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Tampa Bay Indian Music & Dance Festival w/Ambi Subramaniam/Indrajit Banerjee/Nandkishor Muley/Radharaman Kirtane/Mahesh Krishnamurthy/Shankhachur Lahiri You’re worldly. You like classical music. You know who Itzhak Perlman is. So why wouldn’t you want to pop over to the ‘Wood (Carrollwood, that is) where Ambi Subramaniam — who many consider the Itzhak of India — headlines a weekend celebration of the country’s musical culture? Ambi’s surname may be familiar to anyone remotely interested in Eastern culture (dad, Dr. Lakshminarayana Subramaniam is a revered violinist, composer and conductor himself), but even the remotely curious should take the leap since experts in sitar (Indrajit Banerjee), santoor (Nandkishor Muley) and tabla (Tampa’s own Shankhachur Lahiri) will be on hand as well. (Hindu Temple Auditorium, Tampa) INFO
Letterheads w/DJ Wally Clark An international of lineup of “sign painters, letterpress studios, hand style type designers, and artists producing type-centric pieces” will show their work while Wally Clark provides the sounds. Read more about the show on p. XX and learn about the Tampa producer’s new Naruto beat tape in our profile here. (Illsol, Tampa) INFO
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Under The Influence: Wally Clark’s pop-cult inspiration shines on Naruto beat tape — listen
St. Pete Records Grand Opening w/Gloria West & the Gents/2Critical One bin on the first floor of Central Avenue’s Furnish Me Vintage has evolved into a place to buy and sell records and then peruse all sorts of turntables, speakers microphones and other vintage audio gear. To mark the occasion, St. Pete Records (SPR) is throwing a grand opening party complete with DJs (2Critical), a four-piece jazz quartet (Gloria West & the Gents) plus local food and beer. Add in the joint’s Pac-Man machine plus discounts on vinyl (and furniture), and what you have is a must-add to your nice little Saturday. (St. Pete Records, St. Petersburg) INFO
Long Lost Enemies w/The Stone Cobras/Beerwolf Tampa stoner-rock trio Beerwolf plays local anchor alongside ukulele-playing “Woodzrock” outfit The Stone Cobras (the genre is a mix of “punk, rockabilly, garage, folk, doo-wop and country according to the band) at this downtown Tampa show with Bradenton pop-punkers Long Lost Enemies, which self-identifies as “a post-punk shit show.” Good, sloppy fun? You bet. A place for cross-armed seriousness? Probably not, asshole. (Pokey’s Pub, Tampa) INFO
Replay Guitar Exchange First Anniversary If you've been playing guitar for a while, you know the Bay area's been blessed with a goodly number of quality retailers catering to six-string slingers over the years, many of them of the independent and, ahem, not-stuffed-with-kids-playing-"Enter Sandman" variety. One of the best new ones to come along in a while is South Tampa's Replay Guitar Exchange, which celebrates its first full year of business with a first anniversary event and sale. Crazy discounts? Check. Door prizes? Check again. Running into that guy you were in a band with a decade ago who thought you were BFFs but whom you never contacted again after the breakup? Definitely a possibility. No matter where you live around here, this one-day celebration will very likely be worth the drive. (Replay Guitar Exchange, Tampa) INFO —Scott Harrell
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Photos: Trippy Squad Halloween Party at The Bends — 10.28.16
Bleach Garden w/Reality Asylum/Changer Take a look at the fonts Bleach Garden uses to put its name on show posters, and you won’t have to think too hard about who its biggest influence is. The Atlanta trio says it also likes the Melvins, Pixies and Butthole surfers, but one listen to the band’s An Immodest Motive EP confirms that Kurt is king in that house. Be there for the ‘90s nostalgia, but also get there early to see Joshua Lefefe and Ryan Metcalf — collectively known as Changer — play every instrument to recreate the sounds on a very-emo two-song demo that hit Bandcamp last week. (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Vacancy (EP release) w/Uh, /Bitemarks/Leviathan Cross Vacancy’s sludge-y, noisey two-song demo has been simmering on the interwebs since April, and now DIY label Dead Tank Records wants fans of “Pissed Jeans, Torche, and a little Rohnert Park-era Ceremony” to have even more in the form of the band’s Empty Head cassette. Joining the release party are Gainesville punks Bitemarks and Orlando’s Uh, (jury is still out on pronouncing that comma) making this perhaps the heaviest show happening during the last month of New World Brewery’s Ybor City existence (the joint begins relocation on September 23). (New World Brewery, Ybor City) INFO
