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10. Maroon 5/Neon Trees/Owl City (Wednesday 7:30pm Verizon Center); Green Day (Thursday 7:30pm Patriot Center); They Might Be Giants (Saturday 9pm Rams Head Live); Brigance Brigade Foundation Benefit feat. Charm City Devils/Loving The Lie (Saturday 8pm Baltimore Soundstage); Senses Fail (Friday 8pm Ottobar); Marc Broussard (Monday 8pm Rams Head on Stage); Meek Mill (Saturday 8pm Fillmore Silver Spring); Ozomatli (Wednesday 7pm 9:30 Club), Local Natives (Friday 8pm Saturday 7pm 9:30 Club), Black Crowes (Monday 7pm 9:30 Club); Carolina Chocolate Drops (Wednesday 7:30pm Birchmere); Macklemore & Ryan Lewis/Walk The Moon (Sunday George Washington University)

I like Charm City Devils. I LOVE supporting anything involving O.J. Brigance. Nice little Saturday night then.

Loving The Lie is another excellent Baltimore band playing the event Saturday night. I throw my support fully behind that.

Genuinely believe I’ve heard more about Local Natives in the last month than I’ve heard about U2 in my life. Pretty good reason for that.

I can get behind EVERYTHING about Carolina Chocolate Drops…

9. Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey Presents Dragons (Tuesday-Sunday 1st Mariner Arena); Jon Lovitz/Chris Kattan/Tim Meadows (Thursday 7:30pm Birchmere); Louis C.K. (Saturday 8pm & 10:30pm Meyerhoff Symphony Hall); Brian Regan (Friday 8pm Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric); Shawn & Marlon Wayans (Thursday-Sunday DC Improv); Craig Shoemaker (Thursday 8pm Baltimore Comedy Factory), Bret Ernst (Friday & Saturday Baltimore Comedy Factory); Rich Vos (Thursday-Saturday Magooby’s Joke House); “That Thing You Do!” available on Blu-Ray (Tuesday)

Don’t kill me for this, but I searched “That Thing You Do!” on YouTube and discovered this video of ‘N Sync performing the song over a decade ago. I could have ignored the video, but instead I shared it with you here.

Language, but nothing not to enjoy about Louis C.K…

(Continued on Page 2…)

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10. My Morning Jacket (Saturday 5:30pm Merriweather Post Pavilion); John Prine/Emmylou Harris (Wednesday 7:30pm Wolf Trap); Cinderella (Friday 7:30pm Rams Head Live); Bob Schneider (Wednesday 8pm Rams Head on Stage), Soul Asylum (Saturday 8:30pm Rams Head on Stage); Dirty Projectors/Wye Oak (Friday & Saturday 8pm 9:30 Club); Chrisette Michelle (Tuesday & Wednesday 8pm Howard Theatre); Jane’s Addiction (Tuesday 7pm Modell Performing Arts Center at The Lyric); Hot August Blues feat. Trombone Shorty/Gov’t Mule/Cris Jacobs Band (Saturday 11:30am Oregon Ridge); Nonpoint (Monday 8pm Baltimore Soundstage)

Dude I’ve probably watched the video of Emmylou Harris playing “Long Black Veil” with Dave Matthews SIX MILLION TIMES in my life….

Bob Schneider does a song called “Honeypot” that as far as I’m concerned is just the bees knees…

Jane’s Addiction taught me so much about prostitution when I was a young man…

If you’re into Trombone Shorty you’re just likely not into anything human beings should possibly enjoy…

9. Baltimore County Restaurant Week (Thursday-Sunday throughout Baltimore County); Baltimore Improv Festival (Thursday-Sunday Creative Alliance); Wayans Brothers (Tuesday & Wednesday Baltimore Comedy Factory); Godfrey (Thursday-Saturday Baltimore Comedy Factory); “The Expendables 2″ in theaters (Friday); Shark Week (Tuesday-Thursday Discovery Channel)

A recommendation. Go to Jimmy’s Famous Seafood during Restaurant Week. Order the Kung Pao Shrimp Tacos. Don’t bother wearing pants.

And since it’s Shark Week, here’s Tracy Morgan…

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I pride myself in embracing as much local sports as I can.  This extends far beyond the Orioles and Ravens, and far beyond traditional sports in general.  I was at the Baltimore Mariners AIFL championship game in their second (and final) season.  I’ve seen more Baltimore Blast games this year then I ever thought possible (and liked it).  I’m a big fan of the Baltimore Charm, and not just for their Lingerie jerseys, these girls play hard, and play with passion.  Finally, the Charm City Roller Girls bouts are some of the most fun you can have on a Saturday Night.

I’m a life-long pro wrestling fan, and not afraid to admit it.  I’ve been to 2 Wrestlemania’s (which is a number that will grow), countless Raw, Smackdown, Monday Nitro’s, and other assorted PPV’s.  I saw an ECW show in Philly before Vince McMahon had the chance to destroy it.  I’ve seen the up-and-comers too.  I’ve watched pro-wrestling in Kenwood High Schools gymnasium (or Cafeteria, I can’t be certain), I’ve driven out to Western Maryland, just because they had a “Free” wrestling show.  Vacationing in Orlando, I made it a point to see a TNA taping.  I planned a Vegas Vacation around the fact WWE was there that week, and walked away from Blackjack and Burlesque shows long enough to take it all in.

