June File: Tom Petty, Reunions, Black Widows Bite
And Don’t Come Around Here No More
Kudos to Tom Petty for trying to stick it to greedy-ass scalpers. When fans complained tickets for the Tom Petty And The Heartbreakers/Pearl Jam June 26th/27th shows in St. Paul, Minnesota — intended for fan club members — showed up later with big price tags on secondary market Web sites, Petty said “Nuh Uh!”
Petty’s management teamed with Ticketmaster and promoter Jam Productions to identify and cancel some 460 tickets (and 800 for a June 20th Madison Square Garden show!) purchased at the pre-sale by scalpers who joined the fan club in order to resell the tickets. This means fans who got their seats by paying inflated prices through online brokers are out of luck because the cancelled tickets were offered again to club members, this time with stricter guidelines: Anyone who bought a ticket during the presale will have to show a photo ID the night of the concert to pick it up. Jam used a similar practice for the June 19th/20th Chicago Radiohead shows. Those who purchased a “premium seat” can only get their tickets at will call the day of the show at which time they will also get a wristband. It will be a no go for anyone trying to enter the venue with a damaged or broken wristband.
Local Petty fans needn’t stress about ticket-scalping scoundrels, though: As of press time, there are no Chicagoland stops during the first or second leg of the Highway Companion tour. You can, however, catch them at Summerfest in Milwaukee (with Pearl Jam) on June 29th and 30th.
Together Again
We love it when bands reunite, because it makes everyone, even the most marginally important ones, seem special if only for a few weeks. Take The Rentals for example. You may not have really cared about this new wave project formed by former Weezer bassist Matt Sharp during their first run in the late ’90s, but they’re reuniting, damnit! The new lineup features original members Sharp and Rachel Haden along with newbies Sara Radle, Ben Pringle, Lauren Chipman, and Dan Joeright. A new Rentals full-length should appear next year.
Slightly more intriguing is news Evan Dando has reunited the Lemonheads . . . sort of. We aren’t sure how much of a reunion it is when it’s just you and two brand new guys (drummer Bill Stevenson and bassist Karl Alvarez, both of the Descendents), but whatever. The new Lemonheads are currently putting the finishing touches on a new album that will be released by Vagrant.
Righteous are the reports the Kirkwood brothers (Cris and Curt) are planning on making music together as Meat Puppets for the first time in more than a decade. The Puppets released Golden Lies in 2000, but their last with Cris was 1995’s No Joke! Cris was last in the news in late 2003 when he was shot during an altercation with a security guard at a Phoenix post office. He pleaded guilty to assault and spent 18 months in prison, but Curt told Billboard.com bro has been free of his heroin addiction for two years. Original drummer Derrick Bostrom declined participation; Tim Alexander (Primus) will replace him.
Once Bitten
If Full Blown Chaos vocalist Ray Mazzola wasn’t an arachnophobe already, he probably is now. After a gig in Ft. Lauderdale during FBC’s recent tour with Exodus and Subzero, Mazzola passed out drunk on his hotel room floor and woke up with pain in his knee, which swelled up to the size of a cantaloupe by the end of the next show.
Apparently Gary Holt of Exodus is not only a super shredder on guitar, but also quite knowledgeable about outdoorsy kinds of things because he immediately told Mazzola it was a black widow bite. A trip to the hospital confirmed Holt’s diagnosis; the vocalist had been bitten in his sleep by a Southern black widow. Although their venom is apparently very virulent, our research says this particular spider is extremely timid and would rather run and hide than attack.
Mazzola’s research likely contradicts ours.
Because he waited so long to go to the doctor, it was too late for treatment, so Full Blown Chaos missed two dates of the tour while their frontman toughed out fever, nausea, sweats, and shakes. His response after all was said and done? “Fuck Spiders.”
— Trevor Fisher
