Golden Knights announcer heads up Instagram concert series
We usually see Wayne “Big D” Danielson in action at Vegas Golden Knights games at T-Mobile Arena. In his role as in-arena announcer, he plays to a crowd of more than 18,000.
Typically, they are going nuts. And so is he.
A popular personality at KWNR 95.5-FM The Bull, Big D has downsized, for a time. He’s using his vast iHeartMedia network and coordination skills to head up the “Quarantined and Unplugged” live-performance series on the @955theBull Instagram Live feed.
The series launched March 17 with rising artist Payton Smith, cotinuing with Tenille Townes on Thursday and Brandon Lay on Monday. The biggest “get” yet, Russell Dickerson, is Thursday. All performances are at 7 p.m., posting live, available for viewing for 24 hours before vanishing forever. Artists post on their own IG feeds, along with the 95.5 page, and can watch the comments from followers flow in.”
“People are excited about it, because part of the concert experience is having a time and date to look forward to, and it kind of gives people that,” Danielson said Monday. “It also gives people an excuse to see someone they’ve never heard of, or maybe heard of once or twice, that they wouldn’t necessarily go see in a concert.”
Dickerson has toured as support act for Thomas Rhett, Lady Antebellum and Billy Currington. Danielson is busy updating the list weekly with artists who have been featured on The Bull.
‘It gives me an opportunity to focus on my full-time job instead of shouting inside T-Mobile Arena to keep people entertained,” Danielson said. “Our purpose is to be an outlet for people and serve our city. This gives us a chance to fire up our senses and come up with entertainment you normally wouldn’t have thought of. A month ago, this might have sounded stupid as hell. But we need distractions right now.”
Dolphins win
Despite the resort being closed, the Mirage’s staff is tending to the animals at Siegfried & Roy’s Secret Garden and Dolphin Habitat. The attraction, which opened in 1990, is home to several lions, tigers and leopards and trained dolphins. The habitat remains closed to the public.
Station at ‘Home’ on FB
Station Casinos’ ongoing “At Home” sessions showcases soloist singer/musician Rick Duarte at 4 p.m. Wednesday and Ray Allaire of the rock-cover band Phoenix and yacht-rock band Windjammers at 4 p.m. Friday. Monday it was Brian Pollock of Blue String Theory. Longtime Vegas faves Franky Perez of The Dirty and The Truth; and Michael Johnson, also of Windjammers, kicked off the series last week.
“At Home” follows a Monday-Wednesday-Friday schedule.
“What I would like to see is for this to grow and expand,” Station Casinos Entertainment Director Candace Davis-Martin says. “We want to keep our music out there, showcase our local talent and shed some light during during the day.”
Twitter question, on Twitter
Black Mountain Institute is taking its event “What Would Twitter Do?” hosted by BMI Shearing Fellow Kristen Arnett and writer Morgan Parker to an appropriate platform — Twitter. The previously scheduled like event is set for 7 p.m. Tuesday on the @BlackMtnINst Twitter page, with the #bmiconvos hashtag.
As the news release announcing the event notes, the talk will center on Arnett and Parker’s Twitter practices, their online personas, the limits of 240-character posts, and “the act of subverting online noise.” The Twitter twosome seeks to bring to life Sheila Heti’s column “What Would Twitter Do?” from The Believer magazine to life.
Dancin’ in the streets
“Fantasy” at Luxor vocalist Lorena Peril has taken to the streets, for real, during the coronavirus scare. She and her husband, Ray Jon Narbaitz, have started a series of dancing-in-the-streets videos. The first was posted Monday afternoon on Peril’s Facebook page.
The format is simple: Lorena invites her neighbors to dance with her for about 20 minutes as Ray Jon plays DJ. “Uptown Funk,” “Can’t Stop The Feeling!” and, requisitely, “Dancing In The Streets” are on the set list. The rule is to stay at least six feet away from your partners.
John Katsilometes’ column runs daily in the A section. His PodKats podcast can be found at reviewjournal.com/podcasts. Contact him at jkatsilometes@reviewjournal.com. Follow @johnnykats on Twitter, @JohnnyKats1 on Instagram.