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✔️=Critic's Pick
✔️ “4U: A Symphonic Celebration of Prince” Ahmir “Questlove” Thompson’s status as a walking encyclopedia of music is no secret to fans, but his adoration for Prince is almost unparalleled. The Roots drummer recently put together an album-by-album guide to the Purple One’s Warner Bros. catalog, which is pretty much required reading for casual and diehard fans alike. The post is dense, and it’s a delight. That’s why it’s rad to learn that Questlove has teamed up with Prince’s (somewhat volatile) estate to curate an orchestral tribute tour that is headed to the Yuengling Center as part of a two-month fall jaunt. The late musician’s two former backing bands — the Revolution and New Power Generation — both embarked on their own treks last year, but this is the first major live tour that the estate has officially sanctioned. Questlove isn’t touring with the production, but he did pick the songs and work on the orchestral arrangements, which a live band — Virginia’s Wolf Trap Orchestra — and an assortment of vocalists will perform. (Yuengling Center at University of South Florida, Tampa) INFO
Dire Straits Legacy Just like the Taylor Swift song, Dire Straits is never, ever getting back together, but the absence of Mark Knopfler won’t stop a few thousand boomers from flocking to the Mahaffey Theater, where past members — including keyboardist Alan Clark, percussionist Danny Cummings, saxophonist Mel Collins, guitarist Phil Palmer, plus Heartbreakers’ drummer Steve Ferrone and the Buggles’ Trevor Horn on bass — will give fans the Dire Straits songs they want to hear. An early 2018 South American tour was packed with Dire Straits classics like “Walk of Life,” “Money For Nothing” and “Romeo & Juliet,” so expect nothing less at this one. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
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✔️ Sales w/Trapfone/Adjy Some might misconstrue Lauren Morgan and Jordan Shih’s guitar-based pop as minimalist, but there are actually layers upon layers worth of nuance and texture baked into the band’s new, 30-minute LP, forever & ever. Drummer Malcolm Martin will help the duo bring the record to life at this Friday-night show where Florida fans will get to experience, firsthand, the excitement this Orlando outfit is bringing to rooms across the country. A Tampa-based duo, Trapfone, opens the show, along with Adjy, a North Carolina hyphy-pop project propelled by Christopher Noyes' soaring vocals and the band’s percussion-driven sound. This one has sellout potential, so advance tickets are advised. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
Trick Daddy w/Trina Some of you may have caught Trina during recent sets at Green Gators in North Tampa or Crowbar in Ybor City, but this one finds the 43-year-old Miami rap queen reunited with her Slip-n-Slide Records comrade Trick Daddy for a set that should have fans of late-'90s hip-hop pretty damn excited. If you’re still not with us, then you probably don’t know naan, do you? (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Mersey Beatles In November, The Beatles’ longest and strangest work (a self-titled release commonly referred to as “The White Album”) is set to get a new look and expanded release in celebration of its 50th anniversary. You’ll never get to see the band play the album live (R.I.P. John and George), so you might as well get down with The Mersey Beatles, who are celebrating 50 years of the album with a show that will start as band members perform many “White Album” hits and those from 1968 before the second set finds the band growing older before the audience’s eyes. About 35 of the greatest Beatles hits from all eras are on the agenda, and The Mersey Beatles were residents of the Cavern Club (where the real Beatles got their start) for more than a decade, so that’s good enough for us. (Central Park Performing Arts Center, Largo) INFO
WIDE AWAKE
Tampa Bay songwriter Kerry Courtney’s new project is more honest that he’s ever been in the past
Chasing Jonah w/Kerry Courtney/Vetnough Ashley Dudukovich’s voice is haunting (listen to “War Paint” and “Only One I’d Sing To”), but the songwriter who performs as Chasing Jonah can brighten the lines (“It Wouldn’t Be Right”) and darken the room, too (“My Return”). She headlines this one at St. Petersburg DIY spot Paper Crane, where Kerry Courtney and indie-rock trio Vetnough open the show. (Paper Crane, St. Petersburg) INFO
