Casket Girls The Casket Girls are taking their brand of eerie pop on the road for nine days in Florida surrounding their larger tour with Slowdive. Whether you catch them in Miami Beach at Kill Your Idol on May 14 or in Lake Worth at Propaganda on May 15, you’ll be in for a performance straight out of your favorite nightmare -- or dream. The Savannah, Georgia trio, consisting of sisters Phaedra and Elsa Greene and front CASKET GIRLS runner Ryan Graveface, keep a fantastical aesthetic in mind when they record, bringing vampire and prophets into their dark, apocalyptic world. The band’s name is a clever play on a “casquette girl,” a woman brought from France to Louisiana in the 1700s to be married. That sounds pretty scary, which might be why these Casket Girls have a certain defiance in their songs. Their music is also a fitting tribute to their hometown, which is known for its many ghost tours and haunted houses. With a mix of lo-fi and goth rock, their voices rise in an angelic fashion above buzzing synths and spooky noises. Their last full-length release, 2016’s “The Night Machines,” features songs about social consciousness over nightmarish dream pop, their snarkiness just barely audible. On the album’s opener, “24 Hours,” the girls sing in unison, “Surrealistic, living in a dream and you miss it / Will it be redeemed if you wish it? / Will it come true?” When given the opportunity to tour in Florida, band front runner Graveface jumped at the chance. Spreading more weirdness down here would be a beautiful thing. With Graveface wearing a mask fitting for a lucha libre and the sisters Greene wearing wigs and sunglasses, dancing in place like a Motown girl group, this won’t be your average small-venue show. Although their macabre, dream pop style of music might give people a certain dark impression, the band is actually known to pack quite a bit a love in their performances, including giving each audience member a warm hug at the end. That’s a level of intimacy rarely achieved by musicians. Even in a state with as much sun as ours, The Casket Girls will shine bright like black, cold diamonds once they arrive. Keep your souls dark and your hearts big. The Casket Girls will perform at 9pm Sunday, May 14 at Kill Your Idol, Miami Beach) and Monday, May 15 at Propaganda, Lake Worth with special guests The Water Colors and Dead and Loving It. ~ Olivia Feldman
The Head and the Heart James Minchin
The Head & The Heart See Signs of Light Despite some bumps in the road, The Head & The Heart grow up (and grow together) on their third full-length album. Signs of Light is not far away from the spirit of the self-burned copies of their first album sold in local Seattle record stores. It is, however, much more welcoming of pop overtones and much more produced.
This is due in no small part to the hands of Jay Joyce who before producing THATH in a Nashville studio, worked with the likes of Emmylou Harris, Zac Brown Band, and Cage the Elephant--not to mention playing guitar for John Hiatt and Iggy Pop. THE HEAD AND THE HEART
Like The Shins who perform in St. Pete on May 13, The Head & The Heart also appear on the soundtrack to a film written & directed by Zach Braff. The sixmember indie folk group have been putting out emotional, easily consumable albums that pair well with a long list of well-known movies and television shows like How I Met Your Mother, New Girl, Sons of Anarchy, Roadies and Wish I Was Here. But back to those bumps in the road. The eight-year journey from local to touring band to being picked up by a major label has not been a necessarily easy one. It was the non-stop performing after forming in 2009 that motivated a toured-out THATH to press pause in 2014. They all took a deep breath and went their separate ways before coming back with what they described as “renewed sense of purpose” in the Summer of 2016 to write their first album in four years and their first for Warner Brothers. After a succesful and well-produced album, the band kicked off the Signs of Light tour last year without one of its founding members, Josiah Johnson who was in rehab battling a drug addiction. For now, friend of the band Matty Gervais is filling in and will continue on as a plus one after Johnson returns at a to-be-determined date.
FillmoreMB
Fillmore MB
FillmoreMB
Purchase at FillmoreMB.com
The Head & The Heart come together at the Fillmore in Miami Beach on Thursday, May 18. Show starts at 8pm. http://www.fillmoremb.com ~ Jessica Chesler
Marisa Kula
The Shins In “Name for You,” the poppy lead single off the Shins’ new album “Heartworms,” frontman James Mercer’s falsetto sounds like a joyful lullaby, making it all too easy to forget that he’s singing about something much more depressing: middle age.
