A diverse array of music happening this Saturday and Sunday. A breakdown below...SATURDAY, AUGUST 16
OneRepublic with The Script, Jamie Scott I feel dirty and awful about it, but also liberated, like I can finally make it official – hi, I’m Leilani, and I’m addicted to mainstream pop music. In the case of Colorado pop rock outfit OneRepublic, I’m digging on that “Counting Stars” track. Like, car dance, fist pump, howl along to it, dig. It’s sticky as shit, the lead-up to the refrain is perfect (“Everything that kills me makes me feel alive”) and it has that gospel vocal-and-hand-clap breakdown that gets me every time. So yeah, OneRepublic. This tour backs the album that spawned said hit, 2013’s Native. Support from other pop radio acts that haven’t written a song sticky enough to grab me. Yet. (MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa)
Buffalo Strange with Fil Pate & Shane Meade One of my favorite realtors – who spent a year helping me find my house and became a dear friend as a result – is turning 40 and wanted to mark the occasion with a blow out. So he called on Brokenmold Entertainment to help him put together a bill of music (“Rawkin Randy's Bday Party”) and signed up a few of his favorite local players to hold musical court: the roots-rockin’, world-vibing Rob Piniak-led Buffalo Strange, their jammy sound embellished with fiddle and flute; and acoustic folk-soulful duo Fil Pate (mandolin, guitar) and Shane Meade (vocals, guitar). This show is open to the public; admission is $5. (New World Brewery, Ybor City)
The Bar Exam: Tampa Bay Edition Atlanta’s talent competition and open mic showcase makes its way south for a local edition. Sixteen singers, emcees and poets battle for “The Bar Exam” title and $1,400 in prizes, as judged by the night’s audience and an industry panel that includes Bar Exam creator MICXSIC, DJ I AM (Pirate Radio Invasion WUSF 89.7) and Manny Kool (Daddy Kool Records, No Clubs Entertainment). Contenders are evaluated in three areas – bars, production and performance – and the winner headlines The Bar Exam in Atlanta Sept. 27. In addition to the 16 contenders, BIGREC, Dirty Rotten, MICXSIC, Imagiin 360, and ATL Bar Exam winner 16 OS also perform. (Local 662, St. Petersburg)
LEO-2014 with Guinness, Daveaux, Jellybean, Killabyte, Mike E, Screwball, Truk-Tek, Science A celebration of Leo birthdays and the eight-year anniversary of the Break Room with artists spinning electro, EDM, breaks, dubstep, trap, hip hop and bass music throughout the night. (The Break Room, Tampa)
Albert Castiglia Band New York-born, Florida-based blues guitarist/songwriter Castiglia has a hoarse smoky vocal and a guitar-licked sound carried on an easy bouncing shuffle as delivered by a capable rhythm section of drummer Bob Amsel and bassist Matt Schuler. (Ale and the Witch, St. Petersburg)
Rock 'n' Blues Fest with Edgar Winter, Pete Rivera, Vanilla Fudge, Kim Simmonds After the death of his guitar-slinging elder brother Johnny Winter this past July, Edgar Winter re-tooled his “Rock ‘n’ Blues Fest” tour to pay tribute and honor his brother’s memory. Each date of the fest, Edgar, Vanilla Fudge, Rare Earth’s Pete Rivera and Kim Simmonds of Savoy Brown play songs associated with Johnny in addition to material from their respective repertoires. Prepare to get misty-eyed for this one… (Ruth Eckerd Hall, Clearwater)
WMNF Groovefest 2014 The fifth annual edition of WMNF’s Groovefest proves an eclectic bill of genre-jumping talent headed up by The Lee Boys, sacred steel traditionalists from Miami who wail and slide against a modern, high-spirited mix of gospel, funk and blues. Locals Holey Miss Moley, High Cotton, Earth Bombs Mars, Shane Meade & The Sound and Shoeless Soul perform on the main Skipperdome stage while a second acoustic stage in the back bar features stripped-down sets by Rich Whiteley, Oak Hay, Tangled Mangos, JT Brown and Boxcar Hollow. (Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa)
