✔️= Critic's Pick
✔️ Marvel Years w/MZG/K Slat Electro, funk, big beats and future-rock delivered by a producer and live guitarist. The verbiage surrounding the sound Cory Wythe constructs on stage reads like a music SEO-gasm, and his live shows opening for Lotus, Odesza and Manic Focus have earned the young Vermont producer plenty of fans along the way (you should watch video from his performance at Denver, Colorado’s famed Red Rocks Amphitheatre). Wythe headlines this jam-tronic treat of a bill that includes twin brother band MZG and DJ K Slat. (Crowbar, Ybor City) INFO
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✔️ Gasp! w/Slim Figga/TRC/Zerobabies/Sick Hot/Noel Rochford/Kasondra Rose/Terrapin/Infinite Third Gasparilla Arts season is beginning to wind down, and this here liberal rag is throwing a multi-disciplinary performing arts party designed to take your breath away. You should turn to this issue’s Gasp! Guide to read a full rundown, and be sure to check out the hip-hop (Slim Figga, TRC), rock (Zerobabies, Sick Hot), roving uke tunes (UNRB’s Noel Rochford), folk (Kasondra Rose) and experimental sounds (Terrapin, Infinite Third) that our editor-in-chief David Warner has put together for you. (Tampa Museum of Art, Tampa) INFO
DEEP BREATH IN
What to see when: A guide to GASP! 2018
Judy Collins Joni Mitchell may have written Judy Collins’ first big hit (“Both Sides Now,” from 1967’s Wildflowers, which earned Collins her first Grammy award), but the 78-year-old folk-music legend has carved her own path during the course of a long and winding half-century-long career that has found her melding classical and pop influences into a sound wholly her own. A 1965 album (Judy Collins #3) even found her leaning on Dylan, Guthrie and Seeger to get a little political, and it’ll be interesting to see if Collins gets on the soapbox at this rescheduled downtown Clearwater show, which was supposed to happen a month ago. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater) INFO
✔️ Roy Book Binder w/Damon Fowler Two masters of the blues guitar under one roof, and local boy done good Damon Fowler is going to play a rare acoustic set when he supports one of America’s best storytellers, Roy Book Binder. The mustachioed 74-year-old picker has been at it since the mid-’60s, and released his full-length debut, Travellin’ Man, in 1971. It’s been a career full of masterful guitar work ever since, and it should be great seeing him pick, slide and strum his way through a whole lot of blues and ragtime at this intimate Side Door gig at the Palladium. (Side Door Cabaret at Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg) INFO
✔️Bugg w/Capsule Hotel/Vacancy/Gingerhead It's a turd wurld out there, kiddos. You don't have to tell that to Bloomington, Indiana grunge-rock group and Popwig Records signee Bugg, which arrives supporting its 2017 self-titled debut. Capsule Hotel drives in from Pensacola, and greaz-er Tampa indie-pop outfit Gingerhead plays its first local show. (Lucky You Tattoo, St. Petersburg) INFO
Yardij w/Jordan Esker and the Hundred Percent/King Complex Bon Jovi tapped a lot of local talent to open shows on its last tour, and in Ft. Lauderdale that band was Yardij, a Cooper City alt-rock quintet fronted by Deja Elyze, whose sultry vocal soars on songs like “Better Than This,” “Something Along The Lines” and “Won’t Take Long.” Bay area songwriter Jordan Esker seems to be hard at work in the studio as of late, so it’s fingers crossed for a sneak peek at new material when his rowdy rock band opens this show on The 600 Block. (Fubar, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Resonant Rogues The tiny stage at Ella’s always makes for an interesting live-music experience, and we’re betting that The Resonant Rogues’ brand of Appalachian folk music can overpower suppertime chatter at this popular Seminole Heights eatery. When it does, anyone lucky enough to grab a seat will be sure to enjoy the band, whose sound touches New Orleans gypsy-jazz (“jazz manouche” if you’re French) and Middle Eastern rhythms, too. (Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa) INFO
PHIL'IN IT
New book explores strange, successful life of Tampa producer Phil Gernhard