For 15 years, Mercer has grown darker in theme and tone with his lovelorn folk-pop ballads, and that’s especially true on “Heartworms,” the band’s fifth studio album THE SHINS’ JAMES MERCER and one that Mercer selfproduced and recorded himself. On it, we hear the Shins’ usual endearing brand of introspective lo-fi, but also Mercer at his most nostalgic as he cycles through songs that recall his teenage songwriting and present-day anxieties about growing older. Reflected on “Heartworms,” Mercer’s first original material in five years, are new changes to the Shins’ ever-evolving lineup (he fired his original bandmates in 2009), including a new guitarist, drummer and keyboardist. Still, Mercer is a one-man band these days, and the songs capture him at his most vulnerable. On “Painting a Hole,” his distorted voice wavers over psychedelic synths and an electrified dulcimer as he describes creating a “mental hideaway” by literally painting a hole in the wall. But much of the album’s 11 tracks bend toward the autobiographical: The bouncy, countrytinged origin story “Mildenhall” revisits Mercer’s Army-brat youth when his father moved the family from New Mexico to England, while the final “Heartworms” track, “The Fear,” tackles his loner anxiety head-on. Ingrained in all of these songs is a thrill for reverb-soaked experimentation, still not lost on the guy who shot into the indie-rock consciousness with early 2000s gems “Caring is Creepy” and “New Slang” (made popular thanks to Zach Braff’s 2004 film “Garden State”). If the possibility of hearing Mercer’s darker impulses sounds exciting, be prepared to travel. The Shins’ St. Petersburg show is its only Florida date – and it’s sold out. That’s a bummer for any South Floridian who counted Mercer as a vital voice in the soundtrack of their youth, and we hope he’ll come back to wax nostalgic about loving and aging in our neck of the woods soon. The Shins will perform Saturday, May 13 with Surfer Blood at Jannus Live in St. Petersburg. Gates 7pm. Tickets are sold out. , TheShins.com and JannusLive. com. ~ Phillip Valys
Pears Courtesy Fat Wrekchords
Straddling the line somewhere between the mellifluous drip of melodic pop-punk and all out, balls-to-the-wall hardcore, New Orleans’ PEARS brings some much needed fresh air to the scene. Currently comprised of Zach Quinn on vocals, Brian Pretus on guitar/vocals, and Erich Goodyear and Jarret Nathan on bass and drums respectively, PEARS can boast the type of chemistry and execution bands with longer tenures haven’t quite figured out yet. Maybe it’s the inherent humor that permeates their work from their take on Lee PEARS Ving and co.’s iconic stencil of FEAR or their longtime friendship—the band is light years beyond the three they’ve been together. “The big secret is that me and a couple of guys were in a band called the Lollies for a few years,” states Quinn on their Facebook page. “That band broke up, we took some time away from each other and then we just tried to do it right this time. I guess we really kind of lucked out. We didn’t make the same mistakes—the same mistakes being really too fuckin’ drunk to do anything.” A rare feat surrounded by the infamous excesses of The Big Easy but the truth is evident in the remarkable qualities of their sizeable catalog. Their debut album, Go to Prison, originally released on Off with Their Heads’ Ryan Young’s Anxious and Angry label, was written and recorded within their first two months as a band. Following up with a 7” gave the band enough of a respite amidst a frenetic and demanding touring schedule to buckle down and concentrate their energies on Green Star, a highly enjoyable effort which marks their first full-length for Fat Wreck Chords. With their debut re-released by Fat, PEARS has enjoyed the added exposure of the large indie and the supporting roles touring with labelmates. After