Tune In, Turn On
With Doug Deutsch
Dirty Honey at Hard Rock Live: If Guns N’ Roses and The Black Crowes had a musical baby, it probably would sound a lot like Dirty Honey. This hard-rocking quartet – Marc LaBelle, vocals; John Notto, guitars; Justin Smolian, bass; Jaydon Bean, drums – formed in Hollywood back in 2017 and have risen to fame with a down-and-dirty style that the group has honed quite nicely on their 2023 full-length release, “Can’t Find The Brakes.” Dirty Honey plays Soundwaves at Hard rock Casino Friday, Oct. 4. The Band Feel, another hard-rockin’ foursome from St. Petersburg, opens. Tickets/info: casino.hardrock.com/atlanticcity.
Happy Birthday WLFR: Hard to believe that WLFR 91.7FM, Stockton University’s small-but-mighty non-commercial, alternative radio station located in Galloway Township, is about to celebrate 40 years on the air in South Jersey.
Many a well-known name has deejayed on WLFR (short for Lake Fred Radio) including Chip Lamey, who was also the radio station’s manager for a time; the late George Lind (DJ G-Force) and Paul Glazer; long-timer Bob Portella; Sara Holt, vocalist for cool local pop group Molly Ringworm; Johnny Fones; and Matt Unversaw, current WLFR station manager.
The station is celebrating this monumental occasion with two cool upcoming shows: First, hosting respected alt-country/rock vocalist-guitarist Rhett Miller’s (Old 97’s front-man, accomplished author and more) for a solo performance at Anchor Rock Club in Atlantic City on Friday, Oct. 11, with an opening acoustic set from two members of local rockers Te Vista, Niko Berardo and Richard Allen Hardin (full band pictured above); and another event at Stockton University on Wednesday, Oct. 16.
“The (Oct. 16 actual WLFR birthday event) will take place at the Campus Center Coffee House (at Stockton),” Unversaw told us via email. “We have Te Vista, The Sheckies, Deardarkhead, and rock accordionist-vocalist Malcom Tent (with Adam Berardo, aka 1adam12) on bass and WLFR deejays spinning in between.”
There’s no charge and the show runs from 7 to 11 p.m. With the advent of Sirius XM and other competing outlets, as well as most of the once-hop FM stations being bought up and transformed into talk radio, Spanish-language stations and more, it’s even more important now to support the dwindling number of non-commercial college radio stations such as WLFR. Info on both events: wlfr.fm; anchorrockclub.com.
Shout out to Bridgeport Rib House: We never know where an Atlantic City/Jersey Shore connection or reference will happen. Such was the case last weekend when we visited a well-known music venue in suburban Philadelphia, Bridgeport Rib House. Turns out AC favorites Get The Led Out (longtime Led Zeppelin tribute, maybe the most successful one around) got their beginnings at this small-but-important room, which now hosts a Grateful Dead tribute teach week (Dead Reckoning’s Charlie Wigo, if you’re reading this…).
Elephant Talk Indie Music Awards happening soon: Watch for our interview with Jerry Ryan, producer of the Elephant Talk Indie Music Festival and Elephant Talk Indie Music Awards, the latter event taking place Oct. 18-20 at Tennessee Avenue Beer Hall in AC.
A slew of original bands in different genres from the Tri-State area will perform both indoors and outside (the latter weather permitting) with some receiving awards that night as well. If you’re interested in hearing what some of tomorrow’s rising bands and solo artists sound like, this three-day event is a really good starting point. Info: facebook.com/elephanttalkindie.
Doug is the owner/operator of Doug Deutsch Publicity Services, which since 1995 has been servicing nationally touring acts, and working record release campaigns for clients. Doug also hàs experience writing for the one time shore-based weekly publication, Whoot! He also was a team member with Chip Braymes Advertising. Doug loves bicycling and aspires to bring the Blues to Atlantic City. He can be reached at ShoreLocalDoug@gmail.com and www.facebook.com/dougdeutschpublicity.
