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KROQ DJ Richard Blade sails into sunset

Big hair and leg warmers are things we would like to forget about the 1980s, but the music is something that lives on thanks to disc jockeys such as KROQ's Richard Blade.

After 18 years of faithful service, Blade is sailing to the Caribbean. But he did not leave until the FM station threw him a bash fitting for a connoisseur of '80s music.

The Palace in Hollywood was packed with Blade fans Friday morning, while bands bid farewell to the man many of them say launched their careers in the United States.

Save Ferris kicked off the free four-hour concert with a three-song set. With the horn section wrestling on stage while they were not playing and lead singer, Monique Powell, belting out 1980s hit "Come on Eileen," the set proved to be a perfect opening to an amazing concert.

Tears for Fears, Berlin, Dramarama, members from the English Beat, Duran Duran and surprise guest Billy Idol all played amazing sets with some performances that ranged from simple acoustic sounds to loud and outrageous music fit for the Coliseum.

The most memorable vocal performance belonged to Dave Wakeling from the English Beat. With only a guitar and a tambourine, Wakeling sang to improvise the absent piano, drums and horns.

His voice flowed like melting butter as he sang "Tenderness" and "Sooner or Later." Showing no strain, his unique voice carried over the hundreds of screaming fans.

The performance that caused jaws to drop belonged to Berlin.

As they played "Sex," a lot of sexual simulation occurred between lead singer Terri Nunn and guitarist Dallan Baumgarten. The other members left the stage as the two did a lot of moaning, licking and grinding.

With the wonderful vocals and performances, the highlight of the day was the announcement "Ladies and gentlemen, Billy Idol!"

With his signature bleached-blond spiked hair and dark sunglasses, Idol caused the until-then tame audience to push and nudge to see the rock star curl his lip and throw his fist in the air as he sang "White Wedding" and "Rebel Yell."

This story originally ran in its entirety May 2.
 
 
 
 

MUSIC & DANCE REVIEW: A

Cajun music celebrated at El Camino College

Acclaimed Cajun folk band Beausoleil stirred an appreciative audience with its original interpretations of traditional bayou dance rhythms at the El Camino College of the Arts Saturday.

As if they're concocting a batch of hot, spicy gumbo, the Grammy-nominated Beausoleil updates Cajun music with a splattering of zydeco, jazz, Texas swing, country, blues and Caribbean rhythms.

Behind the direction of leader Michael Doucet, somehow it all holds together.

Beausoleil has been together for more than 20 years, and it shows in its tight, professional playing. This is a band that puts together music as seamlessly as pouring water.

Drums, percussion, upright bass, guitar and accordion provide an intricate and shifting backdrop for Doucet's searing fiddle.

Unfortunately, Beausoleil's intent is absorbed by a musical tradition that is essentially unchallenging and extremely provincial.

This is despite the fact that as descendants of the Acadians, French immigrants who settled Nova Scotia in the early seventeenth century, the Cajun people have a compelling story to tell.

In an episode known as "Le Grand Dérangement," British soldiers dispersed the Acadians from their land in 1755.

After an arduous voyage in which many perished, a significant number of Acadians arrived in Louisiana, where the Cajun culture evolved.

Apparently hoping to put this episode far behind, Cajun music is almost entirely celebratory. As Doucet puts it, "French people like to have fun."

The result is sweetly melancholic odes to the Acadian people and rollicking tributes to Cajun culture. Unless you're really inspired by a good barnyard dance, which many in the audience seemed to be, its difficult to appreciate this devoted expression of a rural culture.

Far more intriguing was Ad Vielle Que Pourra, an idiosyncratic quartet from Quebec whose fanciful renditions of French and Celtic folk music on traditional instruments is both enchanting and ambitious.

The set commenced with the abbreviated cries of a piercing violin and a shrieking horn, which eventually gathered together with deep, driving piano chords into a frenzy.

Rustic dance music this was not.

Like the defunct Irish group Dead Can Dance, Ad Vielle Que Pourra (a play on the French saying "come what may") has an instinctive talent for infusing intoxicating indigenous music with a modern sound and introspective intensity.

Whether its a Russian polka, a French waltz, a renaissance dance tune or a wedding march, Ad Vielle Que Pourra delivered with luminous beauty and charm.  The music rises from Nicholas Boulerice's piano, Angele LaBerge's synthesizer and Alain Leroux's violin, with multi-instrumentalist Daniel Thonon, who has created original instruments for Pink Floyd, alternating between the diatonic accordion, Flemish bagpipe, hurdy gurdy, and assorted wind and string instruments.

Add LaBerge's lush, soaring French vocals and you have trance-like music that is as authentic as it is artistically satisfying.

Ad Vielle Que Pourra's moving and transformative music seemed to embrace the entire universe, not merely the murky swamps of the Louisiana bayous.

This story originally ran in its entirety April 6.

Krispy Kreme has great glaze; others just average

Homer Simpson would approve.

Vans, trucks and sports cars clogged the drive-through like rush-hour traffic, and more than 100 salivating doughnut fiends crowded inside the new Krispy Kreme store in Long Beach, all for a doughnut ... at 11 p.m. on a Thursday.

It seems only a cartoon character such as Homer could get so frantic over something so sweet. But maybe not.

With the grand opening of the store last week, locals too are catching the Krispy Kreme craze, which has addicted millions nationwide with its delicious glazed doughnut.

The glazed doughnut is sweet and melts into the taste buds like warm cotton candy. But it's best to eat hot or else it tastes only a little sweeter than the typical glazed.

The assorted doughnuts, however, are just average. The plain one is just that, as were the grape-jelly and chocolate doughnuts.

But unlike others, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts has a drive-through and is open 24 hours a day, seven days a week. The chain has stores sprinkled throughout the nation, including shops in La Habra and Huntington Park. The local store is on Los Coyotes Diagonal.

Despite crowding due to hype, the half-hour wait in the drive-through was well worth it.

Just be careful: Eating too many glazed will make you feel as lazy as Homer.

One more crumb of advice: Wash these down with water or milk, not soda. Else your stomach will groan.

This story originally ran in its entirety April 26.