Tampa Calling

Lots of new concert announcements arrived in my email box over the past three days. I’ve paired the new with a few that slipped through the cracks for your concert planning convenience. For a complete breakdown of area shows, visit our Upcoming Concerts page.

Saturday, Aug. 8 Sons of Bill, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa, $7 in advance/$10 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Aug. 14 Tracy Byrd, Dallas Bull, Tampa, $9.95 in advance, $15 at the door; ON SALE NOW.

Sunday, Aug. 23: White Rabbits w/The Fiery Furnaces, The Social, Orlando, $13 in advance, $15 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Sept. 04: Soja w/The Movement, State Theatre, St. Petersburg, $15; ON SALE NOW.

Friday, Sept. 04 Lee “Scratch” Perry, The Social, Orlando, $20 in advance, $25 dos; ON SALE NOW.

Wednesday, Sept. 16: Living Colour (pictured above), Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg, $15 in advance, $18 dos; ON SALE NOW. Read the rest of this entry »

As I said with my last post about Nerdapalooza, I wasn’t really familiar with the whole genre (or its fan base) until mere weeks before attending the festival, but I had a short list of people I wanted to see as Trevor and I shoved off from St. Petersburg last Saturday morning.

Now, I’m typing this a little under 24 hours after getting home from the festival. Showered, rested, and fed, I’m still not sure how I want to cover it. There were plenty of disappointments, such as Kabuto The Python (the #1 thing I wanted to see) not thinking to try the rapping with a mask thing out before stepping out onto a stage, which resulted in Kabuto the Mime. There was The Protomen’s set so mired in feedback that you would have thought they brought it along as a special guest. Then there was the most frustrating part of all, the festival’s complete and utter inability to stay anywhere close to the schedule (more on that later).

But this isn’t meant to be a diatribe from some outsider coming in to point at the nerds and talk about how shitty their convention was. And as I drove home, I reflected on some of the cool shit we saw. The first band we caught, Captain Dan & the Scurvy Crew, were quite entertaining both sonically and visually as they took the stage in complete pirate garb. Kabuto aside, the rest of the Scrub Club showcase was phenomenal. As a “crew” they seem to embrace a “hiphop first, nerd second” approach to their music and stage show that really appealed to me.

Then there was the out of left field “holy shit I am gonna talk about that for months” set by Schaffer The Darklord. I’d listened to his material on Myspace in preparation for the festival and was lukewarm to it at best. However, live … live is where it was at. Those lazy beats and rhyme delivery were pushed aside for an uptempo, high energy tight stage show that captivated the entire room. Watching him on stage I kept thinking, this dude is like nerdcore’s version of Col. J.D. Wilkes (for those who don’t know, read about JD here). I don’t think there is any doubt that Schaffer stole the entire festival with his shortened performance. Read the rest of this entry »

“Don’t stop, believing — hold on to the feeyayaling!”

“‘Cause I can’t fight this feeling anymore, I’ve forgotten what I started fighting for! And if I have to crawl upon the floor, come crashing through your door, baby, I cant fight this feeling anymore!”

“Come sail away, come sail away, come sail away with me!” (Think of Cartman singing it. Makes it twice as great.)

All right, enough of that. Just wanted to introduce two concert announcements I received over the weekend about two upcoming shows featuring ’70s classic rock bands known for their epic power balladry.

Journey (the current incarnation pictured at right, in case you didn’t recognize) stops at the Amway Arena in Orlando Wed., Sept. 23, with Night Ranger to open. Tickets are $126, $66 and $36, and go on sale this Sat., July 18 at 10 a.m.

And the “Cant Stop Rockin’ Tour 2009″ with REO Speedwagon and Styx (also featuring special guest opener Night Ranger) play a pavilion only Ford Amphitheatre Fri., Oct. 30. The reserved seat tickets are $59.50, $39.50, $29.50 and $19.50, with four-packs available for $60. Sales this Sat., July 18 at 10 a.m.

Scotland’s indie rock foursome Frightened Rabbit, fronted by brothers Scott and Grant Hutchison, hits several festivals (including Pitchfork) and makes a few solo stops this July. The band (pictured at left, photo by Dave Gourley at Kelvingrove Museum) has just announced that it will return to the states for a late summer-early fall tour that kicks off in Morrison, Colo., and ends at The Social in Orlando. They also debuted a new song and played some intriguing covers at Off the Beaten Track, an ongoing video music project (check that out HERE). Here are some highlights from the release (tour dates after the jump):

The foursome will team up with friends and countrymen, The Twilight Sad and We Were Promised Jetpacks for a raucous Scottish invasion of the States. The band will headline the anthemic rock-filled jaunt, which kicks off in Salt Lake City on September 14, following their appearance at the Monolith Festival in Colorado, alongside Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Girl Talk and the Walkmen. Read the rest of this entry »

The Killers will play UCF Arena in Orlando on Thursday, October 1.

