
THURSDAY, FEBRUARY 27
Lobo Marino w/Teach Me Equals/Empire Cinema/DieAlps/James Rustad Four solid Bay area acts — including Sarasota art rock cello-and-violin (and some guitar) twosome Teach Me Equals and psychiatrist/USF prof/pop & parody singer-songwriter James Rustad — join touring act Lobo Marino for this free Mojo bill. Jameson Price and Laney Sullivan make up Lobo Marino, her elegantly eerie chant-like intones soaring over tribal-vibing world-fused folk music built primarily on harmonium and bass drum, but also incorporating piano accordion, assorted percussives and acoustic guitar. The nature-worshipping Richmond, Va.-based duo spent a year in South America and are named for one of the spirit guides they claim to have encountered there, the Pacific sea lion, aka “el lobo marino.” (Mojo Books & Music, Tampa)
Florida Strawberry Festival Concert Series Kick-Off: Styx You likely know more songs by classic prog rock band Styx than you realize, beyond “Come Sail Away.” Take for instance the next obvious track, AC-friendly “Lady” and “Babe,” or 80s-era wonky synth-driven “Mr. Roboto” and “Too Much Time On My Hands.” Perhaps you’re familiar with the funky hard rock grind of “Blue Collar Man (Long Nights)” and “Renegade,” or maybe you unwittingly dig the psychedelic propulsion of "Fooling Yourself (The Angry Young Man)". Styx kicks off the headline entertainment series at Florida Strawberry Festival, which mostly features country music talent — this week, Colt Ford (Feb. 28), Little Big Town (March 1), Rascal Flatts (March 2), Josh Turner (March 3), Kellie Pickler (March 4) and Lee Brice (March 5). Styx and Boys II Men (on March 7) provide the sole respites from all that drawling and boot scootin’. More info at flstrawberryfestival.com. (FL Strawberry Festival Grounds, Plant City)
Jennifer Nettles w/Brandy Clark The feminine half of country duo behemoth Sugarland, Jennifer Nettles, sheds her male counterpart and hits town on a run of solo dates behind her first-ever solo outing, That Girl, which dropped in January and features 10 tracks she co-penned in addition to a cover of Bob Seger’s “Like a Rock.” (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
Have Gun, Will Travel w/Radiolucent/Good Graeff/The Heavy Metals Bradenton favorites Have Gun Will Travel spent the past several months spreading their vintage-hued Americana and fiery stomping roots rock around the U.S., supporting excellent fourth LP, Fiction, Fact or Folktale?, and building up a fanbase that has boosted their Facebook likes past the 5k mark. This date marks their official return from winter tour, joined by Athens, Ga. Southern rockers Radiolucent, relentlessly charming sisters-led folk pop duo Good Graff from Sarasota, and Tampa’s own Shawn Kyle-powered surf fuzz rock outfit Heavy Metals (fka Florida Kilos). (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Off With Their Heads w/Slow Death/Wolf-Face In "Seek Advice Elsewhere," Off With Their Heads frontman Ryan Young laments “You hit rock bottom, you think that's all / But rocks give way and you continue to fall.” The track — off the Midwestern punk rock band’s third and latest, Home— reveals their standard mode of gruff-barking vocals spouting cynical and self-deprecating lyrics to fast and sturdy-pounding tempos, with a few notable curve balls — in the slower-paced balladry of "Please Don't Make Me Go Home" and via the synthesizers found in "Stolen Away." Among the local acts warming the stage: SXSW-bound Teen Wolf-aping rockers Wolf-Face. Check out a review of their latest album right here. (Orpheum, Ybor City) —Leilani Polk & Nicole Kibert
Excision w/Dirtyphonics Riding in on dupstep womps and bass music pulses direct from Canada, EDM heavyweight Excision lands in Ybor backed by his colossal (28’x15’) custom-crafted video and lighting installation, called “The Executioner,” which plays 3D video-mapped visual sequences as he mans the music and video live on stage. Lasers, fog machines, 150,000 watts of sound, and support from French DnB crew Dirtyphonics and Canadian glitch-hopper Ill Gates round out this night of unz. (Amphitheatre, Ybor City)
An Intimate Evening with Art Garfunkel The taller, fairer half of ‘60s/’70s-era folk duo Simon & Garfunkel has a lower vocal resonance than his youthful earlier years, and his solo career went through more fits and starts than his famed former colleague. Art Garfunkel was likely a little more tortured, too, dealing with a bout of personal toil in the 1980s and taking a hiatus from making music all together after issuing 1988’s Lefty. He’s enjoyed a slow resurgence over the past few decades, releasing three more well-regarded albums and a few poetry books, too. On this night, the 72-year-old stages an acoustic performance of his material, delivers anecdotes, reads some prose, and holds court during a special audience Q&A session. This show is SOLD OUT. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
