MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Flamenco Sephardit THE PARKER: Joe Gatto
ARTS GARAGE: Joshua Espinoza Trio THE PEACH: YOGA
1/20
THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop, Open Mic, Drawing & Acrylics Class
1/21
THE PEACH: Sewing Class Ages 7-13, Come Paint w Me 1/22
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: ScreenDance THE PARKER: Dweezil Zappa
CULTURE ROOM: Marc Broussard, Sosos
THE PEACH: Artist Talk & Critique, Paint & Sip, Pattern Making 101, Pottery & Palette
1/23
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Miami Jewish Film Fest
THE PARKER: Jessica Kirson
PROPAGANDA: 561 Artist Showcase
THE PEACH: Sewing Class Ages 7-13
1/24
REVOLUTION LIVE: The Dirty Nil, Gumpster, House & Home
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Miami Beach Rock Ensemble
GRAMPS: Sparta
BROWARD CENTER: Jon Mclaughlin & Eric Hutchinson
ARTS GARAGE: Ann Hampton Callaway ft. John Proulx – The Linda Ronstadt Songbook
THE PEACH: Creative Fashion Up-cycling, Dye Bath
1/25
REVOLUTION LIVE: Michigander, Sydney Sprague
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: California Honeydrops
BROWARD CENTER: Jeff Leeson
GRAMPS: Zeta, Calva Louise
PROPAGANDA: Winter Goth Celebration 2025
DJ Jason Chaos in the Veil, Faustian, Violet Silhouette, Nefarious Grime
ARTS GARAGE: Ann Hampton Callaway
John Proulx – The Linda Ronstadt Songbook
THE PEACH: Sewing Class
1/26
RESPECTABLE STREET: Slothrust, Weakend Friends
ARTS GARAGE: John Pizzarelli
THE PARKER: Yacht Rock Revue
THE PEACH: YOGA
1/27
THE PEACH: Comedy Workshop, Open Mic, Drawing Acrylics Class
1/28
THE PEACH: Sewing Class Ages 7-13, Come Paint w Me, Très Fou Cozu Market / Bleach House Records New Year’s Party
1/29
THE PEACH: Artist Talk & Critique, Paint & Sip, Pattern Making 101, Pottery & Palette
1/30
REVOLUTION LIVE: Molchat Doma, Sextile
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Jesse Royale
THE PEACH: Sewing Class Ages 7-13
1/31
RESPECTABLE STREET: Postcards from Paradise iii ft LA SECURITE (Montreal), Dunies (Space Coast), Rude Television, The Dewars, Disputer, The Grey Tones
REVOLUTION LIVE: Emo Night Brooklyn GRAMPS: Nico Play
CULTURE ROOM: Jason Wade
ARTS GARAGE: Tom Glynn in American Tune: Simon, Croce, & Taylor
PROPAGANDA: Lil Fur and Friends
THE PEACH: Creative Fashion Up-cycling, Dye Bath
1/31-3/29
CULTURAL COUNCIL PBC: Reflections of a Century, celebrating Boca Raton’s 100 years through Art
2/6
PROPAGANDA: SNACKS, B. Sonnier
2/16
PROPAGANDA: MAMALARKY, Day Lily, Like Harvey
THE STRUTS
by david rolland
It’s hard to pinpoint exactly what era of rock ’n’ roll The Struts pay tribute to with their high-energy, cheeky stage show. Is it early-’70s Rolling Stones when Keith Richards was wearing eyeliner and the band flirted with glam? Is it early-’80s Queen when Freddy Mercury grew ever larger than life?
It’s probably better to put this Britishborn, L.A.-based four-piece into their own genre — like The Darkness before them, or erstwhile comedian Russell Brand — that deifies everything about rock music, but most especially its theatricality. The performers and the audiences in this unnamed genre are all in on the joke that nothing is more important than rock ’n’ roll and all its accompanying hedonism, but there is to be no laughter, only headbanging. The har-hars replaced with hell yeahs.
The Struts formed in 2012 with singer Luke Spiller, guitarist Adam Slack, bassist Jed Elliott, and drummer Gethin Davies, and quickly got a reputation as road warriors. In 2014, they opened for the aforementioned Stones in Paris, only to have the plug pulled on them for going over their set time. They don’t bear a grudge, though; they covered “Tumbling Dice” on the Howard Stern show last year.
