Backstage Pass

Now, Mr. "Blame It on Me" is facing charges of endangering the welfare of a minor and harassment in an upstate New York court in connection with throwing a fan off the stage during a concert this summer. The whole event is caught on tape (below) and, as anyone who has ever had a drunken, stage-diving dude land on them, knows, the people on the ground got the bad end of the bargain.

The woman who the fan landed on says she suffered a concussion, according to the Poughkeepsie Journal.

In a news story that's been breaking and unbreaking almost entirely via cell phone text-messages, hip-hop producer JR Rotem is denying reports that he and Britney Spears are about to have a child.

But the celebrity magazine In Touch Weekly, which plastered the news on its latest cover, is sticking by its story, based primarily on several text messages Rotem supposedly sent directly to the magazine. In an email blast today, the magazine recounted the "conversation" and provided pictures of the cell phone that "recorded" it:

"They are saying Britneys pregnant and you're the father," a staffer typed, and later received the response "Its true." Supposedly, Rotem went on to write that he wasn't sure whether Spears would keep the four-week-old baby: "She is unpredictable."

But yesterday, a member of Spears's camp, Sam Lufti, denied the story, though he couldn't be bothered to, like, call -- he texted E! Online correspondent Ryan Seacrest to say, "Don't know who made it up. J.R. doesn't even know what's up. It's fake. Completely fake. We just wrapped her video. Going home to sleep."

Meantime, Rotem also told People magazine -- whether in person, via text-message or through carrier pigeon is unclear -- that the report is untrue.

PHOTO: In Touch Weekly 

Funeral services are set for tomorrow in Middletown, Ohio, for Hawthorne Heights guitarist Casey Calvert, who died in his sleep Saturday in Washington, D.C., while on tour with the band.

Calvert, 26, was known for his raucous screams and wild man antics onstage, but behind the scenes he was a sweet, personable guy with a great sense of humor. Calvert told me last year that he was proud that success hadn't changed his band or their personalities. "We're still idiots," he joked, as he thought about the possibility of the band landing a second gold album and a possible No. 1 debut.

Though his screams made him loudest on stage, Calvert was actually the quietest of the Dayton-based quintet, content to soak in the perqs of being an up-and-coming rocker and enjoy himself. At the Warped Tour stop at Nassau Coliseum this summer, Calvert was in rare form as his shrieks on "Ohio Is For Lovers" were loud enough to draw the attention of the entire festival.

An autopsy has been done, but no cause of death has been released. Calvert is survived by his wife, Ashley, his parents and three sisters. His family asks that memorial donations be made to Animal Friends Humane Society, 5225 Trenton Road, Trenton, OH 45067.

PHOTO: Hawthorne Heights, with Calvert on the right, from HawthorneHeights.com. 

Along the lines of the Oscars receiving an Emmy, or the Olympics winning a Heisman, The Recording Academy, which bestows the Grammys, is getting a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame.

The ceremony takes place today at 10:30 a.m. PST on Hollywood Blvd. between Orange and Sycamore Avenues. The iconic Walk of Fame is maintained by the Hollywood Historic Trust.

"The Academy's heritage will be cemented forever on the most famous Boulevard in the entertainment industry and the first music organization to receive such an honor," according to a press release from the Academy.

PHOTO: WireImage.com 

As publicity stunts go, things couldn't be working out better for Neurosonic.

Neurowho? They're a punkish rock band from Canada currently riding a mini-wave of controversy thanks to the song "So Many People."

It's a direct attack on Ashlee Simpson, with particular focus on her famous lip-synching disaster during "Saturday Night Live." The video features a Simpsonesque blonde hanging out in nightclubs with a couple of Lindsay and Paris look-alikes. Meantime, singer Jason Darr unleashes his venom: "Everything under the sun going to hell in an episode of 'SNL' / Watch it on the TV / You ugly girl, you cannot sing / You can't even lip-synch."