Tonight, i’m attending my First “Ring of Honor” event.  It’s a television taping.  As their parent company, Sinclair Broadcasting, is headquartered in Hunt Valley, for sake of argument, i’ll call it Local Wrestling, although ROH is usually regarded as the 3rd biggest Pro-Wrestling organization in the company.

Over the years, ROH has been a breeding ground for big name stars, Current WWE Champion C.M. Punk, Daniel Bryan, A.J. Styles, Colt Cabana, and Samoa Joe, to name a few.

What separates this company from others, it they allow their talent to wrestle for other organizations concurrently.  Current world Champion Kevin “Super Dragon” Steen is also world champion for California based PWG.

Scheduled to perform is a solid mix of Former big-name talent, and fast rising superstars that’ll be fighting for your merchandise dollar in the WWE before long.   Former stars include Lance Storm (ECW legend, multiple title holer in WWE and WCW), former WWE Diva and Playboy cover girl Maria Kanellis,  Ex TNA X-Division champion Jay Lethal, and a personal favorite of mine, The Man Beast Rhino, the Final World Champion in the Original ECW.  Up and coming talent scheduled to hit the ring are Eddie Edwards, Roderick Strong, and the Briscoe Brothers.

Tonight’s main event:

“Canadian Icon” Lance Storm vs “The Prodigy” Mike Bennett w/ Maria Kanellis & Brutal Bob

Also, for the ROH World TV Championship, Roderick Strong w/ Truth Martini defends against Adam Cole

Needless to say, i’m excited.   The event is 7:30 at Du Burns Arena. Tickets are still available.

Anybody else coming?  Look me up in Row 6.  It’s indoors, a great way to beat the heat, and afterwords, since i’m already in Canton, might go bar hopping, sing some Karaoke.

Note: Ring of Honor can be seen Locally Saturdays, 1pm on Fox 45, 10pm on the CW Baltimore.

Twitter – @JamesTFinn

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10. Bonnie Raitt (Sunday 6pm Pier Six Pavilion); Beach Boys (Friday 6:30pm Merriweather Post Pavilion); Neil Diamond (Thursday 8pm Verizon Center); Dave Matthews Band/Gary Clark Jr. (Saturday 7pm Jiffy Lube Live); Martina McBride (Wednesday 8pm Wolf Trap); Reel Big Fish (Friday 8pm Power Plant Live); Of Montreal (Thursday 8pm Recher Theatre); Lindsey Buckingham (Thursday 9pm Baltimore Soundstage), Lisa Marie Presley (Friday 8:30pm Baltimore Soundstage); Kelly Bell Band/Cris Jacobs (Saturday 7pm 8×10 Club); Robert Cray Band (Thursday 8pm Rams Head on Stage); Grouplove (Wednesday 7pm 9:30 Club); The Cult (Tuesday 8pm Fillmore Silver Spring); Bouncing Souls (Tuesday 7:30pm Black Cat DC); Ziggy Marley (Wednesday 8pm Howard Theatre), Little Richard (Saturday 8pm Howard Theatre); Keane (Thursday 8pm Strathmore); Rush “Clockwork Angels” available in stores/on iTunes (Tuesday)

I’ve already established that “Wouldn’t It Be Nice” is the greatest Beach Boys song of all time. Now I point out that I’m an absolute hack because I also enjoy this clip from Full House…

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOZ5dEiZYCo

A lot of people know I’m a significant Dave Matthews fan. But do you know that I’ve proclaimed my all time favorite Dave Matthews tune to be THIS?…

And if you go see DMB don’t stay in the parking lot too long. Gary Clark Jr. is freaking AMAZING. You may remember him from a collaboration he had with Ray Lewis a few weeks back at the NFL Draft…

Wait…The Cult? Isn’t that the band that does the song from that commercial in that Super Bowl?

9. Star-Spangled Sailabration (Wednesday-Monday Inner Harbor, Fells Point, Locust Point); “Rock of Ages” and “That’s My Boy” out in theaters (Friday); Gilbert Gottfried (Saturday Magooby’s Joke House); Richard Lewis (Thursday-Saturday Baltimore Comedy Factory); Gary Valentine (Thursday-Saturday DC Improv)

Ryan Chell and I are going to see That’s My Boy Tuesday night. It will probably make six billion dollars and everyone involved will get new cars. It used to piss me off because I don’t really find Adam Sandler’s shtick to be funny anymore, but there are a couple issues involved. One-Adam Sandler sat down with us at the Super Bowl and was really nice. He even opened up about my idol Chris Farley, which is something I found out later he really never does…

Two-over the past few months I’ve developed a unique friendship with Happy Madison star Peter Dante, who might be the best human being on the face of the planet. He’s the guy on the right below…

So now I hope the movie is funny and they make a billion dollars. Damn you, nice guys.