a quick tour of the American northeast and Canada, PEARS will spend the month of May doing something very few bands have done in the past: dedicate a mini-tour to Florida. After opening at the Masquerade in Atlanta, the band will grace Florida from Tallahassee through Lake Worth, bringing their firebrand of high-energy hybrid punk rock along the way before setting off to Europe in the late summer to hit festivals and most members of the European Union. Slammie & PureHoney present PEARS w. Armageddon Man, Whiskey Walls, and Between Enemies at 8pm on Thursday, May 18 at Propaganda. 18+. Visit pearstheband. com. ~ Abel Folgar
SATURDAY, APRIL 29
RESPECTABLE STREET: Surfer Blood, Boytoy, Chaucer, The Hey Fellows
SUNDAY, APRIL 30
SUBCULTURE COFFEE: Path To College Fundraiser w. Legends of Rodeo, Chaucer, Surprise Guest
MONDAY, MAY 1
DADA: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
MONDAY, MAY 8
DADA: Open Mic GRAMPS: Temples CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, MAY 9
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic BOWERY LIVE: Jack Ingram CULTURE ROOM: Greensky Bluegrass, Joshua Davis
TUESDAY, MAY 2
DADA: Spoken Word Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Gucci Mane
THE GLEASON ROOM: Le Peignoir Aux Alouettes O’MALLEY’S: Oceano, Slaughter To Prevail, Spite
WEDNESDAY, MAY 3
GRAMPS: Sophie Sputnik Album Release w. Anastasiamax DADA: Rio Peterson HULLABALOO: Kyle Smile Piano KILL YOUR IDOL: The Hoy Polloy DUBLINER: Mechanical Hearts REVOLUTION LIVE: Live Dead ’69
MAY 4-7
FAT VILLAGE ARTS DISTRICT: Waack | Punk | Disco Festival the Soul Train Experience w. Tyrone “The Bone” Proctor, Kumari Suraj, Dj Ricci Riera, Soul Train Experience
THURSDAY, MAY 4
DADA: Antony Payne KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak
RESPECTABLE STREET: Yung Tarzan & Brot McCoy
DUBLINER: Fireside Prophets CULTURE ROOM: Suicide Girls presents Blackheart Burlesque STACHE: Cassie Marin, The Hey Fellows, Intervention, Ghost Cat CWS: Big Harvest BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: The Sensibles, Jacuzzi Fuzz, Spred the Dub, DJ Rudeboi Shuffle
FRIDAY, MAY 5
DADA: Modern Mimes & Tides of Tomorrow PROPAGANDA: Flag On Fire, 1 Hit Left DUBLINER: Franscene O’MALLEY’S: A Lot Like Birds
WEDNESDAY, MAY 10
DADA: William Mercer HULLABALOO: Kyle Smile Piano KILL YOUR IDOL: Ashiyushi DUBLINER: Abram CHURCHILLS PUB: I Like it Soft
THURSDAY, MAY 11 DADA: Verali
RESPECTABLE STREET: Fat Sun
DUBLINER: Ascents CHURCHILLS PUB: Antifaces CULTURE ROOM: Victor Wooten Trio CWS: Fireside Prophets BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Open Mic ELECTRIC PICKLE: George Clanton, Negative Gemini, Millionyoung, the HoNGs, Tremends, Grey 8s, VIRGO
FRIDAY, MAY 12
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Phoenix LAS ROSAS: Deaf Poets Album Release, Viniloversus, DADA: Big Chief Pleasures KILL YOUR IDOL: Bermuda Beach KELSEY THEATER: Remerge RESPECTABLE STREET: Shenanigans Art Showcase PERFECT VODKA AMP: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with Akia CHURCHILLS PUB: Shonen Knife, F, No Dice, Smut, Go! Racer STACHE: Wilkes Oswald CWS: The Holidazed, Soundproof
SATURDAY, MAY 6
DADA: Jonathan Auerbach Trio
RESPECTABLE STREET: Torridian, Oddly Strange
PROPAGANDA: Lavola, Zeta
POORHOUSE: Fat Sun EP Release DUBLINER: Reggae Souljaz BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Benny Bassett REVOLUTION LIVE: New Found Glory
CULTURE ROOM: X
PROPAGANDA: Phoenix Mission Benefit DUBLINER: Spider Cherry
STACHE: The Copper Tones CWS: Franscene CHURCHILLS PUB: Metal Wars
MANA GARAGE: Passenger Festival ft. Marky Ramone’s Blitzkrieg, Jacuzzi Boys, Milk Spot, Shark Valley Sisters CWS: Unlimited Devotion BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Joey Tenuto Band CHURCHILLS PUB: The Kitchen Club with 16bit
SATURDAY, MAY 13
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Fuerza Flamenca
