{"id":803477,"date":"2020-01-26T13:18:11","date_gmt":"2020-01-26T20:18:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/?p=943162"},"modified":"2020-01-26T13:18:11","modified_gmt":"2020-01-26T20:18:11","slug":"the-wammys-inside-grammy-weeks-most-random-most-fun-party","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/music-news\/the-wammys-inside-grammy-weeks-most-random-most-fun-party\/","title":{"rendered":"The Wammys: Inside Grammy Week\u2019s Most Random, Most Fun Party"},"content":{"rendered":"
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\u201cExpect the unexpected, because it\u2019s going to get weird\u201d house-band bassist Austin Scaggs warned the crowd at start of the eighth annual Wammy party on Saturday night. Scaggs was right in more ways than one; about an hour later, in a sort of Hollywood fever dream, Weird Al Yankovic took the stage and broke from his usual staple of parodies to sing surprisingly tight versions of Tom Petty\u2019s \u201cBreakdown\u201d and the Beatles\u2019 \u201cSavoy Truffle.\u201d<\/p>\n

Performances like these are the norm at The Wammys, the pre-Grammy party hosted by BMG, Big Hassle Media and Dark Horse Records. It\u2019s the antithesis of the famous Clive Davis Pre-Grammy Gala<\/a>, which also took place Saturday night. There were no assigned tables and no black tie dress code, and while you might  notice a fair number of music executives and producers in attendance, you\u2019ll never see Nancy Pelosi roaming around this party. While the Gala is held in an expansive ballroom in Beverly Hills, Wammy attendees posted up at Dirty Laundry, a dark, sweaty basement bar off Hollywood Boulevard.<\/p>\n

Controversy has shrouded this year\u2019s Grammys following the ousting of Recording Academy CEO Deborah Dugan. That drama barely affected the Wammy\u2019s loose vibe, with only the occasional passing conversation about it between attendees. The same can\u2019t be said about all the Grammy week festivities; Diddy scorched the Academy<\/a> over its diversity issues at the Clive Gala.<\/p>\n

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Like last year, this year\u2019s Wammys setlist was Traveling Wibury-themed, spaning the band\u2019s discography as well as the solo careers of all of its members: Bob Dylan, George Harrison, Jeff Lynne, Roy Orbison and Tom Petty. Attendees never know just who\u2019s going to perform on Wammy night, but there are a few regulars. Dhani Harrison, Jakob Dylan<\/a>, Weird Al, Lukas Nelson<\/a>, Perry Ferrell, Larkin Poe, The Cars\u2019 Elliot Easton and Blur\u2018<\/strong>s Graham Coxon were all return Wammy performers on Saturday, but the night\u2019s unpredictability keeps the shows fresh.<\/p>\n

The Wammys can be described in a lot of ways \u2013 an open-mic night on acid, a world-class jam session, a loose Grammy celebration going against the grain of the more structured shindigs \u2013 but for the artists on stage, it seems to be a night among friends. The Cabin Down Below Band \u2013 which includes two former Rolling Stone<\/em> staffers, Scaggs and guitarist Alex Levy \u2013 had already been performing with many of the night\u2019s artists for years.<\/p>\n

Wammy night is designed to give attendees a show they won\u2019t get anywhere else. Dylan sang Petty\u2019s \u201cThe Waiting\u201d while Dhani Harrison sang Electric Light Orchestra\u2019s criminally underrated classic \u201cWild West Hero.\u201d Nelson grooved on Petty\u2019s \u201cYou Don\u2019t Know How it Feels,\u201d and Perry Farrell of Jane\u2019s Addiction played Bob Dylan\u2019s \u201cJust Like a Woman\u201d with his wife Etty Lau Farrell.<\/p>\n

The biggest break in the norm though, even for the Wammys, was when Jewel<\/a> took the stage to perform \u201cHere Comes the Sun\u201d with Nelson, then followed up with Roy Orbison\u2019s \u201cOh, Pretty Woman\u201d and Petty\u2019s \u201cAmerican Girl\u201d with singer-songwriter Butch Walker. The Wammys showcases some up-and-coming talent too, with indie-pop act Zella Day giving a beautiful cover of Roy Orbison\u2019s 1989 \u201cYou Got It.<\/p>\n

The evening wrapped up with all performers returning to the stage for the Wilburys\u2019 classic \u201cHandle With Care\u201d \u2013 and Lisa Loeb coming up on stage for one last surprise. Scaggs was right: The night was weird, in the best sense of the word.<\/p>\n

via:: Rolling Stone<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

\u201cExpect the unexpected, because it\u2019s going to get weird\u201d house-band bassist Austin Scaggs warned the crowd at start of the eighth annual Wammy party on Saturday night. Scaggs was right in more ways than one; about an hour later, in a sort of Hollywood fever dream, Weird Al Yankovic took the stage and broke from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[98],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-803477","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-music-news"},"acf":[],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-07-24 15:49:45","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"distributor_meta":false,"distributor_terms":false,"distributor_media":false,"distributor_original_site_name":"KSMT The Mountain","distributor_original_site_url":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt","push-errors":false,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803477","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=803477"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/803477\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=803477"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=803477"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/alwaysmountaintime.com\/ksmt\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=803477"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}