FRIDAY, FEBRUARY 28
The Bright Light Social Hour w/Spaceface/SWIMM Austin’s Bright Light Social Hour enjoyed an impressive come-up here between 2011 and 2012 after releasing a rock-solid full-length debut and staging several memorable Tampa Bay shows that included a headlining slot at Tropical Heatwave. But we haven’t seen them back in these parts for a while, not since guitarist Curtis Roush, bassist Jack O'Brien, and drummer Joseph Mirasole parted ways with keysplayer AJ Vincent and started touring the country in earnest. For those of us who haven’t caught BLSH post-AJ, this date serves as an informal introduction to the current lineup. (State Theatre, St. Petersburg)
Peter Nero: The Gershwin Project His professional resume spans the majority of his 79 years and encompasses a Julliard education, a five-decade recording career in both jazz and classical music with upwards of 60 albums to his credit (including those he oversaw or produced by artists like Mel Torme, Ray Charles, Dizzy Gillespie and Rod Stewart), a few Grammy wins and lifetime achievement awards, and a lengthy and memorable tenure as the founding artistic director of the Philly Pops Orchestra, a post he retired from last year. Peter Nero is also lauded as one of the foremost interpreters of George Gershwin, and this program finds him performing “Embraceable You,”“Rhapsody in Blue,”“Someone to Watch Over Me,”“S’Wonderful,” and other Gershwin material on his grand Steinway. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg)
Bernie Worrell Orchestra Some musicians reach icon status by virtue of their involvement in seminal recordings or influential bands, or by churning out new music ceaselessly as both a solo artist and member of a group, or by teaming up with other artists and trying new things and generally staying relevant when so many of their peers become hackneyed stereotypes of themselves. Keys heavyweight Bernie Worrell reigns as a funk/jazz/experimental music icon, among the founding members of Parliament-Funkadelic, a de facto player in Talking Heads (you might remember seeing him in Stop Making Sense), and a prolific artist with a huge backlog of solo material and collaborations that have seen him playing with Les Claypool and Buckethead (Colonel Claypool's Bucket of Bernie Brains, Praxis), Bill Laswell, and Fred Schneider among others. Bernie Worrell Orchestra encompasses two guitarists, a drummer, percussionist, bassist, and on select dates, a three-piece horn section. (Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin)
Drag the River/Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves/The Tim Version It’s getting so you can’t swing an acoustic guitar without hitting a former punk rocker that traded in his Marshall stack for a harmonica, but Fort Collins, Co.’s excellent Drag the River — featuring members of All and Armchair Martian — has been doing the melancholy twang thang far longer than most. Hot Water Music principal Chris Wollard’s Ship Thieves are a bit more textured and sonically diverse, while Tampa’s own The Tim Version revs things up to full punk volume and tempo, albeit with more than a bit of country-rock influence. Highly recommended. (New World Brewery, Ybor City) —Scott Harrell
Tate Stevens A country music crooner who won the second season of the U.S.’s recently not-renewed X-Factor, and is currently touring behind the eponymous debut that came from his $5 million recording contract. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
The Villanz CD Release Show w/Mike Mass“Lock Down,” the first single off the new Villanz LP, The Neighborhood Heroes, finds emcees Divine and Main rapping about their come-up over spooky stripped-down production (a straightforward beat, a plucked-string riff) by Funkghost. The duo stage a party marking the album’s release on this night with warm-up from Mike Mass and other guests TBA. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
SATURDAY, MARCH 1
Andy D w/The Golden Street Choir Boys Get ready for a night of absurdly fun tongue-in-cheeky indie dance jams as piloted by provocative force-of-nature music maker Andy D, who waxes on topics ranging from Viking love to black rainbows in song’s with titles like “Bitch! We Carnivores,”“Party Werewolf (I Need A Freak),”“God Loves Drunk Chicks” and “I Wanna Be Your Unicorn.” If that doesn’t pique your interest, this may not be the show for you. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
Florida Metal Showcase Featuring six Florida acts that run the gamut from old school heavy metal riffing to outright death metal assault, with Mindscar headlining and rounding out the showcase with their own complex interpretation of extreme metal. (Orpheum, Ybor City) —Shawn Ohtani
