Category Archives: Prima Donna

Prima Donna Will Rock New York, Hoboken and Philly, July 25th, 26th and 28th, 2010

Prima Donna at the Bowery Electric with Dirty Shames and The Threads, 7/25/2010

Prima Donna and Star Fucking Hipsters at Maxwell's, 07/26/2010

Howdy, folks!

Sorry I had to take a bit of a break, but work got in the way. I have my work done for the most part now and I’m happy to say that Green Day’s North American tour is just around the corner coming up in 12 days in Camden, NJ and I’ll be there! Woot!

In the meantime, to hold all of you New York, New Jersey and Pennsylvania Lushies over until Camden, this weekend brings our favorite Glam band, Prima Donna, to the area! Double woot!

At the end of June, I headed off to the Bay Area in order to take care of some business which just happened to coincide with a four-night mini-tour of Prima Donna and the Mystic Knights of the Cobra. I caught two of the four gigs, in Santa Cruz at the Blue Lagoon and Oakland at the Uptown. I had a great time dancing with the bands and I also had a blast seeing for the first time a “Zombie Vomit” (uh… what?) band called Culo A Boca (you’ll have to Google that name to find out what it means). One of their songs is “2 Girls 1 Cup,” but you’ll have to Google that also to find out where that title comes from, if you dare). (Though I was told that “1 Guy, 1 Cup,” which I haven’t dared to Google, is grosser…)

I’m ready to rock with Prima Donna again (sadly, without the Cobras) for two of four local shows happening in the New York Area this coming weekend, the Brighton Bar in Long Branch, NJ (with superpunk band, Batusis, Sat., 7/24), the Bowery Electric in New York City (Sun., 7/25), Maxwell’s in Hoboken, NJ (Mon., 7/26) and the Khyber in Philadelphia (Wed., 7/28).

I’m very excited about the Maxwell’s show as “Star Fucking Hipsters” (who I’ve seen twice in NYC) will be performing before they head off to their European tour. The dichotomy between SFH and Prima Donna will be something to see! A big shoutout to Mike Chickenman for setting up the show.

I’ll be at the Bowery Electric and Maxwell’s with my dancing shoes on, so beware! See all of you Area Lushies there!

Prima Donna and Mystic Knights of the Cobra Merch

Here’s a couple of videos of the Cobras and Prima Donna at the Uptown and Prima Donna’s video, “I Don’t Want You To Love Me”:

Mystic Knights of the Cobra – “Mutafuko’s Revenge” – The Uptown in Oakland, CA

Prima Donna – “Feral Children in Love” – The Uptown in Oakland, CA

Prima Donna – “I Don’t Want You To Love Me” – Official Video

For more local dates in YOUR AREA for Prima Donna, check out their tour page here. The North American tour goes until August 21 and they are off to Europe in September.


Vote for Me to Win A Trip to Lollapalooza! (And some other stuff, too)

Lollapalooza Vote Now for Fan Photo! Help Us Go to Lollapalooza!

I have exactly three photographs of me with celebrities besides those few friends of mine that I know from undergraduate theater school who are still making great theater and a living from it. Those three are: Regis Philbin (I used to work as a researcher for Who Wants To Be A Millionaire?), Billie Joe Armstrong and Mike Dirnt. One day I hope to have a picture with Tre Cool, but we’ll see if that ever happens.

I don’t really like asking “celebrities” for their photos. I can’t really pinpoint why I don’t like it, but it might be because I do know people in the “business,” and know how sometimes it’s just creepy to want people to talk to and take pictures of you all the time. I always feel like pictures should be taken of friends, families and things, not people I don’t know. I’m just strange, what can I say? That doesn’t mean I don’t begrudge others who ask for pictures, I don’t, but I would really just want to hang out, so unless folks are around what I consider friends, I don’t really take a lot of pictures of people that I don’t know that’s not in a performance setting.

Anyway, with that long, tortured intro, one of the three people that I do have a picture with, superstar Mike Dirnt of Green Day (and superstar-in-training, Jim Graz of Honah Lee!), I entered into a contest to try and win tickets, roundtrip air fare and hotel to Lollapalooza, which is coming up in hotter-than-hell-in-the-summertime, Chicago, August 6-8 or something. I should probably go and look that up… hmmm.

Vote for the picture, if you’d like! I kinda love it, it’s crazy funny to me, and that’s the way I like my celebrity photographs. If I win, I’m taking Jim and his girlfriend… yawzah… HOT. Here’s the link to my photo and entry. You can click on the photo below, too!

Mike, Jim of Honah Lee and Me. Click to Vote to Help Us See Mike and Company at Lollapalooza!

