WIPA Live! w/Luxury Mane/Mountain Holler/Alex Borst The live music project at downtown St. Petersburg’s Williams Park rolls on, and this time there will be a little continuity from last month’s Williams Park concert featuring local post-rock outfit Set and Setting.
Mark Etherington, who is one of two drummers in Set and Setting, is in the middle of December’s lineup where he’ll step to the microphone as part of his solo Mountain Holler project. The 29-year-old songwriter has an otherworldly voice that once landed him onstage in a recreation of Martin Scorsese’s The Last Waltz where he played the part of Neil Young. Mountain Holler’s songs are less political and more of a meditation on nature (“Black Bear”) and spirituality (“Open New Faiths”). He’s even helped the Sunshine City by contributing an arrangement of “You Are My Sunshine” to a municipal ad campaign. Billy Summer’s Luxury Mane project will headline the outdoor concert which hopes to show off the park’s potential to be a one day be a world-class outdoor music venue.
The band has been gigging in support of a shimmery new album (Lux Runnin Out, released in September) where Summer, 45, almost channels Elliot Smith’s vocal pan production on LP highlight “Julian.” In the ‘90s, the late singer-songwriter was a huge influence on Summer (who’s been pretty damn influential on the Tampa Bay music scene over the years). “ I love the way he panned his vocals. I think my voice sounds more interesting like that," Summer told CL after the album’s release. "His suicide would have been a more accurate reflection of his music if he had stabbed himself in both lungs instead of the heart." (Williams Park, St. Petersburg) INFO
Guillermo Lopez w/Alex Stening/Fernando Lopez/Sun Kyeong Kim The Florida Orchestra’s schedule cools down during Christmas week, and music colleges are on break, which means other classical concerts get a chance to shine in the listing spots that the TFO and university music school’s usually tend to occupy. On Thursday, Mexican tenor Guillermo López (who started his life in music as a pianist) joins Massachusetts horn player Alex Stening (who’s played with TFO and Boston’s Philharmonic Orchestra) as they work through composers like Schumann, Schubert, Mendelssohn, and Tosti. Two pianists (South Korean Sung Kyeong Kim from South Korea and Fernando López from Mexico) will also be on hand to assist. (Musica Arts Piano Conservatory, Tampa) INFO
Will Quinlan & the Holy Slow Train w/Max Norton/Shua There are times when the legend of Tampa songwriter Will Quinlan seems to have no end. In August, CL found out that he was working on four different albums with several of the Bay area’s best musicians. Every character within the scene has different stories about Quinlan, and it likely has a lot to do with his willingness to sit down with kindred spirits to work out whatever ideas (musical or not) he may have floating in his head. Quinlan was the first guy to ever charge a cover at the door at New World Brewery, and on Thursday he gathers his go-to crew of musicians (the Holy Slow Train) to back him for an evening of whiskey-soaked Americana that is sure to pack the beloved biergarten, which is like none other in Ybor City.
Max Norton (of Benjamin Booker and Roppongi's Ace fame) returns to Tampa from his new home of Nashville to share more of the sound he’s been cultivating with Jack White producer Mindy Watts. A new single from Norton, “Hold Me Up” (which CL wrote about in September), is finally on Spotify, so we hope it won’t be long until more of the world discovers another one of the Bar area’s best exports. (New World Brewery, Ybor City) INFO
Emerald Christmas Jam w/Have Gun, Will Travel It’s always great to find an old bar starting new traditions, and while holiday music is undoubtedly burning a nearly intolerable hole into your cochlea, this show promises to be both a reprieve from and an enjoyable reprise of the aural oppression. Have Gun, Will Travel will take the reigns at this yuletide jam, which means the seasonal tunes will probably pretty damn rollicking. We’re guessing that capacity at Emerald is tantamount to that of one school bus, so expect it to be tight in there and know that you’ll be rubbing elbows the people who are the veritable salt of St. Petersburg. DJ Marcos Udagawa, aka Gringo Snake, is blowing in from New York for this one and promises to man the wheels of steel for anyone trying to avoid their family for as long as possible. (Emerald Bar, St. Petersburg) INFO
