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✔️= Critic's Pick
✔️(Sandy) Alex G w/Half Waif A preternatural prince of lo-fi indie-pop arrives in Ybor City for a set in support of his latest LP, Rocket. The album — along with 2015’s Beach Music — has made (Sandy) Alex G more of a commodity since his 2014 set at Tampa’s Mojo Books & Records, and we’re excited to see how the 28-year-old Pennsylvania songwriter and his fans have grown when he stops into Crowbar. Nandi Rose Plunkett’s post-Pinegrove band, Half Waif, has been tapped to open the show, and the booking is amazing since Half Waif’s new LP, Lavender, could be one of the 10 best albums of 2018. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
✔️ Creative Clay Fest w/Betty Fox Band/A Fragile Tomorrow/Rebekah Pulley & The Reluctant Prophets/FayRoy/Ella Jet & Future Soul/Danielle Mohr/Acho Brother Folk Fest is not forgotten, especially thanks to this lineup, which is a continuation of the beloved St. Petersburg festival that embraced local makers and musicians in a big way. Blues, folk and world music are represented quite nicely on Sunday, but so are some of the Bay area’s best young rock bands, including FayRoy and Ella Jet & Future Soul. (3 Daughters Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️ Koo Koo Kanga Roo Can you believe Koo Koo Kangaroo’s rise through the DIY kids' music scene? Did you even know there was such a thing? Well, it’s time to buy in before the Minneapolis dance-pop duo (self-billed as “the Beastie Boys meet Sesame Street”) really breaks big. The boys — Bryan Atchison and Neil Olstad — are already a hit in the punk scene thanks a tour with Aussie pop-punk faves The Smith Street Band, and their live shows have become legend thanks to a full-on commitment to the most intense, fun-filled audience participation you may ever see. Yes, there will be little kids at this 2 p.m. afternoon pre-Amanda Shires (see below) gig, but we guarantee you’ll have as much fun as they do. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
✔️ Ray LaMontagne w/The Secret Sisters This is LaMontagne’s first Bay area performance since 2016 when he was backed by pretty much all of My Morning Jacket at Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall, and it comes nearly 10 years after the 45-year-old left all of Tampa Theatre pretty much crying with jaws agape after a set supporting his 2008 album, Gossip in the Grain(which rose to No. 3 on the Billboard albums chart and cemented the famously private songwriter’s place in modern pop and folk music). LaMontagne, touring behind his latest album, Part of the Light, will be joined onstage by Wilco’s John Stirratt, who plays bass on the 25-date acoustic tour for which Grammy-nominated, Everly Brothers-channeling Americana duo The Secret Sisters opens the show. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
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✔️ Amanda Shires The only thing better than talking to Amanda Shires is seeing her perform onstage. Americana fans have a chance to do the latter on Sunday when the 36-year-old songwriter and fiddler headlines Capitol Theatre, and you can read our interview with Shires to get insight into what a conversation with Shires is actually like. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
✔️ Shemekia Copeland w/Brian Leneschmidt Shemekia Copeland’s new album, America’s Child, features a lot of the no-holds-barred attitude that so much of the 39-year-old blues singer’s 30-year discography possesses, but something about the 12-track effort feels especially poignant. We spoke with her about Trump, traveling and her dad (the late, great Texas blues great Johnny Copeland); read our interview before she works through a fiery set. (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
Chilled Monkey Brains w/Sketchie/Longfinger/Monument Beach Tampa ska band Help! Police! has a new name (Monument Beach) it’ll show off at Lucky You, where Seminole punk band Longfinger joins another Bay area ska-punk outfit, Sketchie, in welcoming fellow Floridian band, Tallahassee skacore sextet Chilled Monkey Brains, to the tattoo shop. The all-ages show costs $8 to get into, and we don’t think anyone will judge you if you if you can’t recite the differences between The Skatalites and The Specials. (Lucky You Tattoo, St. Petersburg) INFO
Damron Concert Artist Series w/ModernMedieval ModernMedieval is a new, all-female ensemble created by Anonymous 4’s Jacqueline Horner-Kwiatek. Ecstatic chants will be interwoven with new works by Caroline Shaw, Caleb Burhans, Joel Phillip Friedman, Daniel Thomas Davis and Horner-Kwiatek herself at this free and early (2 p.m.) Sunday matinee inside of a beautiful and overlooked downtown Tampa venue. (Sykes Chapel at University of Tampa, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Bas Sudanese-American J. Cole protege Abbas Hamad (AKA Bas) is the second emcee on this week’s agenda with direct North African roots, and the 31-year-old’s story makes this headlining set the more intriguing of the two (no disrespect to Sheck Wes, who opens for Travis Scott on Monday). His recent trips back to the Sudan have given Bas a new perspective on his role in hip-hop, and his 2018 album (Milky Way, released in August) spoke against many not-so-savory rap tropes (misogyny, money) while quietly earning a reputation as one of the year's best hip-hop albums. (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
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ALSO PLAYING
Lil Durk (Skye, Ybor City) INFO
Juanjamon Reggae Jam (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
RLC Presents: Dara Carter w/Venus Blu/Tommy Phenom/Kid Loki (The Bunker, Ybor City) INFO
Koffin Kats w/Street Weave (Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
Armistice Day Concert w/Beth Kendall/Frances Newell (Episcopal Church of the Ascension, Clearwater) INFO
The Florida Orchestra: A Child of Our Time (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
Ol' Dirty Sundays w/Deejay Theory (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Someday Honey (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Tampa Bay Symphony presents Symphonic Sensations (David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
Beach Bum Barry (Ka’Tiki, Sunset Beach) INFO
Veterans Day Benefit for Tampa Crossroads w/Dukes of Juke/Blue Dice (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
This article appears in Nov 8-15, 2018.