✔️ King Britt w/Mystic Bill/Austen van der Bleek/Boomerang/Infinite Third/Karl Jams A pair of northerners are getting out of the cold for this warehouse party where Strictly Rhythm Records founder King Britt (a disciple of Philly’s Silk City and Revival club nights) headlines an evening of house music that also includes a set by Mystic Bill, who cut his teeth in the Windy City before deciding to make Miami his home base again. Bill released era-defining music on Chicago’s Wax Trax Records, so expect quite a few house-music diehards to coalesce at this Fifth Avenue warehouse show. (The Movement Sanctuary, St. Petersburg) INFO
Rebekah Pulley w/Zack Biss One of Tampa Bay’s longest-running folk music merrymakers, Rebekah Pulley, and Applebutter Express’s Kyle Biss make up an afternoon bill of easygoing Florida folk for those who don’t need to rage in the days approaching the Christmas holiday. (Punky’s Bar and Grill, St. Petersburg) INFO
MORE MAX
Max Norton teams up with producer Mindy Watts, gives us a peek at new solo material
✔️ Brokenmold Entertainment Annual Holiday Charity Event w/Tribal Style/Max Norton/Infinite Eights/Navin. Ave/Mes McDonald/DJ Silence One of Tampa Bay’s original reggae bands, Tribal Style, appears to be skipping its annual Christmas trip back to Jamaica, so the outfit (built around brothers TK, Mugabe and Muti Tenn) is giving back to its adopted hometown by topping the agenda on a bill that includes hometown boy gone Nashville Max Norton, hard-working young indie-pop guys The Infinite Eights, hyper-posi rapper Mighty Jai and the Shae Krispinsky-led Americana band Navin Ave. Proceeds from the show — which also includes sets from DJs Mes McDonald and Silence — go towards Feeding Tampa Bay, which is essentially a food bank also provides food for shelters, residential group homes, and the Kids Cafe after-school programs. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
It’s A Wrap Face Melt Toy Drive w/VM The Poet/Nuluminati/Megan Oh/Chef Lof/Kai Kem/more Bay area hip-hop collective Face Melt is making sure that Largo has its fair share of rap and wrapping as it hosts a showcase at the Boom Boom Room, where a dozen artists will collect new toys and books for kids and teens battling illnesses at Johns Hopkins All Children’s Hospital. Each donation will earn concertgoers a raffle ticket to win Face Melt gear, and the collective is encouraging attendees to also visit hopkinsallchildren.com to see what other donations the organization needs. (Boom Boom Room, Largo) INFO
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A Q&A with Butch Trucks, who keeps on chugging along with his Freight Train Band
✔️ Damon Fowler Group (Evening Show) w/Ronny Elliott (Matinee) The Ale & The Witch crew is set to go on Christmas break, but not before welcoming one of Tampa Bay’s brightest and consistently great bluesmen, Damon Fowler, to help send the beer bar’s staff and customers off in style. The holidays were pretty rough for him last year (in January of 2017, Fowler — who was playing guitar for Butch Trucks — had to say goodbye to the Allman Brothers timekeeper when Trucks committed suicide), so we hope that he can find a little light to share with fans at this evening show. Tampa’s own folk-song poet laureate Ronny Elliott plays the matinee if you can’t be out after the sun goes down. (The Ale & The Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Chris Barrows Band w/Car Bomb Driver/Kevin K You might not celebrate Christmas, but you’d have to be one hell of a curmudgeon not to recognize the importance of Chris Barrows. The charismatic frontman has been a leader in the Bay area punk scene since he co-founded the Pink Lincolns in 1986, and he’s kept on going with other projects like The Jackie Papers, The Spears and his own solo work. Old-school New York punk Kevin K joins Barrows and long-running local Car Bomb Driver at this no-cover show. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Hummingbirds Safety Harbor’s not-so-little brewery celebrates the holidays by tapping The Hummingbirds (who recently opened for Americana godfather Jay Farrar and his band Son Volt at St. Pete’s Et Cultura Festival) to provide sounds for a holiday party that looks like a cheese-lover’s dream thanks to the Mr. C’s Grilled Cheese food truck and charcuterie specialists The Traveling Cheeseboard. (Crooked Thumb Brewery, Safety Harbor) INFO
