A look at several concerts happening this Thurs., April 23.
Roberta Flack Long before Lauryn Hill and the Fugees introduced “Killing Me Softly” to a whole new crop of young hip-hop fans in the mid-’90s, the songstress responsible, Roberta Flack, had a whole bunch of hits and accolades to her credit. The versatile singer/songwriter has dabbled in pop, jazz and R&B and scored an impressive string of successful singles dating back to the early 1970’s. Her gentle, emotive coo earned her a firm spot on various radio format playlists and helped to catapult her to be one of the best selling solo artists in pop history. Her streak continued with a run of duets with late soul crooner Donny Hathaway and several Grammys and gold records along the way. Leaning more towards jazz stylings these days, Flack will once again visit the area to grace a local stage and treat fans to a special night of songs, stories and memories from her impressive forty-year career. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) –Gabe Echazabal
An evening with René Marie The jazz songstress/vocalist from Virginia lands on Palladium’s Side Door stage as she continues playing songs off 2013 Grammy-nominated tribute album, I Wanna Be Evil (With Love to Eartha Kitt), backed up by her longtime band of Quentin Baxter (drums, percs, washboard), pianist Kevin Bales and bassist Elias Bailey. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
Ignition Tampa with Crizzly, Antiserum, LAXX DJ/producer Chris Marshall aka Crizzly works in bass-bumpin’ dubstep, trap, bounce and crunk-stepping hip hop realms, has a tongue-in-cheeky sense of humor, and his material encompasses remixes like “Lost Woods” from Zelda (the video game, yo) and A$ap Rocky’s “Fuckin’ Problems” along with his own weird fun jams — “Bust It Wide Open (RETWERK),” “Ass & Tittiez,” et al. For this Ignition Tampa experience, Crizzly is joined by two other bass music makers, Antiserum, he of the whirring synths and dark-themed sonicscapes ala Karate EP with Mayhem, while LAXX gets more twitchy in his own lowend ass-dropping mixes. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Flyleaf with The Agonist, Fit For Rivals & others All the bands featured on Revolver Magazine’s “Hottest Chicks in Hard Rock Tour” have a feminine element. Flyleaf leads the fray with emo-metal powered by the sweetly scalding vocals of frontwoman Kristen May, who took the place of founding frontwoman Lacey Sturm in 2012 and enjoyed her Flyleaf recording debut on last year’s PledgeMusic-funded fourth LP, Between the Stars. The leading lady in Montreal-born The Agonist, Vicky Psarakis, intersperses her clear sinister intones with deeper gut-wrenching bellows that seethe and rage over fast, technical, hair-thrashing melodic death metal, while Jacksonville’s Fit for Rivals finds vocalist Renee Phoenix sneering and howling angst over hard and heavy alt rock sounds. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
ALSO TONIGHT
Sonic Unrest III: Electröchürn Barnness Recital Hall at USF, Tampa
7 Below: A Tribute to Phish Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
Honeymoon Suite with The Greg Billings Band Largo Cultural Center, Largo
Singer-Songwriters Night at the Bunker with Joe Milligan Project, Danielle Starz, Ben Jarrell Tre Amici at the Bunker, Ybor City
This article appears in Apr 23-29, 2015.