SUNDAY, MAY 7
PROPAGANDA: PropaDomingos BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Eric Ryan CWS: Joey Tenuto Jr. Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Abstract, Wake Up Space-boy, Odd Sweetheart
BREWHOUSE GALLERY: 3 Year Anniversary Block Party w. Damien Louviere, Summer Gill, Raised By Wolves, Joey George & The Dead Beat Daddies, Deal James, The Tree Swifts, The String Assassins, SloFunk Pump, Jumbo Shrimp Inc. ,After Midnite, Ryan Owens, The Copper Tones, Elemenobeat, Rogue Theory, The Helmsmen, The Zoo Peculiar DADA: Eternal Boner KILL YOUR IDOL: Keep It Deep DUBLINER: Chase Band
PROPAGANDA: No Name Ska, Muggles, Howling Winds, Sunnyvale, Reclaim Brass
JJ MUGGS: Project: Project w. Crabby Shaka To Benefit HopeFromHarrison.org CULTURE ROOM: Citizen Cope FLAMINGO THEATER: A Night With Draco Rosa CHURCHILLS PUB: Wallflower Gallery Re-union
CWS: Joey Tenuto Jr. Band CULTURE ROOM: Animals as Leaders, Veil of Maya, Alluvial CHURCHILLS PUB: Rock n Roll Flea Market
MONDAY, MAY 22
DADA: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Theatre de Underground 16 Year Anniv
SUNDAY, MAY 14
TUESDAY, MAY 23
PROPAGANDA: PropaDomingos CWS: Joey Tenuto Jr. Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Classic Crimes
WEDNESDAY, MAY 24
KILL YOUR IDOL: Casket Girls REVOLUTION LIVE: The Damned
MONDAY, MAY 15
PROPAGANDA: Casket Girls, The Water Colors CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam HULLABALOO: Brett Staska DADA: Open Mic
TUESDAY, MAY 16
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Silenmara, Born Beneath, Alloy, Barber Floyd, Freaks n Ghosts
WEDNESDAY, MAY 17
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Wailers Performing “Legend” Album & More, Zander, Reggae Force DADA: Matthew Joy KILL YOUR IDOL: Anastasiamax PROPAGANDA: Face to Face, The Attack DUBLINER: G-Spartacus
THURSDAY, MAY 18
PROPAGANDA: PEARS, Armageddon Man, Whiskey Walls, Between Enemies FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: The Head and the Heart CWS: Reggae Force DADA: Verali KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak DUBLINER: Chasing Lizards REVOLUTION LIVE: Led Zeppelin 2 CHURCHILLS PUB: Noise Nomads
FRIDAY, MAY 19
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic O’MALLEY’S: Capture, My Enemies & I, Dayseeker HULLABALOO: Kyle Smile Piano DADA: Eric Ryan KILL YOUR IDOL: Sofilla DUBLINER: Chasing Lizards REVOLUTION LIVE: Bayside, Say Anything
THURSDAY, MAY 25 DADA: SunGhosts
RESPECTABLE STREET: Johnny Raincloud DUBLINER: Spider Cherry BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Artist Opening, Open Mic REVOLUTION LIVE: Mayday Parade CWS: Artikal Soundsystem
FRIDAY, MAY 26
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: La Oreja De Van Gogh DADA: Stoic City KILL YOUR IDOL: Shameless Burlesque
RESPECTABLE STREET: Space Coast Ghosts, King Complex
KELSEY THEATER: Real Friends, Tiny Moving Parts, Have Mercy DUBLINER: Poor Life Decisions BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Anchor Collective, Mike Valdes, Woolbright INKWELL PUB: Amplifier Orgy, Iron Buddha, Sorus STACHE: Bread & Milk CWS: Runaway Mile CULTURE ROOM: Cowboy Mouth
SATURDAY, MAY 27
DADA: Altered Roots KILL YOUR IDOL: The Wire Hip Hop Party DUBLINER: 30 Hertz KELSEY THEATER: Tigers Jaw BREWHOUSE GALLERY: B – Side
RESPECTABLE STREET: Unknown Hinson, Octo Gato REVOLUTION LIVE: Beach House FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Andres Clamaro PERFECT VODKA AMP: Train, OAR, Natasha Bedingfield HULLABALOO: Kyle Smile Piano DADA: The Metropolitan KILL YOUR IDOL: Chicken Liquor DUBLINER: Flyers STACHE: Black & Creme BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Will Evans CWS: Solemark POMPANO AMP: George Thorogood & the Destroyers, Damon Fowler CHURCHILLS PUB: Deicide
CWS: Runaway Mile w/Marcus Amaya CHURCHILLS PUB: Mayday!
