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✔️ = Critic's Pick
✔️ Unknown Hinson w/J.D. Wilkes In January, CL premiered “Wild Bill Jones,” a new song in which J.D. Wilkes taps Squirrel Nut Zippers’ Dr. Sick to help spruce up Fire Dream, which is the brand new album Wilkes — frontman for rockabilly instigators Legendary Shack Shaker — released last week. “He’s the most amazing musician I’ve ever had the privilege of playing with. I don’t even know what his real name is, but that guy is awesome,” Wilkes said. On Friday he gets to be awesome and share Fire — a mix of “bluegrass and hillbilly songs, but also blues, jazz, old time fiddle music, jug band music, even swamp rock” — in the opening slot before Stuart Daniel Baker’s Unknown Hinson project shuts it down proper. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
CL PREMIERE
J.D. Wilkes taps Squirrel Nut Zippers' Dr. Sick for "Wild Bill Jones" from forthcoming solo debut, Fire Dream
✔️ Los Lobos It took a 1987 cover of Ritchie Valens’s “La Bamba” to get Los Lobos on music fans’ radars in a major way, but the East L.A. band had already been impressing hardcore listeners of rock and blues for some time thanks to a unique blend of Tex-Mex, country, jazz, R&B and traditional Mexican folk music. Live sets by the Latino rock icons are the stuff of legend, and you’ll have to pay a pretty penny to see the group in such intimate quarters (The Attic above Rock Brothers is a pristine listening ecosystem, especially when there is no DJ spinning downstairs). It’ll be worth every cent of the $75-$115 ticket charge to experience every ounce of Los Lobos’s 42-year-old discography coming to life at what should be one of the best shows of the year. (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
✔️ AJJ w/Shellshad/John Hays About a dozen years ago, Sean Bonnette emerged as an angry, well-spoken frontman with a band (fka Andrew Jackson Jihad) that seemed more-than-OK about being a folk-y antidote to the pop-punk that was coming out of malls at the time. The Arizona outfit’s lyrical fodder swirled around Bonnette’s existential anxiety about society’s approach toward (and perceptions of) poverty, religion and politics. All told, Andrew Jackson Jihad was actually “woke” before that bullshit-term became a way to describe internet-addicted kids who scream online and then do very little about their rage in real life. An official name change in 2016 (“We are not Muslims, and as such, it is disrespectful and irresponsible for us to use the word jihad in our band’s name,” Bonnette said at the time) did very little to quell the fire inside, and on Friday Bonette and AJJ co-founder Ben Gallaty return to Ybor (where AJJ open for Frank Turner for a 2011 show at Crowbar) in support of a 2017 EP, Back in the Jazz Coffin, which plays more like a collection of B-sides that should’ve been on AJJ’s 2011 Asian Man Records release, Knife Man. (Orpheum, Ybor City) INFO
✔️ Posh Wavy Lox If you’ve ever been at an Acho Brother set and wondered what would happen if Hector Mayoral decided to plug in and get a little funky, then you might want to be at The Independent in St. Petersburg on Friday when the BOTB-winning Puerto Rican songwriter turns in an R&B-flavored set under the Posh Wavy Lox moniker. The best part? He does it all over again on Sunday for the crowd at the Indie’s Tampa location. (Independent Bar, St.Petersburg) INFO
Lassyu w/Dead Cities/Infinite Third The “Artists We Also Like” section of Lassyu’s About page on Facebook is a little all over the place; My Brightest Diamond, The Mars Volta, English composer Jacob Collier, Minutemen, Incubus, Thundercat, Boogarins, Miles Davis and even Active Child all show up. Thankfully the St. Pete trio’s actual sound is a little more dialed in; indie, soul, rock and a sprinkle of psychedelia. Guitarist Emily Turnage will lead her bandmates — drummer Chris Soto and bassist Adam Steadman — through the band’s set at this free show alongside Billy Mays III’s ambient music project Infinite Third and “definitely not shoegaze” four-piece Dead Cities. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