The vivacious Toniann is also in the contest, so take a look at hers, too! She has a lot more PR personality than me, but you can vote for more than one person per 24-hour time period. The contest ends on July 25th. Please vote! I’d love to go to Lollapalooza, but, who wouldn’t want to go when Green Day is playing at the festival? I’ve never been to one of them, and Soundgarden (yea, I know, I know, I love them, get over it) is also headlining one of the nights. Here’s to me!

You do have to fill out a short registration form to enter, but I do hope you’ll vote!

I tried to find my photo of me and Regis, but it’s no where to be found. It was taken prior to the digital era and is actually just on paper. Actually, it’s only from 2001, but that seems like ages in Internet years. Anyway, here’s my only other pure celebrity photo, with Billie Joe. I could only submit one photo to the contest, so I had to make a choice. I love both of the photos, but the one with Mike and Jim just makes me laugh a good bellylaugh, so I had to go with it. It’s from the Foxboro Hot Tubs show at Don Hill’s, one of the best nights of my life. The photo below of Billie Joe Armstrong and me is from what I call, “Fake New Years,” back in November when Green Day taped their New Years Eve show for Carson Daly in Los Angeles.

Me and some dude

Green Day Show in Venice Canceled

I was going to write about the canceled Venice show with the wind and hail and evil Venice weather, but it kinda made me so sad to think that the European tour ended by storm, that I didn’t want to think too much about it, so I didn’t write it, but I do have an awesome title for it, “Green Day in Europe Goes Out With a Storm – Venice Canceled Due to Various Acts of God (y’know, Thunder, Lightning, Hail),” haha… I felt really bad for the fans in Venice who didn’t get to see the boys, and I’m sad that the boys didn’t get to go out of Europe with a bang that ended in fireworks instead of lightning. The GDA covered it here [LINK] and here [LINK]

American Idiot on Broadway Cast on Good Morning, America[n Idiot]

This coming Friday, the cast of American Idiot on Broadway will be headlining a Good Morning, America broadcast at Summerstage in Central Park. It’s hella early, but I’m going to go. Here’s info from greenday.com:

You are invited to join the Broadway cast of Green Day’s American Idiot for a free, live concert on Good Morning America in New York’s Central Park! The intimate performance will be at Central Park’s Summerstage this Friday, July 16th. Enter on 72nd and 5th Ave at 6:00AM. The show will take place from 7am-9am EST.

Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer Talk With Jordan Roth

Billie Joe Armstrong and Michael Mayer will be interviewed by Jordan Roth, head of the Jujamcyn Theaters, of which the St. James, where American Idiot is playing, is one. Roth hosts a series of theater talks at the 92 Street Y.

Here’s the info and a link where you can get tickets:
Date & Time: Sun, Sep 19, 2010, 7:30pm
Location: Lexington Avenue at 92nd Street
Venue: Kaufmann Concert Hall Seating Chart
Price: $29.00 All Sections

Prima Donna in New York and Hoboken, July 25-26!

Star Fucking Hipsters and Prima Donna at Maxwell's, July 26, 2010. CM Productions

I need to take a few more days off from the blog, I have some work that I have to get finished, but one last thing! Prima Donna will be coming to NYC later in the month to rock our socks off at the Bowery Electric in Manhattan and Maxwell’s in Hoboken on July 25th and July 26th. I’ll post more about the dates as they get nearer. Hope to see you there! The Maxwell’s show is with Star Fucking Hipsters, that’s gonna be a rocking crazy night!

I’ll be back in a couple of days! Please don’t forget to vote!


Green Day in Bangkok Press Conference

Green Day Press Conference – Bangkok – January 11, 2010

Green Day landed in Thailand and then headed off to a press conference. It’s a pretty funny interview where the band “endorses” Singha beer, Tre opens a beer with a water bottle, Billie proves that he can’t count and gives a nice answer to the interviewer’s question about President Obama and in the end, they are all swamped by flowers. It reminded me of the musical Flower Drum Song for a moment there. All in all, it’s a great press conference and very fun to see the boys saying silly stuff again.

The clip also has also an awesome shout-out to Prima Donna when the interviewer asks them about their opening band. The boys praise PD… and Tre notes that they are huge in Spain and Portugal!

Speaking of Prima Donna, Kevin Preston tweeted this when they got to their hotel room yesterday:

“We are now in Thailand. I am lounging around butt naked in my hotel room 😉 xoxoKevin”

I’m not sure if that is quite what I had in mind when I hoped that Prima Donna (and Green Day) would tweet about their trip to the Far East, but hell, I’ll take it. The visual alone is well worth it. Now, let’s hope there is video!

*thanks to Green Day LIVE on Tour on Facebook for the press conference footage.