SATURDAY, MAY 20
MONDAY, MAY 29
DADA: The Ribbonheads KILL YOUR IDOL: Breaks Yo! DUBLINER: Mechanical Hearts BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Sprockets & Spokes Custom Bicycle Show, Fireside Prophets LEAH ARTS DISTRICT: Beats and BBQ Bash in the Leah PERFECT VODKA AMP: Muse, 30 Seconds to Mars CWS: Spred the Dub, Bobby Lee Rodgers, Ella Herrera, Boe & Beau CHURCHILLS PUB: Del The Funky Homosapien
TUESDAY, MAY 30
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Sanluis
SUNDAY, MAY 21
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Russ
PROPAGANDA: PropaDomingos BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Nip & Tuck O’MALLEY’S: Hi-Rez, Justin Stone, Emilio Rojas
SUNDAY, MAY 28
BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Tree Swifts CWS: Joey Tenuto Jr CHURCHILLS PUB: Stroke Awareness Benefit for Xela Zaid POMPANO AMP: Undertow Music Fest w. Grouplove, K.Flay, Milky Chance HULLABALOO: TreeSwifts DADA: Open Mic GRAMPS: The Radio Dept., Eons CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: Brit Floyd DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: All Folk’d Up
WEDNESDAY, MAY 31
HULLABALOO: Kyle Smile Piano DUBLINER: Chase DADA: Mark Malmut O’MALLEY’S: September Mourning, Loaded Guns, For The Future
Tour Promotions
The Damned
THE DAMNED
The Damned have the distinction of being the very first English punk band to have a recording. Sure, they followed the Ramones, New York Dolls, Stooges, MC5, The Monks, The Sonics, The Count 5 and a plethora of protopunk, Nuggets-era, garage and rock and roll bands. However, the Damned were also (arguably) the first to wear sloppy as style with a mixed bag of vampire make-up, mohair suits, denim and leather, flailing all over the stage. Listen to their genre defining single, “New Rose’ and one would be hard pressed to see any contemporaries in the burgeoning English punk scene of the late 1970’s. They completely lit the fuse for hardcore, having stirred new passions in the Bad Brains, as well as, many other attracted to the break neck speed of the sounds. It’s no wonder they became friends with the late Lemmy Kilmeister of Motorhead fame; they have more in common with that band and Motorhead’s early output than they do contemporaries
such as the Sex Pistols and the Clash. This year marks the bands 40th Anniversary and they have embarked on a world tour to celebrate their four decades of fun and chaos. The band has gone through numerous line-up changes. At one point the Damned switched genres entirely, to the dismay of many longtime fans; not so much everyone else, though. Phantasmagoria, despite being a mostly goth album with singer Dave Vanian as the only original member, charted in the UK at #11; the Damned’s highest charting album. At some point during a “break” from the Damned the band had Lemmy on bass calling themselves, “the Doomed.” Given the strange menagerie of players, that name works, very well. The band have endured and Vanian and Sensible have been touring together since 2004. All this drama gives the Damned another dubious distinction: they are the first of the punk era to break up and get back together. Some people just can’t get right, but that would be supposing that they ever were right. However, the Damned are at one time an enigma; a puzzle that works because of their differences, and on the other hand; they’re exactly what they have always claimed to be: a chaotic good time. The Damned 40th Anniversary Tour with the Bellrays stops at Revolution May 14, 2017. Doors are at 7pm and tickets start at $19. ~Tim Moffatt
Beach House Shawn Brackbill
When the Baltimore-based dream pop duo Beach House released Depression Cherry and Thank Your Lucky Stars in late 2015 a month and half between each other, they made a gutsy move. It was a lot to take in, but over time, the albums grew on this writer, and when a tour stop in Fort Lauderdale was announced, earlier this year, I jumped at the chance to drop down the money for a ticket, as with this ticket comes the opportunity to influence the set list. Below is a case for three songs, two of which are from the latest releases and one of which is a standout in all of the band’s career.
