Tampa Calling

A quick breakdown of this weekend’s most worthy concerts beginning with Thursday, ’cause that’s when the weekend really starts, right? For a more comprehensive schedule of concerts, check out our Upcoming Events page.

Thursday, July 30
Jeffree Star w/Artist VS Poet/Watch Out! Theres Ghosts/Lets Get It Jeffree Star is conversely ambiguous and flamboyant ­— he could be a woman or a man with his long, bright pink hair, dragtastic make-up and swaths of rock star tattoos. The LA-based self-proclaimed “Queen of the Internet” is a dance music recording artist and Internet phenom who has more than a million MySpace friends and more than 12 million hits on his most played song, “Eyelashes Curlers & Butcher Knives.” Thurs., July 30, 8 p.m., Orpheum, Ybor City, $10, all ages.

Maxwell w/Chrisette Michele Neo-soul singer Maxwell — the Grammy-nominated artist who hits the high notes in his seductive, made-for-making-looove serenades — is currently touring in support of his fourth studio album and first new effort in eight years, BLACKsummers’night. The Brookyn native’s latest features a 10-piece band that brings a lush feel to the album’s supple grooves. Soul support act Chrisette Michele actually won a Grammy for “Best Urban/Alternative Performance” in 2009 for her up-tempo “I Will Survive”-style single, “Be OK.” Thurs., July 30, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater; last time I looked this show was SOLD OUT, although I’m sure you can find tickets floating around outside. Read the rest of this entry »

CL’s choice picks for this weekend in music.

Friday, May 08
What was it that Deiter said on Sprockets? Oh yeah … “Your story has grown tiresome.” I can see this gimmicky show — Unwigged & Unplugged: An evening with Christopher Guest, Michael McKean and Harry Shearer, which features the three now-silver-haired comedians who made up Spinal Tap performing acoustic — as getting real old real fast. Let’s hope the trio doesn’t think that just the songs can carry the day; they’d better have some funny shtick in there, or I could see this thing being a waste of time. Then again, I could be wrong. Still, one wonders: What happens when you run an acoustic guitar through an amp and turn the amp up to 11? Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg, $36.50-$49.50. —ES

Post rock meets experimental electronica by instrumental Los Angeles duo El Ten Eleven (pictured). Made up of Kristian Dunn (fretless bass, guitar/bass doubleneck) and Tim Fogarty (electric drums, acoustic drums, synthesizers), El Ten Eleven employs heavy looping and much effects pedal-pushing to create its fuzzified, lively brand of dance music. Also performing: Surly, The Tape Delay and Ghost of Gloria. Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., Orpheum, Ybor City, $8 in advance/$10 DOS. —LP

It’s only fitting that Nashville’s Kings of Leon have graduated to playing arenas — although the Sun Dome is pretty small in that regard — because their sound has morphed from a garage-y immediacy to, yup, more of an arena-style bombast. “Sex on Fire,” the first single from KoL’s current album, Only by the Night, casts a U2-ish hue. The shift must be working: Only by the Night ascended to No. 5 on the Billboard 200, besting 2007’s Because of the Times by 20 slots. For more, read CL’s interview with guitarist Matthew Followill here. Fri., May 8, 8 p.m., USF Sun Dome, Tampa, $35.50 and $43. —ES Read the rest of this entry »

Three boys travel around the South with their itinerant preacher father and a mother who home-schools them. They sneak in as much secular rock music as they can, learn to play instruments, occasionally back up Dad at the altar.

They write songs. Then they write better songs and, as if from nowhere, land a record deal with a major label, RCA. They call their cousin to join the band as a lead guitarist. They adjourn to Nashville and begin a career that follows a steadily upward trajectory.

It’s the kind of narrative that record companies love — and, near as anyone can tell, it’s pretty much true. Kings of Leon’s first album, 2003’s Youth and Young Manhood, was garage-y and rambunctious, and earned them the sobriquet “the Southern Strokes.”

In the three albums since, KoL has consistently expanded its palette; its current disc, last year’s Only by the Night, is far more stylistic far-reaching, sonically polished and slotted more toward the rock mainstream. The single “Sex on Fire” might be described as Southern U2. Read the rest of this entry »