Posted by Leilani Polk on Jul. 7, 2009, at 4:06 pm
The Allman Brothers Band brings their 40th Anniversary Tour to Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on Wednesday, October 21. Because of the classic jam rockers’ longtime popularity and legion of loyal fans, the show will most likely sell out. (The Allmans haven’t played a headlining date in the Bay area since their 2005 stop at the Ford Amphitheatre, likely because the annual Wanee appearances draw enough fans not to warrant an actual Florida tour.) So, if you can afford to pay $131, $101.50, $81.50 or $61.50 per ticket to see the Allmans at Ruth Eckerd, get your tickets when they go on sale, this Friday, July 10, at noon.
You know what they say, “when it rains, it pours,” and such is the case this week with three shows in four days. While I don’t expect anyone else to adhere to such a rigorous schedule, I do think you can find something you like in one (or more) of these shows. If you do make it out to any, find me and we’ll tell fish tales over a beer.
I am so excited about this show. Honestly, I just assumed Grayson Capps would never come to Florida. BUT! Here he is and he’s bringing his full band, The Stumppknockers, with him. If the sound of Southern soul mixed with back-country stomp with a little road-house blues sounds like something that might tickle your fancy, you need to get to The Ritz on Thursday night for this show.
When I last wrote about Grayson I said, “I find myself drawn to the drunks, whores and vagabonds that haunt Grayson’s songs. They’re like old friends you keep up with via letters in the mail, and with a new album comes new updates.” It’ll be nice to finally meet this motley crew of characters in person.
Oklahoma is cooler than Florida! At least as far as official state rock songs are concerned. Residents declared The Flaming Lips‘ “Do You Realize?” the rock anthem of Oklahoma via an online vote. However, the Oklahoma state House rejected the resolution. Some representatives, inclined against all things cool, protested the vote, citing the band’s profanity and provocative wardrobe. A bandmember once wore a hammer & sickle t-shirt? Say it ain’t so! When all was thought lost, Gov. Brad Henry, part-time rock savior, overruled the legislature via executive order and threw his support behind the people’s choice. Oklahoma is now cool despite the best efforts of certain politicians. As for the Lips (pictured right), they are currently prepping a double album.
Man, it’s been a while since we had a “To Do” and, I ain’t gonna lie, the break has been nice. Having done one to two shows a week for a month-plus, I was ready for some time off. Now, having had said time off, I need to go to a fucking show. Luckily for me and the rest of you Tampa/’Burg-ians, we got a weekend loaded with the awesome. So let’s go through it:
Thursday @ New World: The Woodsboss
There is no shortage of people who’ve danced a shit-ton of nights away at New World to the live blessings of The Weary Boys. Those were the kinds of nights that stories are made of. A band without a label relentlessly touring enough to build huge followings, in enough towns they could play packed houses in every state of the union. Then reality came crawling and The Weary Boys disbanded.
Wha? Why? What’s gonna? WTFingF?
Shock, rage, sadness.
Enter The Woodsboss. Which, FYI, is basically The Weary Boys minus Darren and plus Brian’s wife.
So, all you Weary Boy fans needs to get your asses up off the couch and get out to New World Thursday night and we’ll dance again to the fine fine sounds of Mario, The Woodsboss and a few Weary Boys faves.
The good news: if you couldn’t make it to Fort Lauderdale last Thursday for the first Iron Maiden show in Florida since ‘95, frontman Bruce Dickinson swore up and down multiple times Maiden would return to our state in 2011.
The bad news: the classic Powerslave-era stage decor and the old-songs-only mantra of the Somewhere Back In Time tour are now a thing of the past … again.
I waited half my life to see this band in person. Were you to peruse my apartment, you would find no less than three dozen Maiden releases. Multiple copies of studio albums due to varying reissue bonuses. Rare singles. Multiple live albums — some on both CD and DVD. Even the ridiculous Eddie’s Archive metallic casket of rarities. It’s silly and excessive(ly awesome), I admit. Given the band’s lengthy absence from Florida, I’m positive many others shared my situation. But would the British Heavy Metal legends live up to years of expectation?
Before the band could answer that question I had to sit through the worst case of rock ‘n’ roll nepotism since I saw The Poor open for AC/DC at what used to be the Thunderdome (Angus Young’s nephew played drums): the rock star aspirations of Iron Maiden bassist Steve Harris‘ daughter.
On Sunday, April 19, Skipper’s Smokehouse will host the 4th annual Alchemy Fest – an all-ages, family-friendly, outdoor event that’s like Easter, Earth Day and 4:20 all rolled into one.
There will also be face painting, tarot card reading by Natty Moss Bond, henna tattoos by Aleka Phoenix, arts and crafts activities for the kids and “many more surprises.”
The event starts at 2 p.m. and goes until 6 p.m. Admission is $10. Children 10 and under get in free. Skipper’s Smokehouse is also a restaurant that serves some of the best Florida/Cajun staples around such as hush puppies, crawfish and gator tail bites.
What: Alchemy Fest 4 When: Sunday, April 19 Where:Skipper’s Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Rd. Tampa More: 2 – 6 p.m. | $10 | All Ages | 10 and under free
WIN TICKETS: Send MIXTAPE to 50618 for your chance to win a pair of tickets to Alchemy Fest 4. Congratulations to our winners!
Posted by Eric Snider on Mar. 31, 2009, at 8:54 am
Our guy Woody at Live Nation sent us this fresh info:
Tickets are $253.50, $98.50, $58.50 & $33.50, and go on sale Monday April 6 at 10 a.m. through livenation.com, 877-598-8698 (the toll free Live Nation ticketing phone number), and all TicketMaster outlets.
