Check out my shots from the Maxwell show at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater this past Thursday, July 30. Apparently the neo-soul singer is bashful; the handful of photographers were granted access to shoot the first three songs, but only from the very back of the auditorium.

Less than a year after their last appearance at Clearwater’s stately Ruth Eckerd Hall, New York-based blues rockers The Black Crowes return for another round on Wednesday, October 7, with Truth & Salvage Co. to open. Tickets are $40.50 and $68, and sales begin at noon this Friday, July 24.

The tour will come after the release of the band’s eighth studio effort, Before the Frost…Until the Freeze, a different sort of double album out September 1. The first album, Before the Frost…, features 11 new unreleased Crowes’ studio songs distributed via the band’s own Silver Arrow label and Megaforce Records. The second album, …Until The Freeze, includes 8 original Crowes’ songs and a cover of Stephen Stills’ classic “So Many Times,” and it’s given away via a download code included with Before The Frost… Limited-edition vinyl copies of Before The Frost…Until The Freeze with all 20 tracks will also be available.

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.

This week, R&B artist Maxwell releases his fourth studio album and first new effort in eight years years, BLACKsummers’night, on Columbia. The release is available as a two-disc CD/DVD deluxe set that includes 5DAYSofBLACK, a film inspired by the making of the album. Maxwell recently released a series of excerpts from the film that take a rather interesting behind-the-scenes peek at the way he put it together. The featured tracks are “Cold,” (which features long-time Maxwell collaborator, producer/songwriter Hod David), “Pretty Wings,” “Stop the World” and “Help Somebody.” Check out all four previews after the jump; Maxwell plays Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater Thursday, July 30.

Most pop singers from the ’60s and ’70s who are fortunate enough to still be touring resort to what I call vocal cheats. That’s when they get to a point in an old hit that has a particularly high note they can’t hit — a note that especially resonates with the baby-boomer audience — so they either drop it an octave or turn it over to the background singers.

There’s nothing really shameful about these vocal cheats — it would be worse, for instance, if Daryl Hall tried to hit that big release note in “She’s Gone” and failed miserably. Or if Roger Daltrey attempted to render the big scream in “Won’t Get Fooled Again” and sounded like a frog.

I tell you all this because I saw Boz Scaggs last night at Ruth Eckerd Hall and he didn’t resort to any vocal cheats. He’s 65 years old. Very impressive. When, on “Lido Shuffle,” it came time for the “Lido, whoa, whoa” part, he was right on it — with the backup singers helping, yes, but not drowning him out and thus protecting him. Scaggs came up a little short or a little thin on some of the high notes, but he went for them all.

It wasn’t just the lack of vocal cheats that made Scaggs’ 75-minute set in front of a near-sold-out crowd a success. His voice still has that full, creamy texture of the old days, and his delivery and phrasing brimmed with nuance. (more photos below; all are by Tracy May)

Scaggs’ most recent albums have been made up of standards from the Great American Songbook. He set that material aside at REH, opting instead for a compendium of hits from the latter half of the 1970s and early ’80s (”Jojo,” “Lowdown,” “Georgia,” “Look What You’ve Done to Me” and others) as well as blues and R&B tunes from his early, early career. His encore was an extended version of the slow blues “Loan me a Dime” from his 1969 self-titled album.

Scaggs, who played guitar as well, was backed by five instrumentalists and a dynamic background singer who, I think, went by Miss Monet. She was as torrid as Scaggs was ultra-cool, and provided the ideal vocal foil. Miss Monet took center stage for a roof-raising version of the Aretha Franklin vehicle “Until You Come Back To Me.” Her performance drew a big smile from the perpetually laid-back Scaggs.

The band’s dynamics were impeccable, dialed back at times in order to make room for Scaggs’ supple pipes to take the spotlight, allowing him to contour the lyrics in fresh ways.

Besides the fact that he omitted “Breakdown Dead Ahead” and declined to sing any standards, I was thoroughly pleased with Scaggs’ set. A longtime fan, it was my first occasion to see him in concert.

Just for the record, Michael McDonald played the second set of the double bill. I’m not a fan, so only caught a few tunes and left. As a result, I’ll pass on offering commentary here — except to say that he sat facing the crowd behind an electronic keyboard as his feet pumped on pedals … and he was wearing flip-flops. Yeesh.

