✔️ Set and Setting Tour Kickoff w/Spar/Reality Asylum Local fans of Reflectionless — the new album of impeccably pristine post-rock delivered by Set and Setting — have had nearly a year to let it settle in, but now more of the country (which has probably been reading glowing reviews from Brooklyn Vegan, Stereogum, Noisey and Decibel) gets to catch up. The St. Petersburg boys amicably parted ways with second drummer Mark Etherington in June, but added original bassist John Kreft at the same time, and we’re certain fans will still flock to any one of the 19 shows Set and Setting has booked in Canada and the northeast. Update to print copy: The boys have signed to German label Pelagic records, which'll release the band's fourth LP. (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
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Listen to Set and Setting's new LP 'Reflectionless' now
✔️ Hit Me With Your Best Shot w/Sonic Graffiti/Luxury Mane/The Jackettes/The Infinite Eights/Hello Joyce/FayRoy/Band of Sorrows/Ari Chi The bill for this one is packed and all over the place sonically, but community radio station WMNF 88.5 FM is moving away from its freewheeling ways and putting some restrictions on the eight bands playing its “Hit Me With Your Best Shot” show. Each band will only get 20 minutes to play, which theoretically means that showgoers will get only the best locally grown garage rock (Sonic Graffiti), beach-goth punk (FayRoy), Americana (Band of Sorrows), indie (Hello Joyce), ‘70s-era soul-pop (The Jackettes) and ukulele-driven folk-nouveau (Ari Chi). (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
✔️ Leisure Chief Not sure whose idea it was to try to cram the Leisure Chief show onto the stage at Ella’s, since a 2016 LP — King of Nothing — is actually everything fans of big-bodied, booty-shaking soul, funk and jazz could ever want. It’s going to be fun watching the Orlando outfit (we count at least two saxophones, a trumpet, Rhodes, drums and guitar of the record) try to eke it out for Seminole Heights though, and neighbors reading this post can know that all the hootin’, hollerin’ and steamed-up windows are just a sign that all is well inside of the eatery. (Ella’s Americana Folk Art Cafe, Tampa) INFO
✔️ Goatwhore w/Venom Inc./Toxic Holocaust/The Convalescence Goatwhore has been on a mission of Vengeful Ascension since the June release of a new album, and while fans of the New Orleans death metal quartet will arrive ready to bear the brunt of songs like “Mankind Will Have No Mercy,” newcomers or anyone simply curious about an outfit with an interesting name should know that Ascension is being widely regarded as perhaps the best album frontman L. Ben Falgoust II & Co. have released in the course of a nearly 20-year career. Throw in the fact that Goatwhore is one of the few bands able to advance metal without sacrificing the many sonic tenants that made it great, and what you’ve got is a show sure to attract a couple generations of headbangers. (Orpheum, Ybor City) INFO
Corey Smith Georgia born and bred, country singer Corey Smith is done with all the Irma business (his house in Jefferson, about 60 miles northwest of Atlanta, lost power but escaped major damage in this month’s storm) and you can bet that he’ll be ready to party (and sympathize) with anyone that steps foot inside the Bay area’s most popular country line dancing club. (Dallas Bull, Tampa) INFO
Tesla w/Voices of Extreme/Weapons of Anew Elon Musk’s electric cars weren’t even a figment of anyone’s imagination when Sacramento glam-metal band Tesla released its debut LP (1986’s Mechanical Resonance), but you can bet that a few well-heeled Bay area fans (“Modern Day Cowboys,” we’ll call ‘em) will be rolling through Clearwater as they make their way to the band’s first-ever show at Ruth Eckerd Hall. The band never really broke through on a global scale, but its blue collar approach to glitzy hard rock has resonated over the last three decades. Songs from a new-ish album (2014’s Simplicity) may get some play at this show, but expect Jeff Keith & co. to lean on the hits after Voices of Extreme — a band featuring former Anthrax guitarist Dan Spitz — opens the show. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) INFO
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Broomsticks and brass: The Florida Orchestra takes a trip to Hogwarts
✔️ Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone In Concert w/The Florida Orchestra John Williams is hands down the most popular film composer of this generation, and while many of the Harry Potter fans arriving for any one of these four performances by the Florida Orchestra probably weren’t even born when the scores to E.T., Star Wars or Jurassic Park were infiltrating most of our minds, you can bet that their own brains will undoubtedly be changed forever when composer John Jesensky conducts as Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone plays in hi-definition in the background. CL had a chance to catch up with Jesensky to talk about his own love for John Williams, plus the challenges of bringing this score to life; read our Q&A with the NYU grad here. (David A. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa) INFO
Shawn Mullins If you think that one hit (“Lullaby”) is all it took for Shawn Mullins to earn enough klout to merit two shows at Ybor City listening room The Attic, then guess again (Mullins plays again on Saturday). The Grammy-nominated soft-rock jam definitely topped charts, but it was just the tip of what’s now an 11-piece catalog that the 49-year-old singer-songwriter pulls from each night on tour. (The Attic at Rock Brothers Brewing, Ybor City) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Singer-songwriter
Tyler Costanzo (C.1949 Florida Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Rich Whiteley (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Ash of Sweetwater Revolver w/ Deb Ruby (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
DJ
Subterranean Sundays w/DJ Cub/DJ CatMat (c. 1949 Beer Garden, Tampa) INFO
Rock
Sonic Stew w/Donna Hopkins (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
Keychain w/NoSelf/WARLAB/Cypher Machine (Brass Mug, Tampa) INFO
Starlight Concerts w/Studio 10 Band (Highlander Park, Dunedin) INFO
Peace of Woodstock (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
EDM
Bommer (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
Blues
Damon Fowler Group (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Sep 28 – Oct 6, 2017.