Official Lana Del Rey Listening Party at Mel’s Diner (SF)

Submitted by the Event Organizer

On Monday (March 27), Mel’s Drive-In, the quintessential retro restaurant chain started in San Francisco over 75 years ago, will be hosting a listening party for pop star Lana Del Rey’s latest album, “Did You Know That There’s a Tunnel Under Ocean Blvd.”

Mel’s is an apt setting to take in Dey Rey’s music. Both the singer and the burger chain aim to evoke a nostalgic 1950s vibe: Del Rey with her Americana aesthetic, Mel’s with its neon signs and fountain sodas. Del Rey’s music is available on the jukeboxes at Mel’s and it’s become a TikTok trend to grab a milkshake at the diner while listening to Lana.

Mel’s is capitalizing on the publicity, hosting the listening party and naming a milkshake after “The Grants,” a song off Del Rey’s latest album. At the party, fans will have a chance to snag Lana merchandise and free giveaways. Admission is free, Mel’s just asks that patrons try their new Del Rey-themed shake, a Nutella and banana concoction. The party is scheduled for 7-9 pm at the Mel’s on 3355 Geary Boulevard in San Franciso’s Laurel Heights neighborhood.

Early reviews for “Ocean Blvd” praise Del Rey’s ability to still convey raw sensitivity even after global success. As Pitchfork’s Olivia Horn writes, “It’s Lana, a self-made emblem of vulnerable womanhood—in her own words, ‘a modern-day woman with a weak constitution’—at her most genuinely unguarded.”

Del Rey has a chronicled, if complicated, history with the city of San Francisco. In 2020, she published “LA Who Am I to Love You?” a searing poem about moving to San Francisco. The poem tracks the main character (is it Del Rey herself? Who’s to say) who moves to San Francisco on a “free ride off a billionaire’s jet,” but it doesn’t work out how she’d want.

I left my city for San Francisco
And I’m writing from the Golden Gate Bridge
But it’s not going as I planned
I took a free ride off a billionaire and brought my typewriter

Whether she likes it or not, the “Summertime Sadness” singer will have another chance to “write from the Golden Gate Bridge” later this year. Along with the likes of Kendrick Lamar, the Foo Fighters and Megan Thee Stallion, Lana Del Rey is set to perform at Outside Lands this coming August.

h/t SFGate

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