Here’s a photo, however.

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

Boz Scaggs performs at Ruth Eckerd Hall Thurs., July 2

To casual music fans, Boz Scaggs is that smooth dude from the ’70s with those disco-ey hits “Lowdown” and “Lido Shuffle.” They might even know about his 1976 smash album Silk Degrees, which included those tunes as well as “Georgia,” “What Can I Say” and “Harbor Lights.”

Although Scaggs’ days as a major hitmaker ended in the early 1980s — in large part because he took a self-imposed hiatus for most of the decade — he has made estimable music in the 1990s and, especially, this decade. And he’s done so by turning to a familiar riff for recovering rock stars: singing old standards.

That news might cause eyes to roll — especially if you think Rod Stewart — but it would absolutely not apply in the case of Boz Scaggs. His But Beautiful (2003) and last year’s Speak Low are among the best examples of a veteran pop star delving into such old chestnuts as “What’s New?” “Sophisticated Lady,” “Easy Living,” “I’ll Remember April” and “Speak Low.”

He sings the material in a supple, torchy style, burrowing into the lyrics, caressing phrases with his round, throaty tenor. Scaggs has a natural knack for seducing you into these literate, urbane numbers culled from the legendary writers of the American Songbook. But Beautiful debuted at No. 1 on the jazz charts, but Scaggs, 65, does not consider himself a jazz singer. You won’t hear any scatting or bold deconstructions from him. Instead, he hews to the gorgeous melodies, adding slight curves and punctuations.

The singer did not enter into the world of standards lightly. He started toying with the tunes about 10 years ago, after making friends with a cluster of jazz musicians in his adopted hometown of San Francisco. The vocalist quickly discovered that the material “is much harder than more modern pop songs,” he said in a phone interview.

“I had to study. There were a few songs that fell a little more naturally into my style of singing, the ones in a bluesier vein. The rest of it, I had to work hard, study a lot, do a lot of practicing, searching, finding my own way with the songs. I’ve learned a lot, and it’s served me in other [musical] forms.”

That’s important. Scaggs hasn’t forgotten his past associations with pop/R&B, blues and rock. In fact, one of the most overlooked albums of the decade has been Dig, a program of sensual blue-eyed soul that could be regarded as “Silk Degrees II.” Big problem: Dig was released on Sept. 11, 2001. Into the tank it went.

These days, Scaggs’ concerts run the gamut of his wide-ranging musical palette, incorporating the Gershwin/Ellington/Weill milieu with originals from his own book. It’s significant to note that Scaggs does not try to standard-ize everything. Many of his hits retain the spunk and bounce of their original versions. “Some things have to stay within a certain arrangement — they don’t work out of context,” he explains. “‘Breakdown Dead Ahead’ doesn’t work without that tempo and aggressive guitar style. ‘Low Down,’ on the other hand, I’ve done in a number of different ways. It’s pretty malleable.”

Malleable is a good adjective for Scaggs’ career. He grew up near Dallas and started out as a preteen singing in his friend Steve Miller’s blues band, then scuffled around the London blues scene before settling in the hub of hippiedom, San Francisco, during the Summer of Love, 1967.

Reuniting with Miller, he appeared on the Steve Miller Band’s first two albums, then scored a solo deal on Atlantic. His self-titled debut, a gritty blues-rock effort recorded at Muscle Shoals and featuring lead guitar by Duane Allman, garnered only a lukewarm commercial reception.

Scaggs switched to Columbia and by 1974’s Slow Dancer had moved in a slicker pop-soul direction. He then joined forces with a cadre of studio musicians who would later form the band Toto and concocted Silk Degrees. Songs from the LP dominated the airwaves and also found their way into the clubs.

Although not categorically a disco record, it rode the wave that washed over American pop culture. Scaggs gently rejects the notion that Silk Degrees is among the best disco albums ever. “I never related what I did to the trendy scenes around me,” he says. “The style was more derived from people like the Isley Brothers, a lot of songs that came out of Philly and other urban R&B. The only things with contemporary dance beats were ‘What Can I Say,’ ‘Low Down’ and ‘It’s Over.’”

