A Reason to Rock 2
A benefit concert for Parkinson’s reasearch
Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, FL
Saturday January 10, 2009
Bands: Chris McCarty Band, Radio Reset, Soulfound, The Prospect
All Ages | $20 at Door | Meet and greet at 6:00p | Doors at 7:00p
Have Gun, Will Travel performing at New World Brewery Sat., Dec. 27.
After the Radon show , I skedaddled over to New World Brewery just in time to catch Have Gun, Will Travel in another fine Thx Mgmt-hosted bill. HGWT is consistently one of my favorite live acts because they continue to innovate each time I see them with fresh improvisations on their material and inevitably a new song or two. (more…)
In Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day, when everyone commonly gathered together and celebrated in various ways. (When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, I got to see Mummers perform on the post-holiday holiday.) Sadly, in Tampa, we don’t have Mummers but thanks to THX MGMT, we were treated to a great night of local music featuring Geri X, Rec Center, Sons of Hippies, and The Actomatics. (more…)
Hankshaw & Friends
The annual New Granada Christmas Show at New World Brewery featuring King of Spain, Davey von Bohlen, Hankshaw and Jarvik 7 was a splendid night of reunions with a grand soundtrack. The show has a reputation for unique elements (including in past years the reunions of Scrog, Pohgoh and appearances by elusive bands like The Blackwoods Orchestra) and it’s a place to meet up with friends from near and far.
In 2008, I tried to take pictures at almost every show I attended. It’s a daunting task. Sometimes the lighting sucks, you may get stuck far from the stage or some venues may not let you bring a camera in at all. But when all goes right, you can go home with some swell shots of the bands.
These are my photo highlights of the year. Click on any image to view as full size.
(For my favorite albums of 2008, just click here)
Neptune 3/19/08 @ New World Brewery
Last night, Manchester Orchestra sold out the Orpheum (this reporter only made it in thanks to the door work of CL Marketing + Promotions Director Joran Oppelt). Lead singer Andy Hull (looking every bit Grandaddy frontman Jason Lytle’s little brother) impressed with his vocal chops, mixing in a good deal of Ben Gibbard-influence to go with the band’s loud/quiet sing-a-long numbers, some which have been featured in the Gossip Girl TV show.
Kevin Devine, Dead Confederate and All Get Out opened. Some grainy pictures of MO below:
What will acoustic funk favorite Christie Lenee perform from '68?
WMNF’s Flee is straying from his typical tribute show tradition. Instead of having a diverse lineup of local acts honor a single artist he has asked all the bands listed below to cover a tune from 1968 for the community radio station’s upcoming New Year’s Eve bash.
Songs I would like to hear from that year? How about killer renditions of The Rolling Stones’ “Factory Girl,” The Beatles’ “Happiness Is a Warm Gun,” Otis Redding’s “Hard to Handle,” Loretta Lynn’s “Fist City” and The Velvet Underground’s “White Light/White Heat.” Seriously, that would be a rad setlist!
Rewind: The WMNF Tribute to the Music and Songs of 1968 w/ Boon/Christie Lenee (pictured)/Crabgrass Cowboys/Ted Lukas/Johnny Zoom/Lush Progress/Midnight Bowler’s League/Rancid Polecats/Roppongi’s Ace/Talk to Mark, Wed., Dec. 31, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa.
Here are some shots from last nights show at New World Brewery. Despite the colder temperatures, about 100 folks came out to see the biggest full moon in 15 years and some good bands: Pielos, Super Secret Best Friends, Inertia! and the Unitards.
Lily of Inertia! welcomed Ryann Slauson and Nikki Navarro of Giddy-Up Helicopter!,for her set. I then found out Giddy-Up are calling it quits in the spring when Nikki plans to leave for Chicago.
Super Secret Best Friends played their first show at New World since their first-ever show early this year. SSBF drummer Alex told me it’s their favorite venue. Agreed.
Inertia!
More pics below: (more…)
WHO: Trace of Day, Soulfound, Drew Street Mary and more
WHAT: Bad Ass Rock Concert
WHERE: Gasoline Alley, 14042 66th St, Largo, Florida (across from Mugs and Jugs)
WHEN: Saturday December 13, 2008
DETAILS: Showtime 8:30pm, tickets $6. Doors are at 8PM. Buy tickets in advance at www.mohawkbomb.com/tix
SET TIMES:
Madison Fadeout - 8:30 - 9:00
Drew Street Mary - 9:20 - 9:50
Soulfound - 10:15 - 10:55
Trace of Day - 11:10 - 11:50
What Lies Within - 12:15 - 1:15
My memory of the event is not very clear. I showed up at the CL office in Tampa, ate a slice of pizza, listened to some Muay Thai boxers beat the shit out of what Stephen Hammill, CL’s online producer, assured me were anatomically correct mannequins and then it all goes blank. I think Joran Oppelt, CL’s Marketing and Promotions Director, may have slipped a roofie under the cheese of the pizza we shared. All I know is that the next day a link to this video was in my inbox:
Lorna performs \”Song for the Voiceless\” live on CL Sessions
There is no telling what else happened during these mysterious “CL Sessions.” I guess we’ll all just have to stay tuned to The Big Music Site to find out.
p.s. If you dig “Song for the Voiceless,” it is available on my latest album, Released. You can order it here.
Boss local punk-blues power trio Roppongi’s Ace have posted new tracks on their MySpace page. Here’s what the band wrote in a recent blog post:
Record in 1/09! Demos up now
Hope y’all get a chance to listen to the new tracks. They’re still in demo form and are a little rough around the edges–the masters are done and should be up soon. Look for the new record in early January and a whole bunch of new dates to be posted soon! - RA
Singer/guitarist/fiddler Alex Spoto has been away at college (Brown, last we spoke; yep, he’s a thinker), causing the recent band hiatus. But you can witness Roppongi’s Ace rip it up Dec. 28 at Crowbar and Dec. 31 at Skipper’s Smokehouse. Here’s what I wrote about Roppongi’s spectacular summer of 2007 farewell gig at the Skipperdome:
Friday night, Orlando’s Matt Butcher debuted his new album, Me and My Friends, with a perfomance at Ybor’s New World Brewery with support from Will Quinlin and the Diviners and North Carolina-based Bombadil.
The diminutive troubadour Butcher (who sounds more like a young Neil Young with each listen) and crew of six knocked out some great harmonies, especially on the title track. Lead guitar and pedal steel work filled things out nicely. As a friend commented, “it’s just enough country, but never too much country.”
Bombadil overcame some questionable wardobe choices to knock out really tight set of twee pop/Indie/Irish sea chanties for children.
Matt Butcher:
After several days of family togetherness and gorging on Thanksgiving leftovers, Saturday evening at New World Brewery was a welcome respite brought to us by THX Mgmt. The show featured a diverse group of Florida bands: Beardsley,
