Courtesy World Wrestling Entertainment, Inc.

Before sports-talk radio became ubiquitous, D.C.’s WTEM-AM helped pave the way in 1992. Emulating the grandfather of sports yak, WFAN-AM in New York City, Sports Radio 570— now Dan Snyder’s ESPN 980—gave shows to Tony Kornheiser and others, one of whom was former New York Jet Kevin Kiley (“Kiley and the Coach”). Kiley’s son, Kevin Jr., followed in his pop’s footsteps and later played football at Boston College. But once the 6-foot, 4-inch, 250-pound kid decided his pigskin dreams were over, he turned his massive frame and did a top-rope leap into sports entertainment.

With no prior in-ring experience, the WWE signed Kiley—now known as Alex Riley—who rose up the ranks and is now on the company’s main TV show, Raw. He’s also about to debut as a featured performer—in his former hometown. The now “babyface” Riley will take on his former mentor, the villainous heel The Miz, at the “Capitol Punishment” pay-per-view at Verizon Center June 19. Arts Desk chatted up the budding WWE superstar on the eve of his breaking-out party.

Washington City Paper: You grew up in Fairfax, Va., and get to make your pay-per-view debut in front of hometown pals. Geeked?
Alex Riley: I’m excited to come back to D.C. And turning into a face here, or at least moving in that direction, I think it’s a great place to start. If I can’t get [the fans] there, I can’t get them anywhere. ... I think I might stay at my old house the night before the pay-per-view and get a nice home-cooked meal. … I’ll sleep in my old bed that I used to grow up in and just spend the day in Northern Virginia as much as I can.

WCP: It will be surreal to sleep in your childhood bed, wake up, and then go to work at Verizon Center.
AR: It’s amazing. I feel like I’ve done some great things with my life, and I had a pretty decent football career, but nothing compares to this. It’s going to be, “How far have I gone?” I’m going to go down to [my old street] Native Dancer Court, and when I pull in [to the driveway, I’ll] remember throwing the football in the yard with my dad and wrestling around with him. The first room he put together in this house was a weight room. … He was always into weights and I would go down as kid, and I remember he was working out and listening to Bruce Springsteen. Since I was 13 or 14 years old, I would go down there and lift weights with him. It’s going to be amazing to go back and remember when you’re 13 and then when you’re 30 and you’re in a pay-per-view for the WWE.
WCP: Did you go to WWE events in the D.C. area as a kid?
AR: We did. My dad is very close with Greg Gagne. He’s almost like Uncle Greg to us. [Gagne is a former pro wrestler and the son of legendary promoter Verne Gagne, who ran the the American Wrestling Association (AWA).] He played football with my father at Wyoming, and he was actually his roommate. My dad would follow him around to wrestling events, and we went to a couple when I was young, and did football stuff with him, too. I was always following [wrestling] and was a big fan of it when I was growing up.

WCP: But you never wrestled before you joined the WWE’s training promotions. How did you make the leap from the gridiron to the ring?
AR: I always really wanted to get into [sports entertainment], but I had spent so much time playing football, so much invested in that, that I really wanted to see it through. Once I felt like [football] was complete—the wrestling was pulling me in direction where I really, really wanted to try it. … I think I was 25 or 26, and I decided this was the time to make this move. ...I think there was an open tryout in OVW [Ohio Valley Wrestling]—I kept calling and sending pictures, trying to get on their radars. They said they had some guys coming down—some wrestlers, some not; some football guys like you—and you’re welcome to come down. And that was that. I had never stepped into a [wrestling] ring [before].

WCP: But it’s a huge leap from just being a good athlete to being a great sports entertainer.
AR: It’s the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do in my life. ...Yeah, being a great athlete absolutely helps, but it might be 15 percent of it, 20 percent tops. It takes a lot to be able to perform in the WWE. You have to be smart, you have to know timing, you have to get into the theater side of things. It takes a long time, and it’s such a craft, and the closer I got to it, I had an unbelievable amount of respect for the people who can pull it off. It’s extremely hard to do.

WCP: Your character’s heel-to-babyface transformation was really well done, but were you surprised how quickly you were embraced by the fans?
AR: If anybody stands up to the Miz, they’re going to get a big reaction. … Was I surprised it was going to be so big? I honestly didn’t know what to think. There had been a lot of stuff brewing between me and Mike [the Miz]. When I came into the company, I didn't want to go in and carry somebody else’s bags. I wanted to go in as my own guy. I felt like I was talented enough and charismatic enough, and had the tools to make an impact. But I was extremely happy with the position they gave me. Mike is a great character, he was on a fantastic run, and he's a great guy to work with and learn from. But when that moment happened [where I turned on Miz], there was a lot of realism in that moment. A lot of the things he said, he truly felt; and a lot of the things I did I truly felt. When you can capture that, and it is such a real moment in front of 20,000 people, it’s hard to not get a reaction.

