It may be the dead of winter (which, here in Florida, just means a brief respite from triple-digit heat indexes) but at this weekend's Aegon Wing Fest, we're gonna party like it's summertime, anyway. More than a dozen wing joints — including Hooters, Wing Zone, Mugs Grill & Bar, Ferg’s Sports Bar & Grill and Sloppy Pelican — serve up saucy, spicy, messy goodness (along with a wing eating contest), the Bud Light beergarten is in on the action, and classic rock cover bands like The Go Daddies, Big Deal! and The Defendants take the stage to relive the good ol' (pre-Autotune) days of music. Visit wingandrockfest.com for more info. Sat., Jan. 16, 11 a.m.-7 p.m., Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg, free.
Last year, The Florida Orchestra dipped its toe in the classic rock waters with a tribute to Pink Floyd. As an encore, TFO plans to show a whole lotta love to ’70s hard rock titans Led Zeppelin by mixing the full orchestra with rock-concert spectacle on the Ruth Eckerd Hall stage. As led by guest conductor Brent Havens, the orchestra and vocalist Randy Jackson (no, not the RJ from Idol) will (tastefully, of course) tear through a selection of Zep classics including “Kashmir,” “Ramble On” and more. With the surviving members of Zep all well past 60, this feels like an appropriate milieu for the music. The Music of Led Zeppelin – A Rock Symphony, Sat, Jan. 16, 8 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 N. McMullen Booth Road, Clearwater, $55, $75 and $95, floridaorchestra.com. — Joe Bardi
This article appears in Jan 6-12, 2010.