✔️ Soul Party: Alex Harris and Siobhan Monique By themselves, Alex Harris and Siobhan Monique are two of the Bay area’s most powerful and charismatic soul singers. No telling if Harris’s guitar-based classic soul sound will end up mixing into Monique’s jazzy, versatile approach at Hough Hall, but we’d be willing to pay the price of admission to find out. (Hough Hall at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Joell Ortiz w/Mike Mass New venues are always popping up around the Bay area, and this one in Tampa just off the corner of Busch Boulevard and Florida Avenue is getting ready to hand the “Microphone” over to Mr. “Psychopath Killer” himself, as Joell Ortiz (a member of hip-hop supergroup Slaughterhouse with Joe Budden and Royce da 5’9”) makes an appearance alongside one of Tampa’s best rhyme-writers, Mike Mass. (Celebrity’s Lounge, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Rehasher w/The Antidon’ts/Weak Knees Watching bassist Roger Lima bounce around onstage is one of the best parts of going to a Less Than Jake show, and it should be just as fun watching the 44-year-old switch to guitar and play frontman when his own pop-punk band Rehasher headlines a show at St. Pete tattoo shop Lucky You. The band released a chipper 8-track album last year (Dream Gig), but expect fans to clamor for the melodies Lima & Co. put together on a 2004 genre classic, Off-Key Melodies, at this sure-to-be-packed show. Emo guys Weak Knees open the show alongside skate-punk trio The Antidon’ts. Not a free show, but it is all-ages. (Lucky You Tattoo, St. Petersburg) INFO
NICE PAJAMAS
Interview: How Mouse Fire's Shane Schuch brings tireless energy to new project, Pajamas
✔️ Echo Bridge art show w/Blonde Tongues/Small Reactions/Pajamas Echo Bridge — a St. Petersburg animation studio whose work has appeared on Adult Swim, HBO, Netflix, Comedy Central and Fox — stages an art show and gets a musical soundtrack care of Georgia nerve-poppers Small Reactions, Euro-rock and roll revivalists Blonde Tongues and St. Pete composer Shane Schuch, who performs hyphy-electro-pop under the Pajamas moniker. It’s another free show at The Bends, and one of the more eclectic ones on the the Friday night slate, so make plans to stop in and possibly stay the night. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Classical WSMR presents The Florida Orchestra featuring Jahja Ling Classical radio station WSMR and the Florida Orchestra tap an old friend (former musical director Jahja Ling) to conduct this benefit show, which is detailed here. (David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Whitney James and Synia Carroll w/La Lucha Best of the Bay-winning jazz ensemble La Lucha plays backup as singers Whitney James and Synia Carroll team up for the first time ever to perform both original duets and jazz standards. Carroll has a mid-century sound reminiscent of Billie and Ella, and James is a more modern, emotive jazz singer, so it’ll be interesting to see how the styles intermingle at this one. (American Stage Summer Camp, St. Petersburg) INFO
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Year In Review: The ones we lost
Free Fallin’ Tom Petty Tribute w/Swingtown/Chocolate Swamp A free show where you’re guaranteed to hear “Free Fallin’.” Get there early enough and you can see Swingtown pay tribute to Steve Miller, too. Try not to shed any tears in your beers, and spend a few minutes before the show re-visiting cltampa.com/music’s recent tribute to Florida musicians gone too soon. (Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo) INFO
Nirvanna w/Mark, Tom & Travis Show So the extra “n” must make it okay for this Nirvana tribute act to use its moniker on flyers, huh? Nevertheless, this is a free show that also includes Blink-182 tribute act The Mark, Tom & Travis Show, so you won’t really be losing any money by popping into Jannus in the midst of your First Friday stumble through First Block. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg) POSTPONED
ALSO PLAYING
Will Quinlan (The Brass Tap, Ybor City) INFO
Venus Bleu w/The Young Something/The Ocean, The Beast/Thrift Store RevolutionMatthew Bistok Banned/more (Orpheum, Ybor City) INFO
Monterey & Julia Powell (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Juanjamon Band (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
Get SUM R&R w/Rathero/G-Space/Jon Santana/more (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Cottondale Swamp (Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, Tampa) INFO
Row Jomah (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Ray Gurka (c.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Solar Exposure (Buckets Grill & Tap, Tampa) INFO
No Filter (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Coo Coo Ca Choo w/The Lint Rollers (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa) CANCELLED
January 4-7, School of Rock (Morsani Hall at David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
This article appears in Jan 4-11, 2018.