Much as Sunday’s AMA’s were more about music than the Bieber-sweep of the awards, the after parties followed suit.
Jon Bon Jovi never sat down, but stayed from beginning to end at the Rolling Stone Restaurant and Lounge party at Hollywood & Highland. They’re branding the new space as “RS|LA”, so don’t call it a café’ — as in that other music restaurant around the corner on Hollywood Blvd.
The tiny star-packed VIP balcony, about the size of four of the SUVs waiting outside, was the hotspot.
Rolling Stone founder Jann Wenner’s own assistant guarded the door to the inner sanctum fiercely.
Inside, Kid Rock lit up a cigar with Jackson Browne, as Wenner himself ran a blackberry power huddle with Bon Jovi and Jimmy Iovine. Other names slinking by the crowd of tourist lookie-loos at the mall on Sunday night: Russell Brand, Katy Perry, a barely dressed Tila Tequila (who did not conquer the VIP door), Kenneth “Babyface” Edmonds and wife Tracy, Ke$ha, and John Legend.
The party drew 700 guests into the space that will eventually feed and sling cocktails for about 300 when it opens. It’s an understated, non-memorabilia driven, “W-esque” venue that doesn’t feel like a theme restaurant and should play nicely as an alternative to the Roosevelt for premiere parties. At one point in its past, the venue’s “bubble” protruding north towards Highland/the 101 housed Ryan Seacrest’s short lived daytime pop-culture show “On-Air”. While not quite open yet, the venue borrowed Premiere Events’ liquor license for the night, the same company that produced CNN’s Heroes celebration at the Shrine on Saturday night.
Jamie Foxx, Brandy, Mark Salling and many others made their way from RS over to the Avalon for the midnight start of Ne-Yo and friends, an all-star concert in an intimate cabaret setting. After Diddy fired up the crowd with an old-school medley of “All About the Benjamins” and “More Money, More Problems,” Ne-Yo literally plucked friends out of the audience to sing on stage — the inverse of “taking requests.”
Keri Hilson, Kelly Rowland, and Foxx all performed over the next two hours. From the front cluster of tables, Jenny McCarthy and the perennial “Dancing with the Stars” party monsters were on their feet all night.
Online music video service Vevo produced the night. In addition to filling the music video gap left behind by MTV, they produced original live concert footage and have deals with every major label except for Warners.
Last night, guests waded amongst a multi-cam shoot (including a jib and a steadicam roaming the floor) that will end up in DVD format. Porsche and Compound Entertainment also contributed to the event.
