LAS ROSAS AT VOLTAIRE “You in a band?” is a question just about every eccentric over 20 fields while navigating the supposedly real world on any given weekday. It’s a fair question, but the truth is, most people — not even the freaks — have the chutzpah to commit artistically to their youthful angst after they’ve passed through adolescence (although some tell themselves they’re totally pulling it off). Teenaged punks retire, believing there’s no valid, unclaimed musical space after 18 for really venting.
LAS ROSAS
But that’s not entirely true. Consider Brooklyn’s Las Rosas, who remind us that punk can be beautifully melodic — an aim that gets conflated with age, softness, selling out or worse — and still be intense.
Las Rosas unavoidably wear the “paisley punk” epithet attached to bands trading in “Nuggets”-era, hallucinogen-inspired garage punk. But unlike others who might name-check the likes of the Sonics, Velvet Underground and 13th Floor Elevators, Las Rosas are a wholly believable band of acid eaters — three dudes who dig jangly pop melodies and fuzzed-out guitars, and seem to be fronted by Syd Barrett’s doppelgänger. It has to be said that many, perhaps most, bands in the pysch-garage continuum are (or were) great in the controlled setting of a recording space, and sound(ed) brilliant on their albums, but not when strapped with the pressure of performing for a crowd. Las Rosas do not suffer this affliction. Go find them on YouTube at South by Southwest in 2017 or on a Paris street playing for Mad Girls Magazine. They entertain live as surely as they do with their scrupulously made new album, “Shadow by Your Side.” The world doesn’t need more bands — the Internet licenses every musician with delusions of adequacy to gull an unsuspecting public. The world needs better bands; good bands. Las Rosas ARE a good band. They have chops, style, confidence and attitude to spare — and therefore a fighting chance against a Web-enabled glut of posers, pretenders and would-be Svengalis promising resources and artistic “advice.” They have protection, in other words, from the temptation to quit too soon. Las Rosas plays 8pm June 12 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach with Tingy Thick, Ben Katzman’s Degreaser and Milk Spot. ~ Tim Moffatt
FillmoreMB
Fillmore MB
FillmoreMB
Purchase at FillmoreMB.com
SUMMER JAM June in Florida used to mean Spring Break had just ended and Summer Break had begun. Kegs and party favors were simply replenished during the minor lull, and then once more into the fray! South Florida in the 1980s is the stuff of legend; wistful tears are shed even today for hair lost and brain cells fried. All things must end, though, and those wild-child brigades moved on to the responsibilities of adulthood, including offspring of their own learning to party to excess. PATTY SMYTH AND SCANDAL
But what if there was a way to revisit that magical time of the Button South, Flynn’s, Elbow Room and all the other local outposts of debauchery? Welcome to the Summer Jam 80’s Party in Jupiter. This year’s edition revives the music that ate up the airwaves and MTV in the age of Ronald Reagan and the grandfather clause for under-21 drinking. Headlining is John Waite, the onetime Babys and Bad English frontman who went solo with “Missing You.” Patty Smyth and Scandal bring their big ’80s ballads and empowering rock anthems (“Sometime Love Just Ain’t Enough,” “The Warrior”). The Romantics, those new-wave greaser fellas, can’t not play “What I Like About You,” a song so pervasive back then that your local chic mall store inevitably ran out of black and red leather ties. They’ve also got “Talking in Your Sleep,” a surprise second act with a slinky Stray Cats-meetsThe Clash vibe that’s an admirable distance from their earlier Beatlesque jams. These Bands From a Time don’t quite hibernate in between decade-themed festivals. Waite recently