Green Day and Prima Donna: To the Far East and New Places

Far East Shows - Green Day with guests Prima Donna

Prima Donna just tweeted their farewells to the States as they and presumably, Green Day, head off to the Far East. The tour starts on January 12 with stops that include Bangkok, where GD performed in the 90s, and three new stops: Singapore, South Korea, and a place where Green Day has mentioned wanting to make an album, China (or more specifically, Hong Kong). The tour ends with four stops in Japan. I’m not sure if we’ll get videos on Youtube for these shows, including the four in Japan, which is a bit of a shame. Not too many people on either the Green Day Community or the Idiot Club have many members, and while there is an official Japanese fan club,  I cannot read it! And truthfully, if it’s as sucky as the official Idiot Club is wont to be.. well, I’ve said too much already.

It would be nice to have some in-depth reports from both the band and fans as Green Day hits three new countries for the first time. Hey guys, this seriously calls for tweeting! Come on, you can do it! 🙂

I’m sure though, that Prima Donna will share their road trip with us, particularly if it’s their first trip to the Far East. Prima Donna made two lovely videos of their time in Europe. You can watch Pt. II of Prima Donna’s tour here.

We’ll just have to keep our fingers crossed that Green Day fans in the Far East will post some videos of both bands rocking out in Asia. There is one lucky fellow that I know who will be heading to Japan to see them, if he can get tickets to the shows when he gets there. It’s been a little impossible to order tickets for the shows in Japan from England but I’m sure he’ll be fine when he gets there!

Until then, have a blast guys, and please, obey ALL local laws. LOL. Thanks!


Green Day Pranks Prima Donna

Green Day is known for pranking their opening bands on the last night of touring with them, as has been previously noted with The Bravery, the Kaiser Chiefs, and Franz Ferdinand. (There is video somewhere around here of The Bravery being pranked and pranking GD back in Albany, use the search box and go look for it yourself if you want to see it…)

Prima Donna got pranked somewhere in Italy… on their last night on the European tour, and the band just posted the video of it at Youtube. Pretty funny. I’m still looking forward to seeing Prima Donna’s “mangina” pranking back of Green Day, though. Manginas… please?

And what the fuck is Tre wearing?… But nice legs, dude!

Green Day Pranks Prima Donna – Can You Spot Tre, Mike, and Billie with your little eye? – Wembley Arena – London – November 1, 2009

Prima Donna has been asked back by Green Day to open for them during the Asian leg of the tour starting in Bangkok on January 12th and ending in Nagoya, Japan on January 25th. Two weeks of music, manginas, and… lightshots… hmmm… it’s gonna rock. Let’s hope they all make it back to the States alive!

Better yet, what are you going to cook up for Green Day in Asia, Prima Donna… hmmmm??


Prima Donna Rockin’ Europe

During Green Day’s North American tour, I was lucky to see all three of the opening bands: The Bravery, Kaiser Chiefs and Franz Ferdinand. All of the bands were solid, but except for the shear antics of The Bravery, they never seemed to rock the stadium as hard as Prima Donna seems to be doing in Europe as the opening band for Green Day. Here’s a sample of Youtube videos and while the sound quality isn’t all that great on the first video, the energy is amazing! London is going to rock!

“Demoted” by Prima Donna, Paris, 10/4/09

The Lushie Nuns also captured Prima Donna in Paris at the Bercy, 10/4/09

Prima Donna in Lisbon, 9/28/09


Prima Donna in Silver and Gold

Prima Donna Logo in Silver and Gold

Prima Donna Logo in Silver and Gold

Prima Donna posted this beautiful logo in burnished silver and gold on their Facebook profile today. Go and friend them. If you haven’t heard them and their retro glam sound, then head on over to their Myspace page and take a listen. I can’t wait to hear them open for Green Day in London. It’s gonna be glam!


Coming Soon II

A compilation of things past and future:

Yesterday was the 5th anniversary of the release of the album American Idiot, on September 21, 2004 (GDC), and as I mentioned in Coming Soon I, the boys took a ‘working’ vacation for the month of September. While it seems that it’s been a tad slow without the band on tour, some big things have happened to them: a performance at the VMA’s, resting with the family, tweaking a possible Broadway-bound show, and putting out a new live EP. It sounds a bit daunting for ‘vacation’, if you asked me.

I’ve been a bit overwhelmed myself, as my rental management company cashed my rent check.. twice! Woot. bwahaha. Needless to say, this was the LAST thing that needed to have happened, particularly since I’m heading to Oakland this week to see some rock musical I hear is playing out there. Carrying on…

Last week, on September 17, 2009, the premiere of the musical, Green Day’s American Idiot occurred, after two weekends in previews. Green Day won a MTV Moonman for Best Rock Video (voted on by fans) this month and performed the shit out of “East Jesus Nowhere” on an exceptionally whacked-out night of VMA’s. (You know, a bleeding Lady Ga-Ga, and Kanye West’s disastrous, “I’m gonna let you finish, Taylor, but I just want to say, Beyoncé had the best video of all time.”)

