A new definition of "entertainment"
One on of the many X Games information sheets, the WWL lists the "entertainment" for the events. One of the artists listed is Dave Grohl. Yesterday, ESPN Radio host Steve Mason, who was in the press box before broadcasting his show with John Ireland from the arena, asked one of his assistants when Grohl was scheduled to attend.
As it turns out, he's not.
For ESPN's purposes, the "entertainment" schedule is free to include all those wonderful bands whose CDs will be blasting over the loudspeaker. Right now, Sublime's "What I Got" is playing in the near-empty Staples Center, though I doubt the WWL would have the audacity to list Brad Nowell in the lineup. That, I suspect, would have raised more than a few eyebrows.
Back to Grohl. It seems as though the Foo Fighters' front man is quite happy that ESPN chose their new single, "The Pretender," to be the dominant music during tonight's action at the Home Depot Center and at Staples. But, once again, don't expect to see the Foo if you're hanging out at HDC. Instead, here are the bands scheduled to perform at the X Fest:
Goodbye Gadget, Friday, 3:40-4:05 p.m.
The Shys, Saturday, 1:15-1:45 p.m.
Death By Stereo, Saturday, 3-3:30 p.m.
Buck-O-Nine, Sunday, 11-11:45 a.m.
Kenna, Sunday, 3-3:45 p.m.
-- Ken Fowler
PS: X Games IX may have had the best "entertainment," if you will. Look at the list here. It included Metallica's "St. Anger" within weeks of the release of the band's album of the same title. So maybe debuting a song at X Games is a coup for ESPN, after all.
Jaime Cardenas (left), a Times intern and San Diego native who grew up in Tijuana with a passion for sports and writing, is a recent graduate of Cal State Fullerton. He has covered the World Baseball Classic, soccer's Gold Cup and junior college and high school sports.
Ken Fowler, a Times intern and Long Island, N.Y., native who attends the University of Notre Dame, has covered Notre Dame football since 2005 as well as women's basketball, college soccer, fencing and, most recently, the Galaxy (the soccer team, not our part of the universe).