The All American Rejects Busch Gardens’ Summer Nights series offers guests the chance to enjoy entertainment and rides in certain parts of the theme park on weekends through this Sunday, with concerts by nationally touring artists every Saturday at 8:30 p.m. that are followed by a fireworks extravaganza. The series concludes with a performance by Tyson Ritter-led pop-punk outfit All American Rejects. (Gwazi Park at Busch Gardens, Tampa)
SUNDAY, AUGUST 17
Mötley Crüe / Alice Cooper with The Raskins Mötley Crüe have claimed the current run of dates as their last, ever. LA’s heavy glam(ish) metal makers – Mick Mars, Nikki Sixx, Tommy Lee and Vince Neil – have even deemed it as the "All Bad Things Must Come To An End" tour and signed a cessation of touring agreement that goes into effect in 2015. Co-headliner Alice Cooper, now in his fifth decade of performing, will continue to tour until he cardiacs on stage in grandiose style, all tumbling tuxedo stripes and flying top hat and cane, and everyone thinking it’s part of the show until the glam rock showman doesn’t rise. Should be an entertaining spectacle all told, from “Dr. Feelgood” to “Feed My Frankenstein.” (MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre, Tampa)
Noisemakers Summer Jam Healing-power-of-music nonprofit Operation Coexist teams up with Noisemakers Music School – a South Pinellas rock school for kids that offers live performance opportunities with its learning – to co-host Noisemakers’ end of summer Rock Camp showcase. Student bands perform from 2 to 5 p.m., followed by live music on two stages by a rather stacked bill of high-caliber local talent touching on ska-punk, reggae rock, funk, pop and groove-jam sounds: (in order of appearance) UNRB, Sol Session, Freelow, Shoeless Soul, Ajeva, Currentz, Burning Tree, Resinated and Rude Squad. Skanky Latin-fused Phoenix outfit Fayuca closes the party, which also features live art, vendors, food trucks and an overall family friendly vibe. (3 Daughters Brewery, St. Petersburg)
The Whispers / The Manhattans Two boogie, R&B and soul hit-makers that enjoyed their most fruitful periods in the 1970s and ‘80s share co-headlining duties on this Tampa date. The Whispers hit the U.S. R&B charts with grooving cuts like “And the Beat Goes On” in 1980 (also a No. 1 Dance hit) and in ’87 with the electro funky “Rock Steady.” The five-part harmonizing, slower jamming Manhattans started a little earlier, in the ‘60s, but didn’t enjoy real success until 1976’s “Kiss and Say Goodbye” and then again in 1980 with “Shining Star.” (Carol Morsani Hall at Straz Center for the Performing Arts, Tampa)
Ol’ Dirty Sundays with DJ KU A Red Bull Thre3style U.S. Finalist and Southeastern champion as well as a member of national DJ collective Critical Beatdown, DJ KU mixes hip hop joints with classic soul and funk, adds shades of Latin, reggae and electro-house, doses it all with his turntablist flare, and does it in a way that feels both fresh and effortless. He appears as the featured guest at Ol’ Dirty Sundays on this night, with DJ Casper rocking a “Nate Dogg Dedication Day” set, in honor of the late go-to vocalist’s birthdate (Aug. 19). (Crowbar, Ybor City)
ALSO THIS WEEKEND
Counted Out/Slade & The Wasters/Pig Pen/Boney Fiend Sat., Aug. 16, Fubar, St. Petersburg
Switchblade Villain/Sun Signs/Dead Fender Twin Sat., Aug. 16, Crowbar, Ybor City
Sleeping Giant w/This Or The Apocalypse/Phineas/Those Who Fear Sat., Aug. 16, Orpheum, Ybor City
Imani Woomera Sat., Aug. 16, Hideaway Café& Recording Studio, St. Petersburg
Caribbean Chillers: Jimmy Buffett Tribute Sat., Aug. 16, Jannus Live, St. Petersburg
Krewestock w/The Lint Rollers/Big Daddy/Mark Barrios Sun., Aug. 17, Skipper's Smokehouse, Tampa
Jonathan Scales Fourchestra Sun., Aug. 17, Dunedin Brewery, Dunedin
Tampa Battle of The Bands Finals: Starlight Envy/Relief in Sleep/Skinny and the Chubbies/Sweet Leaf/Parrot Fish/Saved by Friday/The Annco Experience/Le Morte/Open Box Policy/Untomoria/Colt Charles/Outcast Uprising Sun., Aug. 17, Orpheum, Ybor City