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✔️ = Critic's Pick
✔️ WLCM2KNXVLL 2-year anniversary w/DJ Knox/Cano J Bond/Noo$e/Otown Marco/Tony Handz Two years later and Left Lane Entertainment’s St. Petersburg WLCM2KNXVLL party is still going strong. To celebrate, King Knoxygen has put together one hell of a hip-hop lineup: Cano J Bond, Noo$e, Otown Marco, and Tony Handz will take turns on the microphone while turntables get directed by DJ Ragoza. Sebastian Coolidge paints live, and The Bends will naturally offer drink specials and all that good stuff. No cover, per usual, which means you don’t have to wait for that midnight direct deposit to start the party. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO —Arielle Stevenson
Florida Orchestra Coffee Concert: The Golden Age The Florida Orchestra’s 50th season is coming to a close — but first, coffee and doughnuts. Under the direction of Stuart Malina, the TFO will presents pieces by John Williams (“The Raiders March,” from Raiders of the Lost Ark), Antonio Vivaldi (“Goldfinch” flute concerto) and more. Show is at 11 a.m., and early risers can arrive as soon as 10 a.m. for pre-concert conversation. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ The Florida Orchestra Presents 50! Is there a better way to put a cap on TFO’s 50th season than with some booze? The same music from the St. Pete’s morning program (“Raiders March,” “Goldfinch” concerto) gets a reprise for this happy hour concert in Tampa where a $35 cover gets you complimentary Tito’s and Cigar City plus a show. (Ferguson Hall at David A. Straz Center For Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
GET LOST
Fall into A Maze In A Wave when you buy Sleeping Pills' new LP on Record Store Day
✔️ The Soft Moon w/Boy Harsher/Sleeping Pills The Soft Moon brings darkwave and industrial to Ybor’s Crowbar. The Oakland outfit’s Luis Vasquez fills roles as main producer, singer, songwriter and instrumentalist, and Criminal (The Soft Moon’s fourth studio album) focuses on Vasquez’s violent childhood in the Mojave Desert. Confessional, studied and packed with all the feels, this is definitely one of those shows you don’t want to miss. Savannah-founded duo Boy Harsher (formerly Teen Dreamz) performs dark but insatiably danceable electronic marked by minimal beats and creepy but breathy vocals, which blend together to create one hell of a show. Get there early to see Boy Harsher’s Augustus Muller develop the rhythm while Jae Matthews gets feral and wild on vocals for the band’s opening set. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO —AS
✔️ Eli Arbor w/Jinx/Mowglii Lector, a downtown Tampa literary natural wine hub and social club, is hosting Eli Arbor as its artist-in-residence, and while you’ll have to wait until May 8 to see Rochester native Elliot Williams at the actual Lector space, it’ll be nice to see him in Seminole Heights rocking alongside two CL favorites, Jinx and Mowglii. Arbor’s 2016 double album, IDols, is a schizophrenic effort where the first half tips its hat to the abrasiveness of Arbor’s childhood and affinity for hardcore while the back end embraces the geekier side of his persona (it’s inspired by Donald Glover and features samples from interviews that Glover — aka Childish Gambino — has done over the years). It’s a free show, but that doesn’t necessarily mean that Arbor — who was practicing a straightedge no-drugs-or-drinking lifestyle when IDols was released — wants you to buy him a drink. (Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Wes Williams (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
The Black Jacket Symphony: Celebrating the 50th Anniversary of The Beatles’ Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
Noche Caliente! A Night of Classic Spanish Guitar w/Hector Mayoral (c. 1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
22N (Ringside Cafe, St. Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Apr 26 – May 3, 2018.