Tickets are $52.00 for the General Admission Dance Floor, $38.00 for Reserved Lower Bowl Seating and $35.00 for Reserved Upper Bowl seating. They go on sale Saturday, June 27 at 10 am at LiveNation.com, charge by phone 877-598-8698 and all TicketMaster outlets. Day of show the price increases to $55.00 for GA Dance Floor, $41.00 for Lower Bowl and $38.00 for Upper Bowl.

Frodus Conglomerate International (1993-1999) resurrected on June 18, 2009 at Redlight Redlight, Orlando, FL, continuing what has been an outstanding ’90s hardcore reunion year (most recently the unbroken/split lip reunion at burning fight). Supporting the resurrection was Tampa’s Guiltmaker and Orlando’s Hurrah.

Frodus Read the rest of this entry »

Thx Mgmt brought an all-star Florida rock n’ roll show to New World Brewery last Friday, June 5, featuring Tampa darlings The Beauvilles, Orlando-based Thomas Wynn & The Believers and Jacksonville’s Shawn Fisher & The Jukebox Gypsies. The master plan was a mini-weekend tour with stops at each of the bands’ hometowns while rotating the headliner spot and introducing the out-of-town bands to new audiences. A grand idea!

Read the rest of this entry »

In the hours after penning my little fuck you to the Tampa/St. Pete music fan base, I got to thinking. There’s a line in the Outkast song, “Git Up, Git Out,” that says; “You need to git up, git out and git somethin’ / Cuz you and I got to do for you and I.” I thought, instead of bitching about how lazy Bay Area music fans have become, instead of railing against the DJ culture of Tampa, instead of being a whiny bitch about it, why not try and help the people who are trying to change things in the area. And we’re going, too. Just as soon as we finish this other thing … None of this has anything to do with the Thx Mgmt show Friday night at New World Brewery except that the two subjects are in the same spirit…

So, on with the show.

Following my rant, Shawn Beauville from the Beauvilles emailed me to inform me about a little tour his band was taking part in. The idea was to get a collection of bands together who can pull within their own markets and put them all on the road together with the “home band” headlining their respective market. In this case, the bands are: The Beauvilles (Tampa), Thomas Wynn & The Believers (Orlando) and Shawn Fisher and the Jukebox Gypsies (Jacksonville). Joining them on the Tampa date is The Junkyard Kings. Not only is the spirit of this show something I can get behind, but the lineup has something for everyone who likes their music played live and loud and right in front of them. Seems Thx Mgmt might be coming to the same conclusions as I am cause right on the tails of this show comes The Citrus Circuit Tour featuring a whole other slew of Florida bands. But more on that later this month.

Anyhow. Come on Tampa. Come on St. Pete. Get out to New World on Friday night and celebrate/support your local musicians. ‘Til then, here’s a sampling of what you’ll hear: Read the rest of this entry »

MayDay Festival was conceived a few years ago by Ted Morgan and Ben Wavel in Houston, TX, with the hopes of creating an exposure outlet for their favorite local bands.  On May 23, they will bring the rock to Orlando. Through the festival, they have helped many bands get bigger followings and gotten the local community to take more notice of their local crop of bands.

Read the rest of this entry »

After eight years, I’m still trying to find my identity in the Tampa Bay area. I’ve got the “you’ve got to drive everywhere all the time if you want to have any fun and be a part of anything” vibe down, but there’s something missing in my overall music-making and living experiences in St. Petersburg. The latest rash of confused feelings came to me Saturday night, when I found a review of my band Blast & the Detergents CD in the April issue of MAXIMUMROCKNROLL.

A great, short and earnest review, I was as giddy as a little 12-year-old whose parents finally let him get a cotton candy. This nationally distributed, punk-as-fuck, San Francisco-based ‘zine spent the time listening to and reviewing my CD. They even chose my hand-drawn album art to be displayed for eternity in the review section of their April 2009.

But wait, there’s more!

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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 »

New Zealand acoustic guitar-playing comedy duo Flight of the Conchords will no doubt be decked out in a slick new pair of business socks when they land at Orlando’s UCF Arena on Wednesday, April 4. These socks (I’m picturing argyle) will run you upwards of $50 a ticket after all the charges and tax. That’s steep. I’m a big fan of their HBO show and last year’s album, but it’s hard to rationalize paying that much to see two guys and no light show.

The internet pre-sale started up today at Ticketbastard via the password: SUGALUMPS

Once upon a time, I thought …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead was an amazing metal band name wasted on some Austin indie rockers. Then I heard Worlds Apart, the band’s ambitious, anthemic, self-indulgent yet criminally underrated 2005 album, and I realized these guys rule.  I finally caught them live in November of 2006. To say they left me wanting more would be too kind.

Disappointment set in when I happened upon their upcoming tour dates. February 23 at The Social over in Orlando. Nothing in our vicinity.

Why am I so disappointed? Well, I’m of the opinion that …Trail of Dead owes us a decent concert.

What happened on-stage at Jannus Landing on November 18, 2006?

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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:

Read the rest of this entry »