1977

Videos from that era capture Scaggs dressed in suits and big-collar shirts, tentatively dancing in front of large ensembles. They show a recalcitrant performer, a reluctant superstar. After 1980’s Top 10 Middle Man spawned the hits “JoJo” and “Breakdown Dead Ahead,” Scaggs simply left the biz.

He owned and operated the San Francisco nightclub Slim’s and performed there on rare occasions. “I just took off,” he explains, as if it were the most natural thing in the world. “I had family matters to attend to, two young children to raise. I just didn’t have any music in me at the time. Because I’d had a great deal of success, I was able to step away from it. Retire, if you like.”

He returned to the shelves with 1988’s Other Roads, which peaked at No. 47 on the Billboard 200 and yielded the middling Adult Contemporary hit “Heart of Mine.” It was his last taste of chart success.

Although it’s improbable that Scaggs will remotely approach his former commercial perch, he sounds perfectly sanguine about walking away while his career was in high gear. “I needed those years to let the music come back into me,” he says. “I don’t think I would be as interested or involved in it as I am today if I wasn’t able to take that time off.”

Boz Scaggs and Michael McDonald
Thurs., July 2, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. $103, $72.50, $62.50. rutheckerdhall.com.

“Breakdown Dead Ahead” from the 2000s

“Lowdown” from 1976 in Japan

“Never Let Me Go,” with still photos, but a good example of Boz singing a standard.

This just in from our friends at Ruth Eckerd Hall. Congrats.

Entertainment industry trade publication Venues Today announced that Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked #10 in the world in venues having 5,000 seats or less. With that same ranking, Ruth Eckerd Hall is #2 in venues having 2,500 seats or less.

This ranking is based on concert and event gross from April 16 to May 15 2009, with 11 performances during that period. Ruth Eckerd Hall ranked higher than such prestigious venues as the Arie Crown Theater in Chicago, the Bob Carr Performing Arts Center in Orlando and The Balboa Theatre in San Diego, California.

Additionally, Pollstar, another leading entertainment industry trade publication recently announced that Ruth Eckerd Hall is ranked #9 in the world in venues having 10,000 seats or less. Within that same ranking, Ruth Eckerd Hall is #2 in Florida and #1 in Central Florida. Based on this quarterly report, Ruth Eckerd Hall had ticket sales of 88,704 between January 1, 2009 and March 31, 2009.

During this three month period Ruth Eckerd Hall presented 73 performances and had 10 sellouts, ranking Ruth Eckerd Hall at #3 in the world in venues having 2,500 seats or less.

Designed by the prestigious Frank Lloyd Wright Foundation, Ruth Eckerd Hall is known for its 2,180-seat, acoustically perfect auditorium. Artists from America and around the world, ranging from classical, rock, opera, Broadway, jazz, pop and more are included in the stellar lineup of more than 200 performances a year.

]]> http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/06/22/ruth-eckerd-hall-ranked-no-2-in-the-world-among-venues-with-2500-seats-of-less/feed/ 0 http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/06/14/concert-review-steely-dan-at-ruth-eckerd-hall/ http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/2009/06/14/concert-review-steely-dan-at-ruth-eckerd-hall/#comments Sun, 14 Jun 2009 21:58:17 +0000 Leilani Polk http://blogs.creativeloafing.com/tampacalling/?p=7978
This weekend, I determined that the quality of your back-up singers determines the cheese factor of your show. Steely Dan’s were a trio of lovely ladies straight out of 1989, whose vocals were overshadowed by bad hair and fashion, and badly choreographed dance hands. Yes, I said it — dance hands, those theatric gestures all [...]]]>

This weekend, I determined that the quality of your back-up singers determines the cheese factor of your show. Steely Dan’s were a trio of lovely ladies straight out of 1989, whose vocals were overshadowed by bad hair and fashion, and badly choreographed dance hands. Yes, I said it — dance hands, those theatric gestures all the drama club kids make when singing in musicals, the ones that don’t really express anything but keep your arms from hanging down at your sides like wet noodles. So, yes, I was distracted by the trio, but I was also just not that into the music, either. (Photos by Phil Bardi taken from the soundboard.)

