Mickey Avalon stirred up Scottsdale Friday night with his set of both classic and new songs that had the lively crowd at Martini Ranch buzzing off more than just the booze.
The Cisco Adler/Mickey Avalon collaboration “Paradise City,” which takes samples from the Guns N’ Roses classic of the same name, kicked off the show and set the pace for the rest of the evening.
His two dancers, decked out in go-go attire, took the stage as Avalon continued to roll through a handful of tracks from his self-titled album, including one of his radio hits “Mr. Right.”
Avalon’s formula for a live show is simple. It’s made up of Avalon, his DJ and two dancers. Seeing one artist with just a microphone capture and maintain and crowd’s attention seems like a difficult task but Avalon manages it with ease. The times when he’s interacting with the dancers also adds to the vibe of the party.
Judging from the hypnotized eyes of females that were locked onto Avalon during the show, it appeared they would have been willing to fork over all material possessions for a chance at “Chachi,” “Fonzie” or even “Richie Cunningham” for that matter.
The rest of the set included more from his album, a majority of the singles he has been putting out via YouTube over the past years, as well as a track sampling Led Zepplin’s “Whole Lotta Love.” His most recent single, “Rock Bottom,” closed out the set.
After the show, The State Press was able to have a brief conversation with Avalon about his music and what’s to come in the near future.
The State Press: What’s going on with the EP and new record?
Mickey Avalon: That’s just to buy some time because it’s been so long since the record has come out. We are going to do five songs and five videos and by next year the full record will come out. I mean I have like five records ready. In this day and age you can put anything on the Internet, but if it isn’t put out in the right way it really does just disappear into nowhere-ville, so that’s why we’re trying to do it right. I would have put out three records by now if I could have.
SP: You have sampled a variety of songs but you also have a lot of original production.
MA: I like sampling songs because that’s hip-hop, but it ends up being a pain in the a-- because of all the politics. So, I mean, it’s better to just make the songs yourself, but I dunno, I like sampling.
SP: How has the reaction to your new material been so far?
MA: I think they like it.
SP: The more storytelling aspects in some of your songs often seem overlooked.
MA: I’ve liked to write stuff since I was a kid. The first thing I liked (regarding storytelling) that I wrote was (“Roll the Dice.”) These are real people but maybe it’s not one particular person maybe its like five or six different people. Maybe the names are changed. You can’t pull from something you don’t know.
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