Motörhead by Mark Marek Photography, used under Creative Commons.

Motörhead and special guest Reverend Horton Heat are coming to Club Nokia in downtown L.A. on Friday, October 9. Also on the bill are Nashville Pussy and Chelsea Girls. Best of all, LA MetBlogs has your tickets to the show.

Motörhead is one of my favorite hard rock bands. After 34 years on the road, Lemmy & co. still rock harder than most bands half their age. The influence they’ve had on rock & roll is undeniable. Ask any latter-day hard rock or speed metal band who taught them how to rock, and if they’re honest, the first name on the list will be Motörhead.

Here’s your chance to see these legends (and the other great acts on the bill) with Lucinda Michele & me!  Well, we’ll give you the tickets; whether you hang with us is up to you.

Tell me via comment below which band(s) you want to see and why. Or tell me about your favorite Motörhead song. Really, just tell me something that will convey how much you want, need, demand to be at this show. Winners will be chosen at my whim and notified via email, so make sure you enter yours correctly. Complete show info is here.

Bonus: My all-time favorite photo of Lemmy is here.

UPDATE: First, ticket winners have all been notified and confirmed. All the responses were great, and I wish I could take everyone to the show. If you didn’t win, buy tickets at the link above and meet us at the show. This is going to be an unforgettable concert!

Second, I just got off the telephone with Motorhead’s manager. He wanted to let everyone know that Motorhead will be on Jimmy Kimmel Live tomorrow (Thursday) night, so stay up late.

Finally, for those going to the show (which should be everyone,) doors open at 7:30pm, show starts at 8:00. Reverend Horton Heat goes on at 9:40, and Motorhead hits the stage at 11:00pm. Get there early to see Chelsea Girls and Nashville Pussy, and get ready for Motorhead to rock your ass off. Also, bring earplugs. Safety first.

See you at the show!

As a side note, they are encouraging people to take public transportation.  It sounds like a smart idea, particularly if you can catch the Red Line at any point.

For more information or to get further details visit L.A. Live’s site here.

In New York, they drop a ball. Orange County supposedly has an orange – although last year I found myself at a depressing outdoor “Mardi Gras celebration” with questionable live music, blackjack table raffles, and some guy trying to sell me a posturepedic mattress. That’s what I get for crossing the border.

Anyhoo… I’ve been wondering why Los Angeles doesn’t have one major New Year’s Eve celebration that doesn’t include a warehouse rave or Pink playing a studio backlot. Should we have an outdoor gathering with some type of ball & countdown? Could such an event be held at the new L.A. Live, once touted as “Times Square West?”

Sure, we had some fun with the suits at AEG for the Christmas tree disaster show they called the Lighting of the Angels. But, that doesn’t mean we don’t want this place to succeed. Perhaps it just needs to find its niche. What better use of all those flashy lights and electronic billboards than a West Coast NYE Countdown?

What do you think?

Photo from UB1′s photostream

The big metal thing with lights on it?

The New York Times remembers.

This is Los Angeles, where the city’s “official” 50-foot tree was lighted last week by Mayor Antonio R. Villaraigosa with little need for crowd control, and the debut of a more extravagant, multimedia one at a new entertainment complex got scant coverage in the mainstream news media and poor notices on blogs.

“So next year, we better have something that can compete with New York City, or Mayor Villaraigosa can stop calling this a world-class city,” huffed a blogger on LAist.com, a Web site about the city.

Congratulations to the gang at LAist for getting some love from one of the last remaining newspapers on Earth. Still, Behrens & Co. have to be slightly amused by the irony of a major newpaper using a blog as a source for their story.

