THURSDAY, DECEMBER 6
Toubab Krewe w/John Brown’s Body/DJ Blenda A pair of worldly jam acts team up for a co-holiday tour. Frequent callers Toubab Krewe, from Asheville, are a folk and rock quintet deeply influenced by the sounds and culture of Mali, with the bright cascading notes of stringed instruments like kora and kamelngoni entwined with guitar, bass and keys, and the Afrobeat rhythms accompanied by the throb and pulse of congas, djembe and other percussives. New England octet John Brown’s Body — which just released a new album, JBB In Dub on Easy Star Records — purveys super heady electro-and-dub-fused reggae (self-styled “future roots”) marked by the brassy backbone of a three-piece horn section. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Papadosio Hitting town as part of the AURA Music & Arts Festival Concert Series is one of the fest’s headliners: Papadosio, a soundscape-building jamtronica five-piece from Ohio currently backing a brand new double LP, T.E.T.I.O.S. (To End the Illusion of Separation), which spans the sonic landscapes of house music, trip hop, psychedelia and funk over the course of 20 tracks. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Celtic Christmas w/Harry O’Donoghue/Carroll Brown Back by popular demand is Ireland-born, Savannah, Ga.-based Celtic folk music artist O’Donoghue, who has a soothing brogue and laid-back performance style on acoustic guitar and bodhran. This concert program includes a mix of beloved carols, original compositions, and Irish holiday songs. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
Rock the Park w/Red Room Cinema/Rayzilla’s Dreamboats/November Rush December has arrived without delay and the weather’s just fine for the latest edition of THX Management’s riverside concert series. The last Rock the Park of 2012 is headed up by Red Room Cinema, which hits the outdoor stage with a fresh set of instrumental post rock tunes off latest record, Apsis, issued via New Granada Records in September. (Curtis Hixon Park, Tampa)
Welcome to Tampa AM Party w/Saviours/The Shrine/Bad $hit Skatepark of Tampa kicks off Tampa Am 2012 with Saviours, an Oakland, Calif., foursome that lays dual guitar shredding and riffage on top of tempo-changing rhythms that are fast and propulsive or sludgy slow or both all in one track as with epic burning “Inner Mountain Arthame,” grungy shouted vocals climbing over the mix of stoner and heavy metal crunch. Also of note: The Shrine, an LA-area hard rock trio with noisy punk tendencies championed by ex-Black Flag bassist Chuck Dukowksi, who produced their self-titled debut. (Transitions Art Gallery @ Skatepark of Tampa)
Veil of Maya w/Upon A Burning Body/Volumes/Twitching Tongues/Arm the World/Destroy The Fortress The Acacia Strain was forced to drop out of the co-headlining tour after flipping their van while on the road last week, so Chicago foursome Veil of Maya takes the lead assault reins with their mix of deathcore and technical death metal, which takes a more extreme and progressive turn on 2012 fourth album Eclipse. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
Michael Bolton With his hunky romance novel good looks and smoky soulful vocals demanding answers to queries like “Tell me how am I supposed to live without you?” and “How can we be lovers if we can’t be friends?”, Michael Bolton has acquired a drooling mass of loyal fans, not to mention pop icon status. (Who else loved his “Jack Sparrow” bit with The Lonely Island crew?) Likely most of his well-known smooth AC soft rock ballads and No. 1 hits will get play during his St. Pete show. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg)
FRIDAY, DECEMBER 7
Dent May w/Saskatchewan/Florida Night Heat For his sophomore record and second on Paw Tracks, Do Things, Mississippi born singer-songwriter Dent May discarded the instrument he embraced in his debut, The Good Feeling Music of Dent May & His Magnificent Ukulele, and instead, laid his dreamy Beach Boys-style vocal harmonies over a mix of synths, guitars and analog drum machines, the resulting album a loose, floating smooth indie pop effort with a sort of island-vibing languidness. Click here to read this week's story on May. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
