If this doesn’t want to make you time travel to 1957, you’re wrong. (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Louis Prima Jr. is springier than we expected.

There he was Friday night at the Hard Rock Cafe, though, jumping all over the stage, throwing high leg kicks in his bright white suit while statuesque Sarah Spiegel held the line in her evening gown and gloves.

The appeal of the show was for the throwback crowd — people old enough to remember his father and the retro-decked hipsters who wish they were. Yet there was never any part of it that felt old, or stuffy. Prima and Spiegel bantered their way through Sr.’s hits — including crisp takes on “Buona Sera” and “Angelina” — and those of Prima Jr.’s mother, Gia Maione.

He even stuck to Sr.’s trick of parading the horn section through the crowd, picking up dancers and stragglers as he used his trumpet to pied piper his way through the room back around to the stage. It’s a show with an infectious energy and stands in stark contrast to the slickly produced big band approximation on the barge at Caesars. To be fair, Matt Goss does employ more girls in fishnets, and we can’t ever really argue against that. Still, a little more fettucini Alfredo, a little less mac and cheese, please.

By Jason Scavone

Banana split for his baby, and a glass of plain water for him. (Photo by Michael Alan)

You remember your Fredo Corleone, right? No, not the part about sneaking cocktail waitresses two at a time. Well, OK, that part, too, but what we meant was “Cent’anni — it means ‘A hundred years.’ ”

It’s always a solid line to toss out before you start downing shots of Sambuca, but it also carries weight this year as Louis Prima, the man who eats antipasta twice just because she is so nice, would have marked his 100th birthday.

His son, Louis Prima Jr., (whom we interviewed in September) is orchestrating a musical renaissance playing his father’s music. Not only is he doing more gigs both here and in Los Angeles, he recently returned to his father’s birthplace, playing a show at the New Orleans Jazz Festival.

Prima Jr. will be at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip tomorrow night at 9 p.m. Tickets are $20 in advance and $25 at the door. He’s also working on getting a regular showcase in Vegas. It’d be nice, for a change, if swing on the Strip didn’t just mean what you did when you were hanging from one of the Stratosphere’s rides.

By Jason Scavone

That may be the Flaviest thing in all of Flavdom. (Photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

Mint green zoot suit? Yup. Girls with “Flavor Flav Fly Girls” tank tops? Sure. Bullhorn? Of course. It’s like a little Flav spent all his misbegotten youth hanging around carnies and decided one day, that was going to be him when he grew up. Still, we can’t say we’re not jealous. When you’re starting your contract negotiations and you get to say “First, I’m going to need a bunch of girls wearing my shirt, and then I’m going to need some sort of public address system and a few hundred bucks for the zoot suit of my choice,” you’re really in a strong bargaining position.

The Public Enemy hypeman hosted Throwback Thursday at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip. It’s the kind of thing that’s got to be disconcerting if you just show up for a drink, to all of a sudden have Flav yelling at you through a bullhorn. That’s got to cause some kind of very specific PTSD.

By Jason Scavone

Return to Fender.

Aside from booze and boobs, there are two things that stand as defenders of Everything That is Good and Right in the World: Elvis Aaron Presley, the King of Rock ‘n’ Roll; and face-shredding, brain-melting heavy metal.

Enter one-time Legends in Concert Elvis impersonator Chance Tinder and his merry band of Slash, Nikki Sixx and Peter Criss look-alikes. Metal Elvis — the truth-in-advertisingist name for anything in the music industry since Public Image Ltd.’s release Album — works in the hazy margins of tribute bands and mash-up, delivering “metalized” versions of the King’s tracks. (Just don’t draw the Dread Zeppelin comparison. Tender says that Elvis impersonator-fronted, reggae-version-of-Led-Zep-songs band had no influence on Metal Elvis. We didn’t ask him whether comparisons to Minneapolis’ Metallagher were valid, however.)

It started in 2005 when Tender and guitarist Lou Beadle were messing around with “That’s All Right, Mama” and hit on doing the lyrics over the riff of “Welcome to the Jungle.” (Well, to be fair, it kind of started with Motley Crue’s cover of “Jailhouse Rock” on Girls, Girls, Girls, which Tender said was a favorite.)