Full disclosure: I am not among the loyal legion of Dan fans. I can understand and appreciate the influence of the progressive jazz-rockers, and I like some songs from their catalog, although they are guilty of recording one of my least favorite songs, ever, “Rikki Don’t Lose That Number.” (I’m a hater on “Deacon Blues,” too.) There’s just something about the Steely Dan sound — its slick production quality, Donald Fagen’s vocal tone — that rubs me wrong. But my mind has been changed by greater things and music is oftentimes different when consumed in a live setting, and since my husband is a devotee and has never seen them live, and since I’ve never seen them perform live, either, I took us both to the show at Ruth Eckerd Hall this past Friday, June 12. The Florida leg of the “Rent Party ‘09″ tour was a sort of warm-up for the upcoming series of special bigger-city bills where the band will play one of each of their classic albums in its entirety at each show.

The support band warmed up the crowd with lively jazz — a fourtet of horns, drums, bass, keys, guitar. Then co-brains/core members, guitarist Walter Becker and vocalist/keyboardist/frontman Fagen, made their “entrance” with back-up singers in tow. Fagen, in sunglasses, a rumpled white sports coat, and dark pants and tee, sauntered onstage with his personality on high, melodica in hand, and when he wasn’t singing, or singing and playing keys, he was blowing on that dinky piano horn thing like nobody’s business. (No, I couldn’t take the dude seriously, but then, I don’t really think he took himself seriously, either.)

The band was tight, the horn players on cue, but the music still had that slick quality, the back-up singers were good enough but more a distraction than a worthy embellishment, and the audience of mostly older folks who seemed to be digging the show big time, enough to stand up and applaud at various key points, never went so far as to do any dancing, aside from a few people on the sidelines where the ushers were most lenient.

This is not to say I didn’t enjoy myself. The “Hey 19″ break where Becker told a story about the good old days of Scientology — when you could go to a Scientology dance and pick up a nice Scientologist girl and get invited in for a nightcap of “The Cuervo Gold, the fine Columbian …,” and the sing-along that followed — was particularly amusing. Discovering and appreciating “Aja” (from the album of the same name) was a nice surprise, the song progressive, more instrumental and mostly free of the back-up singing that riddled the rest of the Dan fare that night. And the one moment where I thought the back-up singers actually fit, “Babylon Sisters” — that was nice, too. But I started checking the time less than an hour into the show and I walked out generally feeling like I could probably not see Steely Dan ever again and be okay with it.

My husband had a good time, at least, though he had the same complaints as me about the crowd’s lacklusterness.

(The setlist for those looking, courtesy of Radio Dupree):

Time Out of Mind
Godwhacker
Reelin’ In the Years
Bad Sneakers
Two Against Nature
Black Friday
Aja
Sign In Stranger
Hey Nineteen
Parker’s Band
Babylon Sisters
Daddy Don’t Live in That NYC No More (Becker vocal)
Here at the Western World
Band intros by Walter while the choir sings The Supremes’ Love Is Like An Itching In My Heart
Black Cow
Peg
Kid Charlemagne

Encore:
Josie
My Old School

Dozens and dozens of acts will make it onto Tampa Bay area concert stages this summer. Here’s our best bets, in a wide range of genres.

Stanton Moore The bespectacled founder of NOLA funk purveyors Galactic is widely regarded as one of the best drummers currently drawing air. This show has him in a trio setting with estimable guitarist Will Bernard and keyboardist Robert Walter. The small ensemble allows room for Moore to strut his Crescent City-honed skills. Expect expansive jamming and finely honed interplay. (Video: Stanton Moore Trio performing at Emerald Lounge in Asheville, N.C., Sept. 10, 2008.) (May 28, Crowbar, Ybor City) —Eric Snider

Sunday, May 31 WMNF Jazz Jam feat. Sam Rivers/PBS/World Afro-Cuban Ensemble/Infinite Groove Orchestra/Impromptu/Trio Vibe/others TBA Tampa Bay’s community radio station has been putting together more jazz events of late — thank you for that — this being one of the more ambitious. Saxophonist Sam Rivers, 83, was once a front-rank player on the New York (and thus international) avant-garde scene. He’s settled into legendhood well, living in Orlando and taking gigs as he pleases. A potpourri of locally-based acts rounds out the bill. (May 31, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa) —ES

Matisyahu / Les Claypool Brooklyn’s dub reggae rockin’ hip hop artist Matisyahu revels in his Hasidic Jewness and has a faction of diehard fans who proudly wear their Yamakas to concerts in cultural solidarity. He’s impressive on disc, but not so much in a live setting. Claypool’s got many years on Matisyahu, and with age comes experience and fine-honed talent; Les knows how to bring the fire on disc and on stage. He’s an engaging showman and has all kinds of badass bass-playing tricks up his sleeve. (June 1, Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg) —Leilani Polk (Video: Les Claypool performs “Red State Girl” on Jimmy Kimmel Live in April.)

