Twilight's Jackson Rathbone performs tonite at Wildhorse Saloon + RPatz's American Idol connection

November 7, 10:31 AMNashville Entertainment ExaminerJonathan Pinkerton

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Twilight star Jackson Rathbone at Wildhorse tonight

Twilight's Jasper Hale, actor Jackson Rathbone trades screaming victims for screaming fans tonight as his band, 100 Monkeys makes their Nashville debut.  Jackson, along with band mates Jerad Anderson, Ben Graupner, Ben Johnson and Uncle Larry take to the stage at Nashville's Wildhorse Saloon to perform songs from ever-increasing Indie music catalogue.  

Since February, the boys have released Monster de Lux, their ten-track recorded debut, the seven-track Creative Control Live Sessions, Singles, a three-track CD containing the potential breakout called Ugly Girl, along with Smoke and Wasteland Too.  They also released individual singles of these three songs.  If that weren't enough, the band's latest CD, Grape will offer up 14 new tracks and is due out by the end of November. With exclusive distribution available via their online store.

A quick visit the band's official site, 100monkeysmusic.com doesn't really reveal much about the band's origins, since all their bios are ridiculously fictional, but a few minutes of listening to 100 Monkeys Jukebox brings to mind everything from early David Bowie to later Lou Reed, with a little Kurt Cobain thrown in for good measure.

Jackson & his Twilight co-star RPatz

The band's live performances and recorded tracks are quite often not the same, as they tend to simply jam onstage and go with the feel, rather than trying to duplicate their recorded tracks.  This either indicates true artistry and a need to let the music take them on its journey, or, they aren't skilled enough to stay the course.  

It seems Jackson is in town not only to headline at The Wildhorse, but also to take part in the weekend-long NewCon, a Twilight-inspired convention taking place at The Renaissance Hotel and Convention Center.  While details on NewCon's website are a bit sparse, apparently there are other Twilight cast members in attendance.  According to the site, for a mere $199 (and you thought there was an economic crisis going on) you get to attend "all of the NewCon events, as well as an autograph and a photo opportunity with your favorite attending cast memeber."  There is a NewCon Ball tonight as well as the 100 Monkeys concert at the Wildhorse, but those events aren't included in the Weekend Pass level.  The site also pushes the Platinum Pass, which for $399 gets you in the first 3 rows at every event at NewCon, as well as the 100 Monkeys concert and the ball.  Of course single tickets to the 100 Monkeys show are available at The Wildhorse by visiting their website wildhorsesaloon.com.  Either way, Twilighters should be eager to close the gap in their undying quest to get one degree of separation from Robert Pattinson.

Pattinson's next project a film based on Bel-Ami

Speaking of RPatz, he just signed on to appear in Bel-Ami, based on Guy De Maupassant's 1885 novel of the same name.  The film adaptation is being produced by Simon Fuller, best known stateside as producer of such reality TV fare as American Idol and So You Think You Can Dance. Directors Declan Donnellan and Nick Ormerod will share directorial duties.  Donnellan is a British theatrical director widely known for mounting numerous Shakespeare-penned productions.  In 1981. he founded Cheek by Jowl, a theatre company in London with partner Nick Ormerod.  

Pattinson will co-star alongside Nicole Kidman in this period piece about a young man's climb in turn of the century Parisian society by way of the bedrooms of the city's most beautiful and notable women.  Let's just hope it's more a Victorian Age version of kept-man classics like American Gigolo or Alfie or even more like Baz Lurhmann's masterpiece Moulin Rouge, which starred Kidman.  Heaven help us if it's more like Fuller's previous theatrical bomb, From Justin to Kelly, the box office stinker he produced starring American Idol's first winner and runner up, Kelly Clarkson and Justin Guarini.