At a time when bars, clubs, gyms and other places not co-owned by Kid Rock are shutting down again due to the spike in coronavirus cases (including in Texas where Gov. Greg Abbott issued an executive order last week shutting down the state’s bars), one event will go on in celebration of July 4th weekend in Texas: Vanilla Ice.
Instead of stopping, collaborating and listening to health officials, Ice wants to roll back the years to the ’90s, which is what it says in the promotional material for his show at the Emerald Point Bar & Grill that takes place on Friday (July 3).
“I can’t wait to get back to this,” Ice said in an Instagram post. “The 90s were the best. We didn’t have coronavirus, or cell phones, or computers. We had 5.0’s, blockbuster, Beavis and Butthead, Wayne’s World, Chris Tucker and Jackie Chan … Mortal Kombat is still better than Fortnight … the last of the great decades.”
Wanna feel more early ’90s vibes? Color Me Badd is playing on Saturday night.
According to the Austin Chronicle, the venue is selling 2,500 tickets for the event, which is about half of the venue’s capacity. The catch here, according to the paper, is that the venue operates as a restaurant, so it’s allowed to have 50% capacity. Tickets for the show are selling for between $25 and $300.
So, if you’re in the greater Austin area and want to bust out your vintage Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: The Secret of the Ooze gear, now you can.
UPDATE (7/2, 11:10 am PST): Vanilla Ice canceled the Austin show on Thursday, stating in a Twitter video that he didn’t originally realize how “crazy” the city’s COVID-19 numbers had become. The rapper noted that he’s going to “move the concert” to an unspecified “later date.”
“Basically I’m not going,” he says in the clip. “I listen to my fans. I hear all you people out there. I didn’t know the numbers were so crazy in Austin, but we were hoping that it would be a lot better by 4th of July because we booked this concert a long time ago. Basically just want to stay safe. We do take it serious, and we want to make sure everybody’s safe. We were just hoping for a good time on 4th of July weekend, but it turned [out to] be a big focal point on me, and it’s not about that. Anyway, happy 4th of July, and hopefully by New Year’s this corona crap will have a cure.”
Due to the increase in COVID-19 numbers in Austin we’re gonna move the concert to a better date. We were hoping for better Coronavirus numbers by July but Unfortunately the numbers have increased quite a bit so for the safety and health of everyone we’re going to stay home. pic.twitter.com/MWWfNWf3zd
— Vanilla Ice (@vanillaice) July 2, 2020