No Doubt w/Paramore/The Sounds Pop princess Gwen Stefani has enjoyed a rather successful solo career, but she can’t seem to stay away from the ska-pop band that made her famous. Or maybe she needs some extra dough for the latest baby she popped out. No new album yet, but one is supposed to be in the works during this tour. (June 2, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa) —LP

Wanee Music Festival 2009 Last year, the annual Allmans-hosted fest suffered from a weak bill and the absence of founding father, Gregg Allman, who bowed out to battle hepatitis C. The fest has been moved from April to June, which’ll make camping much less comfortable, but Gregg’s back at least. Expect sets by the usual Allman family players (Trucks, Tedeschi, Warren Haynes and Gov’t Mule, Oteil, Honeytribe), some returnees (The Wailers, Keller Williams, Dumpstafunk), and several welcome newbs (The Doobie Brothers, Buddy Guy, Umphrey’s McGee, Drive-By Truckers). (Video: a clip of the Allmans playing “Jessica” at the Fox Theater in Oakland, Calif., May 12, 2009.) (June 6-7, Spirit of Suwanee Music Park, Live Oak) —LP

Animal Collective Animal Collective’s latest, Merriweather Post Pavilion, is a well-crafted album that’ll likely land on every music rag’s Top 10 this year since it was already a “Best of” contender even before its official release date. The music is experimental pop noise, colorfully chaotic, and marked by ecstatic whoops and squeals, layers of sound and samples, and much repetition. This is a pretty hip act for the Bay area and tickets have been moving, so get yours quick before it sells out. (Video: AC performing “My Girls” at Coachella, 2008.) (June 8, State Theatre, St. Petersburg) —LP

New York Dolls Anyone of a certain (semi-advanced) age from anywhere near New York calls them, bluntly, the Dolls (heavy on the D). The proto-glam-punk band formed in ’71, busted up four years later, and then reunited in ’04. Flamboyant frontman David Johansen and guitarist Sylvain Sylvain are the two original members in a group that just released a new album of good-time garage-punk (with a few slow tunes and a bit of R&B mixed in) titled Cause I Sez So. (June 9, State Theatre, St. Petersburg) —ES

Bon Iver The acoustic neo-folk project of Wisconsin singer/songwriter Justin Vernon made waves with a stunning debut, For Emma Forever Ago. The album was among my favorites of ’08, and I credit Vernon’s delicate, soulful falsetto, which is sometimes multi-tracked to elegant effect and so expressive it brings a tear to the eye. Bon Iver’s recent Blood Bank EP shows that Vernon still has the ability to squeeze hearts, even with eerily processed vocals. (June 10, State Theatre, St. Petersburg) —LP

Steely Dan Since reuniting in 1993, Steely Dan hasn’t achieved much on the recording front, but has become a tireless, well-drilled and captivating live act. This is pretty much an about-face from their original run in the 1970s, when every album was an event, but they didn’t tour after 1974. Donald Fagen and Walter Becker surround themselves with a crackshot ensemble of top musicians, most of them with jazz chops, and play a compendium of storied material. (Video: Steely Dan doing “Kid Charlemagne” from the Two Against Nature DVD.) (June 12, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater) —ES

Aerosmith w/ZZ Top According to legend, a certain CL staffer once wrote an essay titled, “Dream On: the Penultimate Classic Rock Song.” Whether the paper ever really existed or not, “Dream On” is a goddamn great song, perhaps great enough to wipe out all the garbage Aerosmith has put out over the past dozen years. But I’ve always loved the band – I mean, how can you not with Stephen Tyler jumping around like an elastic-mouthed monkey dressed in drag? And even as near-geriatrics, Aerosmith knows how to put on a show. Same goes for ZZ Top – those forever-bearded dudes are dinos, but are more than capable of delivering heavy hitting, cock struttin’ rock ‘n’ roll. (July 11 Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa) —LP

