The simple black-and-white flyer reads, "The final, absolute farewell to The Headlights." So … the grand denouement, the final knell, for one of the Bay area's most beloved rock bands — ever. (By the way, The Headlights formed in the early '80s and have broken up or gone on hiatus a few times over the years.) Just last week, bassist/singer Scott Dempster called to inform me about this goodbye concert at the Largo Cultural Center, with hopes that we might print a word or two about it. I assured him we were already on the case, and then he told me there were rumors going around that The Headlights were calling it a ballgame and that they weren't true. So what to make of the flyer? Methinks the Headlights camp might be split on this break-up issue — or are engaging in a bit of pranksterism. The intrigue will be moot, though, when the quartet — which also includes singer/guitarists Steve Connelly and Steve Robinson and drummer Danny DiPietra — launches into its bevy of catchy tunes, buoyed by jangly guitars and stirring vocal harmonies. For opening acts, The Headlights are relying heavily on the family tree: The Ditchflowers, my favorite new(ish) band in the Bay area, includes Connelly, who plays guitar next to singer/songwriters Ed Woltil and Brian Merrill, and Robinson is listed as an opener (perhaps solo acoustic). All told, this should be a terrific night of music, and one that won't hinge completely on nostalgia.
The Headlights w/The Ditchflowers/Steve Robinson, 8 p.m. Sat., Feb. 9, Largo Cultural Center. $18 advance, $21 day of show. 727-587-6793. —Eric Snider
Legacies don't loom much larger than Dr. Ralph Stanley's. A gifted singer known for his "high lonesome" vocals, he helped pioneer the claw-hammer style of banjo picking in the late 1940s and has remained a bluegrass star ever since — first with sibling Carter in The Stanley Brothers and then as a solo act backed by his Clinch Mountain Boys. Younger mainstream audiences were introduced to Stanley in 2000 when his gripping, a cappella performance of "O Death" played during the climatic Ku Klux Klan scene in O, Brother, Where Art Thou? The recording also appeared on the wildly successful, Grammy-winning soundtrack. Bluegrass' elder statesman turns 81 on Feb. 21 but continues to offer spellbinding performances like the one he delivered last month in South Carolina at a rally for doomed presidential hopeful John Edwards. Yeah, the political pundits couldn't help but point to Stanley's "O Death" as a metaphor for the campaign.
Dr. Ralph Stanley & His Clinch Mountain Boys w/Bluegrass Parlor Band, 5 p.m. Sun., Feb. 10, Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa, $20 (advance), $25 (at the door). —Wade Tatangelo
Très Bien!'s recent appearance on the Fox reality series The Next Great American Band didn't result in victory (they reached the top six), but the Clearwater garage-rockers still managed to do Tampa Bay proud — their high-energy performances garnering favorable comparisons to bands like The Hives. Although the local quartet remains unsigned, national television exposure and glowing reviews in publications like Entertainment Weekly paved the way for an East Coast tour that returns Très Bien! to the Bay area for a performance Saturday at the Orpheum in Ybor City. Brooklyn indie-pop foursome The Hatch, which competed against Très Bien! on TV, are also on the bill.
Très Bien! w/The Hatch, 7 p.m. (doors), Sat., Feb. 9, Orpheum, Ybor City, $10 (advance), $12 (day of show). —WT
This article appears in Feb 6-12, 2008.