A breakdown of live music occurring in the Bay area this Thursday through Sunday, with featured highlights at the top and the rest of the week’s schedule at the bottom. For a complete list of concerts, click here to visit our Upcoming Concerts page.
Thursday, February 10
[pictured right] Mentored by Master P and Lil Wayne, rapper Curren$y (real name Shante Anthony Franklin) is the latest hot-as-shit hip hop artist to come out of New Orleans – beloved of critics, creeping higher and higher on the Billboard charts, and boasting a boatload of mixtapes under his belt along with several LPs. Curren$y released two back-to-back albums in 2010; his third, Pilot Talk, in July, and his fourth, Pilot Talk II, in November, both produced by Ski Beatz. 7 p.m. doors, Jannus Live, St. Petersburg, $15.
Paul Baribeau w/John Gold Midwestern indie folk troubadour Paul Baribeau has an emo-burnished wail, an insistent way of strumming his acoustic guitar, and heart-tugging lyrics like “To say that you are cute / would be like saying a strawberry is sweet / because a strawberry has secret flavors / which are sharp and tart and red and deep.” 8 p.m., Transitions Art Gallery @ Skatepark of Tampa, Tampa, $7 (all ages).
Blueprint w/Will Evans Jr./The Heart & Brain Blueprint has worked on various collaborative hip hop projects, including Soul Position with producer musician RJD2, and is now on the road promoting his impending sophomore effort, Adventures in Counter Culture. The Ohio-based rapper and Rhymesayers recording artist offers a taste of what he does in the album’s first single, “Radio-Inactive”: “Man I’m an artist, these other dudes shook / I write my album on my sidekick, no paper, no notebooks / Then rhyme for five minutes straight with no breaks and no hooks / No punch-lines, no similes, so I'm easy to overlook.” His slow and measured rhymes are flavored with a healthy dose of cynicism about society, politics, pop culture and the state of hip hop, and his sample-free beat-driven production incorporates elements of rock and electronic music into an appealingly stripped-down sound. Adventures in Counter Culture drops April 5. 9 p.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $8.
Robert Randolph & The Family Band [pictured left] w/The Constellations Robert Randolph is the soulful authority of lap steel guitar who was raised on the traditions of gospel and sacred steel, weaned on Stevie Ray Vaughan and Sly and the Family Stone, and had been playing with his funk-blues-soul Family Band since 2001. Randolph collabed with songwriters like T-Bone Burnett and Peter Case for his band’s third studio album, We Walk This Road, which combines original material with covers of songs by Bob Dylan (“Shot of Love”), Prince (“Walk Don’t Walk”) and John Lennon ("I Don't Wanna Be a Soldier Mama"). Atlanta’s gettotech-meets-psych rock groove makers The Constellations open. 7 p.m. doors, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $22.
Indigo Girls w/A Fragile Tomorrow The folk-infused femme-fronted duo founded more than two decades ago by childhood friends Amy Ray and Emily Saliers released a double-disc live album last year, Staring Down a Brilliant Dream, that features live material hand-picked by the Indigo Girls from concerts between 2006 and 2009. “The live show for us is a whole different animal from being in the studio,” Ray said in an interview with CL in September. “Live shows are the essence of who we are. We love that interaction with fans and the audience, and creating a community.” 8 p.m. doors, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $28.
This article appears in Feb 3-9, 2011.