THURSDAY. OCTOBER 10
Black Rebel Motorcycle Club (B.R.M.C.) w/Restavrant San Francisco’s chugging and grinding garage-blues-psych rock trio Black Rebel Motorcycle Club hits town with their guitar-howling sounds behind sixth studio full-length Specter at the Feast. The album was inspired by the untimely death of mentor/producer Michael Been (also father to bassist Robert Levon Been), and the album’s dark catharsis is interspersed with surprising spells of melody and poignant melancholy. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Fedde Le Grand A Dutch producer/DJ known for his electro-house remix of Matthew Dear and Disco D’s 1999 track “Hands Up for Detroit” (re-dubbed “Put Your Hands Up 4 Detroit”); his 2006 take is dance-floor ready and carried on fat bouncing synths. Currently, Le Grand has been diving in and out of a noisier house sonicscape amid the usual pulse-pounding beats. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
Mishka w/Jahguar/NoNeed Google “Mishka” and you’ll come up with two artists — an electronic sound magician, and an island-vibing singer-songwriter. (Ignore the YouTube video of the talking Husky.) The latter, Caribbean-area native Alexander Mishka Frith, aka Miska, was the one briefly championed by actor Matthew McConaughey. He has a warm, resonant, lightly accented vocal, his swaying island soul imbued with acoustic folk and roots reggae overtones. His lyrics range from romantic to political, though he keeps it mellow in new Ocean Is My Potion EP, even bringing Jimmy Buffet in to sing on a few tunes, including his Buffet cover, “Trying to Reason with Hurricane Season.” (Orpheum, Ybor City)
FRIDAY, OCTOBER 11
The English Beat w/Johnny Cakes & The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso Veterans of the 2 Tone ska movement, The English Beat (led by Dave Wakeling in its U.S. incarnation) have maintained a loyal fanbase and steady live touring schedule on the strength of three studio albums all released between 1980 and 1982; “Mirror in the Bathroom” was their highest charting single in the UK, while the only two tracks that broke the U.S. Top 40 dance charts were “Hands Off … She’s Mine” and “I Confess.” (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
A Loss For Words w/Handguns/Major League A traveling showcase of pop-punk sounds featuring A Loss for Words, a Boston area quintet with driving melodic hardcore tendencies, and Pittsburg-based outfit Handguns. (Epic Problem, Tampa)
Doctor P The rising British EDM producer otherwise known as Shaun Brockhurst just issued a new dubstep-rooted tune “The Champagne Böp,” that drops a scattering of spliced, skewed and chewed vocal samples over bump-bouncing beats, high-whirring synths and steppin’ womp-fizz breakdowns. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
Nikki Hill w/Doug Deming and the Jewel Tones She’s earned comparisons to Etta James with her gritty howling pipes while her modern punk-powered drive has been likened to the Detroit Cobras. But Nikki Hill’s twist on roots music is all her own, as is her modern-day pin-up girl style, her feminine pompadour usually wrapped in a turban that feels more like a hair kerchief when paired with her high-powered Southern soul, blues, roots and R&B sound. She and her band staged an attention-grabbing set at WMNF’s Rockabilly Ruckus in February. They serve up a full helping on this latest ‘MNF/Skipperdome bill. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Kellie Pickler American Idol former Pickler has been enjoying country music success far beyond her placement on that particular reality competition show. Seven years later, she has three studio LPs under her belt, two of those peaking at No. 1 on the Top Country Albums charts, and a fourth, The Woman I Am, due out in November. (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Voodoo Glow Skulls/The Toasters w/Left Alone/UNRB/Jay Tea While The English Beat throws down 2 Tone at the State, Local 662 welcomes the Third Wave generation as headed up by NYC’s reigning leaders of the movement, The Toasters (est. 1981). Voodoo Glow Skulls have been dosing their own ska sounds with punk rock kick for going on 25 years now, and issued their ninth studio album last year. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 12
Come Back Alice w/Jonothan Boggie Long A few months back, I was tooling around downtown St. Pete when a local jam band scenetress I’ve known for many years grabbed me and hauled me into the Emerald to see Come Back Alice. The Sarasota quartet has been building up an impressive fanbase here, based on the packed mass of gleeful people getting down to their sounds that night and apparently most nights they play here. Singer/guitarist Tony Tyler is joined by petite, flowing-haired partner-in-crime Dani Jaye on spirited fiddle and songbird co-vocals that are a lovely feminine counterpart to Tyler’s lower tenor. Her stringwork adds an unexpected level of maturity to arrangements that leave the space for improvisation and are pre-disposed to genre-hopping, from bouncy twangy folk rock to more prog-leaning rock forays to grooving hard bass-bumping funkadelia, all colored in shades of reggae, blues, jazz and electro-rock. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Trust for Liars w/Port Nova/Under The Summer Lights/HYPE Crunchy aggressive alt rock/post-hardcore outfit Trust For Liars heads up this local bill of heavy sounds. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
Sean Chambers The blues ace, a Florida native, has been slinging licks in these parts for quite some time now, while also expanding his touring sphere around the country and overseas. Still, it’s a treat when Chambers straps on his Strat in an intimate barroom like the Ringside. He’s always been an energetic but tasteful guitarist, combining Chicago, Texas and Delta styles, with a special nod to Stevie Ray Vaughan. And his continuing facility on slide has considerably benefited his artistry. But on his newest album, The Rock House Sessions, due for release three days after this gig, he displays his ongoing maturity as a vocalist. The innate rasp in his pipes has become weathered and wizened and draws favorable comparison to one of the best white blues singers ever (Gregg Allman). So, yes, Chambers will surely blow you away with his six-string wizardry, but make sure you pay close attention to his singing as well. (Ringside Café, St. Petersburg) —Eric Snider
