O’Malley’s March, the band featuring Governor Martin O’Malley, will be playing 2 shows on December 20 at Rams Head On Stage in Annapolis. Tickets go on sale today at noon.

The Quarter @ Bourbon Street Ballroom
Cartel
The Bigger Lights
The Summer Set
This Providence

Goucher College
Jukebox The Ghost

Sonar
Har Mar Superstar

1st Mariner Arena
Maxwell

Ottobar
Pig Destroyer
Eyehategod
Goatwhore
Strong Intention
Swarm Of The Lotus

Rams Head Live!
Sister Hazel
Sam Grow
Virginia Coalition

Recher Theatre
Vertical Horizon

Lyric Opera House
D.L. Hughley

Merriweather Post Pavilion
MTV Ulalume Festival Featuring Paramore, AFI, Dead by Sunrise, Asher Roth, Kid Cudi

Centerstage
The Importance of Being Earnest

Creative Alliance at the Patterson
Arty Hill and the Long Gone Daddies CD Release Party

Peabody Institute
Peabody Jazz Orchestra

Sidebar
The Sweet Ones

Information compiled from Pollstar, Localist, and Baltimore City Paper

I’m writing this post today (after putting off writing it for a couple of months) because Snoop Dogg is the guest host of WWE Raw tonight on the USA Network. Snoop will also be performing next Tuesday night at Rams Head Live! here in Baltimore.

I saw Snoop perform at Merriweather Post Pavilion in Columbia on August 5. I got a call from my wife that day letting me know she had VIP tickets for the Blazed and Confused Tour that night because Snoop Dogg was a guest in the hotel where she works.

Without going into too much detail, she doesn’t work at a 5-star hotel or even a full-service one. She works at a limited service hotel in the area. It seems Snoop decided he was getting nickel-and-dimed to death on everything at the exclusive hotels, including flat screen TV rentals and fruit basket fees. So he now stays at one particular limited service hotel chain exclusively. One of the other cost-saving measures that goes along with that is that Snoop personally went to a Wal-Mart and bought a TV he takes on the road with him that stays with his security detail when he’s not touring. That TV is primarily for gaming from what I gathered later.

I got to the hotel before the show and basically waited around on my wife finish all the stuff she had to do for work so we could go to the show. I wound up seeing and interacting with his security detail. They were a few impeccably dressed men who were perfect gentlemen as they went about their jobs. At least one of them spent some time in the NFL after a college football career. Based on others things I picked up later, I initially assumed his security detail is employed by NOI Security. They also worked security for Michael Jackson after his last criminal trial. However, that may not be the case.

We got to the show after one of the opening acts. We were on Snoop Dogg’s personal list at will-call and got our tickets and VIP badges there. The show was general admission in the seated sections at Merriweather so we sat down as close as we could get. People started streaming back in as Snoop took the stage and we were soon surrounded by people who eventually lit up cigarettes (both tobacco and marijuana.)

We stayed in the seats until we thought it was getting to the end of Snoop’s set and headed backstage. Our badges got us in the outdoor backstage area at Merriweather, which included separate restrooms. We waited until the set was over back there and then headed to the dressing room area entrance and my wife called the head of Snoop’s security who then showed up and escorted us back to the hallway where the dressing rooms were. We saw Slightly Stoopid getting ready for their set and snagged one of their CDs for free. We also saw Stephen Marley hanging around backstage.

After a short wait, we were ushered into Snoop’s dressing room. There were a few other people waiting in line back there for pictures and his band was back behind a curtain in the dressing room itself. There didn’t appear to be any outlandish items in the room we were in that were concert rider items – it was pretty standard fare.

The guy in front of us in line asked me to take a picture and email it to him after his Blackberry battery ended up being dead. It turned out later he was a DC-area reggae promoter and producer who goes by the nickname Doctor Dread.

We got pictures taken with Snoop and he seemed surprised when one of his security guys told him what a big sports fan my wife was. We then headed out to walk back to our car and on the way back to her hotel we ended up going by Wendy’s because we had developed a case of the munchies – apparently a contact high from all of the people in the crowd who were smoking weed.