They had a better experience with the Foo Fighters in 2018, when Spiller was joining the headliners on stage night after night to sing the Queen-David Bowie classic, “Under Pressure,” with late drummer Taylor Hawkins. Foo Fighters frontman Dave Grohl once called The Struts “the best opening band we’ve ever had.”
Their upcoming show at Revolution Live will be at least their tenth South Florida concert over the last decade. It was in Miami, in fact, where a night of debauchery just a few years ago led to the rueful “Bad Decisions,” from the band’s 2023 album, Pretty Vicious. (Sample lyric: “Feel like I’m barely holding on/Lack of sleep from what I’ve done.”) As Spiller told Loudersound, that memorably bad night in Miami “came back and blew up in my face.” So who knows what they’ll do for an encore in Fort Lauderdale!
The Struts, w The Lab, play 7pm Saturday, January 18 at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale
SLOTHRUST
by erik kvarnberg
For over ten years, Boston’s Slothrust have been the perfect combination of singerinstrumentalist Leah Wellbaum’s honest, catchy songwriting and drummer Will Gorin’s steady, energetic backbeat. In 2024 they marked the ten-year anniversary of a standout album, Of Course You Do, with a tour, and they’re continuing the celebratory run into 2025 with another lap of the Of Course You Did tour.
Slothrust’s music covers so much emotional and tonal ground it almost defies categorical description. “King Arthur’s Seat,” from their 2021 album, Parallel Timeline, is all quiet slowdance power with a winsomeness that recalls The Cranberries. The track immediately after it, “A Giant Swallow,” would fit perfectly in a playlist between plaintive singersongwriter Noah Kahan and ’90s alt-rockers Belly
“Beowulf,” from Of Course You Do, is the alternate reality in which Carlos Santana decided to join the Melvins. “7:30 AM,” another from Of Course, summons Modern Color and The Frights. “Sleep Eater,” from 2016’s Everyone Else, slumbers under a blanket of Hozier and The Crane Wives and wakes up to the energy of PUP or Wet Leg. Yet Slothrust execute all these stylistic fusions and swings creatively and coherently.
When Wellbaum and Gorin first decided to collaborate, they wanted the sound to be heavy, and it is true that bass guitar sits very intentionally inside every Slothrust song, with timbres ranging from the doomy low end of Electric Wizard to the nimble kick of Paul McCartney. But a core element of their music is a groove that challenges every stillstanding concert attendee to bob their head, at least a little bit. At live-set volumes, it’ll be hard not to jump for every chorus.
Slothrust are joined on tour by Weakened Friends, another relentlessly catchy, creative band from New England. Each turn of each song reveals a collective energy that builds on itself, held together by singer-guitarist Sonia Sturino, bassist-vocalist Annie Hoffman and drummer Adam Hand. As a trio they’re locked in and mutually amplifying, and if you have to pick a track to put on repeat while soaking up the sun, make it “Blue Again.”
Slothrust and Weakened Friends play 8pm Sunday, January 26 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach.
LA SECURITE POSTCARDS FROM
by abel folgar
French Canadians are a curious blend of joie people who can turn any minor inconvenience debate, yet still manage to throw the best of the 49th Parallel. This duality of character subnational groups in North America and La Sécurité one of the most promising acts
Formed in Montreal during pandemic lockdowns, headliner La Sécurité are a collective that by Crass or the AK Press in the classical symbiotic nature of needing release and “We’ve had or still have different projects, pandemic like a side thing for fun and from some demos,” vocalist and multi-instrumentalist PureHoney. “Mothland decided to put them we got a nice response to those first few songs,’
Viens-Synnott, along with bassist Félix Bélisle and Laurence-Anne Charest-Gagné, and 2022 single “Try Again/Suspens” for Mothland and immediately followed it up with their well-received debut album in With traces of indie pop, dance punk, and krautrock, Stay Safe brought a much-needed breath of quirk to Montreal’s encapsulated the ad-hoc range of influences that make the city a mecca for Canadian musicians.