Darr also gripes about the Billboard Awards (Simpson won Best New Female Artist of the Year in 2004) and wonders if any sexual favors were traded for hit records.

When Neurosonic played The Knitting Factory in Manhattan last week, Darr claimed that Simpson's boyfriend, Pete Wentz of Fall Out Boy, "has a cease and desist out against us." That made Page Six of The New York Post, and gullible Internet sites quickly spread the news.

Yesterday, however, Wentz denied it on his own blog: "no i have never heard of that band or ever sent a cease and desist in my life. hope it works out for you."

Now, there's plenty of lameness to go around in any story involving Simpson and Wentz, but the biggest culprits are Neurosonic. Simpson flubbed her "SNL" appearance in Oct 2004 -- that's three years ago. The public has since moved on to other examples of idiocy (Don Imus, the O'Donnell-Trump feud, the mortgage crisis), but here's Neurosonic still seething about how Simpson won a Billboard award.

Check out the video here:

Remember when Evel Knievel sued Kanye West over his video for "Touch The Sky," in which West played a jumpsuited stuntman called "Evel Kanyevel?" The beef was over trademark infringement, with the 69-year-old Robert Craig Knievel taking umbrage at West's "vulgar and offensive" video.

"That video that Kanye West put out is the most worthless piece of crap I've ever seen in my life," Knievel told the Associated Press at the time.

But a statement from West's label today says the two parties have "amicably resolved and dismissed the case." And to prove it, West went to visit Knievel at his home in Tampa, Fla. for a photo that's almost as funny as that famous one of Elvis Presley shaking hands with Richard Nixon.

Check out Knievel throwing a sign:

PHOTO: Universal Music 

Casey Calvert, the 25-year-old guitarist for the emo-punk group Hawthorne Heights, was found unconscious in his tour bus Saturday afternoon before the band was scheduled to play a show in Washington, D.C. He was pronounced dead after authorities were called to the scene around 2:30 p.m.

The cause of death has not been determined. "At this time, we're not exactly sure what happened," the band members wrote in a posting on their Website. "Just last night he was joking around with everyone before he went to bed."

According to MTV.com, police are still awaiting autopsy results, though there is speculation that Calvert's death might have been related to his acute asthma.

For MTV.com's full story featuring reactions from fans and colleagues such as Fall Out Boy's Pete Wentz, click here.

PHOTO: Getty Images/MTV.com 

The Jesus and Mary Chain are preparing a new album for a late spring or early summer release, according to Billboard.com.

The new album follows an appearance earlier this year at California's taste-making Coachella festival, which is gaining a reputation for reintroducing influential bands from the 1970s and '80s to young audiences. Pixies, Gang of Four, Bauhaus, The Stooges and Happy Mondays have all followed their Coachella appearances with new albums or tours.

After recording a 1998 disc, "Munki," for Sub Pop, The Jesus and Mary Chain -- essentially the Scottish brothers Jim and William Reid -- split acrimoniously due partly to "drink and drugs," William Reid told Billboard. He added that he's since stopped drinking during shows and that his brother is "completely sober."

The Reids have been working on solo albums and wrote the new material separately; they're still choosing the dozen or so tracks that will appear on the album, Billboard reports. They performed the new song "All Things Must Pass" on "Late Show With David Letterman" over the summer and are slated to contribute to the soundtrack of the NBC drama "Heroes." They've also been playing a song called "Dead End Kids" during live shows.

The Jesus and Mary Chain unleashed their debut album, "Psychocandy," in 1985, using ear-splitting feedback and sullen vocals to mask traditional, often beautiful pop melodies. Somewhere between Gothic rock, industrial noise and '60s surf-rock, the band seemed determined to stay off the charts and away from mainstream success. The Reids often limited their headlining sets to just 20 minutes, claiming that no band was good enough to play for longer -- including themselves.

