A nice slate of concerts happening this Fri., Jan. 8. Breakdown below, plus a look at what's coming up this weekend.Marcia Ball with Sarasota Slim The title track off Marcia Ball’s latest album, The Tattooed Lady and the Alligator Man, is a NOLA-soaked swamp-romping love story about a couple of freaks who spend their summers headlining a traveling carnival show (“She dances the hoochi coochi coo, and he crawls on his belly, like a crocodile do”). The album showcases both the storytelling and instrumental prowess of the Louisiana-by-way-of-Texas songstress, her fine keys-banging and huskily robust vocals bolstered by saxophone and a hopping rhythm section. The result blends shuffling barroom blues and boogie woogie with soulful Gulf Coast R&B and Crescent City grooves dosed in occasional zydeco and Tex Mex flavor. (Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa)
Manic Focus with Modern Measure Midwestern electronic music maker John “JmaC” McCarten is Manic Focus, and he’s been channeling his classical piano background into a career of modern Abelton production for the past five years. Three self-released digital albums, various remixes and incessant touring that included warm-up slots for the likes of Break Science and GRiZ earned him street cred, and the latter DJ/producer signed Manic Focus to his All Good Records label in 2014. Cerebral Eclipse followed shortly after, a 10-track LP of glitch n’ groove music that synthesizes elements of hip hop, soul, blues and funk, adds electro-bumpin’ beats, heavy bass throbs, and vocal splices that croon, wail, skip or repeat. Live, he employs the usual laptop-synth combo, though recent performances found him accompanied by live players on drums and guitar. (Crowbar, Ybor City)
Southern Hospitality The crunchy fried rock n’ blues supergroup is made up of three searing solo talents from the South – Georgia native two-time Pinetop Perkins Piano Player of the Year winner Victor Wainwright, and two hotshot guitarists with slide chops, South Florida-spawned JP Soars (who juggles hollow-body and homemade cigar box models) and Tampa’s own electric, dobro and lap steel axe slinger, Damon Fowler. (Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg)
2016 Florida International Toy Piano Festival A local nonprofit organization focused on contemporary concert music, New Music Conflagration, celebrates the toy piano and its evolution to bonafide instrument via this inaugural fest. The three-day (Friday through Sunday) affair mixes concerts by guests like Toyeurism, the toy piano-live electronics project of Robert Fleitz and Elizabeth A. Baker, with musically-driven forums featuring expert guests (including Italian musicologist, author, and toy piano expert Antonietta Loffredo, who gives a lecture, “On Toy Piano”), and multi-artist showcases, ala the climactic fest-ending Cogs and Keys, at which a few visiting composers/performers stage toy piano compositions, local visual artists display pieces inspired by the instrument, and performers from Tampa Bay and NYC deliver sets of sounds with heavy improvisational power. Find out more about the fest in Ray’s story here. (Various Venues in Tampa Bay)
Lost Axis, Pretty Voices, Rancid Polecats Another act that hit New World earlier this week swings through St. Pete for an encore performance – the acoustic rock two-piece otherwise known as Lost Axis, featuring one-time native punk rocker Joe Popp and current musical collaborator, Shaughn O’Donnell. Pretty Voices bring on the garage rock and power pop, while Rancid Polecats are guaranteed to get you into sweaty rock-out mode with grimy punk odes rinsed in shades of polka, lounge and surf. (The Amsterdam, St. Petersburg)
Nile Vocalist/guitarist Karl Sanders has been exploring his fascination with ancient Egyptian culture, history and lore for more than two decades as leader of legendary South Carolina outfit Nile. Their brand of technical, cerebral death metal spans eight LPs of discordant palm-muted riffs, heavy doses of double bass, and atypical sonic experiments that add to the exotic ancient Egyptology-tuned sonic atmosphere; the most recent What Should Not Be Unearthed, issued on Nuclear Blast this past fall. (Orpheum, Ybor City)
ALSO TONIGHT
Ben Prestage Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
Trace of Day/WD Han/Malaya Fubar, St. Petersburg
Sunset Bridge Band Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
Cypher Machine/Divine Science/Smokestack Lightning/Didges Christ Superdrum Brass Mug, Tampa
Who's Bad - The Ultimate Michael Jackson Tribute Mahaffey Theater, St. Petersburg
The Pure Zeppelin Experience Capitol Theatre, Clearwater
The Only Daddys Ella’s Americana Folk Art Café, Tampa
The Screaming J’s/Doug Deming & the Jewel Tones feat. Terry Hanck (DEN) Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg
COMING UP THIS WEEKEND
The Ries Brothers w/Alex & Bella Duo Sat., June. 9, Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg
The Real Clash Album Release Party w/Flat Land/Dynasty/Rahim Samad Sat., June. 9, Crowbar, Ybor City
Beebs and Her Money Makers w/Control This!/Levon White Sat., June. 9, Skipper’s Smokehouse, Tampa
Mosquito Teeth/Slap of Reality/Rekced Division/Jeff Brawer Sat., Jan. 9, The Bends, St. Petersburg
Brian Smalley Sat., Jan. 9, Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
Bryan Lee Sat., Jan. 9, Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
And One For All/Limbs/Aera Cura/Prepare The Grave/Chlover/Seek Well Sat., Jan. 9, Brass Mug, Tampa
Abi Reimold/Curtis Cooper/The Other Ryan Willis/Poultry Sun., June. 10, The Venture Compound, St. Petersburg
John Sebastian Sun., June. 10, Largo Cultural Center, Largo
Oogee Wawa w/SOFLOW Sun., June. 10, CJ’s on the Island, Treasure Island
1349 w/Tombs/Full Of Hell Sun., June. 10, Orpheum, Ybor City
Local Lockdown: Sunshine & Bullets/From This Fire/Rising Down/Otherworld/All Hail The Queen/Nyami Moire Sun., Jan. 10, State Theatre, St. Petersburg
Elvis Birthday Bash Sun., Jan. 10, Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater
Bernie Sanders Fundraiser w/The John Clark Band/Trapfone/American Song Box/PURR PURR PURR/the kind of joy Sun., Jan. 10, New World Brewery, Ybor City
Damon Fowler w/Beth Mckee/Johnny Shelton Sun., Jan. 10, Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa
Sounds of the Civil Rights Movement: The Power of Song Sun.-Mon., Jan. 10-11, Palladium Theater, St. Petersburg