Jonathan Priest and the Incandescent Monsters w/SupaSkunk Percussionist/drummer Jonathan Priest has been living in North Carolina for what seems like ages, but he laid deep musical roots in Tampa (he played in Ghetto Love Sugar, Infinite Groove Orchestra and RockSteady@8 among other outfits), and he always re-visits them with much festive flair when he returns for a holiday. This time around, the wise beat-keeping sage delivers a set of soul-jazz-jam experiments with a collective he’s dubbed “the Incandescent Monsters,” which encompasses current IGO members John Richardson (keys), Jon Shea (bass) and Jeremy Powell (sax). Priest and the Monsters kick things off, and the Powell-led New Orleans jazz-inspired instrumental group SupaSkunk closes out the night. (Yeoman’ Road Pub, Tampa)
Sum 41 w/IAMDYNAMITE Canada’s pop punk/melodic hardcore behemoths haven’t been here in a few years — and even then, it was on Warped Tour — but I’m sure their fans will come out in throngs for Sum 41’s tour celebrating the 10th anniversary of 2002 album, Does This Look Infected?, which spawned such charting singles as “Still Waiting,” “The Hell Song” and “Over My Head (Better Off Dead).” A word of warning ¬— the band plans to play the album in its entirety, but don’t be surprised when they throw in other cuts from their catalog. (The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City)
Guy Gerber The monthly residency hosted by DJ Three and featuring notable out-of-town guests celebrated its 10-year reign on the Tampa dance music scene in 2012, and closes out a year’s worth of noteworthy events with a suitably prestigious artist: Guy Gerber, a Madrid-based producer who uses synths and live instrumentation to built his mid-tempo melodic and technotronic soundscapes. He has his own well-regarded label, Supplement Facts, has been tapped by Puff Daddy to produce an album with him under the ‘11-11’ alias – due out sometime next year — and his 2012 Fabric 64 release was only the fifth mix of the Fabric series in which an artist created his own material. (Hyde Park Café, Tampa)
Cannibal Corpse w/Misery Index/Hour of Penance Thrash metal legends Cannibal Corpse reclaim Tampa Bay as the epicenter of American death metal on this Friday. Originally hailing from Buffalo, N.Y., Cannibal Corpse established themselves in 1988 as a staple artist on Metal Blade Records. Now based in Florida, they’re currently touring on the heels of this year’s Torture. Their 12th full-length record features catchier cuts like “Encased in Concrete” along with more brutal forays as evidenced by “Demented Aggression.” All metal fans interested in immolating themselves before the kings of the death genre should drop by the Brass Mug for this clash of hair, sweat, and sonic assault. (Brass Mug, Tampa) —Justin Little
SATURDAY, DECEMBER 08
Skatepark of Tampa 20-Year Anniversary Party featuring Souls of Mischief/Killer Mike/Jensen Serf Co./Cuates/The Shrine SPoT is officially old — at least by skateboarding standards. Amid the festivities for Tampa Am 2012, SpoT throws a 20-year Anniversary Party and brings in two worthy headliners: Souls of Mischief, a jazz-flecked alt hip-hop group from Oakland, Calif., core emcees A-Plus, Opio, Phesto, and Tajai all part of the Hieroglyphics collective Del tha Funkee Homosapien and producer Domino, among others; and Atlanta rapper Killer Mike, who frequently collabs with members of OutKast and backs a sixth studio LP, R.A.P. Music, that was produced by El-P. (Czar, Ybor City)
Hip Hop for Hunger Benefit Show w/?nowledge/Logic For Beatz/Rahim Samad/Green Sunshine/Prophit813/Mike Mass From 4:30 to 8:30 p.m., the Crowbar stage is overrun by some of the Bay area’s hottest hip hop-rooted performers, who donate their time and talent to aid local homeless children and families served by Feeding America-Tampa Bay and Metropolitan Ministries. The goal is to collect 800 pounds of non-perishable food and 60 bags of new and used clothing over the four-hour event. Drop off some goods and help make it happen; $5 admission with donation, $7 without. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Black Taxi/Holy Ghost Tent Revival w/Skull & Bone Band And for the nighttime entertainment at Crowbar … NYC charming-dramatic-eclectic rock foursome Black Taxi has been making the rounds in Florida the past few weeks and returns to the Bay area on their way out with a set of tunes diving into dance, groove, prog, post punk and New Wave sonic waters. Holy Ghost Tent Revival, an explosive folk sextet from Greensboro, N.C., gets co-billing, their Dixieland and ragtime-inspired mountain music evolving into an electrified, robust and rollicking rock-driving sound on second full length, 2012’s Sweat Like the Old Days. