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Idina Menzel Remember when Taylor Swift brought Idina Menzel onstage at Raymond James Stadium two Halloweens ago? We can’t forget it either, and we’re seriously considering booking it over to Clearwater for a headlining show from Menzel who arrives a few days before her 46th birthday and in support of her fifth solo LP (idina., released last year). The Tony Award-winning actress and singer is known for her work on Broadway (Rent, Wicked) as well as voice work on the silver screen (Frozen), so you can expect a wide swath of faces to be in the house humming along at this one. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
Vacuous Depths w/Grave Ascension/Spit Yep, this show originally had Virgina metal outfit Prisoner on it, but sometimes people get sick. So thoughts go out to drummer Joel Hansen, whose mom is in hospice care right now, and shouts to the Bay area bands making sure the show goes on. (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Real Friends w/Have Mercy/Tiny Moving Parts/more Have Mercy principal Brian Swindle has not had an easy go at making his band work (lineup changes, poor management plus personal calamities), and he didn’t pull any punches on a recent interview with CL contributor Brian Roesler, where Swindle shed light on the process behind a new LP for the Maryland rock outfit (Make The Best Of It, released in the spring). Read that interview via cltampa.com/music and then see Swindle & co. in action when they open for Real Friends, an Illinois pop punk five-piece showing off a 2016 album, The Home Inside My Head, where frontman Dan Lambton leads the band through a 38-minute effort that finds Real Friends powering through a tough studio session (“honestly the hardest thing we have ever done," the band wrote on social media) on the way to making a wholly personal and powerful follow up to its 2014 debut, Maybe This Place Is the Same and We're Just Changing. (Orpheum, Ybor City) INFO
Jim Chambers Music Box Presents: Chatterbox w/Real Friends Jim Chambers keeps on pouring his effort out for the kids enrolled at his Carrollwood music academy, and it’s evident in this private performance plus Q&A with Real Friends (playing Orpheum later that evening, see above). All of it is aimed to give chitlin’ a candid look into the not-always glamorous rock star lifestyle. Kudos, James. (Jim Chambers Music Box, Tampa) INFO
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Career & Mike Mass One of CL’s 20 summer concerts under $20 comes to life as two of Tampa’s most-talked about music makers — post-punk noise makers Career and Bronx-born emcee Mike Mass — play a head-scratchingly intimate and eclectic show at Seminole Heights record shop Microgroove where shop owner Keith Ulrey has already gotten ahead of the demand by making it very clear that there will be limited entry due to capacity issues. Early arrival is suggested, and you better not block the gate at Olsen’s VW, ya bish. See more inexpensive concerts and listen to music from Career and Mike Mass via cltampa.com/music (Microgroove, Tampa) INFO
DJ Lobo The tastemaking, Roc Nation affiliated DJ Lobo comes to SoHo for a night where fans will pack into Drynk to get a taste of the mixes the made Lobo infamous on the airwaves of New York City’s WSKQ La Mega 97.9 FM many years ago. (Drynk, Tampa) INFO
Selwyn Birchwood A week after releasing a new LP at Skipper’s Smokehouse, Bay area bluesman plays a hyper-intimate set at this St. Pete beer haven where fans can expect Birchwood to deviate from the originals he has to play at festivals and club gigs around the world. “We rarely do cover songs when we have festival shows,” he told CL in a recent email interview, “but will sometimes do versions of some of my favorite songs by other artists at these shows.” (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Jamey Johnson Country music really isn’t fair. Just look at Jamey Johnson. The 11-time Grammy nominated songwriter — who's penned tunes for Trace Adkins, George Strait and more — is playing the pretty Mahaffey Theater on Thursday, but he should be packing gigantic sheds like the Keith Urbans and Luke Bryans of the country music world. Your loss if you don’t show up though, as Johnson, 41, got co-signs from the likes of Willie Nelson, Vince Gill, Merle Haggard and Leon Russell who all joined the Alabama boy on a 2014 Hank Cochran tribute album, Living for a Song. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
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ALSO PLAYING
WLCM2KNXVLL w/DJ Knox (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
Jazz In The Attic w/Betty Fox Band (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
Sister Hazel (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
Jess Goggans Band (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Buffalo’s Wake w/Bath Salt Zombies (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
This article appears in May 25 – Jun 1, 2017.