Tampa Calling

It’s a holiday weekend, which means one extra day of partying down and supporting the local music scene without fear of a hangover-filled workday to follow. Here’s a quick breakdown of your best live music bets. For a more comprehensive schedule of concerts, check out our Upcoming Events page.

Thursday, July 2
Mike Dunn & the Kings of New England (pictured at right)/Will Quinlan/King of Spain Winter Park singer/songwriter Mike Dunn makes music that evokes freedom and wind in your face. His grabby, anthemic tunes send out a whiff of Americana, but at core they are pure, pop-infused rock ’n’ roll. Dunn pulls from a list of 11 confederates to make up his backing band, the Kings of New England, on any given night. No word on how many will show up at New World for this gig, but the safe bet is it won’t be all 11. Atlanta’s Rick Brantley was formerly on the bill but has been replaced by local one-man experimental rocker, King of Spain (Matt Slate). And Quinlan, well, we all know Quinlan, the dour dean of Tampa Bay’s Americana scene. Thurs., July 2, 9 p.m., New World Brewery, Ybor City, $7. —ES

Michael McDonald + Boz Scaggs Two of the most popular vocalists of the 1970s join together in a co-bill at Ruth Eckerd. My strong preference is Scaggs, with his round, throaty soul croon. His Silk Degrees (’76) is an unmitigated classic. Lately, Scaggs’ has added standards from the American Songbook to his repertoire, so his show will be a compendium of material over several decades. (Concertgoer alert: He’s going on first; to read more about him, check out the CL feature here.) When McDonald joined the Doobie Brothers in 1975, they went from a guitar-oriented bar band (albeit a slick one) to a Grammy-winning pop outfit dominated by McDonald’s keyboards and syrupy voice. He had a solid solo career in the 1980s, despite the blemish known as “Yah Mo B There.” Thurs., July 02, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater, $62.50-$103. —Eric Snider

Friday, July 03
Starlight Mints/Evangelicals (pictured at left, photo by Sarah Cass) You might want to take a break from the Hot Dog show and stroll up the street for Starlight Mints, a band out of Norman, Okla. (home of Flaming Lips) that would make a proper co-bill with Sunbears!. The quartet of “pop mutants” brings plenty of whimsy and weirdness to their sound, but never strays from tried-and-true rock verities: hooks, tuneful vocals, muscular rhythms. The band is backboned by synthesizers, but adds playful twists — like the cartoon horns on “Zoomba” from their new album Change Remains. Evangelicals are also from Norman, and sound as if they might’ve been to a few barbecues at Coyne’s house. Fri., July 3, 9 p.m., New World Brewery, Ybor City, $8. —ES

Annual Hot Dog Show feat. Sunbears!/Juicy Pony/The Grecian Urns/eFFeX/Shunda K A summertime tradition. Folks gather in Ybor City for free barbecue, major slabs of live and DJ’d music, and the main event: a hot dog eating contest. This year’s headliner is an up-and-coming band from Jacksonville, Sunbears! — singer/instrumentalist/chief songwriter Jonathan Berlin and drummer Jared Bowser — who make, well, sunny, synthy pop with gauzy atmospherics and nods to the likes of the Beach Boys, Flaming Lips and others. (Check out my feature interview with Berlin here.) Juicy Pony, also from Jacksonville, leads more synth-dance. Fri., July 3, 9 p.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $5. —ES

Sean Chambers w/Soul2Earth Chambers, one of the Bay area’s venerable blues artists, celebrates the release of his new CD, Ten ’Til Midnight, with this gig. In ’01, England’s Guitarist magazine named Chambers one of its 50 Greatest Blues Guitarists of all Time. Fri., July 3, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $8. —ES

Saturday, July 04
Rockin’ Wings Concert feat. Amanda Overmyer (pictured at right) w/Greg Billings Band/Drew Street Mary Overmyer, who placed 11th in the seventh season of American Idol, has a decided Janis Joplin fixation. Her dirt-rock-meets-Southern-boogie sound is a perfect fit for her gargling-razorblades voice. This outdoor bash will be held on the grounds of the small airport in downtown St. Pete. Sat., July 4, 4 p.m., Albert Whitted Airport, St. Petersburg, $10 general/$5 children 6-12/$25 VIP. —ES

Let Freedom Jam! w/Middle Rhythm Session/3rd Stone/Diocious Another 4th of July bash, this one featuring MRS, a Tampa-based quartet that works the funk-jam tip. All you would-be Hendrix tribute bands out there, the best name’s been taken — but, ah, Gainesville’s 3rd Stone is not a Hendrix tribute band. Judging by the one song available on MySpace, the six-piece is an interesting amalgam of backpack hip-hop, contemporary R&B and jam-band rock. Sat., July 4, 8 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $10. —ES

Beres Hammond The 53-year-old Jamaican singer delivers the kind of old-school melodic reggae that never goes out of style. Hammond’s soulful voice is about equal parts sand and lotion, and it’s obvious that as a kid he soaked up his share of Stax and Motown soul. Sat., July 4, 8 p.m. doors, 10 p.m. show, The Ritz Ybor, Ybor City, $35 general. —ES

Sunday, July 05
The 10,000lb Hamburger Tour w/A-Trak (pictured at right)/Rye Rye/Treasure Fingers/Hyphy Crunk/Pauly Crush/DJ Mega/Crate Brothers/Stavros/DJ Y-Not/DJ Queso Montreal DJ/turntablist A-Trak (real name: Alain Macklovitch) scratched his first record at 13, bought a used turntable and mixer with his Bar Mitzvah money, and in 1997 at 15, became the youngest (and first Canadian) to win the DMCs World DJ Championship. A dozen years later, A-Trak has proved himself to be an electronic music heavyweight — he runs hip-hop and electro record label Fool’s Gold with DJ Nick Catchdubs and is the official DJ of rapper/producer Kanye West, both while maintaining a busy solo career. This year he released two mix albums of energetic dance music, Infinity +1 and Fabriclive 45, the latter fusing classic house, newer funk-loop house, hip hop, electro house and disco with his signature scratch master style. The LA Times has called A-Trak a Rembrandt-caliber artist when it comes to live mixing and mashing for the dance floor, and you can see him in action on his “10,000lb Hamburger Tour” when he headlines an all-day Fourth of July “Red, White, & Bootay III” party at Crowbar; Baltimore emcee Rye Rye, disco house purveyor Treasure Fingers, LA’s fast dance spinning Hyphy Crunk, and a lineup of area DJs are also scheduled to play. Sun., July 5, 4 p.m.-2 a.m., Crowbar, Ybor City, $10 (includes barbeque). —LP

Benefit for Jessica Roberts feat. John Hancock/Morgan & Wildflower/Captain Obvious and the Duh Patrol/Jake Mackey/Mike Tozier/Kettle Of Fish/Orient Road A coterie of acoustic-based acts based in Tampa Bay join forces for a benefit. I’m most familiar with Tozier, who actually calls Nashville home these days — he’s a first-rate Dobro player and solid Delta blues singer, and also stretches into jam/reggae territory and more folk-based fare. Sun., July 5, 5 p.m., Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $10 donation. —ES

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