It was also recently announced that Green Day has been nominated for three European MTV awards, being held this year on, as someone pointed out at the GDC, on “Guy Fawkes day” also know as the Gunpowder Rebellion or the Day of Bonfires, November 5, 2009. While the date is usually associated with England, the European awards are being held in Berlin this year. (Just remember that, “remember, remember, the 5th of November” came way before the movie…)

Let’s hope that in commemoration of the event, Green Day “will to burn the house down” as they are performing, along with Tokio Hotel, Leona Lewis, Beyoncé, and Shakira. According to Wikipedia, they are performing “21st Century Breakdown,” but I will believe that when I see it. And I hope I see it.

Whatever they play, it will be hard to top their 2005 performance in Lisbon at the awards. Someone posted this at the GDC and I almost spontaneously combusted:

Green Day Perform “Holiday” at the European MTV VMA’s, Lisbon, 2005

Green Day find themselves pitted against the Jonas Brothers in the category of Best Group. I swear if I see the Jonas frigging Brothers win, I’m going to go out and torture kittens, so… (ok, not really), so… vote early and vote often here!

This coming Thursday, I hop on a plane to Oakland! Northern California, here I come! In a three-fold trip, I will see old and newly made friends (two from college, one of whom teaches at the Berkeley Rep School, and one I know from political boards from the old days of Air America Radio, and hopefully some people from the IC and GDC boards), visit Northern California for the first time, and see Green Day’s American Idiot on Friday. I am super-psyched but I’m also a bit exhausted, too, even before I head out there.

Sometime this week, Green Day, along with opening band Prima Donna, will be flying to Europe to kick off the European leg of the 21st Century Breakdown tour. The first date occurs on Monday, September 28, in Lisbon, Portugal.

While I am in a holding pattern, as it were, waiting to head off to Berkeley, I was looking at a great set of  photographs posted by a friend on Facebook. They were taken by a company called Polite in Public at the premiere of American Idiot, including this beautiful shot of Adrienne and Billie:

Adrienne and Billie Joe Armstrong, Premiere, Green Day's American Idiot at the Berkeley Rep.

Adrienne and Billie Joe Armstrong, Premiere, Green Day's American Idiot at the Berkeley Rep.

Nothing Wrong with Me pointed out a few photographs of Tré with, I believe, cast members:

What the Fuck!?! Tré and Cast, Berkeley Rep

What the Fuck!?! Tré and Cast, Berkeley Rep

Levi Strauss is one of the sponsors of American Idiot, like Verizon was for the North American tour. Additional photos in this series, with audience, cast, and band members, is a must view here.

Coming up for me next month: London. Four days. Green Day. Prima Donna. 23 and 24, October.

Rock on.


Lushie Church of Wishful Thinking Edition: Prima Donna = Foxboro Hot Tubs in the UK?

Prima Donna Opens for Green Day in Europe

Prima Donna Opens for Green Day in Europe

I will admit that at times I am a card-carrying member of the Church of Wishful Thinking.* I can’t help it. I want to believe that all sorts of things are possible – world peace, the end of famine, a sane Republican Party, aliens – you know, stuff like that. Unfortunately, world peace is probably unattainable because people suck, the end of famine won’t happen because agribusiness is too strong, a sane Republican Party is currently an oxymoron, and aliens wouldn’t dare come to Planet Earth at the moment what with the shape that we’re in and all… though they would probably get a great exchange rate right now. The entire planet is half off!

However, some things can be inferred (right or wrong), and I would like to throw the rumor out there that somewhere in Europe (probably in England), the Foxboro Hot Tubs will play some secret shows.

How do I know? I don’t, but I present the following:
1. The Reverend Strychnine Twitch, lead singer of the Foxboro Hot Tubs and supposed lead singer and guitarist of Green Day, wrote in a May 30, 2008 FBHT blog post the following: “and with that said, thanks to all the Tub Heads for coming out for our first tour. Will there be more? I got you on my mind, england…STING!!!!! The Reverend Strychnine Twitch.”
2. Prima Donna, a great band from Los Angeles, will be opening for Green Day for the entire European tour.
3. Chinatown, one of the members of the Foxboro Hot Tubs, is rumored to be Kevin Preston, a member of Prima Donna.
4. Someone who will remain nameless and who saw FBHT on their tour last year, asked someone else who will also remain nameless and is a member of the Hot Tubs, if they were going to play in England at some point and the answer was in the affirmative.
5. Lastly, I just want it to happen something bad. If it happens on Green Day’s day off, Sunday, October 25th, this will be the icing on my wishful thinking cake. I’ll be in London that day after seeing Green Day the previous two nights at the 02. STINNG!!!

Like Mulder from the X-Files, I WANT TO BELIEVE.

We’ll see what happens.

The Lushie Gods be praised.

*See lyrics for East Jesus Nowhere