The Avett Brothers Concord, N.C.’s Avett Brothers make beguiling, unvarnished acoustic rock brimming with the kind of emotion that sounds cribbed from punk-rock. While the music has a distinctive DIY raggedness, there’s no denying the melodic substance of the songs. (Video: The Avett Bro’s music video for “Murder in the City.”) (July 18, The Cuban Club, Ybor City) —ES

Vans Warped Tour 2009 feat. Bad Religion/Bouncing Souls/Flogging Molly/Less Than Jake/NOFX/Scary Kids Scaring Kids/Anti-Flag/The Ataris/many others Hey, it’s a summer tour, so like it or not, Tampa Bay hosts Warped in the summer. The height of summer. That doesn’t stop hail-and-hearty youngsters from donning band-logo’d black tees, getting wasted to varying degrees and soaking up hour after hour of punk and alternative music. Several of the above names are more or less perennials on the jaunt. (July 26, Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg) —ES

Gogol Bordello The multi-ethnic Brooklyn-based gypsy punk ensemble sold out last summer’s State Theatre show and has moved to bigger digs for their return. Gogol visionary Eugene Hütz served as ringmaster, leading the group through a supercharged set of ska, punk-metal, rap and funk marked by accordion, fast and furious fiddle, and exotic lady entertainers, who alternately sang, danced, and played marching band-style percussion throughout. (Video: Gogol Bordello performing their hit, “Start Wearing Purple,” at Coachella ‘08.) (July 27, Jannus Landing, St. Petersburg) —LP

Blazed and Confused Tour feat. Snoop Dogg/Slightly Stoopid w/Stephen Marley Didn’t Snoop drop the pot references in his music for awhile because he had young children? That didn’t last. It seems a sober Snoop just wasn’t marketable. His first album, Doggystyle (1993) was a genuine classic, but since the turn of the century, he’s been more or less a cartoon character, his flow getting lazier and lazier. The California heads in Slightly Stoopid do a kind of surf-reggae mixed with R&B and hip-hop thing. Stephen Marley is among the multitude of Bob’s sons. (July 31, Vinoy Park, St. Petersburg) —ES

Green Day In 1994, Green Day raised the question: Can you sell 10-million units of your major label debut and still be considered punk? So to accommodate, a new genre was born: pop-punk. Fifteen years later (22 since forming in Berkeley, Calif.), the band still does it best, able to grow within and expand upon the genre they pioneered. The band is touring to support 21st Century Breakdown, the follow-up to ’04’s landmark American Idiot. (Video: Green Day performing “21st Century Breakdown” for Live at Uptown in Oakland, Calif., this May.) HQ (Aug. 3, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa) —ES

Coldplay I saw Brit alt rock foursome Coldplay perform at Hard Rock Live when they were on the verge of international mega stardom. That was back ’03, during the band’s A Rush of Blood to the Head tour, when singer/multi-instrumentalist/frontman Chris Martin was courting Gwenyth Paltrow and all his balladry seemed directed at her. The band now plays arenas, is currently on the road in support of their Grammy-winning fourth album, Viva la Vida or Death and All His Friends, and Martin will celebrate his sixth wedding anniversary with Gwynnie in December. (Aug. 9, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa) —LP

The Jonas Brothers When will time run out on these guys? They’ve had a nice run as teen heartthrobs — more power to ’em — but some high-profile appearances this year (SNL, the Grammys) have laid bare the bro’s deficiencies, especially in the vocal department. But hey, the young girls aren’t too concerned if the Jonas’ sing out of tune — they’d just better not look too much like real adults. (Aug. 18, St. Pete Times Forum, Tampa) —ES

Depeche Mode w/Peter Bjorn and John Depeche Mode, one of Britain’s longest-lived and most successful and significant bands, has put out one chart topper after another since 1981’s Speak & Spell. Their brooding sound, recording techniques and pioneering use of sampling has influenced anyone from Franz Ferdinand to Radiohead to Marilyn Manson. Swede pop trio Peter Bjorn and John seem an odd choice as support, but the group’s latest album, Living Thing, is a dark dance record that would satisfy any Mode fan. (Video complete with annoying sing-along: Depeche Mode playing “Enjoy the Silence” at a warm-up concert in Luxembourg in May.) (Sept. 4, Ford Amphitheatre, Tampa) —LP