WCP: WWE was also smart having you turn ‘face while accompanied by John Cena and Stone Cold Steve Austin one week, followed up by Rowdy Roddy Piper the next. That’s some positive rub from, arguably, three of the top names in WWE history.
AR: Yeah, and I’m extremely fortunate to be put in that position. Even when they put me with Miz to start. I went from [the WWE TV program] NXT, which is pretty much a reality show where I didn’t even have a contract, trying to fight for every word that I got to say, every match, every move. I’m out there fighting for attention and trying to get noticed to a point where I’m in the ring with The Rock, Stone Cold, John Cena—because of Miz. But there comes a point where there’s a lot of pressure that goes with that: If they put you in the ring and you don’t stand out, or you don’t do well, or you get lost among 10 stars and have no presence, then you’re very exposed at an early point in your career, and you don’t want that to happen, either.
I think I did a pretty good job of handling my own in there, and then they gave me this opportunity. And, yeah, they keep putting me in the ring with guys who are legends, and I’ve been able to feed off their credibility and all that they’ve done and it’s worked out extremely well.

WWE presents “Capitol Punishment” at 6:30 p.m. on June 19 at Verizon Center, 601 F Street NW. $20-$300.

Pink Floyd bassist and singer Roger Waters wrote his 1979 ode to isolation, The Wall, because he hated playing stadiums. Following Floyd's fraught 1977 stadium tour, Rogers spoke of how he wished a wall could be erected between the band and its audience. Clearly he's long made peace with his issue, because he's playing nothing but stadium-sized venues on this current tour of The Wall, which came to the Verizon Center last night. Or perhaps it's more political than that. On his website Waters writes: "The record's story of fear and loss with its concomitant inevitable residue of ridicule, shame and punishment, provides an allegory for broader concerns.: Nationalism, racism, sexism, religion, whatever! All these issues and 'isms are driven by the same fears that drove my young life. This new production of The Wall is an attempt to draw some comparisons, to illuminate our current predicament, and is dedicated to all the innocent lost in the intervening years."

Additional photos from this show can be seen here.

Yesterday was the first night of Taylor Swift's sold-out two-night stand at the Verizon Center. Swift played all of her hits with some crowd-pleasing gimmicks thrown in—namely, playing a few songs in the middle of one of the lower-level concourses, surrounded by fans, then making her way down to the floor and playing to the folks in the back of the stadium, and finally walking up the floor to the stage, hugging and kissing and slapping hands all along the way. This was all well and good, except that combined with several overly lengthy interludes, the flow of the set was all too frequently interrupted.

Many more photos after the jump.

Kellie Pickler opened:

There was no Stephen Colbert cameo during Alicia Keys' set last night at the Verizon Center, but there was still some additional star power in the house. This was yet another phone-booth event attended by members of the Obama family, in this case the First Lady and the Obama daughters. There was quite a stir before Keys' set began when word somehow got around that the Obamas were watching from a darkened box seat. Still, once Keys got going, she was not to be upstaged, earning the stadium's undivided attention with a dramatic entry and powerful performance.

More photos after the jump and at the full gallery.

Support was provided by Robin Thicke and Melanie Fiona:

Full gallery here.

About three songs into the performance last night, a fan somehow got onstage—"I don't know where the hell he came from," a Verizon Center staffer said afterward—and rushed Jay-Z, before being unceremoniously thrown off the high stage by a bodyguard (he was shaken up, but fine). If you're looking for photos of that excitement, they're not here—this happened literally seconds after photographers were escorted out of the arena for the night.

That aside, hit the jump or the full gallery for more photos of, you know, the actual performance.

Full gallery here.

I'll never be able to forgive the Black Eyed Peas for inflicting "My Humps" on the world, but they sure put on a pretty fun show. More photo evidence after the jump and at the full gallery.

Ludacris was second on the bill but seemingly nearly as much a draw as the headliners:

The horrendously bad LMFAO opened the show:

Full gallery here.

The First Lady was at the Verizon Center last night, daughters and Secret Service in tow, to witness Miley Cyrus' first tour under her own name rather than the Hannah Montana brand. Many more photos after the jump (click on any photo for a larger version).

Note: these photos may not be republished elsewhere.

Metro Station, featuring Miley's half-brother Trace Cyrus, opened:

The fact that Bruce Springsteen and the E Street Band last played in D.C. just this past May didn't seem to put a damper on the reception that the Boss and friends received when they hit the stage at the Verizon Center. After the jump and at the full gallery, check out some images from the initial moments of last night's show.

Full gallery here.

Bruce Springsteen fans have a lot invested in the Jersey man. They may have had a lot more invested in last night's show at the Verizon Center. Tickets sold out in minutes. Then a company sold tickets they didn't quite have. Anyone who had a ticket was lucky. This was no mere Dad Rock.