issued a greatest-hits package. Smyth and Scandal still tour and record. But it’s kind of like they’ve become employees of the songs that made them famous. Tommy Tutone, for example, who singlehandedly created the most requested or detested phone number in history, will be on hand to celebrate “867-5309/Jenny” turning 35 this year. The last act on the Summer Jam menu is the Filmores, a kind of whole-era tribute that inhabits the ’80s aesthetic so perfectly it’s like they arrived by time machine. Summer Jam 80’s Party starts 2:30 p.m. Saturday, June 2 at Abacoa Town Center Amphitheatre in Jupiter Beach. musicjamproductions.com ~ Tim Moffatt
ERASURE AT THE FILLMORE A funny thing about perseverance is how powerful it looks in hindsight. For Erasure, two Brits navigating a chaotic mid-’80s scene that was part punk and part synth, it’s easier now to see how their idea for music — an exuberant, all-out return to the dance floor; a kind of disco nouveau — would not have been the obvious choice. But perseverance can be made ERASURE up of many things, from vision to gumption to limited information to a lack of other options. Whatever Erasure’s brand of stick-to-itiveness, musician Vince Clarke and vocalist Andy Bell soldiered on through the collective shrug that greeted their 1986 debut, “Wonderland.” The real payoff for being tough to discourage came two albums later, with 1988’s “The Innocents,” which begat the beloved singles “Ship of Fools,” “A Little Respect” and the ocean-crossing U.K.-U.S. smash, “Chains of Love.” Synth-pop won out over punk (and would itself be eclipsed later on by Britpop and grunge), and British and European club culture rallied to Clarke, formerly of Yazoo and Depeche Mode, and Bell, an unknown until he answered Clarke’s classified ad for a singer. Then it was on to North America, where Erasure became LGBT icons, especially the matter-of-factly “out” Bell, whose perseverance encompassed a refusal to hide who he was. Erasure today stands as one of synth-pop’s more successful and lauded acts, primarily for records released 1987-1994, but with a still-durable creative chemistry. Choosing Miami Beach as the kickoff for their summer U.S. tour makes personal and professional sense. Bell’s new husband is from Florida, and Erasure has developed a serious fan base in the state’s southeast. In an April interview with Baltimore OUTLoud, Bell quipped that he feels like a “homecoming queen” whenever he plays South Florida. The tour supports a new(ish) album, 2017’s “World Be Gone,” which was rereleased this past March as “World Beyond,” a collaborative reinterpretation with the Belgian group Echo Collective. Far from the synth-poppy melodrama that made them danceable monsters, this album is a surreptitious show of how they’ve transcended — and persevered — to become timelessly classic. Erasure performs July 6 at the Fillmore Miami Beach. fillmoremb.com ~ Abel Folgar
SUNDAY, MAY 27
THURSDAY, JUNE 7
FRIDAY, JUNE 1
NORTON GALLERY: Art After Dark w Lindsey Mills, Ella Herrera DADA: Tchaa KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak
VOLTAIRE: Ray’s Downtown presents CAMP RAY! JM & the Sweets, The Blues Crusaders w Rockin’ Jake, JL Fulks, Joey George, TCHAA!, Derek McLean Trio VOLTAIRE: Raised by Wolves, JC Dwyer and the Blackbirds, Marcus & Emmanuel DADA: Johan Danno KILL YOUR IDOL: Bassline Miami SUBCULTURE DELRAY: Lotchness Monster STACHE: Solemark CWS: Guavatron BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Joey Tenuto THE KELSEY THEATER: The High Divers
VOLTAIRE: ChUrch of DUB: Vibes Farm & Kelly Blanx WPB WATERFRONT: Reggae Brew, The Resolvers
RESPECTABLE STREET: Function
SATURDAY, JUNE 2