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✔️ JJ Grey and Mofro w/North Mississippi Allstars/Marcus King Band/Bobby Lee Rodgers For a while Bay area fans had to either drive to Jessie’s (Winter Haven) or get into a hyper-intimate solo gig at The Attic (Ybor City) to see JJ Grey. Not anymore. On Friday the North Florida sultan of swamp-rock brings all of Mofro to the Jannus Live courtyard for a headline show whose bill reads more like a roots-rock and blues mini-music festival. The Codetalkers co-founder Bobby Lee Rodgers opens the gig before guitar wunderkind and Warren Haynes protegé Marcus King rips off material from the band’s self-titled, second LP. “[He] is the first player I’ve heard since Derek Trucks to play with the maturity of a musician well beyond his age,” Haynes said of the 21-year-old. Family band the North Mississippi Allstars — led by brothers Luther and Cody Dickinson — rounds out the monster support bill with its own special brand of Magnolia State blues. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg) SOLD OUT
Doo Dah Beasties Does Jason Mraz’s “Lucky” make your innards tingle with joy? Well then, you’ll love Doo Dah Beasties’ “New Year’s Day” in which the New York pop outfit adopts the posi-vibes of that 2008 hit single from Mraz, adds drums and then kazoo with saccharin results. This one should have a little hometown flavor, too, since Bay area music teacher (and Displace saxophonist) Chris Sgammato plays on “New Year’s Day” as well. On Saturday, the band plays St. Pete's Green Bench Brewing Co.(Ella's Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa) INFO
Growler Album Release w/Fast Talkers/The Easy Button Yes, this is happening at Jug & Bottle, but it’s not a growler release for a new beer or kombucha. It is an album release for a Tampa band that calls itself Growler. Get your fill of straight-ahead rock and roll at this one, where Growler will be supported by The Easy Button and Fast Talkers, two more Bay area bands with a penchant for hook-driven, melodic rock. (Jug & Bottle, Tampa) INFO
The Florida Orchestra: Dvorak’s The New World Symphony concerts Composer and Tampa native Michael Ippolito — a Brandon High grad — has composed "Triptych," a major 24-minute work for the Florida Orchestra’s 50th anniversary season. "It’s a fascinating piece that captures the natural beauty of Florida," Kelly Smith, communications head for TFO tells CL. "Cypress swamps as cathedrals, summer thunderstorms conjured up by a spirit, coastal waves." Ippolito said he wanted to consider what makes him Floridian. “Until now, I never thought much about what makes being a Floridian unique, or how to reflect that in my work," he said. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
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ALSO PLAYING
February 19-24, Busch Gardens Real Music Series w/the Temptations' Glenn Leonard/the Platters' Joe Coleman/the Drifters' Joe Blunt (Stanleyville Theatre at Busch Gardens, Tampa) INFO
Jazz
Michael Weiss Trio (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Beat Down Band (Jazz House Supper Club, Tampa) INFO
Pop
Rhye (The Social, Orlando) INFO
Rock
Unamused Dave w/Only Sibling/Paper City/Wandering Girls (Beer & Brownies, Tampa) INFO
Hellcats' Deluxe Sampler (Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
Geri X w/King Complex/Sisemore (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Tattered Saints w/Band of Sorrows/The Brown Goose (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Heavy Hitters w/Psykotribe (State Theatre, St. Petersburg) INFO
Samepage (Smokin’ 19, St. Petersburg) INFO
Row Jomah (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Blast Friday w/The Romantics (Cleveland Street District, Clearwater) INFO
Art Raffle w/Tommy Phenom/Rising Down/Joey Trill (The Attic Café, Tampa) INFO
Tribute/Cover
Unlimited Devotion (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
The 502s (Ka’Tiki, Sunset Beach) INFO
Coo Coo Ca Choo (Buckets Grill & Tap, Tampa) INFO
Pop
Gino Vannelli (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
Americana/Folk
Sugar Lime Blue w/TBA (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
Funk/Blues
Holey Miss Moley (3 Daughters Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
Country
Craig Campbell (Dallas Bull, Tampa) INFO
Chad Prather (Murray Theatre at Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
DJ
Wine on the Radio (Vintage Wine Cellars, Tampa) INFO
Singer-songwriter
J.T Brown (c.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
February 23, Phantasma feat. Maus w/Nemesis (SubCentral at Iberian Rooster, St. Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Feb 22 – Mar 1, 2018.