And Springsteen doesn't have mere fans. Every other dad wore a faded Boss shirt from an old tour. I've never seen mom jeans rock so hard during the trips to the back catalog. At this point, Springsteen doesn't even have to sing "Born to Run," the audience—even a D.C. audience—did more than a fine job screaming about Jersey desperation, springing from cages out on Highway 9. At least that's what I saw/heard from my nosebleed seat. At this point, the obsessives are the ones willing to wait in lines for tickets, and refresh furiously at the Ticketmaster website. Last night, Springsteen seemed to acknowledge the Backstreet freaks in his midst. On this tour, he's started taking requests. Last night, the Verizon center went epileptic when he picked "Blinded By the Light" despite the song's hilarious backstory.

Can I just set aside my indie rock credentials for a second? That blinded-by-the-light moment was awesome.

OK. That felt good.

Nils admitted that this tour is being judged by the diehards. By the time I got home, the setlist had been posted online. The Springsteen freaks camped on the message boards are now judging without mercy. And they've deemed the D.C. crowd unworthy. This fanboy shit is pretty hilarious.

One commenter, "Bossfan77," wrote that the audience was a 'complete joke," grousing that: "My section, 101 was sitting during Kittys Back , like they had never heard the song before..."

Much chatter, of course, followed:

*"I wouldn't call it embarrassing, but I agree it was strange to see so many people planted in their seats for so much of the show. As sweet as the band was, it was a little weird and off-putting to realize that a lot of people in the audience, maybe more so than normal, didn't know WTF was happening on stage. Section 214 was sitting as well (I was at the top, with the two other people who were not–literally, there may have been five or six people in the whole section standing up for Kitty's), almost every section I could see had a lot of people seated for Kitty's, and it felt like a lot of people didn't know the songs. I chatted with a few people after the show who thought he'd played a lot of covers. I mean, I think people enjoyed themselves regardless, but it was a strange vibe."

*"you can thank the scalpers and ticketmaster. It is pure bullshit that real fans should be shut out of a show in their own backyard because of the way the majority of the DC tickets were distributed. Pure bullshit."

*"Were you the guy yelling at all of us in the metro because no one would sing with you? :-/ sorry
I believe you said 'the recession isn't THAT bad, people!!!'. I laughed."

*"EXACTLY!!! THE FACT THAT IT WAS THE TOUGHEST TICKET IN TOWN TO GET, AND IM SURROUNDED BY A BUNCH OF D-BAGS, THAT DONT EVEN KNOW THE SONGS, BUT PAYED OUT THERE ASS FOR THE TICKETS!!! C'MON!!! LETS GET THIS TICKET SELLING STUFF RIGHT!!!"

There are of course more comments.

Yeah, that's right. Had enough of SXSW coverage and all that damn hipster music? Armed with photo pass and camera and ready and willing to destroy any last vestige of my music-snob credibility, I joined thousands of fans, parents and curious observers for the biggest concert in town last night, Britney Spears and the Pussycat Dolls at the Verizon Center.

Photos of the Pussycat Dolls are in this Flickr gallery; for contractual reasons I have to post the Britney Spears photos right here on the blog, so you'll find a huge number of photos after the jump, as well as some brief thoughts on the little bit of the show that I saw.

Given that listening to a Britney Spears concert is no different than listening to a Britney Spears CD—no music is actually played live as far as I can tell—there is obviously a huge emphasis placed on visuals. This concert was a monstrously over-the-top spectacle, even for the three songs I was allowed to photograph. A 15-minute circus act (acrobats, dancers etc) preceded the show proper, which kicked off with Spears being lowered from the rafters. It only got more ridiculous from there. This was one hell of a well-produced show, with 20 dancers onstage (or in the air) with Spears at all times, all kinds of props, pyro, video interludes, costume changes between every song, a bizarre S&M theme for the first couple songs... the works.

It's arguable whether or not things were ever different, but for several years now (especially since Blackout) Spears has been little more than a delivery mechanism for other people's songs. With her vocals auto-tuned into robotic oblivion, the only thing remaining for her to contribute are her dance moves. At least for what I saw, she was actually upstaged in that department by The Pussycat Dolls, who seemed more energetic, their choreography less dependent on gimmicks and elaborate props. This is kind of amazing considering that they were absolutely awful when I saw them open for Christina Aguilera a couple years ago—yes, I have a bit of history of going to concerts like this.

In fact, I'll quote my review of that show, equally applicable to this one even though I only saw a bit of it:

Overall, this show was something that was definitely worth seeing once, if only for the ridiculous, gaudy spectacle of it all... It was really fascinating to see major-label corporate music in all its “glory” — I’ll always be much more comfortable in a dingy rock club or a tiny jazz club, but seeing what the majority of the country thinks of when they think of “live music” was quite the eye-opener.

(A final aside: one criticism people level at current-day Spears is that she doesn't look like she did 10 years ago, and that's one I vehemently disagree with. Of course she doesn't look like she's 18 anymore. She actually looks like a real person now, fit but not model-skinny, which is surely a healthier example for the mobs of teenage girls attending her shows.)

Click on any of the thumbnails below for a full version. Please do not re-use these photos.