✔️ = Critic's Pick
✔️ Ol’ Dirty Sundays w/DJ Diamond D./Crazy DJ Bazarro/Rok One The courtyard at Crowbar turns into a scene out of an old, New York City-based hip-hop movie when DJ Diamond D (who ran with collectives like Diggin’ In The Crates Crew, Zulu Nation, Ultimate Force) brings a shitload of 45s to his Ol’ Dirty Sunday set after another Big Apple heavyweight (Crazy DJ Bazarro) does his own performance. Roland Kutner — a lanky, underground ‘90s rapper better known as Rok One — somehow made it onto this already stacked lineup, too, and if he breaks out both sides of his Certified Superior/90 Degrees A Piece 7-inch, then the crowd is going to collectively lose its shit. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
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✔️ Steve Earle and the Dukes w/The Mastersons After an Irma-related postponement, we can all finally enjoy a show that’ll make Hannity-worshipping fuckboys suffer a Tucker-Carlson-talking-about-BLM level aneurysm. It’s all thanks to Grammy-winning songwriter Steve Earle, who is bringing his very country new LP, So You Wanna Be an Outlaw, to Clearwater, where a little of the twang from his ‘99 album (The Mountain) hopefully gets mixed in with a smidge of the grit he brought to Guy Clark’s Old No. 1 and the anti-Nashville sound he helped start to usher in on a 1986 debut, Guitar Town. Earle is quasi-infamous for suffering through drug addiction that nearly killed him in the mid-’90s, but lately he’s been ruffling feathers on account of his very abrasive approach to talking about a certain, very “fascist,” orange individual occupying the White House these days. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) SOLD OUT
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Update: Trans-Siberian Orchestra leader Paul O'Neill died of prescription drug overdose
Trans-Siberian Orchestra Bittersweet is the only way to describe the arrival of this year’s Trans-Siberian Orchestra prog-rock spectacle, since the show is the tour’s first holiday outing since TSO founder and leader Paul O’Neill was found dead in a Tampa area hotel room where his family says he had an “unexpected reaction” to prescription medication for his various ailments (a late May autopsy report from the county medical examiner says “intoxication from a mixture of methadone, codeine, Valium and an antihistamine” killed O’Neill). Expect fans to embrace his giving spirit — O’Neill donated millions from ticket sales, and sometimes the clothes off his back, to the less fortunate — at the show. (Amalie Arena, Tampa) INFO
Permanent Makeup w/Blotchouts/Ugh A new D.I.Y. spot kicks off its life by welcoming No Wave Oakland bummer-punk band Blotchouts to play some of the music it’s released on Miami underground label Crass Lips Records. Sarasota trio Ugh brings its melancholy folk songs to the party, and local favorite Permanent Makeup rounds out the bill. (Paradiso, St. Petersburg) ASK SOMEBODY ABOUT IT
ALSO PLAYING
Blues
Billy Seward (Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, Tampa) INFO
Good Sunday Revue w/Betty Fox (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Randy McAllister (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Bluegrass/Americana
Sunday School for Sinner w/Trail Dogs Bluegrass (Independent Bar and Cafe, Tampa) INFO
Rock
The Number Twelve Looks Like You (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Ghost Riot Radio Live Podcast w/Kerry Courtney (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
Misc.
Official After Party for Hillsborough River Boat Parade (c.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Tribute/Cover
Elvis Christmas w/Dwight Icenhower (Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo) INFO
Classical/Chorale/Jazz
Singing the Season w/Tampa Oratorio Singers (Palma Ceia Presbyterian Church, Tampa) INFO
Florida Orchestra Pops Series: Holiday Pops (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
This article appears in Dec 14-21, 2017.