500 BLOCK OF CLEMATIS STREET: RESPECTABLE STREET, VOLTAIRE, SUBCULTURE ALLEY, HULLABALOO: Celebrate 31 Years of Respectable Street with headliner Peter Hook & The Light performing the best of Joy Division & New Order. Free block party featuring 30 awesome local bands. The full lineup minus a few special guests we’re waiting to announce. Alphabetical order! 1983 The Band – Afrobeta – AnastasiaMax – Astari Nite – Boston Marriage – Castafellas – Church Girls – Dénudés – Everymen Foul Play – Heller Floor – Inside Jokes – Markis Hernandez Trio – Millionyoung – Nervous Monks – Never Loved – Old Habits – Peter Hook & The Light – Poparazzi – Prison Warder – Space Coast Ghosts – The Burrito Supremes – The Muggles – The State Of – The Wombombs – Yardij – The Zoo Peculiar REVOLUTION LIVE: Flatbush Zombies
ABACOA TOWN CENTER JUPITER: SUMMER JAM feat John Waite, Patty Smyth and Scandal, The Romantics, Tommy Tutone, The Filmores DADA: Matthew Joy
FILLMORE MIAMI: Ivy Queen & Tito
KILL YOUR IDOL: Immersed STACHE: DJ Lindersmash FUNKY BUDDHA: S Luna, DJ Al Gouda, DJ Nic CWS: Future Prezidents BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Damien Louviere KELSEY THEATER: Live Music Community: 4 all Kids Bands
SUNDAY, JUNE 3
VOLTAIRE: JP Soars and the Red Hots
LOST WEEKEND: ɅɅ][×+∆PΞ feat. Adam Sheetz
RESPECTABLE STREET: Suicide Commando, Cyanide Regime, Skoros, DMA DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Game Show Sunday CWS: Nicholas Garnett of The Holidazed THE KELSEY THEATER: Roosavelt Collier
MONDAY, JUNE 4
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
RESPECTABLE STREET: Timecop 1983, Aeon Rings, Korine, Meta4Machine, Mystvries
TUESDAY, JUNE 5
DADA: Poetry Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 6
KILL YOUR IDOL: Sewerside Bombers
FRIDAY, JUNE 8
VOLTAIRE: Electro Lounge DADA: Big Chief
RESPECTABLE STREET: Sons of a Tradesman
LAS ROSAS: DJ Goldie Brown, Plastic Pinks, Antifaces, Mo’Booty, JAIALAI FUNKY BUDDHA: Back Burner Burlesquew Jezebel Red KILL YOUR IDOL: Bermuda Beach CWS: Tasty Vibrations BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Dan Call & Citizen Badger THE KELSEY THEATER: Disbarred: A tribute to Chris Cornell
SATURDAY, JUNE 9
VOLTAIRE: Sushi Jazz Sessions, House DJs 11-4
SEMINOLE HARD ROCK: Hulk Hogan & Ric Flair DADA: Xotic Yeyo KILL YOUR IDOL: Keep It Deep REVOLUTION LIVE: Purple Madness, A Tribute to Prince CULTURE ROOM: Perpetual Groove FUNKY BUDDHA: Spiral Light, a tribute to the Grateful Dead CWS: Bobby Lee Rodgers THE KELSEY THEATER: Player One Peep Show
SUNDAY, JUNE 10
VOLTAIRE: Ray’s Downtown presents Joey Tenuto LOST WEEKEND: ɅɅ][×+∆PΞ feat. Joshua Islas KILL YOUR IDOL: Game Show Sunday O CINEMA MIAMI BCH: National Theater Live pres Follies CWS: Diogo Das Virgens
MONDAY, JUNE 11
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays REVOLUTION LIVE: Royal Blood
TUESDAY, JUNE 12
VOLTAIRE: Las Rosas, Tingy Thick, Ben Katzman’s Degreaser, Milk Spot DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Photography Critique & Geek
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 13
KILL YOUR IDOL: Ashiyushi
RESPECTABLE STREET: Buzzed Spelling Bee CULTURE ROOM: Katchafire
THURSDAY, JUNE 14
VOLTAIRE: 8-10:30 Drew Tucker & Friends, 11-3 Cosmic Barley presents Guavatron WPB WATERFRONT: The Earl Band, 56 Ace DADA: Watch Glass, Boston Marriage KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak FUNKY BUDDHA: The Cravens, The Buddha Cats CWS: Mitch Herrick
FRIDAY, JUNE 15
THE FILLMORE MIAMI: Brit Floyd, The World’s Greatest Pink Floyd Show VOLTAIRE: 8-10:30 Comedy feat.Devin Siebold, 11-4 Robbie Rivera REVOLUTION LIVE: An Acoustic Evening w/ Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness & Friends DADA: Mood Swing HULLABALOO: Tingy Thick KILL YOUR IDOL: AmericanGrime Proper
RESPECTABLE STREET: Everything Sucks: A 90’s Dance Party FUNKY BUDDHA: Observatory STACHE: Spred the Dub CWS: Mike Mineo THE KELSEY THEATER: Fern Street and Nate Ginnetty
SATURDAY, JUNE 16
VOLTAIRE: Jazz Sushi Sessions 8-11, House DJs 11-4 THE FILLMORE MIAMI: Rufus Du Sol DADA: Steve Pomeranz Band KILL YOUR IDOL: Breaks Yo!
