andPOP - Pop Culture With Substance

Remember Evanescence? You know, the one with that goth female lead singer with the haunting voice? Well, they’re back, and with a bang.

Wednesday night the band performed a secret show at the Manhattan Center Grand Ballroom in New York, reports rollingstone.com. A little after 9 p.m., the crowd started growing impatient, chanting, “EVAN-ES-SCENTS, EVAN-ES-SCENTS.” And even though the band hasn’t been heard from in years, you wouldn’t know it from their performance.

And as their front woman Amy Lee explained, last night’s intimate show was quite necessary, considering Evanescence will be performing for 40,000 people at the Maquinaria Festival in Sao Paulo, Brazil on Nov. 8. So, Lee said, they needed a little warming up before heading south.

“Thanks for being our guinea pigs,” Lee joked to the predominantly female crowd.

Evanescence hasn’t put out a record since 2006’s The Open Door, but they’re currently hard at work on a follow-up album. Still, it’ll be another year before the band is back performing in New York, making last night’s concert a special treat for their dedicated fans, who sold out the show in just five minutes.

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DJ AM, also known as Adam Goldstein, was found dead in his NYC apartment earlier today, according to TMZ. Early reports say that drug paraphernalia was found around his body when he was discovered. Last year, Goldstein and Travis Barker survived a plane crash that killed four others on board.

Once the news broke about his death, Shanna Moakler tweeted “My deepest condolences for DJ AM, you were a great artist and will be severely missed. My thoughts and Prayers to his family and friends.”

Story developing…

Boy band LFO – perhaps best known for a ’90s hit referencing New Kids on the Block and “girls that wear Abercrombie & Fitch” – are pulling their own NKOTB-esque move with a reunion show this summer.

The group, which went on indefinite hiatus in 2003, will play the one-off gig at New York’s Highline Ballroom on July 18.

Supporting acts for the show are Rookie Of The Year, Go Crash Audio and Kiernan McMullan.

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Dallas-based casual game developer and publisher MumboJumbo announced today the release of Fashion Apprentice, a new hidden-objects game from developer IT Territory. The game was released at the same time as the start of the Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week in New York.

The Fashion Apprentice game follows character Anna as she rejects her father’s law school dreams to pursue an internship with her aunt’s fashion boutique in hopes of one day opening her own fashion agency. Players are given a list of items to fin in each fashion-related scene, and as each task in completed the player earns Glam Points that can be used to build Anna’s wardrobe.

The game features six international locations, and has a total of 28 levels of seek-and-find game play. Fashion Apprentice is available at online game portals, and the full version can be purchased for approximately $20.

It was only a matter of time before the Diva had her day.

Mariah Carey isn’t satisfied with the quick ceremony she and husband Nick Cannon shared recently. MSNBC reports that she is currently planning an extravagant second wedding.

“It’s going to be held in New York City in the next six weeks,” a source confessed. “Picture a wedding on the scale of Liza Minnelli’s (to David Gest) and you’ll be on the right track.”

Carey reportedly plans to invite 2,000 guests, including a minimum of 14 bridesmaids.

Neil Aspinall has died in hospital at the age of 66, after a battle with lung cancer.

Aspinall was called “The Fifth Beatle.” As a childhood friend of Paul McCartney and George Harrison, he was the band’s first tour manager and continued to work with them throughout their careers. According to the BBC, Aspinall “remained fiercely loyal to the group, looking after their business interests and taking legal action on their behalf.”

Aspinall was a chief executive of Apple from 1970-2007, ensuring that the Beatles continued to make money.

He played various instruments in songs like Magical Mystery Tour, Within You Without You and Being for the Benefit of Mr Kite, and created the albums Beatles Anthology and Beatles One.

In a statement, Ringo Starr said that, “I’ve known Neil many years and he was a good friend. We were blessed to have him in our lives and he will be missed.”

Aspinall has five children with wife, Suzy.

Meredith Grey is married.

Well, the fictional character is a long way away from tying the knot, but her alter ego, actress Ellen Pompeo, was indeed married last week.

Pompeo is now wife to music executive Chris Ivery at New York’s City Hall. Mayor Michael Bloomberg was their witness.

Following their engagemnent last year after her birthday, the couple insisted their nuptials would be low key.

As for the honeymoon, Pompeo and hubby were seen at a Knicks game on Sunday night.