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Now bear in mind that I’m no TNA fan. I’d watch it occasionally on Thursday evenings while channel-surfing. But when I found out that Hulk Hogan had signed with them, I couldn’t help but want to tune in, just to see what was going to happen. Say what you want about his personal choices in recent years, his wrestling style or his work ethic..but most would admit that it was him who got us to fall in love with wrestling to begin with back in the glory days.  So, when I saw him come out on that stage to that huge ovation, it brought back all sorts of generally happy memories for me. During the course of the show, other notables like Ric Flair, Eric Bischoff, Jeff Hardy, and practically the entire old NWO wound up showing up.

While all that was going on, over on RAW Bret “The Hitman” Hart was making his first WWE appearance in 12 years..something that many of us thought we’d never see. The overall show was just OK, but all of the segments featuring Hart and/or Shawn Michaels and/or Vince McMahon were electric, and it made for a very difficult choice as far as what to watch during the course of the long evening.

The title of the blog, of course, refers to the battle between the well-entrenched WWE and the upstart MONDAY NITRO of the WCW under Eric Bischoff in the ’90s. For a while, all of the big stars went over to Nitro, leaving the WWE (or was it still WWF at the time?) languishing for a period of years until they were able to recover enough to buy out and dismantle their nearest competitor. With Hogan and his new team down south, one has to wonder if we’re witnessing history all over again.

On the one hand, I’ve always been a WWE guy, and want to stay with what I’ve always known. On the other hand, TNA is edgier and with a much greater variety of tag teams, female stars, and younger talent that is a lot of fun to watch. It will be very interesting indeed to see how the coming weeks and months play out as the two wrestling companies go head-to-head on Monday nights. All I can say is, thank GOD for DVRs, or just good old-fashioned VCR tapes so you can watch one and check out the other afterwards.

It would seem that my weekly intake of wrestling has doubled now, at least for the time being. At minimum, I’ll be watching the segments featuring Hogan.  The WWE had better keep their quality up, because it looks like someone else is serious about taking them down a peg, and the battle can only be good for wrestling fans. We shall see…

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Does anybody think that Baltimore’s M&T Bank Stadium would make a great site for a future Wrestlemania? We all know that M&T is state of the art and still fairly new, the weather in Baltimore in late-March, early-April can be a bit chancy, but not bitter by any means, and we could squeeze, counting floor seating, at least 80,000 folks in there.

Has anyone else out there had this idea? Honestly, I wouldn’t even know who to contact for the city to put in a bid for it with WWE. I cannot be any more complicated than what everyone is going through with the Olympic Games (I remember our “region” putting in a half-hearted attempt a handful of years ago).

Considering the development of the downtown area in the last generation, plus the incredible support WWE and its other promotions over the past fifty or so years, I think we would make a great host for WWE’s supreme yearly event. Imagine turning Oriole Park into the locale for their version of Fanfest for the entire week prior, or the Arena, if necessary, it would be a huge boon for a city that oh-so-desperately needs it considering how empty the downtown area can be when football season isn’t going on or on Opening Day (see almost any recent Nestor blog for corroboration on that).

I welcome comments on this subject, which I grant is very different than anything that I’ve written about before. Still, as a WWE fan going back to the Hulk Hogan days and as someone who has had the chance to see the event live just once, but several others on PPV and DVD, having something like this happen would be a real dream come true. Does anyone else think that this is a good idea, or at least something that we’d like to see, to paraphrase the classic MAD magazine?

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Mark McGwire looked like a jerk back in 2005 when he said, “I’m not here to talk about the past.” I hope anyone caught juicing from here on says the same thing.

The Ravens said they are going to franchise Terrell Suggs if he doesn’t sign by Thursday. That’s the right move. T-Sizzle is the future of this Ravens’ defense.

It’s beginning to look more and more like Ray Lewis isn’t going to be a Raven next year. That’s just a gut feeling. Most fans that I am hearing from are fine with that.

Maryland has only beaten one ranked team this year and that was back in November. Four out of the Terps’ last six games are against top-13 teams. If the Terps don’t make the NCAA tournament this year, that will be four out of the last five years out of the big dance. We expect more out of a Gary Williams-coached team.

I know the Orioles probably aren’t going to have a winning season, but I am anxious to see what they are going to bring to the table. The Orioles need arms. Too many guys coming off of injuries, and the club didn’t do much to address the need during the offseason. I’m rooting for them, but I’m thinking that there is going to be another September pitching meltdown.

Casey asked the stupid question on our WNST Saturday show facebook page “3rd and Goal.” Who was better – Hulk Hogan or Shawn Michaels? You have no idea how stupid that question is. Check out what I had to say and rant for yourself, just click here to respond.

My non-sports thought of the day – How come they don’t have Saturday morning cartoons on local television anymore? I would love to get up with my daughter on a Saturday morning, eat some cornflakes and watch some “Muppet Babies” or “The Littles”.

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