Heene Boyz Touted as “The World’s Youngest Metal Band,” the Heene Boyz are three underage brothers — guitarist/singer Bradford (age 14), bassist/singer Falcon (10) and drummer Ryo (12) — who are already wailing and shredding like adults, not to mention recording and touring; new conceptual album American Chili is their second. (Brass Mug, Tampa)
Aych CD Release Party Among Tampa’s crème de la crème of hip-hop is measured-drawling rapper Aych, who unveils a fresh record, Power, and throws a blow-out party in honor of its release this Saturday. DJs Deacon, Heat and Benjamin Grimm man the spins, a huge assemblage of guests perform or make short appearances (among them, Ariel “JaneDoe” Williams, Jroc Jones, Wally Clark, Jai Price and Mike Mass), and a ’90s hip hop tribute rounds out the festivities. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Nine Bullets 7th Anniversary Party w/Truckstop Coffee/Matt Woods/Will Quinlan/The Urbane Cowboys/Booker and Norton/Devon Stuart & Big Shoals Tampa Bay-based roots-and-beyond taste-making music site Ninebullets.net has established national cred over its seven-year reign, seen the personnel grow from founder/editor Bryan Childs to a full stable of trusted writers, and the Ninebullets.net podcast evolve into a show on WMNF. Childs & Co. made it through another year intact and to mark the occasion, he’s assembled an all-Florida bill to lay down the score at the 7th Anniversary Party. He also facilitated the reunion of an all-time Ninebullets fave, Truckstop Coffee, their mix of Southern grinding alt country and working man’s rock n’ roll dusted off for this single night of merriment. Show starts at 7 p.m. sharp. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
India.Arie w/Gramps Morgan You may remember Grammy Award-winning groove songstress India.Arie from her 2001 breakthrough single “Video,” which finds her sharing life lessons and delivering smart self-aware lyrics (“Am I less of a lady if I don’t wear panty hose? My momma said a lady’s ain’t what she wears but what she knows”) in her husky-coated vocals. India.Arie is on the road behind fifth studio album, Songversation, which proves she’s just as capable at writing warm scorchers, sexy slow jams and bumpin’ R&B numbers as she is at being a socially conscious role model for young feminists. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
SUNDAY, OCTOBER 13
Ol’ Dirty Sundays: DJ SCRATCH Named a hip-hop icon by The Source magazine in 2006, legendary trick-spinning turntablist/producer DJ Scratch has been running game for 28 years, got his first break via mentor-peers RUN DMC, and has served as the official tour DJ for the likes of EPMD, Jay-Z and P-Diddy. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Netherfriends and Friends “Wilbur, Alabama” is carried on a churning synth groove and vocals bent into a chorus of helium-high pitches back the sing-song intones of Shawn Rosenblatt, aka Netherfriends, who introduces the 50 songs, 50 states album concept over a few short verses: “The pressure is on, I’m recording in a van, got one last state, of the lower 48 …” The recording project to produce a song in every state over a 12-month period was released online in July, and the Philly native musician, composer and sound sculptor has returned to the road in support. His technique of live beat construction, sampling, and looping/layering sounds is rooted in hip-hop, though Rosenblatt also has some formal music training and strays into pop, psychedelic and indie rock realms. (The Venture Compound, St. Petersburg)
Ambrosia Coming out of SoCal in 1970, Ambrosia was ostensibly a prog-rock band, its albums stuffed with ensemble gymnastics, tricky changes and majestic vocal harmonies. But the group achieved its middling fame and whatever fortune it amassed via soft-rock ballads like “You’re the Only Woman,” “The Biggest Part of Me” and “How Much I Feel,” many of which sounded like subpar Hall & Oates outtakes. I do, however, have a passing affection for 1975’s “Nice, Nice, Very Nice.” (Largo Cultural Center, Largo) —ES
TUESDAY, OCTOBER 15
Periphery w/Dead Letter Circus/Born of Osiris/12-Foot Ninja/The Stoic Periphery hails from the DC area and brews up a particularly technical brand of progressive metal with three-guitar crush and both clean-wailing and deep-roaring vocals sailing over the churning instrumentals. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 16
Dawes w/Caitlin Rose Some bands make their mark in a fiery blaze of meteoritic success. Others take a more studied, slow-burning approach, gathering loyal fans and wooing critics with solid recordings and songwriting chops that progress with each album, if none too drastically. LA folk rock quartet Dawes is one of the latter; no radio hits, but a strong and vibrant repertoire packed with driving anthemic choruses, soaring multi-voice harmonies, and poignant balladry. This year’s Stories Don’t End is their third full-length. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Kris Kristofferson When a 29-year-old Rhodes Scholar and Army Captain rolled into Nashville in 1965, he resigned his commission and took a job sweeping floors at Columbia Records while realizing his true love: penning country songs. It wasn’t long before Kris Kristofferson began to rewrite the Music City songbook. “I think Kris changed country music in that he made songwriters sit up and pay attention,” Johnny Cash once said. “He made some of them work at their art rather than just rhyming words and using catch phrases and clichés.” Influenced by Hank Williams, Bob Dylan and 16th/17th-century poet William Blake, Kristofferson delivered songs like “For the Good Times,” “Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,” “Me and Bobby McGee” and dozens of others highly regarded for their emotional authenticity and, in certain cases, a sexual frankness that pushed Nashville boundaries. He went on to sing his own tunes, although did not become a front-rank star. Kristofferson achieved his biggest fame as a movie actor, with a lengthy filmography that runs from 1971 until now. Today, at 77, with that rugged face, dime-slot eyes and grumble of a voice, he remains a quietly charismatic presence. (Palladium Theater, Clearwater) —ES
CLICK HERE to see a complete rundown of shows taking place this week and in the coming weeks.