"I would say it's an evolution," Reid told Billboard, describing the new disc. "It definitely sounds like the Mary Chain, but I guess you evolve as a person and a writer. You can't really stand still. If you do that, you're lost."
In the run-up to the new album, expect a four-disc box set on Rhino featuring demos, alternative takes and acoustic versions of songs.

Check out The Jesus and Mary Chain performing the 1985 gem "Just Like Honey" with Scarlett Johansson at Coachella:

Moby's sixth studio album, "Last Night," will be released March 10 on Mute Records with contributions from several unusual guests.

Among them are Grandmaster Caz, the Bronx rapper whose "Rapper's Delight" became a pioneering hip-hop hit for The Sugarhill Gang, and singer Sylvia G of Kudu, an underground New York dance duo you may have read about in Newsday back in 2005.

"It's a lot more dance oriented and electronic than my last few albums, probably as a result of all of the dj'ing i've been doing lately," Moby wrote in an all-lowercase statement. He also said of Caz, "He's been rapping since 1975, and i'm really happy to have him on the record."

Other guests include the Nigerian hip-hop group 419 Crew and the British artist MC Aynzli.

PHOTO: Deirdre O Callaghan

Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band announced 28 new tour dates for 2008, including a show at Nassau Coliseum on March. 10. That marks the Boss's fifth date in the New York area on the current tour in support of his new album "Magic." Tickets for the Nassau show go on sale Jan. 19.

Check out www.brucespringsteen.net.

The super-pop producer Jermaine Dupri, possibly the last person you'd expect to tout the artistic integrity of the album format, has done just that in an op-ed for The Huffington Post, possibly the last place you'd expect to read anything by Jermaine Dupri.

In yesterday's piece, Dupri defends Jay-Z's decision to not sell his album "American Gangster" through iTunes, which would have made the songs available as stand-alone singles.

"Creating each album as a body of work that means something gives the consumer something better to listen to," writes Dupri, who worked on the Jay-Z disc. "Otherwise all anyone would care about is making a bunch of ringtones."

That's pretty lofty talk from the man behind Kriss Kross and Dem Franchize Boyz. But Dupri make some salient points. He argues that musicians, and the music industry, need to take back control from the consumer.

That's a seemingly backwards attitude in an era driven by consumer control, freedom of choice and on-demand entertainment. But Dupri's logic is sound: By choosing which singles to release -- and not to release -- artists historically were able to sustain excitement among audiences, keep albums alive longer and perhaps even coax the casual listnener into buying not just the fleeting hits but the whole package. In Dupri's view, that's how fans were made; that's how careers were built; that's how music will stay alive even today.

Is this a timeless truism or a sigh of nostalgia? Read the whole essay here.

PHOTO: www.jermainedupri.com 

Forget the whole pay-what-you-want model. The music industry is now buzzing about Rcrdlbl, a new, label-affiliated music blog that gives away free MP3s to draw traffic to its advertisers.
    Unlike most blogs giving away MP3s, Rcrdlabl pays the artists for the use of their songs and the whole enterprise will not draw the ire of the RIAA’s lawsuit-happy attorneys. “In a world where many people get their music for free, we wanted to create a site where bands we loved could put their music out there for free AND get paid for it,” the company says on its site, www.rcrdlbl.com.
    With a bunch of hip indie labels as partners, including Downtown Records, Warp and Modular, Rcrdlbl will likely get a lot of people to check them out initially, especially when it has launched with free downloads of a remix of Justice’s “D.A.N.C.E.” featuring Mos Def and a Grizzly Bear remake of The Crystals’ “He Hit Me (And It Felt like a Kiss).”
    The trick will be getting people to come back regularly enough to make its big-name advertisers – Nikon and Puma, for starters – happy. The other trick requires a bit of honor. It’s asking other music blogs not to download its MP3s and then put them up on their own sites to boost their own traffic. “Since this is an ad-supported venture the best way to support what we're doing is to visit the site on a regular basis,” the company explains.
    Time will tell if Rcrdlbl’s music blog competitors will live up to that end of the bargain. For the time being, though, consider Rcrdlbl an early holiday gift from the music industry.

