It’s been 15 years since Jimmy Anselmo purchased the pool hall at 8200 Willow Street, booted out the regular clientele—which mostly consisted of patients from a methadone clinic up the street—and opened Jimmy’s Music Club. Originally, Anselmo intended for the joint to focus on jazz, but he quickly decided he’d do better with more popular styles of music. For his first weekend, he booked Lil’ Queenie and the Percolators and a new musical alliance called the Neville Brothers.
The club has changed—the room has been expanded, an adjoining home was annexed for use as a dressing room, a paved patio was recently added, and there were no names like Nipples of Isis on the marquee in 1978—but Jimmy’s has survived long enough to make it the longest running local music club under sole proprietorship.
Anselmo celebrated his club’s 15th Anniversary on the weekend of July 20 and the Bucktown All-stars and Metal Rose on Saturday, the 21st.
And just to prove he’s in step with today’s market, Anselmo’s club will host “Jimmy-Palooza” on the 24th, one week before Lollapalooza arrives at the Lakefront Arena. Jimmy’s event lacks a “wicked and strange” midway, but for a $2 cover you get four bands—Func Haus, Antix, Tribal Fury and Buckshot and the Barnstormers. Rock on, Jimmy.
CONQUERING HORDE…Speaking of Lollapalooza, all three of the summer’s multi-act alternative music shindigs will hit New Orleans within the space of three weeks. Besides ‘Palooza on July 30, MTV’s Alternative Nation tour, with the Spin Doctors, Soul Asylum and Screaming Trees, stops at the Municipal Auditorium on August 3.
But first up is the H.O.R.D.E. (Horizons of Rock Developing Everywhere) Festival, which comes to the Municipal Auditorium on Sunday, July 18. Featured acts include Blues Traveler (who played to a jam-packed Tipitina’s on June 8), Widespread Panic, Col. Bruce Hampton and the Aquarium Rescue Unit, Allgood, Big Head Todd and the Monsters and the Samples, most of whom subscribe to the freewheeling, jam-til-you-drop school of thought. Locals Cowboy Mouth and Smilin’ Myron will also join in the fun.
During a mid-May interview, Blues Traveler frontman and H.O.R.D.E. mastermind John Popper said he wanted to bring the tour, which was designed with outdoor venues in mind, to New Orleans, but hadn’t yet found a suitable site. “It’s really hard to get an outdoor show going in the heat of Louisiana in July,” observed Popper. The solution: the festival—with food booths, Velcro jumping, a flight stimulator and other amusements—will be inside the Auditorium. No matter: 30-minute jams work just as well indoors as out.
MUSICAL CHECK-UP…“I’m coming along pretty good,” says Harold Battiste, the legendary jazz musician, record label founder and teacher, speaking from his room at Touro Infirmary. Battiste suffered a stroke on May 21; since early June, he’s been in rehabilitation at Touro, and is scheduled to go home by mid-July.
The 61-year-old Battiste says he’s been told he needs to make a few lifestyle adjustments if he wants to stay healthy in the future. “I can’t be running around from 6 in the morning until 1 a.m.,” he says. “I’m going to have to be cool. I’m going to have to start acting my age.”
That doesn’t mean he won’t spend time promoting his AFO Records’ newest releases: A Compendium, a reissue of some of the AFO Executives’ material with Tammy Lynn, and That Old Time Religion, an album of gospel material by the late Melvin Lastie.
ROCK ‘N’ JOCKS…Members of the Baton Rouge rock community will play one another in a charity softball game to benefit the homeless. The first pitch will be at 1 p.m. on Sunday, July 18 at Baton Rouge’s Woodland Park on GSRI Road. Following the game, Zaemon, Bonedog, Thoughts of Mary and Func Haus will trade bats and balls for amps and guitars for a concert starting at 4 p.m. Food and drinks will be available. Admission is by $3 donation.
HOMEGROWN BANDS WANTED…Organizers of the Covington Homegrown Music Festival are searching for 16 area bands to stock the line-up of the Festival, scheduled for September 18-19 at the Covington Fairgrounds. Interested groups should send demo tapes to Homegrown Music Festival, 3518 Elysian Fields Ave., New Orleans, LA 70122. Deadline is July 15.
CALLING ALL SPACE CADETS…Crescent City Con, an all-day gathering of sci-fi and fantasy buffs, will touch down at the Howard Johnson Convention Center on Causeway Boulevard. in Metairie on July 31. Look for video rooms, war games, fantasy board games, guest speakers and Trekkies by the truckload.
IRENE AND JULIA STAY UP ALL NIGHT…Local rockers Irene and the Mikes gave the cast and crew of the Julia Roberts vehicle The Pelican Brief a taste of the town’s late-night party ethos one Friday night in June.
Checkpoint Charlie’s, the band’s Esplanade Avenue home base, was the site of the movie’s last night of filming; Irene and the Mikes and the bar/laundromat’s regular cast of characters served as extras. When the shoot wrapped at 6 a.m., the music didn’t die—it was time for the wrap party, which stretched until 11 a.m. Saturday morning. The band’s state at the all-night gig’s conclusion? “We were out of our minds,” says vocalist Irene Sage.
Sage adds that two of her group’s original compositions—“Dig Down Low” and “Wiggle”—were laid down on celluloid for possible inclusion in the film, which is slated for a Christmas ’93 release.
MORE MOVIES…During July, Movie Pitchers (3941 Bienville St.) will host a pair of locally-produced films directed by Rene J.F. Piazza. Little: Red Riding Hood—The Whole Story (billed as “a fairy tale spoof for the entire family”) runs through July 11, and Only An Orphan Girl (“a good old-fashioned melodrama for the entire family”) comes in on July 16 through the 8th of August. Showings are on Friday and Saturday nights and Saturday and Sunday afternoons. Call 834-6210 for reservations.
IN BRIEF…Congratulations to Mari Serpas and the InstaGators, who won the regional semi-finals of the June
Jam Talent Search competition during the Pepsi Super Fair at the Superdome on May 31. Serpas and company advanced to the Finals in Fort Payne, Alabama on June 11, and took second place. They will showcase their winning ways at the “Go Forth on the River” celebration at Woldenberg Park on July 4…Willie Lockett and the Blues Krewe and founding saxophonist David Raynor have parted company.