“In the early 2000’s there was a pop-punk and power pop scene that influenced me in a certain way,” Viens-Synnott says. standing out is that it could fit into so many themes and there weren’t many francophone bands doing that post-punk, Stand out, they have, and fresh from a tour supporting The Go! Team — a gig La Sécurité owe to that U.K. band hearing through social media. “It was for the 20th anniversary of their album [Thunder, Lightning, Strike] which I grew up listening capacity rooms which was pretty cool,” Viens-Synnott says.
Joining the fun for the third iteration of Postcards from Paradise, PureHoney’s winter-spring sibling of Bumblefest, will be rising sensations Dunies. These dynamic indie-rockers from Florida’s Space Coast are making waves with energetic live sets and a surf-punk-infused sound. Also known for an enigmatic persona and a playful spirit, Dunies embody a carefree ethos captured in their motto: “Live, Laugh, and Die.” We recently caught them opening for Jacuzzi Boys in Melbourne.
Often seen rocking venues in the Tampa Bay Area, Dunies have cultivated a devoted fanbase that is encouraged to bring Busch Light as offerings to their shows. Their music — a clutch of singles and notable releases including the EPs Something Good and Tank Top & Dunies — combines catchy hooks, raw energy and a distinct wit.
In that same vein are West Palm Beach’s Anthony and Zachary Dewar, aka The Dewars, whose darkhumored storytelling weaves apocalyptic plots and colorful along melodies. The twins’ blend of indie rock with old-timey aughts – is a mainstay of a South Florida scene that cycles casino dealer changing decks.
Also hailing from West Palm are the lo-fi, high-octane garage a handful of cassette-only releases that are mostly sold Paradise alumni demonstrate what gumption and a Tascam can accomplish. Local dream-pop shoegazers Disputer heels of Override My Mind, their recent EP on Portland’s Pleasure guitars and ethereal vocals, this is a band with some serious
The Grey Tones, the post-punk, surf-informed darkwave project the Abominable Dr. John will round out the night with their vibes.
Postcards from Paradise 3, presented by PureHoney, feat La Dewars, Disputer, and The Grey Tones, 8pm Friday January Beach. lasecurite.bandcamp.com
HEADLINES FROM PARADISE 3
folgar
joie de vivre and quiet resilience—a inconvenience into a full-blown philosophical best maple-syrup-soaked parties north character sets them apart from other and makes recent art punk sensations acts to follow.
lockdowns, Postcards from Paradise that doesn’t fit the molds set forth sense but rather, punches up the DIY punk ethos.
projects, and this band started in the from there, I don’t know, we recorded multi-instrumentalist Éliane Viens-Synnott tells them out. From there we’re like ‘ohh, songs,’ so then we wrote more!”
Bélisle, guitarists Melissa Di Menna and drummer Kenneth Smith, cut the in 2023, the aptly named Stay Safe. Montreal’s music scene during Covid and
says. “I think the thing with our band art punk, post-wave kind of sound.”
them on BBC Radio and messaging listening to and we were playing 1,000+
colorful characters into catchy, singold-timey folk – going strong since the cycles through bands and genres like a
garage punkers Rude Television. With out, these returning Postcards from Tascam 488 analog 8-track recorder Disputer will also join the fun, hot on the Pleasure Tapes label. Full of reverb-y serious potential.
project by the stylish Agent Mar and their Cramps meets Clan of Xymox
MICHIGANDER
by abel folgar
There’s loving where you’re from, and then there’s loving where you’re from so much that the connection entwines personally and professionally. Take the city of Midland, a county seat in central Michigan, population 42,663, that’s given birth to a outsized number of American athletes as well as Sonic Youth’s long-running drummer Steve Shelly. But none of these fine folks have embraced their Wolverine State roots quite like Jason Singer, the singer-songwriter behind the indie project Michigander
Midland-born and now Nashville-based, Singer plies heartland narratives with an alternative edge and uplifting instrumentation. Initially formed as a band in 2014, Singer’s solo-with-friends venture has almost 400,000 monthly listeners on Spotify and has garnered more than 60 million global streams following the viral success of a 2016 debut single, “Nineties.”
Singer’s reflective lyrics and anthemic melodies continued to evolve over a trio of EPs, with 2019’s Where Do We Go from Here introducing lush, soaring sounds, 2021’s Everything Will Be Ok Eventually bringing themes of hope and resilience, and 2023’s It Will Never Be the Same further showcasing a refined and dynamic musical growth.