1. Host Adam Corolla – Yes, he’s a Los Angeles native. He can be pretty damned funny. But, is this really the guy you want to host a family-friendly tree-lighting event at the newest entertainment venue in L.A? He admittedly strayed from the teleprompter, got lost in what he was saying, and made Britney Spears visibly uncomfortable when mentioning her rise “from the ashes.” I hate to be the one to ask the question. But, was Seacrest not available?
2. The Politicians – These are talking heads that wear suits and take credit whenever they can. A photo op turned into a battle for stage time as Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa, Councilwoman Jan Perry, and the dude from AEG all had to get their speaking time. Separately. Then, a bunch of other suits had to come on stage to get some face time, too. Not to mention the fun little jabs at who is a Trojan and who is a Bruin. So much for making this anything more than a local interest story.
3. Britney – Natalie Cole sang. The highly-anticipated superstar shopping a brand new album didn’t. She didn’t dance. She hardly said a word. But, boy can she hold a wireless mike and throw a fake switch to light a fake tree.
4. The Tree – I’ve been telling anyone who will listen that they made a mistake by not having a real Christmas tree to offset all the concrete, glass, and flashy advertisements of L.A. Live. But, it’s part of a 7-minute holiday multi-media light show, they said. What could go wrong? Nothing, if you like a botched countdown and a “tree” that just changes colors to music. I think you can buy those at Target.

Los Angeles missed another opportunity tonight. It could have begun an annual tradition rivaling the lighting of the tree in Rockefeller Center. It could have given the network reason to broadcast the event nationwide and show L.A. in a moment of festive glory. Get Kanye up there rocking a remake of Christmas in Hollis. Let the Foos do another orchestral masterpiece. Invite the Pussycat Dolls to do… whatever it is that they do.

Tonight, we witnessed something cheesy, fake, and lacking in that old holiday magic. What we got, was your parents’ old aluminum tree with the color wheel, and a joint visit from all your boring aunts & uncles.

Come to think of it, maybe it was perfect.

A Christmas tree light show at LA Live, the Grammy museum opening, and the return of Cole’s highlight the busy commencement of the holiday season in Los Angeles. And guess what? It’s all happening Downtown. Just in time to abuse Metro’s late night Red Line and DASH hours. Fill your Calendar app accordingly.

Ongoing

• Ice Skating in Pershing Square with daily concerts. What, no outdoor movies this year? At least you have an excuse to wear that Old Navy scarf of yours in 80-degree weather without looking like a total Hollywood jackass.

Today

• ESPN Zone opens at LA Live. There is no local NFL team to cheer on to the playoffs, and the BCS Champion, the Super Bowl Champion, and the Gold Medal Curling Team of the 2010 Winter Olympics have already been decided by HAL 9000. But you can still watch the events as they happen on a bunch of big TV screens.

Dec. 3

• Grammy Nominations concert at Nokia Theatre, LA Live, featuring performances by Mariah Carey, Celine Dion, Foo Fighters, B.B. King, John Mayer, and Taylor Swift. It’s the first time Grammy nominations will be announced live on primetime television, coinciding with the Dec. 6 grand opening of the Grammy Museum. More Kanye.

Dec. 4

• Light of the Angels begins in Nokia Plaza at LA Live. It’s a free, 7-minute holiday multi-media show running nightly on the hour, December 4th – 31st, featuring a 52 foot “tree.”
• The Los Angeles Conservancy celebrates the grand re-opening of Cole’s with a 1920’s-themed fundraiser to commemorate its 100th anniversary. One of the oldest watering holes in the city, and the inventors of the French Dip sandwich, Cole’s has gone under a $1.6 million restoration.
• Downtown blog Angelenic hosts a walking tour of Downtown’s holiday light displays, from historic Union Station to LA Live.

Dec. 5

• Celebrate the ratification of the Twenty-first Amendment at Broadway Bar, Casey’s, Cole’s and Golden Gopher. It’s the 75th Anniversary of Repeal Day, and all four bars have Dewar’s drink specials for 75 cents. Happy Great Depression!

Dec. 6

• It’s the official opening of Cole’s for the rest of us, with au jus sandwiches, sides and slices of fresh housemade pies for just 100 cents a piece. I’m counting my Lincolns with fingerless gloves as I write this.
• Holiday Wonders Christmas Around the World at Disney Hall. Ring in the season with an all-ages show of carols from across the globe and a festive sing-along with the chorus.

Dec. 7

• Holiday Matinee of Irving Berlin’s White Christmas at the Los Angeles Theatre on Broadway. See an American Classic in a 1931 Los Angeles landmark. If you’ve never seen the inside of this movie palace, you’re missing one of the city’s architectural gems.

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.