California’s AFI have evolved much over the past 19 years, from the unstructured and manic numbers of Very Proud Of Ya to the experimental pop song craft of Decemberunderground, their most commercially-successful effort to date. AFI is currently celebrating the release of their eighth album, the Joe McGrath and Jacknife Lee-produced Crash Love. Leader Davey Havok still wails amid a sea of electric guitars, but the band’s dropped the electro tones of “Love Like Winter” in favor of robust, percussive-melodic alt-rock like the hypnotizing “Beautiful Thieves.” The Loved Ones and Scarlet Grey open. 6:30 p.m. Tues., March 16, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $30.50, ritzybor.com. —Matthew Spencer
This article appears in Mar 3-9, 2010.