PHOTO: Grizzly Bear by Patryce Bak / Warp Records 

On tour, the country duo Sugarland has been performing an impressively boot-scootin' version of Beyonce's "Irreplacable," so it was no surprise to see Jennifer Nettles and company run through it at last night's American Music Awards ceremony in Los Angeles. But then Beyonce herself came out to lend a hand.

That turned the song into a cover of a cover, or a mash-up of a mash-up, or something. At any rate, it wasn't entirely successful -- Beyonce knows how to get down, not hoe-down -- but the whole thing made for a nice surprise. Check it out here:

Brand New is scheduled to play an in-store concert at the newly renovated Looney Tunes record store on Dec. 17, according to store owner Karl Groeger, Jr.

The 40-minute acoustic set is a benefit for the independent music retailer, which was consumed by a fire earlier this year and plans to re-open on Dec. 1. Brand New will be selling signed, limited-edition lithographs for $20 that come with a wristband for the concert.

Here's Brand New at Looney Tunes on Nov. 20, 2006:

Ani DiFranco has lined up quite the opening act for her Town Hall show Sunday night: Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich.

No, the Ohio congressman won't be busting out rhymes like MC Karl Rove. He plans to discuss climate change and his plans for a Works Green Administration, a new government agency that would be dedicated to alternative fuels development and energy conservation.

PHOTO: dennis4president.com

MORE: Ani DiFranco reinvents her musical 'Canon'  [Newsday]

That's right -- Jay-Z's latest disc, "American Gangster" (DefJam) is his 10th to debut at No. 1 on the Billboard chart, according to Billboard.com. The Jigga Man has now tied Elvis Presley for second place in terms of most No. 1 albums on the chart. The Beatles are still a distant first with 19.

"American Gangster" sold 425,000 units -- merely respectable by past standards, but a bona-fide smash in today's dire sales climate.

Jay-Z's debut also set off a domino reaction that helped knock Britney Spears further down the charts.

"American Gangster" pushed last week's chart-topper, The Eagles' "Long Road Out of Eden" (Eagles Recording Co.) down to No. 2, which used to be Spears's spot. But Garth Brooks's "The Ultimate Hits" (Pearl) took No. 3 after selling 352,000 copies, and Chris Brown's sophomore album, "Exclusive" (Jive), took No. 4.

Where does that leave Spears's "Blackout" (Jive)? Down at No. 7, below Carrie Underwood's "Carnival Ride" (19/Arista) and Josh Groban's holiday album "Noel" (143/Reprise).

Part of the blame may lay with Spears's increasingly distasteful public image and dwindling interest from fans: Her disc sold only 87,000 copies, a 70% drop, according to Billlboard.com.

PHOTO: Jay-Z at Hammerstein Ballroom in Manhattan, Sunday Nov. 11 (AP/Gary He).

It might be a while before the troubled Amy Winehouse produces her next disc, so Universal Republic is rushing out "Frank," the singer's debut disc, originally released in the U.K. back in 2003.

The move may seem like sleight-of-hand: Universal is calling this a "new release" when it's clearly not. But "Frank" happens to be an excellent album that reveals a side of Winehouse unfamiliar to Americans: torchy, jazzy, poetic (but still foulmouthed, of course).

Check out a younger, unbeehived and arguably healthier-looking Winehouse in this video for "Stronger Than Me," originally the first single from "Frank."

The old holiday standards are still popular, but they’re increasingly being handled by a new generation of performers, according to an ASCAP survey of the most-played holiday songs in the past five years.

Topping the list is the Eurythmics’ version of “Winter Wonderland,” written by Felix Bernard and Richard B. Smith, beating out Nat “King” Cole’s classic “The Christmas Song (Chestnuts Roasting on an Open Fire),” written by Mel Torme and Robert Wells.