RESPECTABLE STREET: Run 4 the Sea with Lavola
O CINEMA MIAMI BEACH: Awake & Aware Conscious Cinema presents: The Doctor From India FUNKY BUDDHA: Buddha Comedy Night CULTURE ROOM: Combichrist BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Jedi Magic Carousel THE KELSEY THEATER: Ordinary Boys: The Queen is Dead
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 20
KILL YOUR IDOL: Obsidian
THURSDAY, JUNE 21
MIAMI: Make Music Miami is a live, free musical celebration on June 21, the longest day of the year, with concerts on streets, sidewalks, beaches and parks across the city. WPB WATERFRONT: Solid Brass, Big City Dogs VOLTAIRE: Public Sound present The Funktion
DADA: Aaron Lebos Reality REVOLUTION LIVE: Debaser KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak FUNKY BUDDHA: The Dones Collective, The Ricca Project
FRIDAY, JUNE 22
DADA: The State Of REVOLUTION LIVE: Ordinary Boys – Smiths & Morrissey HULLABALOO: Poparazzi KILL YOUR IDOL: Cheap Miami Presents
RESPECTABLE STREET: MASS
FUNKY BUDDHA: Koffin Varnish, Bitter Blue Jays STACHE: Tasty Vibrations BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Neverglades
SATURDAY, JUNE 23
VOLTAIRE: Joeski, Sushi Jazz Sessions 8-11
REVOLUTION LIVE: The Black Dahlia Murder DADA: A Good Rose STACHE: Ritz Glitz Revue’s Classic Tease Burlesque Show FUNKY BUDDHA: Singer Songwriter Showcase BREWHOUSE GALLERY: Last Flight Out
SUNDAY, JUNE 24
VOLTAIRE: Ray’s Downtown presents JL Fulks LOST WEEKEND: ɅɅ][×+∆PΞ feat. Jessi Harris BREWHOUSE GALLERY: SMG THE KELSEY THEATER: Casey James
MONDAY, JUNE 25
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, JUNE 26
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 27
KILL YOUR IDOL: Pigface and the Destroyers
THURSDAY, JUNE 28
WPB WATERFRONT: Catabella & the Latin Group, Afin-K2 DADA: Zoo Peculiar KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak
VOLTAIRE: SWEET SWEET songwriter sessions FUNKY BUDDHA: The Broken Sound Band, Solar Reef
SUNDAY, JUNE 17
FRIDAY, JUNE 29
VOLTAIRE: JM & the Sweets MEYER AMPHITHEATRE: U.S. Stones
VOLTAIRE: Pin Up Party
MONDAY, JUNE 18
SATURDAY, JUNE 30
LOST WEEKEND: ɅɅ][×+∆PΞ feat. Andy E. Pereira KILL YOUR IDOL: Game Show Sundays CWS: Tasty Vibrations DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays
TUESDAY, JUNE 19
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Mic
DADA: AnastasiaMax HULLABALOO: Markis Hernandez Trio FUNKY BUDDHA: Captain Pigg & Friends BREWHOUSE GALLERY: News from Bree & Jose Perez THE KELSEY THEATER: Dr. Bacon DADA: HVY CRM KILL YOUR IDOL: The Wire FUNKY BUDDHA: Pavlov’s Bell, Arborealis, Chapters CULTURE ROOM: Killer Queen BREWHOUSE GALLERY: BSide Band THE KELSEY THEATER: Little Ozzy
MIAMI UNDERGROUND FILM FEST
LOW TIDE DRIVE by ROBERT REQ_REQUEJO RAMOS
The film industry barely exists in South Florida. Crews drop in and shoot lots of sunny exterior B-roll, but it’s a tiny subset that puts down stakes and works to establish this region on the larger cultural map. Georgia — Georgia! — is suddenly the center of all filmdom because Peach State lawmakers wrote somebody a tax break. But pretty, technicolor, opencanvas South Florida can barely rub together two Hollywood nickels.
