The English Beat at Club Nokia, 31 July 2009.

The English Beat returned to Los Angeles to perform in front of a packed house at Club Nokia at the LA LIVE complex on Friday night. Although originally from Birmingham, England, band leader Dave Wakeling has made his home in southern California for the last couple of decades, so this was a show for the hometown crowd. The Beat definitely did not disappoint.

From the moment Wakeling and company took the stage, the crowd was electrified. Pockets of dancers began spontaneously skankin’ around the room, while the center of the floor became one big mosh pit. At one point, though, Dave did note that it was “probably the most polite mosh pit” he’d ever seen.

More photos and why you’re sorry you missed this show after the jump. Read the rest of this entry →

This is a hugely special treat for us to be able to offer one pair of tickets to one lucky winner. Steve Martin isn’t only a world-famous comedian and actor, but he’s a Grammy-winning banjo player. Seriously.

Of course, that’s not the only thing serious about next Monday’s performance. This is a fundraiser for the Los Angeles Public Library, and is presented by the Library Foundation of Los Angeles. From the Goldenvoice website:

“Martin’s banjo playing kind of took a backseat during years of movies, books and more movies. That is, until he played second banjo on Earl Scruggs’ Grammy-winning recording of “Foggy Mountain Breakdown” in 2001, holding his own against country stars like Vince Gill and Marty Stuart.”

Martin will be joined onstage by humor writer Dave Barry, who said “In today’s economy, we need to support our public libraries. And when you say ‘public library,’ the phrase that immediately comes to mind is ‘banjo music.’ So I’m really looking forward to asking Steve Martin probing questions about his new album, such as: ‘WHY?’”

Here’s all the info on the show. To win tickets, leave your favorite Steve Martin quote below either in text form or using Seesmic to record a video quote. The winner will be chosen before Friday.

What’s up, pussycat? I’ll tell you. TOM JONES. Tom Jones will be belting out tunes from his new album, “24 Hours,” as well as subjecting himself to much panty-tossing during “It’s Not Unusual,” this very Friday. Info is here.

We’ve got a couple pairs of tickets to give away, but you’re gonna have to work.

You can:

Tell me about your favorite Tom Jones-related experience and why it rocked your world.

or

Using seesmic (which is in our comments), record a video response in our comments of you singing a Tom Jones song. The first two people to do that automatically get the tickets. Yep! Now….GO!

It’s exclusive. It’s awesome. It’s expensive. But you can go for free!

The first five people to get back to me in the comments get tickets as soon as I can confirm your names for will-call.

woot!

Info on the show is here.

Hooray for Swedish death metal! Swedish death metal saved my life. Swedish death metal made me a sandwich. Swedish death metal loves you long time. Swedish death metal did too much blow in the 70s. Swedish death metal likes mac’n'cheese. Swedish death metal your mom. Actually, I just like saying “Swedish death metal.”

Seminal (heh) “melodic death metal” pioneers In Flames play at the Club Nokia this Saturday and you can win tickets. Just enter what you think is the funniest death metal band name you can think of, and we’ll select some winners with the funniest entries!

If you’d rather buy your tickets and not think up funny names, go here.

Boy, thar shore be a whole lotta mew-zik contests we’s bin a-doin’. Ayup.

But this one y’all asked for, and we got it: tickets to the B-52′s at the brand-new Club Nokia, with great locals The 88 (stand-up guys, yo) opening! woop woop!

To win tickets, please provide a link in the comments that you think most amusingly represents the phrase, “ROCK LOBSTER.” Like this.

That’s a quality piece of work, there.

Go on! Hurry up and bring your jukebox money!

Concert info is here.