The Pretenders’ lovely version of “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” comes in at No. 3, followed by Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band’s rocking “Santa Claus is Coming to Town” at No. 4 and Bing Crosby’s perennial favorite “White Christmas” at No. 5.

Only The Ronettes and Elvis Presley place more than one song on the survey. The Ronettes’ accomplish it with their upbeat, wall-of-sound versions of “Sleigh Ride” (No. 8) and “Frosty the Snowman” (No. 16), while Presley’s mixes it up with a dark ballad “Blue Christmas” (No. 18) and the peppy “Here Comes Santa Claus (Right Down Santa Claus Lane)” (No. 21).

The most recent addition to the holiday canon is Band Aid’s “Do They Know It’s Christmas? (Feed the World),” which the all-star cast recorded in 1984 to raise money for those starving in an African famine, earning enough radio plays during the season to come in at No. 24.

This year, new holiday albums from Josh Groban, Amy Grant and Dave Koz will try to push their way onto the list, along with Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas is You,” which was a surprise top-seller last year.

As the trailer says, the new Taking Back Sunday CD/DVD "Louder Now: Parttwo" (Warner Bros.) hits stores Tuesday.

Donda West, mother of Kanye West and former chairwoman of Chicago State University's English department, died Saturday night of undisclosed causes, according to a spokesman for the rapper.

Jay-Z, at his concert last night at Hammerstein Ballroom, announced Donda West's death and asked for a moment of silence.

Full story

Radiohead will release its "In Rainbows" CD on Jan. 2 through its new imprint TBD Records through ATO Records, the band confirmed in a release today. The band also plans to tour to support the release, with details set to come soon.

The album, released on the band's website for download in a pay-what-you-want model last month, has sparked a great deal of debate about the future of the music industry. However, the deal with ATO Records shows Radiohead will also cover its more traditional bases. It is also planning to release "Bodysnatchers" and "Jigsaw Falling into Place" as singles for radio.

Because of the Broadway stagehands strike, Duran Duran was forced to cancel its show at the Barrymore Theater on Saturday night and move its shows for tonight and tomorrow to Roseland Ballroom. That's complicated enough, but even more problematic is that the band's stage sets and other equipment are still in the theater and can't be removed without crossing the picket lines, so they have been scrambling to come up with something else.

“We know that some people have traveled miles (if not continents) to see us on Broadway and hope that those that were coming on Saturday are going to be able to stick around and come either Monday or Tuesday night," bassist John Taylor said in a statement. "The show will be the same show that we have been playing on Broadway for the past ten days - and although there is no physical way to replicate some of the production elements in Roseland that we had in the other theatre, the key for us is the music - and we are intending to make it as special as every other night."

Those who were going to pick up their tickets at the Barrymore box office, which is now closed for the strike, for the shows tonight or tomorrow can bring proof of purchase to the Roseland Ballroom to get replacement tickets.

For more info, check duranduran.com.

PHOTO: Getty Images 

PREVIOUSLY:  Duran Duran at Barrymore Theater, 11.2.07

Hear "As I Am" here [MTV]

Rockville Centre's Show Me Action has recorded an unlikely track using classical instruments such as piano, violin, cello and upright bass. Is Carnegie Hall in the band's future? Decide for yourself by checking out the untitled composition here. And be patient with the quiet beginning -- this ain't no rock song.

    Backstage at the Van Halen tour these days probably isn’t the same as it was the last time David Lee Roth and the Van Halens were together. Because of the open stage set-up, fans who were stage right got an additional show to the one on the main stage – a peek into Roth’s makeshift dressing room.
    During Alex Van Halen’s drum solo, fans got to see Roth smoking and joking around as he changed shirts (and top hats!) and adjusted himself in his skintight leather pants. During Eddie Van Halen’s guitar solo, Roth ate what looked like a yogurt (!) and downed an energy drink.
    All that kind of paled in comparison to a fan’s late-show leap from the 200 level seats to a hanging rope ladder. Why’d he do that? Well, the band was playing “Jump.” He didn’t get anywhere near the band, though. Security was waiting for him as he climbed down the ladder. Ow.