Yet again, we must fend for ourselves. It’s okay — really, it’s fine. Whenever South Florida has needed anything, it makes do. And so arrives the first annual Miami Underground Film Festival, a.k.a., M.U.F.F. “Our goal is to showcase the underground film scene and give some love to local art that might have otherwise been overlooked,” main festival organizer Andrew Schwartz tells PureHoney. “We don’t care if the filmmakers are total noobs or seasoned professionals — only that they’re from the 305 (or the 954) and they’ve made something worth watching.” Actor-director Schwartz is working on this with Ian Michael of Churchill’s Pub in Miami and arts journalist Chuck Livid, founder of Tuffgnarl.com. With Churchill’s serving as the festival’s venue, Schwartz promises “live musical acts, guest speakers, and an irreverent awards show that skewers the usual ostentatiousness that comes with such circle-jerk affairs.” Confirmed entries include Schwartz’s own pilot project, “Sunny City/Shady People,” and Robert Requejo Ramos’ Lynchian “Low Tide Drive” as well as animations, documentaries and “Troma-level schlock,” says Schwartz. Born of necessity, M.U.F.F. is taking its inaugural dive with confidence. Blessed by the late local indie director Joel Sotolongo, who advised at the developmental stage, Schwartz and Co., believe they can turn some heads this way even if the film and television industrial complex seems to stop at Atlanta. When Schwartz talks about screening his “Sunny City/Shady People” after years of working on it — “to finally be showing it to all the shady characters we know in the city we love,” he says — it’s a reminder that underground cinema has always been a love letter to its surroundings. And cinematic love letters are the best kind. The Miami Underground Film Festival is June 23 at Churchill’s in Miami. miamiundergroundfilmfestival.com ~ Abel Folgar
TIMECOP 1983 AT RSC Full disclosure: I was a kid in the 1980s. I’m young enough today to remember some of the decade’s output fondly, and old enough to recognize a lot of it was just cheesy and bad. The rhapsodizing of ’80s culture has been one of the greatest PR tricks ever pulled. So it’s heartening when people not tied to an era by the accident of birth can look back on it critically, screen out the dreck, and identify what in it is worthy of preservation, commentary or update. That’s one impetus for the Human Music Festival, a caravan of retro electronic acts that converges on QXT’s Night Club in Newark, N.J., for a two-day binge of yesteryear sounds. Something TIMECOP 1983 that cool was bound to grow legs, and sure enough there is now an Extension Tour taking some of the main event’s performers on the road. Jordy Leenaerts, a Dutchman known musically as TimeCop1983, is the aural embodiment of VHS culture and ’80s straight-to-video’s spirit. Informed by the gorgeous soundscapes that usually accompanied awful celluloid shlock, his newest effort, “Night Drive,” is a tour of the decade’s cocaine bravado and phony, sunglasses-at-night sangfroid, a murky alley dotted with pastels. Æon Rings is the darkwave, electro-pop tandem of Brooklynites Davey Partain and Chuck Flores, who like the dystopic vision of 1982’s “Blade Runner” as much as they like the sweat-dripping fury of a thick club banger. Korine, from Philadelphia, is Morgy Ramone and Trey Frey, who’ve looked back in time to find ethereal, danceable sounds that echo with a promise of romance — proof the undulations of that decade’s weirdness still reach us today. Does any of this mean that with reimagining and reassessment, the ’80s will come off better than I remember — more substantive, authentically cooler? Probably not. But I guess in the same way my old man remembers, with his particular kind of fondness, the 1960s, I should relish the good stuff and keep rooting for the next batch of musicians to make the best of an overrated decade. The Human Music Festival Extension Tour with Timecop1983, Æon Rings, Korine, Meta4Machine and Mystvries is June 4 at Respectable Street in West Palm Beach. ~ Abel Folgar
WRECKLESS ERIC By the end of the ’70s people knew they were living in a moment. Its markers in New York were the Ramones, Blondie, Talking Heads, Television and the sainted Bowery dive CBGB. The next wave was coming in California with Catholic Discipline, Agent Orange, the Germs and, in 1980, Minutemen. And while America went through its eclectic, evolutionary throes, the U.K. was still sloppy drunk with new wave and punk — one base for this binge being Stiff Records, early home of Ian Dury, Elvis Costello, Motörhead and one Wreckless Eric.
WRECKLESS ERIC
Part pub rock, part new wave and all rock ’n’ roll, the Stiff Records era would take all comers. Famously, upon hearing that John Lennon was shopping a label for his album, “Double Fantasy,” Stiff Records offered to sign the former Beatle for a few thousand quid. Point being that a Wreckless Eric type would have had trouble getting noticed before — and probably after — that phase. But in that sweet spot where anything seemed worth a try, Eric’s single, “(I’d Go The) Whole Wide World,” captivated young punks and new-wave miscreants everywhere.
Eric and Stiff would fall out hard over the usual creative differences, but not before he’d made his bones at a critical, identity-forming stage of his artistic life. Eric has kept busy ever since, recording in various incarnations with the Captains of Industry, the Len Bright Combo, the Hitsville House Band and under his real name, Eric Goulden. He often tours with writing partner and wife, Amy Rigby. His new album, “Construction Time & Demolition,” is vintage Wreckless Eric — an at times erratic set that thumps along with energy and soul. It harkens back to the days of careless abandon that Stiff Records underwrote for its artists, and maybe those aren’t all fond memories — the breakup with his label still looks like it hurt. But if the alternative was a life of Fleetwood Mac, Eagles and Carpenters — well, the world needed a kick in the pants then and it frankly still does. We’ve got Wreckless Eric to squire the newbies and show how it’s done. Wreckless Eric plays a free show June 9 at Las Rosas in Miami with Mr. E & MLE and Dj Skidmark. wrecklesseric.com ~ Tim Moffatt
AUG. 31
SEPT. 8
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clean bandit
OCT. 2
SEPT. 29 & 30
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www.jointherevolution.net
FADSFASF
U.S. STONES PLAY MEYER AMP
U.S. STONES
lords of the British Invasion justice.