Displace You know what goes pretty well with a Flashlight lager and some of Pinellas’ county’s best wings? A little jam rock that isn’t afraid to completely throw itself at the inclination to explore the psych, funk and soul curiosities that are calling its name from around the corner. Tampa four-piece Displace can play traditional club gigs, but they’re best at freewheeling festivals and quirky set ups like the one they’ll be in at Florida’s oldest microbrewery. Frontman Sam Dobkin and his boys (Chris Sgammato on sax, guitar and keys, drummer Tucker Sody and Vinny Svoboda on bass) have played AURA, Blackwater, Zach Deputy’s Disc Jam, Gasparilla Music Festival and even did a week long residency at Hog’s Breath saloon in Key West, so expect their handle on the better than most of the acts you’ll catch at other bars. (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
Mighty Mongo Your dad’s older second cousin is getting in early for the holiday, and he wants you to take him somewhere — and by somewhere he means the casino. The bars around the gambling floor do have regularly appearing entertainers playing covers or the occasional original song, and Mighty Mongo are one of the better acts that end up on the calendar. The long running Bay area quintet has been on Warped Tour, and their brand of high energy pop is led by frontwoman Lindsay Vitola whose keytar skills and powerhouse vocals could command a crowd for hours on end. (Hard Rock Cafe at Seminole Hard Rock Casino, Tampa) INFO
Holiday "Living Room Live" Open Mic Hideaway Café head honcho John Kelly can’t stay away from song. He’s recorded many for dozens of artists in the Bay area, and on this special holiday edition of the venue’s open mic he welcomes songwriters to take the mic for a two or three songs and then pass it on the next act who get a turn to play for one of the most attentive rooms in the area. Those who would like to analyze or just keep a sonic memory of their performance even have the option of having it recorded for a fee (starts at $35). (Hideaway, Cafe) INFO
Welcome To Knoxville w/DJ Knox/OG Layla Johnson/Achilles/Tre Southside/Gat$by/Juiccy Luccy/Mike Mass/Prince Golden In October, CL contributing photographer Michael M. Sinclair went to The Bends in St. Pete to catch DJ Knox the M.D. welcome rappers like Hagan Lee, Asher, Alec Burnright, Gat & Cris and Prophit to the floor to prove their worth with a just a couple songs. To close out the year, he’s stacked the bill with a who’s who of Tampa Bay hip hop including Mike Mass, Gat$by (whose new LP, By Any Dreams, is one of the best local releases of 2016) and Tre Southside who was in the building when Memphis rapper Xavier Wulf played Local 662 last week. (The Bends, St. Petersburg) INFO
Digital Death Match of Doom w/DJ Wally Clark Tampa producer Wally Clark has an LP called Mario Wave where he takes chiptunes to the club, and while songs like “Forest Maze,” “Wait Outside Yoshi,” and “Boom Boom’s Spot” aren’t quite hard enough for the trap, they are perfect for this digital getdown at Crowbar where 20 participants will compete for a $100 prize, a bottle of booze and free cover to an entire year of Crowbar events. The bloodsport? Street Fighter Alpha 2, which us old people probably remember playing on Sega Saturns or Super Nintendos. Learn more about Mario Wave here. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
RLC Presents: Sugar Still w/Sarah Morey It’s not easy to get up on stage and sing a song, and it’s even more amazing when a high schooler does it. Blake High School student Sarah Morey will do just that as she opens up for Sugar Still who are visiting from Chicago, Illinois. The duo — Charley Cheney and Sarah Blick — are big fans of Stephen Sondheim, Alison Krauss, and Talking Heads — and their show is an acoustic rock and jazz routine driven by violin and guitar. The pair are on a little seven-date Florida swing that stops at Ybor’s Fish Hawk Distillery (Dec. 21) and Palm Harbor’s Stilt House Brewery (Dec. 26), so there’ll be plenty of chances to see them play. (Tre Amici at The Bunker, Ybor City) INFO
Funken Treasure w/DJ Blenda It should be no secret that the Tampa Bay area has a healthy stable of long-running selectors who can effortlessly rock a part. DJ Blenda is one of those and he’s coming to to wish Merry Gwan-ing upon everyone at Mermaid Tavern who shows up to slow down and watch the Ol’ Dirty Sundays regular play an all vinyl set of old soul, funk and R&B from 10 p.m. until your eyes start to squint. (Mermaid Tavern, Tampa) INFO
Grateful Dead Night w/Uncle John’s Band If you’re still with us in this issue’s edition of Music Week, then you realize that the Christmas holiday lends itself to a relatively skinny week of shows, but the bands who do end up on the sheet are the warriors. Uncle John’s Band — who’ve been handling Thursdays at Skipper’s since before the turn of the century — definitely qualify as time-tested, and bring the spirit of the Grateful Dead to life week in and week out. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Hiram Hazley + Le Jazz Trio w/Gloria West (Ruby’s Elixir, St. Petersburg) INFO
This article appears in Dec 22-29, 2016.