SETLIST: You Really Got Me / I’m the One / Runnin’ With the Devil / Romeo Delight / Somebody Get Me a Doctor / Beautiful Girls / Dance the Night Away / Atomic Punk / Everybody Wants Some / So This Is Love? / Mean Street / Pretty Woman / Drum Solo / Unchained / I’ll Wait / And the Cradle Will Rock / Hot for Teacher / Little Dreamer / Little Guitars / Jamie’s Cryin’ / Ice Cream Man / Panama / Guitar Solo / Ain’t Talkin’ ‘Bout Love / ENCORES: 1984 / Jump

Full review here

PHOTO: David Lee Roth and Eddie Van Halen in Toronto, by AP.

This "behind-the-scenes" video of Celine Dion plays more like a "Saturday Night Live" parody than a promotional tool on Amazon.com for her new "Taking Chances" CD, which comes out on Tuesday. It has her saying, "It better rock!" It has yodeling. Weird mugging for the camera. All it needs is a good chest-thump.

     The initial reaction to Radiohead’s pay-what-you-want experiment as a future business model hasn’t been good, especially after last week’s comScore study that found about 62 percent of the people who downloaded the band’s “In Rainbows” album chose to pay nothing.
    However, a closer look at the numbers shows that those ready to call it a failure, especially major label execs, may be engaging in a bit of wishful thinking.
    According to comScore, about 1.2 million people visited the band’s site in October and a “significant percentage” downloaded the album. Of the 38 percent of fans around the world who paid for the album, the average contribution was $4.64. Now that may not be much compared to the $18.99 charged at the mall record store, but all that money went directly to Radiohead – no split with a record company, no manufacturing or packaging costs, and only a tiny fraction of distribution costs that went toward creating and maintaining the website.
    That also doesn’t count the profit made on the small percentage of fans also purchased the $82 Discbox version of the album, which includes the album and additional music on CD and vinyl, along with digital photos, artwork and other packaging. It doesn’t include the number of new fans the band may have reached by giving the album away and how that will affect their ticket sales on future tours. And it doesn’t count the amount of good well and increased name recognition it received from all the publicity and those following in their footsteps, including singer-songwriter Saul Williams and even Paste magazine for a time.
    “I think it’s fair to say that this model, if executed effectively, can be a very legitimate sales driver,” wrote comScore analyst Andrew Lipsman, who added that conservative estimates put Radiohead’s take at $1 million in October.

PHOTO: Jonny Greenwood / Radiohead 

Sorry Britney Spears, that No. 1 crown isn’t yours after all.
    Though Spears seemed all set to claim her fifth No. 1 album yesterday, as her “Blackout” album sold 290,000 copies last week, a last-minute rules change by Billboard magazine now gives the title to The Eagles and their double album “Long Road Out of Eden.”
    Until this week’s charts, albums that were only available at a single retailer (The Eagles album is only sold through Wal-Mart) were ineligible for Billboard’s top album charts. However, The Eagles sold 711,000 copies of “Long Road Out of Eden” last week – the second-best opening sales week of the year behind Kanye West’s 960,000 sales of “Graduation” in September – and Billboard believed it was necessary to make the change.
    “We know that some retailers will be uncomfortable with this policy, but it was inevitable that Billboard’s charts would ultimately widen the parameters to reflect changes that are unfolding in music distribution,” Geoff Mayfield, Billboard’s director of charts, said on the trade magazine’s website. “We would have preferred to make this decision earlier, but only became aware within the last 24 hours that Wal-Mart would be willing to share the data for this title with Nielsen SoundScan.”
    The Eagles album will also top the magazine’s country charts, pushing past Carrie Underwood’s “Carnival Ride” album. The rule change will likely result in a handful of other albums making their first chart appearances this week.