Now, Metal Elvis returns to the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip tonight where tickets are $10. They’re working on making Vegas a more regular home, though, and are considering relocating from their Scottsdale base of operations if they can work out a weekly gig. We caught up with Tender to talk about the finer points of The King’s relationship to Dangerous Toys. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

Your lasting image of AEE.

You don’t have to go gently into that good, porn-less night. Even though the Adult Entertainment Expo is wrapping up, there’s a last hurrah at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip, when Ron Jeremy is with the Sin City Sinners for the Paradise Visuals party. Don’t be sad, though. Your memories of porn stars will last forever. And be on the internet. Click for more words and pictures »

By Jason Scavone

No, seriously. Not related to Macy Gray at all. (Photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

British singer/songwriter David Gray was at the Hard Rock Cafe last night. No relation to Macy Gray. Easy mistake to make, but we assure you that’s not the case. We actually thought he was an American Idol guy at first, but the crack research staff at Wikipedia assures us we were thinking of David Cook. The point of the story is, our working knowledge of British singer/songwriters is pretty bad.

By Jason Scavone

Scandavian name? Check. Breathy vocals? check. Bjork mode: engaged. (Photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

Aussie popper Lenka — more or less Sydney’s answer to Bjork — was a the Hard Rock Cafe yesterday for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month’s Pinktober Rock ‘n’ Roll Fashion Show. Models included local media folk, and Zowie Bowie’s Marley Taylor, paired with cancer survivors to hit the catwalk.

We were just glad to hear Pinktober had nothing to do with coming up and/or getting the party started. For 30 whole days.

By Jason Scavone

(Photo by Scott Harrison. Additional photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

YouTube phenom, 15-year-old Justin Bieber did a special performance at the Hard Rock Cafe Saturday with fans lined up and down the Strip for the show. Man, is there anything worse than someone who has success, fans and a career under 20? Then again, if we’re going to only have Kanye and Gaga as our entertainers, we may as well skip the Peter Pan Complex and go straight for the children.

From the grown-up singer files, Rob Thomas of Matchbox 20 was at N9NE Steakhouse for dinner with a coupleof friends. Joe Mauer of the Minnesota Twins and AL MVP lock entertained 10. Apparently this was the weekend to be here if you’ve been deposed from the baseball playoffs. Glee’s Mark Salling had dinner for two. Justin Berfield of Malcolm in the Middle sat on the mezzanine balcony at Moon.

Tao saw Jennifer Morrison and Amaury Nolasco come in for dinner. Stephen Dorff ate with Tao’s owners before heading to the club, where Floyd Mayweather Jr. was celebrating a friend’s birthday.

And, from the random file: Alice Cooper and Steve Miller had dinner at Simon inside Palms Place. Battle of the classic radio staples. If we got some REO Speedwagon up in there, we’d have had ourselves a party.

By Jason Scavone

This could be the new Audioslave. (Photos by Erik Kabik. Additional photos by Scott Harrison | Retna)

What better way to open a Hard Rock Cafe than with some of the best pipes in rock music? Chris Cornell did the grand opening concert at the new Strip cafe that opened with a ceremonial guitar-smashing instead of ribbon-cutting, with Holly Madison on lead. She’s like the Angus Young of this crew of guitar smashers. Unless, you know, actual Angus Young were to turn up. He’s always the Angus Young-iest guy in the room.

Also turning up were Fantasy newcomer Angelica Bridges, Peepshow’s Aubrey O’Day, Vince and Lia Neil, Chris Kirkpatrick, Zowie Bowie, Louis Prima Jr. and Tera Patrick because you absolutely can not have rock ‘n’ roll without porn. It’s a rule. Some might say it’s a rule we just made up, but we say those people are just a bunch of buzzkills.

By Jason Scavone

‘Here’s a little number called, ‘How I Broke Into The Louvre.’ ‘ (Photos by Erik Kabik | Retna)

Moksha, the jam band fronted by Carmen Sandiego, did the first show at the Hard Rock Cafe on the Strip. The audience got to enjoy the band’s eclectic mix of jazz, funk and rock while also learning an important lesson in geography after their singer stole a priceless objet d’art from Paris.

It all went downhill pretty quick, though, when some snot-nosed kids with a crappy Apple IIe busted in the place and started making crazy accusations. Can’t V.I.L.E. operate in peace for one stinking show?

By Jason Scavone