Icepack

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

by A.D. Amorosi

Hate to rain on your Fourth, but: If the murder of hip-hop party-planner Rian Thal at her home at the Piazza at Schmidts teaches you anything (other than how a good life is fleeting) it's about something I've said time-and-time-again. As Philly grows in cultural importance (and fiscal prominence and relevance and popularity), shit's only going to get weirder and uglier. And this city's not prepared for it. From no cabs in NoLibs, to not enough coverage of Philly's artscape, to the dangerous deals made in the name of succeeding — we're just not ready. We may be volatile big mouths about our teams and crazy vocal about our politics. Atza nize. But we've got to broaden and toughen faster. We're still that big little city we've always been. Don't get me wrong — that's a good thing, for the most part. If you've lived here longer than 20 minutes, you remember the simpler joys: less congested roads between West Philly and Society Hill, the rush of an Old City-only Fringe Fest, smaller lines to grab fresh mozz at DiBruno's on weekends, Tritone's Rick D calling me daily, The Roots before Twitter, Rittenhouse Square without all the self-tanner. I'm not a sentimentalist. I want the future now. I just want Philly to be careful and get harder where it counts.

► With that I'mo duck back and leap ahead in one swoop. Because I ducked into The Blockley for its opening and saw that the space you read about here first is in good hands: booker/soon-to-be-dad Jon Lyons, one-time bartender at the Troc. The ex-Chestnut Cabaret spot (home to the Mountain Bros' management shows with Tommy Conwell, Hooters and Beru Revue as well as gigs with da Ramones, Nina Simone and Mother's Milk-era Red Hot Chili Peppers) and its due-in-August craft brew sister, Mary Oaks, looks like another Philly venue of the past — East Side Club. With its bar in the center, stage in front and seating along its short side and back, Blockley feels like the venerable club where PiL, Cramps and Head Cheese played. "I want to be diplomatic and get our street cred," says Lyons, who'll work with R5 and Village Green while also going solo to book DJs like Sammy Slice, loco-groups like Kill You in the Face and maybe Os Mutantes. "But I'd kill for the Blockley to have the diversity of the ChestCab." DO IT.

► She's OK now and the cops caught the driver but June 26, Baptist Preachers vocalist/lyricist Sheena Clay got nailed by a hit 'n' run speeder on 13th and South.

► Pissed you missed last week's Nearfest but like spacerock? Check the Troc's July 8 Dubsmiths/Audiophyle gig (the latter's 2-CD Cog is a local-release MUST) and Tim Motzer's July 6 Base3 show with Nick Millevoi +Friends at National Mechanics. Motzer, King Britt/Ursula Rucker guitarist, will be featured in September's Guitar Player mag.

➤Rumor has it that Shouk — South Sixth Street’s solo purveyor of the hookah — may be shutting its doors, at least for the rest of summer with its man behind the green velvet curtain, Jonathan Makar, taking an even-lesser role than previous. Smoke it if you got it.

➤ After a meeting amongst Philly’s oldies-but-goodies Charlie Gracie, Dee Dee Sharp, Norman Burnett and Ceasar Berry (of The Tymes) and Stephen Caldwell (Orlons), there’s talk of a Cameo-Parkway All Stars Revival Tour. Get ready to rumba.

➤ Now, I’ve mixed beer and cocktails before and wound up with a bad headache. But I’ll put myself in the hands of London Grill’s bartenders — guided by their owner/operator, Terry Berch McNally, they’re preaching brews-n-booze recipes in their menu of Beer Drinks. McNally sent me notes on a few of their concoctions like the “London Shandy” (Fuller’s ESB, Domaine de Canton ginger liqueur, lemon), “Sierra Red Eye” (Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, spicy house-made Bloody Mary mix) and “How Now Brown Cow” (Brooklyn Brown Ale, Nocello, espresso vodka). Even a good old canned beer figures into the likes of “Flower Bud” and its buoyant blend of Budweiser, some crème de violette and a li’l St. Germain elderflower liqueur. BABOOM.

➤ Last week at the Balcony I listened and watched as Devin Asher Cohen — the Alien Architect best known for his Michael Franti-like voice and vividly electric band — stripped it all down to congas, violin and saxophone. And I was floored. So when the Alien Architect plays upstairs at Pub Webb at 1527 Cecil B. Moore on Temple U’s campus (the nu-ly legendary Forman Mills mouthpiece TuPhace plays that same locale on July 3) hit it and wish it so that Cohen brings the sound down a beat-jazz silk degree or two. Loving that alien.

➤ Rouge is set to get jazz hands every Tuesday between July 7 and August 25. That’s because vanilla-blond Philly chanteuse Barbara Montgomery is setting up shop for two one-hour sets nightly with the equally legendary Monnette Sudler on guitar, revolving bassists Lee Smith and Leon Boykins and rotating keyboardists Tom Lawton, Adam Faulke and Dennis Fortune. Only thing at Rouge cooking more is chef Matthew Zagorski.

➤ WHOWHATWHERE: The crew of The Best and the Brightest has been kinda-low-key this week save for locals spying Neil Patrick Harris at Audrey Claire. And The Last Airbender’s M. Night Shyamalan ended his shoot with a party at Pearl. So we’re slow here. I hadda get outta town. If you were in Atlantic City this weekend, and took a right at the opening of Dusk at Caesar’s where the Madden Bros of Good Charlotte were strumming and Nicole Ritchie, Chuck Peruto Jr. and Wired radio host G-N Kang were bumming, and you slid to the Chelsea’s C5 and Cabana Club, you mighta spotted Tough Love host Steven Ward. Or did you hit up the Tropicana’s poker tourney and Live Nude comedy night back-to-back? Though host Shannon Elizabeth didn’t stick around too long on Friday (was rumored she got in late and unhappy about it) Saturday night’s show with loose-cannon comic Andy Dick was trashy good fun with the ankle-monitored one showing off his foot bracelet, mimicking face fucking and responding to hecklers with the threat of “rubbing his taint” on them. Ya-hoo.

➤ And is it true that area DJ Jesse Marco is DJ AM’s chosen resident DJ for his Dusk stuff? Prolly.

➤ Joe Lekkas takes his Village Green booking to Seventh Street next to Electric Factory at JD McGillicuddy’s, the onetime home of Whiskey Dix. Lekkas will do some Factory after-parties with reggae Wednesdays, ’80s night Saturdays and Fridays with the Bullets.

➤ Come July 3, consider me spooked when Space 1026 and curator Tessa Perutz offer up Cadaver Corpse — an Exquisite Corpse drawing, painting, and collage gig featuring 50 artists strewn across the globe invited by Ms. Perutz to fill in the blanks of a human torso through the mail in three sections. You got a blank head, torso and legs, and Perutz glued together diverse separate bits from the likes of Leslie Kulesh, Chris Lux, Jayson Musson, Justin B. Williams and more together. That’s creepy cool.

➤ Cool but not as creepy as it sounds: On Sun., July 5, you should stop at Physick House & Garden (321 S. Fourth) to celebrate the birthday of Dr. Philip Syng Physick. He’s the granddad of American surgery and he invented the carbonated stuff you call soda. I feel better already.

(a_amorosi@citypaper.net)