Long-time U2 Show Director Willie Williams has worked again with architect Mark Fisher (ZooTV, PopMart, Elevation and Vertigo), to create an innovative 360? design which affords an unobstructed view for the audience. U2 360° also marks the first time a band has toured in stadiums with such a unique and original structure (which can be viewed at U2.com).
“U2 has always been at their best when surrounded by their audience, this staging takes a giant leap forward. With 85 percent of the tickets priced at less than $95.00, general admission floor tickets priced at $55.00 and at least 10,000 tickets at every venue priced at the $30.00 price range, we have worked very hard to ensure that U2 fans can purchase a great priced ticket with a guaranteed great view” says U2’s manager Paul McGuinness.
Sunday. Laid low today. Resting up for the long week ahead. Took another nice long walk this morning to HEB (Texas’ answer to bad grocery stores).
Definitely no iPhones at HEB. Actually, there was a Cricket and Boost Mobile kiosk in the entryway next to the Coke and holographic sticker machines.
Spent most of the day cutting together footage from day one.
Here it is:
UPDATE: Davey (one of the guys I’m staying with) just returned from DJ’ing what he described as a “Rat Pack-themed interactive after-party.” He said the party was totally lame, but that he played for an hour and got paid $300. Travis (his roommate) lamented on how last night, his band played a three-hour gig, two hours away, got paid $100 and had to split it four ways – less the gas money. Seems like half of us are always in the wrong business.
Where to begin? Last Thursday seems like so long ago, the start of a very long weekend of incredible music. With the Harvest Of Hope festival bringing bands by the boatload to Florida, many of them played shows throughout the state before and after the weekend. I (with my girlfriend and a few other friends) went to four shows in six days across the state. I did my best to document all of this with pictures and video; and even managed to score a short video interview with Bryce Dessner of The National. Read the rest of this entry »
I was still discovering Iron Maiden when they last visited Florida – 13 years ago. Needless to say, my fifteen-year-old self didn’t even know about the show, much less see it. Plus, it was during the Blaze Bayley years. Even in hindsight, I don’t think I’d waste my time. But once classic-era frontman Bruce Dickinson and guitarist Adrian Smith rejoined in 1999, my black heart broke every time the band announced a new tour. Year after year, nothing in Florida. And as if I was being personally mocked by my favorite band, concerts in Boston where I went to college only occurred when I was back home in Fla.
Since their 1999 reunion, Maiden has released three albums – one awesome, two completely forgettable – and announced a few years ago they would tour less. I pretty much gave up any hope of seeing my all-time favorite band.
But on April 2, 2009, everything changes. Iron Maiden will conclude their much-hyped Somewhere Back In Time World Tour 2008-09 at the BankAtlantic Center in Fort Lauderdale. The tour features a classic Powerslave/World Slavery Tour-era stageshow and no songs recorded after 1992.
Tickets go on sale this Friday night at 11:58 PM. That’s right. Two Minutes to Midnight.
“Fear of the Dark (live)” from A Real Live One (1993).
Little Fyodor returns to Tampa Bay Friday night to downtown St. Petersburg’s Cafe Bohemia. After blowing the roof off of Transitions Art Gallery and then the whole town of Gainesville one year ago with his cohort Babushka, Fyodor returned to his home in Colorado, kept in touch with some Floridians, and played some Florida music on his radio show, “Under the Floorboards.”
Locals in attendance at Transitions for Fyodor’s performance have been waiting with bated breath and salty skin for the return of an underground legend. A combination of weird, angular and hilarious, the music of Little Fyodor represents an underground barely covered in any medium. His 80s band Walls of Genius got one line of text in the Richie Unterberger classic book, Unknown Legends of Rock n Roll.
Extremely entertaining, spastic and poignant in combating our current boredom/mediocrity based culture, Little Fyodor promises to put on a great show this Friday, January 16.
Mohawk Bomb Records, the award-winning, Clearwater-based independent record label, announces its release schedule for spring 2009.
Soulfound “Live at Zen Recording”: features 5 songs performed live at Zen Recording from their “Is a Rock Band” album, released in September 2008. There are 5 video companions to the songs available on Soulfound’s YouTube channel. The EP will be available as a digital release on February 17, 2009.
No Lip Vol. 2 Compilation: This 14-song eclectic mixed bag of Rock music anthems is the second release in Mohawk Bomb’s No Lip series. Although leaning towards Punk and Pop Rock, No Lip pulls samples from the Florida, California, Texas, Ontario (Canada), UK and Australian music scenes as a survey course of the caliber of independent music. Profiles on each of the contributing bands will be posted on the label’s Website at www.mohawkbomb.com over the next month. The compilation will be available for sale online after February 24, 2009. Physical CDs will be passed out as free giveaways and sent to music press around the USA.
Mohawk Bomb Records is a new kind of record label, focused on sharing all music with the World using social networking and Web 2.0 technologies.
The Allman Brothers Band brings their 40th Anniversary Tour to Clearwater’s Ruth Eckerd Hall on Wednesday, October 21. Because of the classic jam rockers’ longtime popularity and legion of loyal fans, the show will most likely sell out. (The Allmans haven’t played a headlining date in the Bay area since their 2005 stop at the Ford Amphitheatre, likely because the annual Wanee appearances draw enough fans not to warrant an actual Florida tour.) So, if you can afford to pay $131, $101.50, $81.50 or $61.50 per ticket to see the Allmans at Ruth Eckerd, get your tickets when they go on sale, this Friday, July 10, at noon.
Oklahoma is cooler than Florida! At least as far as official state rock songs are concerned. Residents declared 
The good news: if you couldn’t make it to Fort Lauderdale last Thursday for the first 
