The Red Hot Chili Peppers shows at Jannus Landing in the '80s were some of the most intense and visceral to ever take place in this market. This was before the band achieved major stardom and moved on to bigger venues. Since their early '90s breakout with Blood Sugar Sex Magik, the band has dropped a CD every six or seven years that blows up and reminds everyone that they still matter. Last year's double CD Stadium Arcadium was the fastest selling of the group's career. The Chili Peppers' blend of funk, rap, bruising metal and (often ill-advised) balladry survived the '80s hair-band era and was grandfathered in by the alt-rock revolution. They'll be joined by Gnarls Barkley, the breakout act of 2006, a collaboration between singer/rapper Cee-Lo Green and DJ/producer Danger Mouse. The group's single, "Crazy," hit the improbable trifecta: major sales and airplay, critical adoration and a Grammy nomination for Record of the Year.
Red Hot Chili Peppers w/Gnarls Barkley, 7:30 p.m. Sun., Jan. 28, St. Pete Times Forum. $58.25. —Eric Snider
Metal Mammoths
The Atlanta quartet Mastodon has been hailed as the future of metal. Their fusion of the hard (sometimes Southern) rock and progressive genres has definitely put them in a league of their own. Mastodon's 2004 release, Leviathan (a musical adaptation of the Moby Dick tale), pushed the band into the mainstream and landed them on Best Album and Best New Artist lists worldwide (even though their first EP, Lifesblood, dropped in '01). Blood Mountain, the group's 2006 full-length (and their second for Warner Bros.), definitely strains the esoteric and progressive edges of their sound, but still provides enough volume, groove and grit to satisfy. Question: Is it me, or are the first two bars of the "Pendulous Skin" guitar solo lifted straight out of Zappa's "Watermelon in Easter Hay?" Also on the bill are Converge (screamy, Unsane-ish post-rock) and Priestess (Wolfmother-ish, NYC/Detroit style rock by way of Montreal).
Mastodon w/Converge/Priestess, 8 p.m. Sun. Jan. 28, @ Jannus Landing. $16. —Joran Slane Oppelt
Cagey Music
Underground rapper Cage's lyrics deal with typical themes of misogynistic violence and fearless drug abuse, but he's generally speaking from his own tortured past rather than glorifying a reality that never existed. Cage has dealt with a heroin-addicted and now estranged father, an abusive stepfather, personal battles with drugs and the law that landed him in the Stony Lodge Psychiatric Hospital for a year, during which he served as a guinea pig for early tests of Prozac. (This last point would appear to be a bit of bio bullshit: Cage, real name Christopher Palko, was reportedly in the psych ward in the early '90s; Prozac came on the market in 1988.) Despite his personal obstacles, Cage has managed to channel all his rage and regret into a rough, no-nonsense indie rap career. He'll be joined by a slew of likeminded acts.
Cage w/Yak Ballz/Slow Suicide Stimulus/DJ KrazyGlue, 9 p.m. Sat., Jan. 27, @ Crowbar (1812 N. 17th St., Ybor City). $9, 18-and-up. —Tristan Wheelock
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2007.