The next morning when I left to go run some errands I found out Snoop had left early that morning in a sedan (his tour bus was still there) and nobody knew where he was. While I was out I heard on the radio that he was at Ravens Training Camp in Westminster. He came back to the hotel later and I helped take the pictures of him with the hotel staff and also had the one taken I used above on this post. He gave my wife a big hug on the way out and thanked her for being so sweet during his stay.

Just to sum things up about the concert, Snoop Dogg is one hell of a showman. I wasn’t very familiar with his music other than the stuff that had made it into mainstream pop culture in the past and a lot of it was probably stuff that has a Parental Advisory label on the album, but it was a good show. He knew how to work the crowd and he had a great set of musicians backing him up.

To sum up my feelings about Snoop Dogg the person – he is a really laidback person when he’s not in his stage or screen persona. He is almost downright shy when talking to people, especially men. He is much more talkative around women from what I saw after the concert and the next day. He is really passionate about sports. Snoop owns a kids’ football league in California and from what I heard from the night before he stayed up until 2 a.m. playing a whole season of Madden (an advance copy of the version that wasn’t yet in stores at that point) and he wasn’t happy that he lost in the Super Bowl.

The other thing I’ll mention in this post is the reaction I got from my friends via Facebook and Twitter after pictures of me with Snoop Dogg showed up in my feed. I was hearing from people from my hometown and people I used to work with who were shocked to see me with Snoop. The best comment was from a former co-worker who said that it was one of the biggest incongruities he had ever seen. One of my friends from DC who used to work in SC even showed his wife the pictures of his “redneck friend from SC with Snoop Dogg” much to her amusement.

I’m sure his show at Rams Head next week will be a great one, albeit a bit different due to the more intimate venue. I just wanted to share my experiences from August in advance of that show.

Heineken USA

Dos Equis’ Most Interesting Show in the World Returns With 16-City Nationwide Tour

Upscale, Offbeat Variety Show is Inspired by the Iconic ‘The Most Interesting Man in the World’ Campaign

WHITE PLAINS, N.Y., Oct. 12 /PRNewswire/ — Dos Equis today announced the return of “The Most Interesting Show in the World” tour (MISW), a one-of-a-kind, touring upscale, offbeat variety show inspired by the award-winning “The Most Interesting Man in the World” campaign. This year’s MISW will once again feature a menagerie of multinational performers, including acrobats, beatboxers, burlesque performers, contortionists, crossbow marksmen and daredevils that will excite and delight audiences in 16 cities from coast to coast.
“We had great consumer response to the launch of the Most Interesting Show in the World last year and are focused on building upon that success to create an even more dynamic and unique brand experience,” said Paul Smailes, brand director for Dos Equis. “We’re bringing together engaging new entertainers and previous fan favorites to thrill consumers and continue to reinforce Dos Equis as the champion of interesting.”

Angelo Moore, poet, spoken word performer, saxophonist and founding member of the influential punk rock band “Fishbone,” will serve as the show’s host and MC.

Beginning with San Francisco on Oct. 20, the MISW will travel from the West Coast to the East Coast and make 16 tour stops, including shows in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas, Los Angeles and New York, enthralling audiences at upscale nightlife venues across the country with a unique blend of humor, seductiveness and visual entertainment.

New York-based Mirrorball is the experiential marketing agency in charge of the development and implementation of the multi-award winning MISW tour.

The show is written and produced by Randy Weiner and Weiner Entertainment Group. Weiner is the creator of the “The Donkey Show,” a variety program that has toured New York, London, Madrid and Seoul, as well as the Las Vegas show “Beacher’s Madhouse.”

The MISW tour will be supported by online media and local in-market promotions.

All MISW attendees must be 21 or over.

For more information, please visit www.dosequis.com/mostinterestingshow.
(Continue reading…)

WBAL Radio reports that tickets to the November concert by Bruce Springsteen at First Mariner Arena sold out in 20 minutes this morning. Tickets went on sale at 10 a.m.