Backed on tour by fellow guitarist Jake LeMond, bassist Connor Robertson, and drummer Aaron Senor, Singer is preparing the band’s first full-length, a self-titled set due in February. Early singles such as the heartfelt “Broadcast,” the jangle-driven head-bopper “Emotional,” and the sprawling “Peace of Mind” are a hint as to what may very well be one of the best albums coming out in 2025.
Special guest Sydney Sprague brings an equal amount of artistdriven indie energy to her work. Making “music for the end of the world,” as her bio says, Sprague balances angst and alt-pop with driving guitars and catchy melodies that set a surreptitious interplay with lyrical existential dread, Sprague signed with Italian punk powerhouse Rude Records in 2020. She’s released a pair of well-received albums, 2020’s maybe i will see you at the end of the world and 2023’s Somebody in Hell Loves You
Michigander, with special guest Sydney Sprague, play 7pm Saturday, January 25, at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. michiganderband.com
ERICK FROST
ELLIE CARTY
SYDNEY SPRAGUE
Regarding or have is yoga; may be
All of that, Flow Fest immersion art.
But no they earlier Fort Lauderdale Whimsy Tanenbaum callback 2019’s to recapture and shenanigans”
“I felt Tanenbaum what like hers festivals in 2025 but expenses Flow Tanenbaum attracts performers what they love and share their knowledge with festivalgoers. There are 50 diverse workshops on tap this year, some of which access Workshop Pass that can be purchased in advance.)
Attractions include Morning Musical Jam Session with Miami musician and circus artist Siboney, and Yoga with Live Music led by Kelly Brookbank of Fort Lauderdale YogaFest and Delray Beach Colony Yoga fame, featuring music by Chapman Stick maestro Flint Blade, from Fort Pierce. There will be workshops for juggling, levitation wand, belly dance, breakdance and more.
Tanenbaum is a former high school teacher, so the synthesis of performance and teaching comes naturally to her. She’s also a music buff. This year’s Flow Fest will feature music from Future Joy, the electronica-plus duo of Emily Cooper and Zach Simms. “I’m a fan,” says Tanenbaum, “and it’s my absolute delight that when I reached out, they said yes!”
A self-described “Future-Funk hybrid duo hailing from wherever their mobile RV stage is parked,” Cooper and Simms actually have a couple of anchor points. They divide time between Denver and St. Petersburg. The Rocky Mountain-Gulf Coast duality hints at the nomadic character of their music, although their influences sound more rooted in classic music cities like Chicago, Detroit, Philly and Memphis. Future Joy stack funk, soul, house, hip-hop, electro and more on a platter of dance, with two keyboards, tandem vocals and Simms’ wailing saxophone to keep the party peaking.
The two met when Simms walked into a karaoke that Cooper was hosting. “Zach sang Rick we’ve been together nearly every day since.” Future Joy told PureHoney in a whimsically conjoined Cooper and Simms say they’re basically never not touring: “We are constantly on the road.” musicians remotely, sharing tracks and demos online as they roll along. They remain inseparable
Building on a self-titled debut album in 2018, Future Joy have assembled a discography of upbeat celebrates togetherness. They are buoyant, warm, curious and unafraid of being fun or funny, but summer 2024 single, “Do You Wonder?”, is a genial, thumping bass-music taunt about staying out to Coast, pays euphoric disco tribute to the road trip as personal journey.
One reason they’re looking forward to Flow Fest is encoded in the name. “The festival atmosphere they say, “because the crowd is regularly ready to engage with the moment and share in the
They will be touring some more in 2025, “booking shows and festivals all over,” they say, and working on a new album. “We’re for our wedding on February 1, 2025, in St. Petersburg.” So you know your next stop after Flow Fest.
SIBONEY
FUTURE JOY AT FLOWFEST
by tim moffatt
Regarding what you may already know have heard about Flow Fest: yes, there yoga; sure, there are hula hoops; there be stilts, and maybe some juggling. that, and live music, is baked into the Fest experience over a decade-plus of immersion in the wonders of performance
no two editions are really alike, though might reprise some of the spirit of earlier go-rounds. The theme for Flow Fest Lauderdale 2025 in Esplanade Park is Whimsy, and event organizer Casandra Tanenbaum tells PureHoney it’s a bit of a callback to her favorite Flow Fest theme, 2019’s Wonder. The idea, she says, is recapture some of the “spirit of surprise shenanigans” of the Wonder year.
like I wanted to get whimsical!” Tanenbaum exclaims as she talks about it takes for a nonprofit organization hers to pull together a suite of annual festivals — six now, with Denver launching 2025 — for which gate admission is free expenses are real.
