News

The third annual Sunset Strip Music Festival (SSMF), set for Aug. 26-28, 2010, has announced 2010 honoree SLASH will perform with FERGIE and MYLES KENNEDY — two of the vocalists on Slash’s No. 1 album — during the Aug. 28 outdoor street festival. Organizers also announced COMMON, SEMI PRECIOUS WEAPONS, NEON TREES, BIG B & FRIENDS and STEEL PANTHER have been added to the street festival lineup.

They all join previously announced headliner The Smashing Pumpkins as the boulevard is closed to traffic between Doheny Drive and San Vicente Boulevard and transformed into a premier concert destination with outdoor stages, beer gardens, a VIP lounge, food trucks, interactive experiences and live performances within the venues during the day.

Now that we’ve kicked that patriotic-fueled hangover, get ready to conquer The Strip during this short work week!

Ease into the week on Tuesday, July 6 as Book Soup hosts author Piper Kerman. She will sign copies of her new memoir, Orange Is The New Black: My Year In A Women’s Prison, recounting the 13 months she spent behind bars for a youthful brush with drug trafficking. Vanity Fair praises the book saying, “Kerman presents--devoid of self-pity, and with novelistic flair--life in the clink as less Caged Heat and more Steel Magnolias.” Pick up a signed copy of this revealing read for only $25. Signing begins at 7 p.m. www.booksoup.com

Sunset Strip staple the Cat Club is entering summer with some new and exciting updates. Veteran Hollywood booker Dayle Gloria, best known for breaking bands like Jane’s Addiction at her notorious Scream Club, is set to take the reigns as the Cat Club’s new talent buyer this month. Gloria will work alongside current talent booker Ian Weber and longtime owner Slim Jim Phantom as the club undergoes some changes that include a back patio makeover, and at long last, a website. 

“I want it to be like Camden or SoHo,” noted Gloria, a neighborhood spot where people know the doorman and the bartenders, and stop in knowing that there’s going to be quality bands playing.