Icepack

Amorosi on the news, nightlife, gossip and bitchiness beats.

by A.D. Amorosi

I t was just weeks ago I wrote about Tony Sparacino's passing and how this charming man (Antny'd love a Morrissey reference) made a difference to Philly's social schemas, gay and straight — the worlds he worked within sartorially and culturally. And suddenly it's another week of VIPs lost. Like Go to Blazes' Bruce Langfeld. Langfeld was crucial: a nice multi-instrumentalist who made those he graced tingle with his musicality. Ray Doskus wasn't just your waiter at Morning Glory. He was a guitarist and a member of Size Queen — a sweet dude. He too has gone. "Ray taught me so much," says Jimi "Helen Back" Mooney, who shared the band Bottom with Doskus. But that Skinny Dave — lanky, big-eyed, leather-jacket-summer/winter scene patron — has passed, that got me. Because he always appeared to be in a state of something, Skinny Dave seemed unstoppable, immortal, as in long after we died, there'd be Skinny Dave: drinking shots of Jack, leaning on your bar. I missed Skinny's wake at Tritone. So did guitarist Jay Medley, who reminisced about old scenie stuff, like marauding dirt-metal monster-punk vets Joey Throttle and Trained Attack Dogs, who'll play Tritone March 31 and another Dobbs reunion at Bob & Barbara's in June. "It's funny, I happened to pull out my second Resin (one of Medley's '80s bands) record, So What, the other day; Skinny's on the cover," said Medley, before admittedly and shamelessly plugging his Hired Guns' Tritone gig April 1. People die. Promote a show. Move on. Skinny would've wanted that. Still, it made me think about old Philly cats I dug and check in with them. So I'm happy to hear Mooney/Back's record with Str8 Razors' Chris Unrath and Ned Sonstein (sadly their last) should be finis in June with a working title, Cuntempt. Then there's Joey Annaruma. He's Joey Throttle. And after having lived for a while in New Orleans — yes, through Katrina; yes, in the battered St. Bernard Parish — he's not only back in Philly but back making music. But only for charity gigs. Like Habitat for Humanity Maria D'Angelo's March 31 gig at Tritone for NOLA's Project Hope with Annaruma and old Throttle guys Paul Bilbrough, Tom Donovan and Chuck Treece, whose McRad is also on the bill. "But it's not Throttle!" yells Annaruma. We're Man is Doomed. And on the bill with us is a band that goes even farther back: Trained Attack Dogs ... 18 years after the fact." That'd be John Manhardt, Ken Kramer, Keith Souder and Mike "She Male" Mosley. "I'm back where I belong and I loves the mortadella," says Annaruma. And there's Bill Rogers. Some know him from pre-Live Nation Electric Factory bookings; some from his Sid Paine/Larry Ahearn collective, New Park; some from having partnered with Jack Utsick Presents NE. (Utsick's got his own problems — including scrutiny from the Securities and Exchange Commission.) With JUP-NE dissolved, Rogers' got Bill Rogers Entertainment. And Bill's got gigs (Keswick, Sovereign Bank and Mann Center with the likes of Lyle Lovett and K.D. Lang), new digs (Manayunk to Haddonfield) and a new old marketing director in Greg Benedetti — a scene vet from Emerald City and Ripley's when Stephen Starr was still promoting concerts and not munchie$. Our Bar Noir pal Classic Mark Sheldon is now manning the bar at London (Grill) in Art Museum country, eating all of Mike McNally's Tuscan guanciale. And the Annual Black Tie GayBINGO — an old-school fave benefiting the AIDS Fund — hits the Crystal Tea Room with its drag Bingo Verifying Divas (BVDs) and "Straight Person of the Year" award (AIDS Walk Philly supporter Andrea Finkelstein Losben) intact (call 215-731-9255 for tix). We even heard some old folk gossip: that the older lady what runs Victor Cafe and her kids are bitching at each other with the force of La Traviata. And in a vampiristic old-to-new transition, DJs A&E (A.D. and Evan) are doing their '80s/'90s jawn, not at Alfa/Walnut, but rather at Upstairs@Sal's March 30 with the youthful Kratfwerkian duo The Model. That's right down the street from Making Time's Pure gig with Dave P. and The Man Whore. Which reminds me: After spitting beer on the Mummers Museum floor during their first visit, has Brazil's baile funky Bonde do Role moved here? The Mad Decent label band has gigs at Upstairs @ Sal's March 29 and Transit (with Klaxons!) at April 14's Making Time.

► She's blond, cute, a Cashman + Associate girl and damn it — she just got engaged: Carrie Nork to Dino Minelli, a co-owner of NYC's nite spot Luke & Leroy. Congrats.

► The first L Cast label CD in a while comes out next week and it's a doozy: the long anticipated flighty jazz, folky-funk and bongo-rocking Songs of the Harvest from the many-manned Experience Kef (www.experiencekef.com). Its release party? April 2's Monday Night Club at the Balcony.

► WHOWHATWHERE: Yes, we were there when Jared Leto walked into Whole Foods to buy pomegranate juice. Yes. It was weird staring at each other for a second. Then we both ran away. The same thing didn't happen between Jamie Foxx and me at his Marvelus/Belvedere white-shag-rugged VIP area jawn at Cebu. He stayed cool, laughing, looking swank in his black turtleneck. Wait, so did I. And Giancarlo Esposito hung out at a private dining room at the Kimmel after speaking at Drexel U's Sibby Merkel Brasler lecture series. (Nicole Cashman got one of that philanthropist's scholarships.) I didn't see him, so neither of us screamed. 

► King Britt & Dozia? Peek-a-Boo Revuers? Aerialists? It's not a weekend at my house: It's the secret unannounced lineup for April 18's 11th anniversary at Cheerleaders. 

► Sad, not sad: The Black Floor — one of Philly's awesomest gallery/collectives — is no more. Long live Black Floor. They added new members, are calling themselves Copy Gallery, and will kickstart at April's end. Long Live Copy Gallery.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)