G. Love & Special Sauce The Jack Johnson-approved singer-songwriter, harp-blower and rhyme-pusher from Philly makes the jam scene girls coo and sigh with his laid-back brew of blues, hip hop and alt rock. A new full-length from G. Love & Special Sauce (upright bassist James "Jimi Jazz" Prescott and drummer Jeffrey "The Houseman" Hit) is expected in April; first single “Nothing Quite Like Home” re-imagines an old hip hop riff and serves it on slide guitar with lyrics co-written by Dan Reynolds (Imagine Dragons) and guest spots by Ben Harper and Marc Broussard. The trio stops in town on their 20th anniversary tour, which features a full-length reading of the group’s 1994 self-titled debut. (Jannus Live, St. Petersburg)
SUNDAY, MARCH 2
WMNF Presents: BeauSoleil w/Under The Willow Louisiana’s most respected and long-standing purveyor of Cajun music, BeauSoleil avec Michael Doucet, has fused Zydeco, jazz, folk and swamp blues for nearly four decades, fiddling his way through accordion-fused two-step tunes spanning 25 albums; the last was 2013’s From Bamako to Carencro. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Local H Known for 1996 radio hit “Bound for the Floor,” alt rock/post-grunge band Local H is still churning out aural angst two decades later. Guitarist/vocalist Scott Lucas has fronted the band since its formation, venting his embittered feelings of anger to the world with no other backing than a drummer; the post has been filled by Ryan Harding since 2013. (Local 662, St. Petersburg) —Shawn Ohtani
Collective Soul w/Ed Kowalczyk Among the proliferation of post-grungy acts with radio-friendly hooks that were spawned in the 1990s, Collective Soul ranks near the top with seven No. 1 mainstream rock charters that started with 1994’s “Shine” and continued through “December,”“The World I Know” and the harder grinding “Where the River Flows” and “Heavy” in 1999. The Atlanta-based quintet celebrates two decades his year with a 20th anniversary tour (which stops in St. Pete) and a new album, See What You Started by Continuing, due out this summer. Support on this date from Ed Kowalczyk, frontman of another ‘90s-era alt rock hit-maker with current AC pop status, Live. (Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg)
MONDAY, MARCH 3
Iron Chic w/Criminal Culture/Ink And Sweat/Blacksmith Iron Chic hails from Long Island, N.Y. and doles out fast, hard and fun-driving punk-pop tunes marked by dual revving guitars and two pairs of rough-sanded vocals howling lyrics that range from nostalgic (“True Miserable Experience”) to introspective (“Time Keeps On Slipping Into The (Cosmic) Future”). This date supports 2013 Bridge Nine Records release, The Constant One, which earned a high 7.9 rating from Pitchfork.com. (Epic Problem, Tampa)
TUESDAY, MARCH 4
Sam Pacetti w/Walter Parks A fingerstyle guitar bill at the Skipperdome that doesn’t feature Shaun Hopper? Scandalous! Sam Pacetti hails from St. Augustine, his acoustic style informed by the folk traditions of his home state, the flamenco teachings of his grandfather, and the technique of legendary fingerpicker Chet Atkins he discovered at age 13. Walter Parks is an Atlanta-by-way-of-Jacksonville axe-slinger with a more low-country swamp-blues appeal. Both artists add vocals to their picked and plucked instrumentals. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 5
The Happy Mondays British alternative outfit The Happy Mondays burst from the Manchester scene with an alternative dance music sound that combined Chicago house and Motown funk-influenced rhythms with jangly pop-psychedelic guitars and those elastic keyboard grooves that are so Dark Wave evocative. Happy Mondays have disbanded several times since forming in 1980. This latest tour marks their fourth reunion, though it’s the first to feature the original lineup in more than two decades. (Capitol Theatre, Clearwater)
Two Cow Garage An attention grabbing bill for this week’s edition of the BBQ Wednesday Series as co-presented by Brokenmold and Sweetwater Brew Co.: Two Cow Garage, the crunchy ass-kicking punk-country group from Ohio fronted by crusty-voiced singer/guitarist Micah Schnabel. They back a sixth full-length, last year’s The Death of the Self-Preservation Society, its production crowd-funded via a campaign on indiegogo.com that raised an impressive $16k. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
Comeback Kid w/Backtrack/Xibalba/Downpresser/To The Wind The day after releasing a fifth full length, Die Knowing (Victory Records), Canadian hardcore ragers Comeback Kid trounces on Tampa with a set of raw, intense, pounding and crushing hardcore. Frontman Andrew Neufeld has said the album is their biggest and heaviest to date, more representative of Comeback Kid’s live sound, and lyrically, “it’s a reminder to stay hungry while carving your own path, living life to its full potential.” (Epic Problem, Tampa)
CLICK HERE to see a complete rundown of shows taking place this week and in the coming weeks.