PHOTO: Eaglesband.com 

Public Enemy will play two dates in New York this year, according to a press release from Live Nation.

The first is December 19 at the Fillmore New York at Irving Plaza in Manhattan (tickets are $33), followed by December 20 at Warsaw in Williamsburg, Brooklyn (tickets are $28.50).

Tickets go on sale 10 a.m. Saturday through Ticketmaster.

TOP TEN THINGS CHRIS CARRABBA SAID LAST NIGHT

10. My name’s Chris. Thanks for inviting me.

9. She was foxy, though. You forgive a girl a lot of things when she’s that foxy.

8. I love you too, sir. This has become a hippie flowerfest. We’re all in love together.

7. Is that just the pad of a bra or the whole bra?

6. Take my top off? I’m a dude... Yeah, I’ve been on the Six Second Abs all day.

5. The aim is to satisfy, not just to finish.

4. The tight pants – that’s when you know it’s gonna be a good band. Can’t wear those pants if you’re a bank teller. Can’t wear those pants if you’re pumping gas.

3. I don’t want to rush our time together. It’s been so long since it’s been just you and me.

2. A guy like me with an encyclopedic knowledge of science fiction and an extensive collection of comic books – how can someone like that get left behind? Can you believe it ladies?

1. Sweetheart, it’s not a damn strip show – yet.

SETLIST: The Sharp Hint of New Tears / The Good Fight / The Swiss Army Romance (w/ Say Anything’s “Wow, I Can Get Sexual To”)/ Don’t Wait / Again, I Go Unnoticed / Screaming Infidelities / Dusk and Summer / Where There’s Gold / Thick as Thieves / The Places That You Have Come to Fear the Most / Remember to Breathe (w/The Hold Steady’s “Stevie Nix”) / El Scorcho (Weezer cover) / Vindicated / Stolen / ENCORES: The Shade of Poison Trees / Hands Down

PHOTO: Vagrant Records

Full review on jump 

It all felt like a bit of a bluff.

Duran Duran’s decision to launch its new album “Red Carpet Massacre” (Epic) with a two-week Broadway run, to perform it in its entirety as if it’s some serious masterwork, its new racy video, even keeping the crowd out in the cold less than 30 minutes before the scheduled showtime – it all seemed designed to generate smoke because there is no fire.

Sure, the band’s penchant for extravagance extends all the way back to its ‘80s breakthrough, with its exotic video locations and high-profile extracurricular activities. But back then, the style accentuated the band’s substance. Now? Well, after the Warren Cuccurullo years and clunkers like 2000’s “Pop Trash,” let’s just say it’s fair to question.

It turns out, though, that the worries were unfounded. “Red Carpet Massacre” is easily the band’s best album since 1986's “Notorious,” featuring several songs that could spark a major comeback, from the first single “Falling Down,” which sounds a bit like collaborator Justin Timberlake’s “Cry Me a River,” to the Timbaland-aided “Skin Divers,” which will likely charge up the charts next.

In a different context, those songs, along with the bringing-sexy-back “Nite-Runner,” could fit easily next to the sleek pop-funk of the band’s funkier classics “Notorious” and “I Don’t Want Your Love.”

SETLIST: The Valley / Red Carpet Massacre / Nite-Runner / Falling Down / Box Full o’ Honey / Skin Divers / Tempted / Tricked Out / Zoom In / She’s Too Much / Dirty Great Monster / Last Man Standing / PART TWO: Showroom Dummies / Last Chance on the Stairway / All She Wants Is / Warm Leatherette / I Don’t Want Your Love / Skin Trade / Notorious/ The Reflex / I Take The Dice / Ordinary World / Planet Earth / A View To A Kill / Sunrise // ENCORE: Girls On Film.

CELEBRITIES SPOTTED: The Trumps -- Donald, Melania, and Donald Jr. -- first seated on the floor, then, their view blocked by Durannies dancing in the aisles, moved to an upper box.