Talk of the Troubadour

Saturday night at the Troubadour wasn’t just another night in Rockersville. The elusive Paul Westerberg made an appearance and the audience was all abuzz with excitement. Seems the former Replacements frontman and current cult icon--who came out to see Jane Wiedlin’s Frosted, Redd Kross (performing an unannounced set) and Shonen Knife--rarely spends a night on the town. “The fact that he was willing to go out to a crowded club in Los Angeles on a Saturday night says something about the bands . . . because he never goes anywhere,” says a Westerberg pal. For its part, Redd Kross was visibly stoked. . . .

Let’s offer a moment of silence for the death of L.A.’s longest-running bootie shaker--Saturday Night Fever. Promoter Brent Bolthouse tried to revive it at numerous venues in recent months, but he’s officially laid it to rest, deciding it had run its course. “There are just no venues for dance club promoters right now,” says Bolthouse, who owns the Opium Den and is opening the Coffeehouse in late April (across from the Chateau Marmont).