed. Here is an edited e-mail from the promoter Michael Alexander regarding my inability to reach him, and the latest on the show.

"I am responding to your article in Charlotte.com concerning the Jill Scott concert.

First, let me inform you that we are in the process of moving to a new office that is on the Time Warner system instead of Bell South, and for some reason, a recording giving our new office number was not attached to the old one.

Now, as far as Jill Scott is concerned, the date is being rescheduled to Friday, April 4, 2008 at Cricket Arena because of the following:

1. Jill is sold out for 2 shows in both Norfolk, VA, and Greensboro, NC on February 29 and March 2. It was determined by her management that trying to do Charlotte on March 1st would be too many shows for Jill to do in a short period of time.
2. The only time period left on the tour that she could play Charlotte was the first week in April. Ovens is booked through April 7th, so we chose
Cricket Arena.
3. The demand for advance tickets to the concert has been so intense that we chose to play a larger hall, so that Jill would only have to play 1 show.

I will let you know all details as soon as they are complete. There you have it...

I truly apologize for the delay in updating you on this situation before now, However, my staff and I have been bogged down moving to our new office."