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Interview: J.T. Brown's new LP finds fresh meaning in old wounds
✔️ J.T. Brown EP Release Show w/Millenium Youth You may have skipped over our print preview of this EP release show from former Groves frontman J.T. Brown (it’s on p.4, friend), and we hope that the New Year finds you making a habit of flipping through the front of our weekly newspaper after you so graciously scoop it out of a newsstand each and every Thursday. (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
Slade & The Wasters w/Mosquito Teeth/Porno Party Political correctness pretty much goes out the door when St. Pete punk band Mosquito Teeth arrives on the bill (“Two Jews a Rican and a Mic,” reads the band bio), and anyone who walks through the threshold at Fubar on Saturday can expect a nice holiday thrashing when the skeeters join hardcore band Slade & the Wasters and another St. Pete trio, Porno Party, for this no-frills rager at Fubar. (Fubar Downtown, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Kasondra Rose On p. 31 we detail the efforts Steve Prevatt and his intrepid crew of young music-lovers have put towards re-launching and re-branding Ybor area bar The Blue Note, and this show finds jazzy St. Pete songwriter Kasondra Rose filling the small room with one of the more powerful vocals in Tampa Bay. (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
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Something Blue: Tampa's Blue Note Bar is a new haven for songwriters
Youngboy Never Broke Again It’s been just about a month to the day since Kentrell DeSean Gaulden opened for 21 Savage at The Ritz in Ybor City, but the 18-year-old Louisiana rapper better known as Youngboy Never Broke Again is swinging his fast-rising profile back through the area with this Carrollwood nightclub appearance that’ll hopefully serve as a pseudo-launch party for a forthcoming fourth solo mixtape — Ahlan — which Gaulden is supposed to release on December 24. Regular readers of Music Week know that expectations for a traditional set of music tend to go out the door for these smaller hip-hop shows at tiny clubs, but Mr. Never Broke Again seems to be one of the hungrier rappers stalking the saturated scene these days. (Whiskey North, Tampa) INFO
BEST OF THE BAY 2017
Stove.
✔️ The Nervous Girls w/Stove./Flux Hymns It’s wonder that Permanent Makeup’s Chris Nadeau has enough energy for all of the outfits he’s in, and we think it’s fitting that Flux Hymn describes itself as a band suitable for fans for “Fugazi and all of Chris’ other bands.” The rest of this lineup is a little louder than what you’ll usually get at Seminole Height’s Mermaid Tavern, but punk trio The Nervous Girls and uke-folk rock band Stove. are two of CL’s favorite new finds of 2017, which makes this no-cover show kind of a no-brainer if you’re into that sort of thing. (Mermaid Tavern, Tampa) INFO
Amp’d Saturdays Ritzmas Edition w/Christian Alexander/Lizzy Jane/Intoxic/Heist Amphitheatre’s Saturday-night takeover of The Ritz celebrates one of the last club nights before Christmas by tapping its stable of local residents to provide all the untz, untz, untz that the venue’s most loyal followers may need to get them through the short holiday break. (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Greg Billings Band Christmas Party w/The Stone City (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Holidazed w/Jason Kiger/Rich Ranck (SubCentral At The Iberian Rooster, St. Petersburg) INFO
Trailside Phantoms/Skully (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Uncle John’s Band (Grateful Fed Pub, St. Petersburg) INFO
Josh Carroll (early) #NoFilter (late) (Ferg’s Live, Tampa) INFO
Mark Barrios (Buckets Tavern & Tap, Tampa) INFO
Danielle Mohr (c.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Dumb Blind Luck and the John Clark Band (Beer & Brownies, Tampa) INFO
Ike Stubblefield & Friends w/Skallop (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
This article appears in Dec 21-28, 2017.