4 days ago
Six degrees of Wilmington? These big acts haven't played here, but we're still connected
These days, Wilmington is getting more big-name musical acts than ever before.
From country stars like Jelly Roll and Lainey Wilson to such well known pop artists as Teddy Swims and even "Weird Al" Yankovic, all have played Wilmington in the past couple of years.
But when it comes to hosting the very biggest names in music, well, Wilmington isn't quite there yet. Still, we're closer to these names than it might seem, especially if one employs the famous "six of degrees of seperation" theory (aka Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon), which says that a person (or a town like, say, Wilmington) can connect with another person (like, say, Kevin Bacon) via a string of aquaintences that's no more than six steps long.
We can connect Wilmington to Kevin Bacon in one step, for example: Bacon's never done a movie here, but he starred in the movie "Wild Things" with Neve Campbell, who made the fifth "Scream" movie in Wilmington.
Let's put the theory to the test when it comes to big-name acts many would love to see in Wilmington.
The biggest pop star in the world has never performed in Wilmington, but we can connect her to the Port City in one easy step. Swift has said her 2010 song "Innocent" is about an awards-show dust-up with rapper Kanye West, and West performed at the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Trask Coliseum back in 2006.
One of the biggest rock stars of all time, Springsteen has never played Wilmington. But his 1993 song "Streets of Philadelphia" is the theme to the 1993 movie "Philadelphia" starring Tom Hanks. Hanks has never made a movie in Wilmington, but he was in 1998's "Saving Private Ryan" with Giovanni Ribisi, and Ribisi appears in 1996 Wilmington-shot film "The Grave," which made it into the Sundance Film Festival and helped launch the careers of Jonas and Joshua Pate ("Outer Banks"). That's two steps.
Believe it or not, I can connect one of the biggest pop stars in the world to Wilmington in less than one step. Back when she was Beyoncé Knowles, the singer known for her "Cowboy Carter" album played the University of North Carolina Wilmington's Trask Coliseum with her singing group Destiny's Child on Oct. 2, 1999, according to a past issue of UNCW student newspaper The Seahawk.
The Oscar- and Grammy-winning pop singer and actress Lady Gaga has never appeared in Wilmington.
But on June 1, the mega star appeared on the fan event known as Netflix Tudum with Jenna Ortega, who starred in the Wilmington-shot horror movie "Scream" in 2022. So just one step.
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One of the biggest rappers in the business has yet to play Wilmington, but he's connected to the Port City in one step via an artist on this list: Beyoncé, who played Wilmington in 1999. Lamar's 2009 song "Beyoncé" pays homage to the pop star, and he also collaborated with Queen Bey on 2023 song "America Has a Problem."
The iconic heavy metal band just played Charlotte in May, but they've never rocked a show in Wilmington.
Metallica did, however, play with fellow metal act Pantera during the Monsters of Rock festival in Moscow in 1991, and Pantera played late, great Wilmington music venue The Mad Monk — the original Market Street location, before it burned down in 1991 — on Nov. 9, 1990, according to One step and done.
This article originally appeared on Wilmington StarNews: Six degrees of Wilmington, NC: Connecting big-name acts to the area