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Jonathan Coulton He’s a software writer-turned-singer/songwriter whose use of geek pop culture as his subject matter (“Code Monkey,” “Flickr,” “Mandelbrot Set”) earned him an internet-built fanbase who were, in all likeliness, first turned onto Coulton via his folkified cover of Sir Mix-a-Lot’s “Baby Got Back.” He continues to find his support online and has a vast repertoire of original songs available for pay-what-you-can prices at jonathancoulton.com. He even has his own Wiki site, JoCopedia: “2,194 pages of JoCoey goodness!” (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Geoff Tate Tate hit town last fall with Queensrÿche as the heavy prog-metal band was celebrating 30 years together. The warm milestone fuzzies were cut short this summer after he was booted from the band, and the back and forth has carried on since then as the three remaining members battle Tate for the rights to the band name. In the meantime, Tate is on the road behind his sophomore solo album, Kings and Thieves. Along with new numbers, his set will likely include selections from the Queensrÿche catalog, since he wrote a big chunk of it. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
Southern Culture On The Skids w/The Wooly Bushmen Southern Culture on the Skids returns to Tampa, bringing their blend of Southern-fried surf, rockabilly, and Link Wray-inspired dirty rock n’ roll. Fact: If “King of the Mountain” had been released 40 years ago, SCOTS would be a household name. Fact: “The Man that Wrestles the Bear” is evidence that they introduced gypsy-music into indie-rock long before Gogol Bordello was even an idea in Eugene Hutz’s head. SCOTS’ long-term members include sultry redheaded Mary Huff on bass and vocals, Dave Hartman on drums, and the compelling if not eccentric Rick Miller on guitar and lead vocals.” (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) —Justin Little
Benefit Concert for Haitian Orphans w/Pedro el Poeta/Virginia Rose Band/Busta Mantle/Fall on Purpose/Redemption Worship Band/Yoshi Gish/King James & the Sundrummers Enjoy Haitian cuisine by Cafe 22, fair trade coffee from Spirit Café and live music by a range of performers, from bilingual hip hop and spoken word artist Pedro el Poeta, to grungy alt rockers Yoshi Gish. Proceeds go to the Heart For Haiti Foundation and its efforts to aid the Bon Secours orphanage for girls. (The Roosevelt 2.0, Ybor City)
SUNDAY, DECEMBER 9
93.3 FLZ Jingle Ball 2012 w/Justin Bieber/Ke$ha/Zedd/One Republic/Ed Sheeran/Sean Kingston/Walk the Moon/Psy BBBIIIEEEEEEEEEEBBBBBBBBSSSSSSTEERRRRRR!!!! Now, imagine that in a high-pitched pre-pubescent squeal, multiply it by 18,000, and you’ll get an idea of the sounds sure to fill the forum for Jungle Ball 2012. The rest of the acts on the bill prove equally pop-tastic and span the spectrum of good old fashioned fluffery, from tarty neon-hued Ke$ha to indie-turned-major repped darlings, Walk the Moon. (Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa)
Iris Dement When a seminal artist unleashes her first album of new material in 16 years, folks are inclined to stop and listen, especially when the artist in question is Arkansas native alt country songstress Iris DeMent. Sing the Delta brims with gospel-tinged, twangy wise reflections on spirituality (“The Night I Learned How Not To Pray,” “The Kingdom Has Already Come”), family (“Mama Was Always Tellin’ Her Truth”) and nostalgia (“Livin’ On the Inside”), and has earned high praise far and wide. This opportunity to see her live is a rare one, indeed. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
Gumbi Ortiz & New Groove City The Al Downing Tampa Bay Jazz Association welcomes Gumbi Ortiz — longtime percs man for guitarist Al DiMeola — for an afternoon of Afro-Latin jazz grooves and conga-fueled rhythms with his eight-piece band. (Studio@620, St. Petersburg)
The Hot Club of San Francisco Cool Yule Holiday Show A gypsy swinging jazz quintet led guitarist Paul Mehling (who’s been called “the godfather of American gypsy jazz”), Hot Club of San Francisco has been serving tunes since the early 1990s. According to Mehling, “We’re trying to challenge the tendency to slavishly imitate Django’s style, without watering down the gypsy tradition or diluting the music.” This program has the string-rooted band — made up of three acoustic guitarists (one of those sultry rich singer Isabelle Fontaine), a violin player, and an upright bassist — taking a jaunt through seasonal favorites and select gems off their 2009 album, Hot Club Cool Yule, from a tango-fied reading of “Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer” to a jazzy mash-up of “Carol of the Bells” and Vince Guaraldi’s “Skating.” (Largo Cultural Center, Largo)