Fest, which South Florida-based Tanenbaum started in Lake Worth in 2011, attracts a diverse group of professional performers and gives them room to do are also free. (The rest require an all-
James; Emily sang Amy Winehouse; conjoined email interview.
They work with other producers and inseparable — and more on that in a moment.
upbeat and sometimes quippy music that but they’re serious about their craft. A out way too late, A newer single, Coast
atmosphere is a wonderful place to perform,” energy.”
“We’re also throwing an open-invite festival
futurejoymusic.com
FLINT BLADE
MEL KADEL
by kelli bodle
How does a visual artist respond when the worst happens? For St. Petersburg, Florida’s Mel Kadel, the answer was: start almost from scratch, midcareer, after September’s strike on the Gulf Coast by Hurricane Helene, the first of two massive tropical storms to hit the region within two weeks.
“I didn’t take any work with me,” Kadel, the PureHoney artist for December 2024, wrote in an exchange of emails looking back on how she’s coped with hurricane season. “The mental state during an evacuation is filled with so much stress and confusion. It’s a sudden mix of doom and wishful thinking. Will this storm really be that bad? What direction should I drive? Will the location I choose be safer, or will it change paths?”
“But, in the back of your mind,” she added, “you’re not thinking the worst.”
Pennsylvania native Kadel moved to Florida from Los Angeles in 2020. “I’ve spent time in St. Pete since I was young and have family here, so it’s a home away from home,” she wrote. “After 23 years in LA, this was the first place I thought about moving. Familiar, beautiful, and completely different.”
With Category 4 Helene spiraling toward the Gulf Coast and the picturesque but flood-prone barrier island where Kadel lives, she packed up belongings and supplies in her car, but left her artwork. “I grabbed a few plastic bins of recent work and put them on top of my desk (in the off chance I got a ‘little bit of water’ in my house),” she wrote. “A fraction of my work. That last-minute decision saved the only pieces I could fully recover from the damage.”
Between Helene and then Hurricane Milton making landfall back to back, Kadel has understandably had more than just artwork to attend to. “I keep feeling derailed from focus,” she wrote, “But, I’ve also had a lot of incredible experiences over the last few weeks with family and neighbors. The bond feels tighter than ever, but a lot of people are questioning their futures here, me included.”
Kadel has strong bonds across multiple subcultures, two major ones being punk music and skateboarding. She recently designed a series of “big fish” decks for Tony Alva, the pro skateboarder who pioneered vertical skating in the 1970s. “That was one of the rare moments I wrote to all my old skater friends and was like, ‘Look, I did a deck for Alva!’” she wrote. “My teenager self was so proud to tell them, because skating was such a huge part of everything. I had worked with some other skate companies in LA, like Vans, Volcom, and Foundation but the Tony Alva deck was a highlight for me.”
Supporting your community is almost second nature when you’re active in a scene. So what does someone who’s just been through a hurricane recommend other artists do? “Design your space for year-round, not just hurricane season,” Kadel wrote. “That way you’re not stuck having to prep in the last-minute of an evacuation. Store work, archives, and materials on higher shelves. Try to minimize that panic of saving work in a chaotic moment.”
For the near term, she is encouraging people to keep affected Gulf Coast artists in mind and help where they can. “Like other businesses and workers, artists have also lost their inventory, materials, housing, ability to run online stores, and so on,” she wrote. “It’ll take time for them to reengage and get back into a working flow. When they do come back around, try to buy a little something from them or just let them know it’s good to see them back.”
Kadel looks at her surroundings and circumstances a little differently now. “It’s a beautiful area, and I picture this town being part of my life forever,” she wrote. “But the storms and recovery occupy so much time, stress, and overall distraction.”
“Losing so much at once is an abstract experience, and I’m getting a crash course on letting go of control (of everything) in a weird way,” Kadel wrote, “The emotional value I’ve assigned to so much had to change suddenly. Right now, I have to be exactly in the moment. It’s the most inspiring place to be.”