Oscar Wilde is famously misquoted as saying, “Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery … ” Because he added, “ … that mediocrity can pay to greatness.” Ouch. And while high-nosed snobbery was fine for vastly literate 19th Century dandies, here in the age of tribute bands and touring Dio holograms, we’re talking about rock ’n’ roll — specifically, U.S. Stones, a Rolling Stones tribute that does these
If you don’t follow the whole tribute-or-covers debate: A cover band is a bunch of schlubs yawning out other people’s music while nursing light beers; a tribute band celebrates a great act at its peak. Guns N’ Roses tributaries, for example, dress like the classic GNR lineup and mainly play songs from “Appetite for Destruction.” In a way, tribute bands become almost more important to legacy upkeep than the original, because the tribute gives the audience literally everything it wants. Yes, the real Stones still tour, but have you seen the ticket prices? Plus there is only so much willful blindness you can muster for a 56-year-old rock band running on replacement parts. With U.S. Stones you can just suspend your disbelief and sink into the fantasy being created for you. It’s 1972, and this is the Stones playing “Exile on Main Street.” Now it’s 1978, and “Some Girls” is pouring from the speakers. And on and on. One could further argue there is nothing mediocre about re-enacting a band’s past glory: These players have to be the best possible version of Keith Richards and Mick Jagger and everybody else night after night. Keith himself just has to be Keith; dude gets paid to be a functioning mess. Imagine having to maintain oneself as a pitch-perfect, rail-thin, younger Mick facsimile — probably without access to the kind of self-care that Actual Mick enjoys. Think this gig is easy? Think it’s cake? Yeah, no, just give me an office job, thanks, and let me watch US Stones pay their sincerest regards to greatness. U.S. Stones play the Meyer Amphitheater 4pm. June 17, part of West Palm Beach’s “Sunday on the Waterfront” free-admission concert series. ~ Tim Moffatt
GUAVATRON PLAY VOLTAIRE Guava: a tasty fruit staple of many tropical diets. “Tron,” a 1982 Disney foray into sci-fi action-adventure and imminent human-computer conflict. Guavatron: a West Palm Beach musical foursome with a perfectly portmanteau’d name. Guavatron arrives like a Voltron of the subtropics, greater than — and greater for — the sum of its organic and digital parts. “We have a wide variety of musical influences ranging GUAVATRON from jazz to trance,” keyboardist Roddy Hansen tells PureHoney. That range “gives us a lot to work with,” says Hansen, “as any theme or genre is open to explore.” Guavatron has leveraged a devoted local following into a steady touring presence across the U.S. southeast. The band deploys itself pop-up style at regional festivals and has landed high-profile opening slots for the likes of Perpetual Groove and The Heavy Pets. With Hansen, Conor Crookham on bass, Adonis Frangiskakis on guitar and vocals, and Casey Luden on drums, Guavatron approaches the jam-band manual as a kind of manifesto of techno-necromancy. Call it the Book of the (Grateful) Dead: Guavatron is channeling the more experimental moments of Hawkwind via the long-play stamina of the aforementioned Dead, and Phish, with the proper rock frying of the Allman Brothers and the Disco Biscuits. Listen closely, and you might even pick up a trace of Robert Fripp and Adrian Belew-period King Crimson flashing through Guavatron’s neural net. (There’s always been space for prog impulses in the archetypal jam band nervous system, and vice versa, whatever differences exist between their subcultures.) An assemblage of rock, funk, electronic and much more, Guavatron in its Facebook bio floats the possibility of the band as “a transforming mechanized battle robot from another planet.” But its output is mellifluous and genuine — not robotic in the least if by “robotic” one means stiff, programmed, lacking in spontaneity. A bucket of bolts, this ain’t. “Improvisation is the backbone to our band, it gives us an opportunity to be free and create,” says Hansen. “Improvisation also gives us a chance to connect with the listener and build something new between us and them. There’s a sense of comfort when we are in a jam.” Guavatron performs June 14 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. guavatron. bandcamp.com ~ Abel Folgar
KILL YOUR IDOL RAD SHOWS, ALCOHOL, ETC. OPEN TIL 5AM DAILY
222 ESPANOLA WAY MIAMI BEACH