BEACH HOUSE
melodiousness.
“Elegy to the Void,” from Lucky Stars, is one of the prime examples of Beach House’s talents to build something majestic from the seemingly minimal: A pulsing synth melody that shifts between keys, as singer/keyboardist Victoria Legrand sings dreamily, “waiting for the light to come again,” as if prophesying the song’s brilliant crescendo driven by Alex Scally’s sparse guitar lines, which loop and build to screeching heights of
Then, there’s the deceptively simply titled, “PPP,” from Depression Cherry. Its charms lie in a crisper, cleaner guitar melody and Legrand’s cooing vocals. Again, it’s about dynamics that transport listeners to a casual ecstasy. It also perfectly compliments Legrand’s vocals, “Did you see it coming?/It happened so fast.” It rises to this beautiful guitar solo teased at during the earlier part of the song. The drift of a Beach House song is best captured in “Irene,” however. From the duo’s third album, BIoom. It builds on a simple harmonic organ drone and lashing electric guitar strumming. Again, there are teases of a hook that the band retracts only to return to drones that buoy Legrand’s luscious vocals until finally building to the revealing refrain, “It’s a strange paradise,” which indeed it is. Beach House at Revolution Live, Fort Lauderdale, Saturday, May 27, at 7pm. All Ages. Purchase from https://www.jointherevolution.net/2017/01/beach-house/ ~ Hans Morgenstern | The Independent Ethos (indieethos.com)
Joel Bernstein
Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers
TOM PETTY & THE HEARTBREAKERS
The big vistas that fill Tom Petty’s rock ‘n’ roll portraits of American life don’t always shimmer. Dark streaks and detours are spread across the horizons and highways of the Petty songbook — reminders that the lure of motion, change, and dreams fulfilled is sometimes a mirage. For every “Runnin’ Down a Dream,” with its roadriding bliss, Petty counters with fables such as “Into the Great Wide Open” and “American Girl,” whose rootless characters come to grief.
Petty’s own life is a kind of ideal, in which a kid from a small town — Gainesville, Florida — grows up to conquer the world through talent, band camraderie and the dogged pursuit of his vision. Petty, 66, can certainly take pride in his achievments. But he has a skeptical side that resists rock-star mythology. That harder edge is pronounced on his most recent album with his mainstay band, the Heartbreakers, 2014’s Hypnotic Eye, and it’s often aimed at himself. Inside the terse groove of Fault Lines, Petty confronts personal failings, singing, “A man I know might not be me.” On the basic, barre-chord stomp of “American Dream Plan B,” he steps back to address a widening gulf between that dream — “a political scheme,” he drawls — and the contemporary reality: “My success is anybody’s guess/ But like a fool I’m bettin’ on happiness.” Petty’s critiques of country, culture and self allow for disenchantment, but not hopelessness. When he sings, “I’m worn and wounded, but still the same,” on the pensive “Sins of My Youth“, it sounds like reconciliation — acknowledgement of having made it this far perhaps in spite of himself. On his very latest work, 2016’s Mudcrutch 2 — another revival of his formative, preHeartbreaker band — Petty indulges more tenderness, and a fuller range of musical sounds and styles. It’s an album-length love note not just to his bygone youth but to the great range of American music that’s still out there to be heard, played and dreamed on. Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers perform on May 5 at the Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre, West Palm Beach, http://www.perfectvodkaamp.com. 7:30pm. Joe Walsh opens. LiveNation.com. ~ Sean PIccoli
The Wailers After Bob Marley died of cancer at a Miami hospital in May of 1981, it’s no stretch to say that his effect on the world only grew, surpassing even the considerable influence he wielded in life as a Jamaica-born reggae pioneer and almost missionary public figure.