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International Caribbean Food and Music Festival w/Elephant Man/Ras Kimono/Cool Breeze Band Do you love dancehall? Don’t mind driving to New Port Richey? We’ve got your Saturday set. Controversial “Rum-Bar Stylée” singer Ras Kimono is pretty much Nigerian reggae royalty (fans have been gwan-ing with Under Pressure since ‘89, k?), and the Energy God — aka Elephant Man — has also been representing quite nicely for Jamaica’s Seaview Gardens since 1998 when he stole the show at the Scare Dem Crew’s performance at Reggae Sumfest. Concert is free, but bring money for food and bring us back some Ting. (Sim’s Park, New Port Richey) INFO
Trippy Squad Takeover w/Slick Vizion/Karlton/AC Darko/Krampus This Florida-based lifestyle brand’s monthly takeover of The Bends is always the trillest, and it has everything to do with the way the collective’s members pretty much keep the trap, house and bass music pumping as hard as the joint’s bartenders make wicked drinks. Don’t be surprised if you wake up the next morning in a sweat-soaked shirt next to someone whose name you don’t even know. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
JLM Records 3rd Annual Music Festival w/Heart of Heroes/Frankie Jamison/DJ E-Real/James Williams/more Heart of Heroes, a band made up of former foster children that are adopted or biological children of foster families, leads the charge at this benefit for the nonprofit Inspire School which has a simple mission to not let a lack of resources get in the way of underprivileged children pursuing a passion for arts and music. (Water Works Park, Tampa) INFO
Davis Island August Drum Circle Hippies? On Tampa’s Davis Island? No…fucking…way. Follow the good vibes when you get closer to the island’s airport — there you’ll find a peaceful, family-friendly gathering where you can get locked into some rhythm alongside a few of your like-minded, easy-going friends. (Davis Island Seaplane Basin, Tampa) INFO
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ALSO PLAYING
Rock
Justino and the Difference (Red Star Rock Bar, Tampa) INFO
Singer-songwriter
Josh Plummer (Barley Mow Brewing Company, Largo) INFO
Este Love w/Between Bluffs (3 Daughters Brewing, Saint Petersburg) INFO
Chris Harman (C.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Central Vision (Salt Cracker Fish Camp, Clearwater Beach) INFO
DJ
VSOP/Vinyl Sounds On Patrol Saturday Matinee w/DJ Blenda/DJ Shafiq (C.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Americana/Bluegrass
Ramblegrass Band (Crooked Thumb Brewery, Safety Harbor) INFO
Big Kettle Drum w/Kristopher James (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
The Burke Brothers (Ella's Americana Folk Art Cafe, Tampa) INFO
Blues
The Betty Fox Band (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
JP Soars and the Red Hots w/Doug South and The Roundabouts (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Rock the Yacht w/Josh Walther and the Phase5 Band (Yacht StarShip, Tampa) INFO
Tribute
Talk To Mark (Bottle Pub, Pinellas Park) INFO
Metal
Murderfest (The Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
Jam/World
Mike Bryant's Improv Birthday Jam (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
Jazz
Guitar Hero w/Whitney James/Dan Heck/LaRue Nickelson (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
EDM
Back To School Bash w/Christian Alexander/Nate Verde/Heist (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
This article appears in Aug 24-31, 2017.