Yonder Mountain String Band This quartet of young pickers has quickly becoming a favorite on the bluegrass festival circuit. Their particular take on the genre is being hailed as jamgrass. This could be because the group is injecting an eclectic H.O.R.D.E.-esque sensibility into the age-old traditional bluegrass sound. Then again, it could be because they're under 40, don't have straw hats and foot-long beards, and really, really, really want to appeal to a young college market beyond Possum Holler Ju-Co. Enjoy. (Jan. 24, Skipper's Smokehouse)
Creation Is Crucifixion/The Blackout Terror/Icanedae CIC has been described as brutal metal-hardcore noise, completely devastating, and completely devastating brutal metal-hardcore noise. So there you go. One might safely assume that Orpheum regulars The Blackout Terror and first-timers Icanedae will purvey some equally intense shit. (Jan. 25, Orpheum)
GWAR w/God Forbid/Soilent Green Evil metal space-Muppets GWAR have been spreading malicious, offensive fun and gratuitous fake violence worldwide for so long now, it's tough to imagine a world without 'em. I can't for the life of me remember a song title or riff, but God, wasn't it cool when they started shoving kids into that giant sausage grinder? Good times. God Forbid languished in the extreme-metal underground before becoming one of last year's most heavily buzzed breakthrough acts. New Orleans' Soilent Green, by comparison, will probably never hear their adventurous mix of grindcore, death and Goth during drive time and are perfectly happy to remain fringe legends. (Jan. 25, Masquerade)
Richard Shindell w/Rachel Bissex WMNF-88.5 FM Community Radio presents critical favorite Richard Shindell, a singer-songwriter who many claim has written some of the best songs of the last decade. His blend of intelligence and heart certainly place him head and shoulders above your average acoustic-strumming storyteller. Folk singer Rachel Bissex has shared the stage with Joan Armatrading, Ray Charles and Shawn Colvin; her latest album is 2000's Light In Dark Places. (Jan. 25, Falk Theater)
Cheap Trick w/Harmony Riley America's premier pop-rock institution returns to Jannus Landing. Yes, they play there fairly often. Yes, it's because Robin Zander lives somewhere near Clearwater. Yes, the show is worth it every damn time. Like Dick Clark, Cheap Trick really never gets old. Harmony Riley is a band, not a dude. The group features CT guitarist Rick Nielson's two sons, but don't expect 'em to re-hash daddy's trademarked hooky gems — their sound is decidedly more complex, incorporating elements of both progressive and ambitious classic rock. (Jan. 25, Jannus Landing)
Underoath/No Love Lost/One Fifth/Seventh Star/Sleeping By The Riverside/Cowboys Became Folk Heroes/The JFKs/In The Red/Sixteen Hours/Drive Through Winter/Division One Champs/Outsight/The Casper Spectrum/Hope And Suicide/Love Is Red Doors at two, rock at three. It's an all-afternoon fest boasting a varied selection of underground sounds. Anyone who whines about having seen all of the good Bay area bands about a million times, but is not in attendance today, will be either shot or ignored. The cover's eight bones, but if you bring a canned food item, they'll pare it back to six. (Jan. 26, The Refuge)
Haymarket Riot/The Paper Chase/The Dead America Chicago trio Haymarket Riot mooshes all kinds of iconoclastic, muscular guitar-driven sounds to create something that shouldn't really hang together as listeneable; somehow, it does, and even manages to be downright catchy and anthemic at times. The Paper Chase hail from Denton, Texas (home of Slobberbone, dontchaknow), and have been compared to the experimental and noisy likes of Drive Like Jehu and King Crimson. New local act The Dead America, whose drummer once sported a most awe-inspiring afro and had his party crashed by a crack whore named Chaotica, opens. (Jan. 26, New World Brewery)
Suicide Machines w/Poison The Well/Catch 22 First, the Suicide Machines were a super-energetic ska-tinged hardcore outfit. Then, they were a super-energetic ska-tinged hardcore outfitwith horns. After that, they became a poppy ska-punk outfitwithout horns. And finally, the band metamorphosed into a tepid pop-punk shadow of its former self. They've been to the State about 80 times, or approximately 20 times per paradigm shift. Still pretty good live, though, with more jumping than Black Friday in '29. Poison the Well brings the screamo, and Catch 22 purvey tight and catchy melodic hardcore. (Jan. 26, State Theatre)
Liz Mandville Greeson/Tommy McCoy & The Tuff-Tones The Suncoast Blues Society presents Sarasota Blues Fest surprise hit Liz Mandville Greeson, a bawdy Chicago blues vocalist with, er, personality to spare. So ribald. They're holding this gig at Tampa's Doubletree Hotel (4500 W. Cypress St.) because it'll be housing a captive audience of about 300 blues fanatics — they'll head out on a week-long Blues Cruise junket the following day. Local mainstay/25-year blues-scene veteran Tommy McCoy and his Tuff-Tones provide support. (Jan. 26, Doubletree Hotel)
River City Brass Band Pittsburgh's River City Brass Band was founded in 1981, with an emphasis on performing works by American composers. Often called Boston Pops — in brass, the RCBB was at its inception the first professional concert band to be established in the U.S. in more than 25 years. Expect big, full sounds, familiar national classics, and formal performance wear that's spiffy to the point of being anal. (Jan. 27, Tarpon Springs Performing Arts Center)
BT The cutest guy in techno, producer/performer BT has been a major force in pushing the boundaries of electronic music from his early collaborations with Deep Dish in the early Nineties, right up to his first Nettwork release, Movement In Still Life. Too bad he couldn't make it not suck, eh? Seriously, he's tweaked some of the biggest names in music — his latest album, Rare & Remixed, boasts names like Seal, Madonna, Sarah McLachlan, N'Sync, Tori Amos, and, uh, Mike Oldfield. Come out and watch him, you know, play records. (Jan. 27, Amphitheater)
Narsilion w/Writhe/Sadiya Yeeeoooooouuuurrrrrggghhhhhh. Did you know that death metal was back? Oh, and to those of you who are saying that it never left — it did, sorry. Virginia's Narsilion add the old guttural and grinding influence to technically adept hardcore inspiration. So does the lauded and female-fronted grindcore outfit Writhe, though to a lesser extent; they're a bit more jagged than metal. Sadiya, as we seem to end up saying in every Music Menu, is awesome — heavy and grooving, but still possessed of plenty to grab a hold of. (Jan. 28, New World Brewery)
Mandy Patinkin My name is Indigo Montoya. You killed my father. Prepare to die. The Spaniard from The Princess Bride is also quite an accomplished tenor vocalist with several solo albums and successful Broadway cast recordings to his credit. Look for an eclectic set tonight, drawing from both his torch songs and well-known musical-theater favorites. (Jan. 30, Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center)
Flickerstick Bands on the Run winners and Sony recording artists Flickerstick return for their second State show. Everybody knows they love booze and chicks, in that order, but you might not be as familiar with the fact that they're actually an above-average band with a dreamy rock sound and a mesmerizing stage show. Imagine a U2 from Texas, more interested in the archetypal rock 'n' roll experience than religion or relieving international debt, and you've got a pretty good idea. (Jan. 30, State Theatre)
This article appears in Jan 24-30, 2002.