D’Angelo and Bryan Pull ‘Em In

Hey, did anyone else feel the gravitational pull toward the Sunset Strip on Saturday? Not only were D’Angelo’s second-coming shows at the House of Blues a near-religious experience (are you with me, ladies?), but Cherry promoter Bryan Rabin also celebrated his birthday at Moon of Tunis before leading a soul train of art-world heavies over to Make-Up (which was still blazing like a four-alarm fire at 1:30 a.m., with Queen, ABBA, and KC & the Sunshine Band demanding you stay on that dance floor).

Also off the rock ‘n’ roll Richter on Saturday was the heavyweight powwow at the Troubadour, featuring Bluebird and Goatsnake. The opening act was those charming young lads, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club, who got so into their jam session that they lost all sense of time and played right into Goatsnake’s time slot. Oh well, we can forgive the exuberance of youth, because at least the Troubadour isn’t out to rob folks on drink prices while you’re waiting for the headliner to go on (a common ailment around town these days).

I was caught loitering at Tattoo Mania on a recent school night, hanging out with tattoo master Mark Mahoney, who has inked everyone climbing up and tumbling down the Sunset Strip. It’s not only his ability to reproduce a photo line-for-line as body art that makes him world-famous, but his soothing, cool-cat voice. The combination creates a crazy cocktail of pleasure and pain.

We met up with a member of the ‘60s soul-garage rock crew Midnight Rapture, who’d played the Pretty Ugly at Dragonfly the night before, and also Dragonfly promoter Gregg Wadley, who popped in to pick up his latest Mahoney design: a wave in the shape of a hand. . . . While chilling at the D-fly with Taime Downe, we ran into Coyote Shivers, who brought us--hot off the presses--the third edition of the H.O.R.N.Y. Pages (Hollywood’s Only Rock & Night Life Yellow Pages), featuring monthly scene-queen centerfolds and a cool gossip column by Apollo Starr. It’s a keeper.