✔️ Phil Gernhard, Record Man book launch w/Ronny Elliott/Bill DeYoung “It’s not exactly Phil-a-palooza, but something short, sweet and fun.” That’s how author, musician and regular CL contributor Bill DeYoung describes what’ll go down on Friday when he releases his new book chronicling the life of enigmatic Bay area record producer Phil Gernhard, who is the reason you know and love songs like “Stay” (ay-ay-ay, just a little bit longer), “Snoopy vs. the Red Baron” by the Royal Guardsmen, and “T Town” by the Zodiacs. DeYoung will read the book’s opening chapter and share photos before he, Tampa songwriting legend Ronny Elliott and a few friends perform Gernhard-related songs. Read our short Q&A with DeYoung here. (Studio@620, St. Petersburg) INFO
Lauren Lane w/Brian Busto/DJ Pala DJ Mag’s 2017 Breakout DJ of the Year is headed to Ybor City. Lauren Lane cut her teeth on the New York City house music circuit, but quickly broke out en route to getting booked at festivals like Coachella, TomorrowWorld, SWF, BPM and Glastonbury. She’s even played fabled venues like Ibiza’s DC-10 and legendary London outpost, Fabric. On Friday Lane brings her global tech-house sound to The Castle for a show alongside local favorites Brian Busto and DJ Pala. (The Castle, Ybor City) INFO
BEST LOCAL ALBUMS 2017
All of Ari Chi's vibrant essence gets captured on Color Fool
✔️ Ari Chi Finally, Ari Chi has landed in a venue as quirky and colorful as her music. The 24-year-old uke-strummer and songwriter released one of CL’s favorite albums of 2017, and Color Fool — where a smoldering vocal floats, skitters and scats throughout songs that pull a little early 2000s soul into others interchangeably soldered together by big, synthesized beats and live drumming that tiptoes the lines between jazz, R&B and pop — should play sublime in the ornately decorated boho wonderland that is SHAMc. (Safety Harbor Music and Arts Center, Safety Harbor) INFO
Tommy Simms w/All Day Tuck/Channel Drive It’s “Simms” with two M’s, and while this isn’t a set from the guy who co-wrote Eric Clapton’s Grammy-winning hit “Change the World,” it is going to be pretty cool to see Bay area songwriter and former Automatic Loveletter guitarist Tommy Simms play inside the Green Bench brewhouse for a free rock show at one of St. Pete’s best places to hang out on a Friday. (Green Bench Brewing Co., St. Petersburg) INFO
BEFORE AND AFTER THE RISE
Reggae Rise Up 2018: Nattali Rize, Expanders lead a healthy slate of pre and after parties
✔️ Reggae Rise Up A three-day locally grown, globally reaching reggae festival kicks off a weekend featuring nearly three-dozen acts. Flip back a few pages to read this preview and get details on all of the Reggae Rise Up pre-parties and after-parties. An interview with SOJA's Kenny Bongos is available here. (Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg) INFO
RISING TIDES
SOJA’s Kenny Bongos dishes on Reggae Rise Up’s growth and global reach
March 16-17 Paddyfest w/Magic Giant/We the Kings/Love and Theft Jaylen's Challenge — a local anti-bullying group — is the nonprofit partner of Paddyfest 2018, but the real winners are the denizens of SoHo who thought they'd never get to see neu-school hippies Magic Giant, country duo Love & Theft and Bradenton pop-punk heroes We The Kings on one stage in the same weekend. A befuddlingly eclectic music bill on the drunkest days of the year? Stranger things have happened (Irish 31, Tampa) INFO
ALSO PLAYING
Singer-songwriter
Este Loves (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin) INFO
Music and a Meal w/Jun Bustamante (Sacred Lands, St. Petersburg) INFO
EDM
Sullivan King (The Ritz, Ybor City) INFO
Rock
Saganaki Bomb Squad (Orbit 19 Lounge, Holiday) INFO
Chilli Blaze (England Brothers Bandshell Park, Pinellas Park) INFO
Come Back Alice (Central Park, Largo) INFO
Folk/Americna
Matt Burke w/ Will Quinlan (Hideaway Café, St. Petersburg) INFO
The Brother's Four (Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center, Tarpon Springs) INFO
Classical/Chorale
Michael Amante (Capitol Theater, Clearwater) RESCHEDULED
Funk/Blues
Holey Miss Moley w/Future Vintage (Skippers Smokehouse, Tampa) INFO
Damon Fowler Group (The Ale & the Witch, St. Petersburg) INFO
Tribute/Cover
March 15-17, Beatdown Band (Jazz House Supper Club, Brandon) INFO
Disasterpiece (Smokin’ 19, St. Petersburg) INFO