Emo Night Tampa w/The Nervous Girls/Crate Bros. Don’t be alarmed. This edition of Emo Night Tampa is happening on a Friday because someone got invited to a wedding (meh). Leave the anxiousness about the schedule change at home, however, and let The Nervous Girls (a Tampa punk trio) sing the rest of it away in between sets of the best second and fourth-wave emo. Always free to attend, but it’s never OK to be an asshole. (The Bricks, Ybor City) INFO
✔️ Summoning The Dead Boi w/Stoic/Wet Nurse/Piss Ghost/Baby Teeth A trio of central Florida’s best rock trios (Wet Nurse from Orlando, St. Pete’s own Piss Ghost and a debut set from indie-pop band Baby Teeth, which features members of Doll Parts) plays the music after Alexander Richard Infanti Glueck (aka Stoic) opens an art show featuring dark visions that’ll be expressed on the walls of The Bends, a bar which seems to never charge a cover to get into all its great shows. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
CL MUSIC ISSUE 2018
Guitarist Laura May Sienkiewicz had a pissy, joyful path to music
✔️ Fubar 9th Anniversary w/Mosquito Teeth/Pig Pen/Acoupstix/ShadowRun Brothers Fubar held it down for The 600 Block way before faux-boho and the difficult decision between cupcakes, sushi or poké bowls was a weekly occurrence. On Friday, the dirty-clean rock and roll club celebrates nine years of bull-headed originality by staging a show featuring the kind of homegrown, authentic talent it’s been booking for nearly a decade now. As the last few years have taught Bay area music fans, no venue should be taken for granted, and you’ll definitely miss Fubar if it eventually folds under the pressure of rising rents. (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Florida Orchestra Pops: Bernstein’s Broadway Selections from Leonard Bernstein’s West Side Story, Candide, On the Town and more are conducted by Michael Francis as the Florida Orchestra opens its pops series. What’s more is that members of the Tampa Bay Pride Band will perform in the lobby before each concert as part of the run-up to National Coming Out Day on Oct. 11. The weekend’s first concert happens in Tampa before a pair of shows in St. Petersburg. More info available via floridaorchestra.org. (Carol Morsani Hall at the David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
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ALSO PLAYING
Jazz/Classical/Chorale
Gloria West & The Gents Feat. Anthony Castellano, James Suggs, & Paul Gavin (Zydeco Brew Werks, Ybor, City) INFO
Shawn Brown (Jazz House Supper Club, Tampa) INFO
Rebecca Penney (Friday Morning Musicale, Tampa) INFO
USF Choirs: Psalms (School of Music Concert Hall at University of South Florida, Tampa) INFO
October 5-6 Family Weekend Choral Concert (Sykes Chapel and Center for Faith and Values at University of Tampa, Tampa) INFO
Tribute/Cover
One Eyed Jack (Smokin’ 19, St. Petersburg) INFO
Chello Hollyday (Buckets Grill & Tap, Tampa) INFO
Eccentric Band (Two Buks, Clearwater) INFO
Granny's Gin (Red Star Rock Bar, Tampa) INFO
Music in the Park w/Comfort Zone (Seminole City Park, Seminole) INFO
DJ
Foundation v.5 FIRST Friday w/ special guests (SubCentral at Iberian Rooster, St. Petersburg) INFO
The SET w/Wally Clark/Rude 100/OP Supa (First Chance Last Chance, Tampa) INFO
Dub on Tap w/DJ Badda Skat (Green Bench Brewing Co., St. Petersburg) INFO
Singer-songwriterSarah Peacock (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) CANCELED
Kid Royal (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
Alias Julius (c. 1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Geri X (Ella's Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa) INFO
Rock
Viewers Like You w/House Of I (Cage Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
Sonic Stew (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Amorphis w/Dark Tranquility/Moonspell/Omnium Gathering (Orpheum, Ybor City) INFO
Blues/Jook
The Legendary JC's w/Kaleigh Baker (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
EDM
Slander (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
Pop
Jet Black Alley Cat w/Babyblu (The Blue Note, Tampa) INFO
Country
Will Erickson (3 Daughters Brewing, St. Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Oct 4-11, 2018.