Crushed Out The power duo formerly known as Boom Chick has earned their fair share of comparisons to White Stripes — female drummer, male lead singer/guitarist, an aesthetic that rides comfortably in garage-blues rock territory. But Crushed Out has a more surf, honky tonk and country twangy slant to their songwriting. Frontman Frank Hoier sings in a brassy wail and doles out thick fuzzy guitar riffs while Moselle Spiller keeps a sturdy rolling or heavy crashing backbeat that propels songs like the raw and raucous ass-kicking “Temper Tantrum” off their just-released debut full-length, Want To Give. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
TUESDAY, DECEMBER 11
Flavor of Jazz VII: A Peter White Christmas w/Rick Braun/Mindi Abair Enjoy an evening of food and wine tastings from an array of fine local eateries, then digest to the smooth seasonal sounds of Peter White’s annual Christmas show, which hits the Ruth Eckerd Hall stage just in time for the seventh annual Flavor of Jazz fundraiser in support of the Marcia P. Hoffman Performing Arts Institute and Clearwater Jazz Holiday jazz education programs. The smooth jazz guitarist from the UK is joined by St. Pete sax mistress Mindi Abair and trumpeter Rick Braun for this year’s program. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Aerosmith w/Cheap Trick The front of Music From Another Dimension — Aerosmith’s 15th studio album and first of new material in eight years — is styled like a comic book cover replete with anxious vintage couple clutching each other as sci fi creatures wreak havoc on the crowds and cityscape behind them. Perhaps alluding to the turmoil the musicians went through to finally get it started (an injury-prone tour full of canceled shows in 2009 that turned into tensions and a near break-up stretching into 2010, Steven Tyler appearing on American Idol without informing his bandmates, etc.), the album was finally worked on steadily last summer, co-produced by Tyler, guitarist Joe Perry and Jack Douglas (who manned the boards on several early Aerosmith albums including Toys in the Attic), and the record hit in November. Another Douglas-produced rock band, Cheap Trick, warms up the stage. (Tampa Bay Times Forum, Tampa)
Paul Geremia The soulful singer and acoustic guitar picker’s sound mingles jazz, rural blues, and country folk styles. Since 1968, Geremia has released 10 albums showcasing his skills on six and 12-string guitars, harp and keys; the most recent one is 2011’s Love My Stuff, a live collection spanning three decades of rare and classic performances re-mastered from live tapes dating back to the early 1980’s. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Ninjasonik w/Samurai Shotgun/Heights Ns/Soft Rock Renegades Cheeky to the point of vile emcees Reverend McFly and Telli Gramz are the brains and flow behind Ninjasonik, a Brooklyn-based indie duo who rhyme about ridiculousness over a mix of electro pop, punk, and hip-hop production in songs like “Somebody Gonna Get Pregnant,” “Red Cups” and “Turned Up” off their recent Decon EP, No Swords or Masks. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 12
Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band Performing under an outlandish handle for the past decade, Asheville sextet Yo Mama’s Big Fat Booty Band can at least attest to getting those cabooses loose and shakin’ with their dynamic brand of greasy deep funk and electro rock jamminess, their laid-back vibe and inane turns at lyricism (the hook of “@$$” uses “badonkadonk” in all seriousness) buoyed by the extra strong musicianship of members Al Al Ingram (bass, vocals), JP Miller (guitar, keys, vocals), Greg Hollowell (sax, flute), Derrick Johnson (trombone), Lee Allen (drums) and Mary Frances (keys, keytar, vocals). Doin’ It Hard, their Kickstarter-funded 2012 sophomore studio release introduces more synth and sci-fi textures into their horn-fused retro sound and was recorded at in Miami with DJ leSpam (Spam Allstars). (Orpheum, Ybor City)
BBQ Wednesday Acoustic Series w/Tessa Mckenna & Julian Conner The two voices of Sleepy Vikings — throaty femme-powered wailer McKenna and scratchy-toned masculine counterpoint Connor — bring their sweet harmonies and acoustic stylings to the latest edition of New World’s free BBQ and music hump day series. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
CLICK HERE to see a complete rundown of shows taking place this week and in the coming weeks.
This article appears in Dec 6-12, 2012.