South Jersey Venue The Landis Theater to Reopen with AC/DC, Van Halen Tribute Acts, More, This Weekend

Live music has taken a hit in 2020, but there are signs of life on the horizon as the Landis Theater in Vineland is celebrating its reopening this Saturday (Dec. 5) with a tribute to the number one band on the charts-AC/DC.

The theater will launch the “Kaycee Ray’s Tribute Band Concert Series” with a full lineup of tribute acts, including this Saturday’s AC/DC tribute with Back in Black and a special holiday themed concert on Dec. 18 featuring the Van Halen tribute band, Romeo Delight, with a food drive collecting non-perishable food items for the Community FoodBank of NJ – Southern Branch.

According to venue owner Ray Mamrak, the venue is hoping to spread “Christmas joy with amazing tribute concerts and kick off the holiday season and roll into next year with a bunch of great concerts and shows and rise from the ashes” of the pandemic. The Landis–a venue in South Jersey that was set to host shows by Poison singer Bret Michaels and Alice Cooper-has been shut down for 11 months, he said.

“Live music has to come back,” he said. “We have been dormant for almost a year now. We have suffered greatly as most venues like ours have, and we are doing everything we can to dig our way out of this.”

The venue is keeping capacity capped at 150 persons inside, he said, with other stringent safety and social distancing measures in place.

“We have sprayers of disinfectant for the seats, all the seats have been measured at a six foot distance and we are going to work it much like a restaurant when you come in,” he said.

This will include temperature checks at the door, a series of questions about symptoms, ticket takers gloved and masked, tested and quarantined, with seats roped off and security keeping guests from dancing in the aisles. New hand dryers with UV lights have also been installed, he said.

“We are taking every measure possible and going a little bit further, because safety is our main concern, ” he said.

The Van Halen show is shaping up to to be a special night with a tribute to the late Eddie Van Halen in the works.

“The band is going to be doing a ‘Very Van Halen Christmas,’ adding in some Christmas music as well,” he said. “It will be an amazing tribute to one of the greatest guitar players that ever graced our planet.”

The Landis Theater is located at 830 E Landis Ave., Vineland. For information, click HERE.

Here is the lineup:

12/5: Back in Black – AC/DC

12/11: Jingo – Santana

12/12: Soft Parade – Doors

12/18: Romeo Delight – Van Halen**

12/19: Dancing Dream – ABBA

1/22: Double Vision – Foreigner

1/29: Starman – David Bowie