THE WAILERS
Marley’s face in pictures is iconic. His ideas about social and racial justice, enunciated in songs, are now mainstream. His promarijuana stance predicted today’s legalizing climate.
None of this would hold true without the music. A mark of its endurance is that audiences, new and faithful alike, come out to hear Marley’s confederates and musical descendants, such as the members of The Wailers, perform those foundational songs. An offshoot of Bob Marley and the Wailers, this changing ensemble of players directly and indirectly connected to the original has existed in some form since shortly after his passing. The lineup has revolved primarily around bass player Aston “Family Man” Barrett, a key figure in the Marley discography, first as a session player and then as a formal band member and producer. Barrett’s first experience of the life-changing power of Marley’s music goes back even further. At the time he had yet to pick up a bass guitar — and then one day he heard Simmer Down, the Wailers’ 1963 debut single, on a jukebox. “I went into like a trance … like I was involved with the music,” Barrett told journalist Jas Obrecht in a 2011 interview. “Well, I’m not even involved in music yet. In those days I am an electrical welder, I’m a bike mechanic, I’m a blacksmith. So I in-graft all of those other talent and construct the music. That’s what I did. That what make it so special. Yeah, man!” Other members of these latter-day Wailers have bands and projects of their own, but together they join forces, with help from Marley-era sound engineer Dennis Thompson, to deliver faithful performances of classic Marley tracks such as Jamming and Could You Be Loved. The Wailers perform on May 17 at Respectable Street, http://sub-culture.org/ respectable-street/. Showtime is 8pm. Tickets at ticketfly.com. ~ Sean Piccoli
X Before hardcore, punk was a loose amalgamation of art and mutant forms of rock and roll. Sure, the bands could have all the bad attitude and possible violence that has become associated with the genre, however, that pigeonholing of punk does not consider the poet laureates that informed the scene. Songs referencing X Rimbaud and Bukowskiesque tales of being down and out were pervasive in the early days: New York had Patti Smith, California had X. John Doe, DJ Bonebreak, Exene Cervenka and Billy Zoom formed to merge the sound of Chuck Berry with beat inspired poetry that would hinge on off key vocal harmonies that wouldn’t work for anyone else. The charisma that John Doe and Exene shared on stage in their heyday was no put on; they had a long running love affair off stage. Billy Zoom rips into blues tunes with fingers that explored every nook and cranny of his fret board. No one smokes a Chuck Berry riff with more fury than Billy Zoom, he’s simply inimitable. DJ Bonebreak is the perfect foil to such a combustible cocktail of ideas. They would perfectly capture the desperate nature of LA’s punk scene in songs like: Los Angeles, the World’s a Mess (it’s in my kiss) and White Girl. The mix of poetry and rock and roll was so potent that Ray Manzarek, legendary keyboardist and founding member of the Doors, plays on and produced X’s first 2 records. The thing about X is: when hardcore came to the streets of L.A., they could totally hang. While there were other bands that eschewed the violence creeping into the scene from the skate and surf crews commuting to shows, X had already played with the likes of FEAR, Black Flag, Dead Kennedys and the rest of the more aggressive crowd. Bands like X, the Blasters, Top Jimmy and the Rhythm Pigs and the Minutemen lent an approachable, brainy gravitas to a scene that was construed by the lame adults in the outside world as aggressive and nihilistic. It’s true, kids can be violent and thuggish, but they are also falling in and out of love, dealing with the emotions of growing up and doing all of this while living in the shadows of the Hollywood sign. John Doe once said something to the effect of, “these English punks want to burn the place to the ground, we just want to find a way to live in the ashes.” Romantic savages, indeed. X, play Culture Room, Friday, May 12. Doors 8pm. ~ Tim Moffatt