LEMON CITY TRIO w. electric kif Lemon City is one of the oldest neighborhoods in Miami. Its name derived from the trees lining the streets that bore fruit of an exceptional sweetness. Lemon City is also the home to one of MiamiDade County’s oldest schools, its first library and the very first Winn Dixie supermarket. These days Lemon City is considered Little Haiti and Little River (depending on who you speak to); the neighborhoods growing up LEMON CITY TRIO in and around Lemon City proper. Sometimes carelessly overlooked by South Beach- or Churchill’sbound nightlifers, it’s now part of a greater Miami renaissance — and an inspiration for Lemon City Trio. When Brian Robertson met Nick Tannura and Aaron Glueckauf they had complementary musical ideas. Robertson (keyboards) had led the cerebral indie-funk band Awesome New Republic. Tannura (guitar) and Glueckauf (drums) came from the progressive soul band The Politix. All were Miamibased and found in Lemon City an apt name for their new instrumental project. After all, when the neighborhood in question can draw out the sugar in a notoriously tart fruit, why not follow the lead? Funk is an attitude more than a style. Now, having said that: One needs style to be funky, but having style does not confer funkiness. To wit: Red Hot Chili Peppers are, technically, a funk band; Bootsy Collins IS funk; James Brown, funk; and George Clinton’s atoms are 100% funk. All great genres require exacting obedience to the craft for its practitioners to know the difference. Lemon City Trio use this as a guiding principle, much in evidence on their debut album, “Welcome to the Neighborhood,” and in their live sets. The group calls on styles of the past to bring a new feeling to funk and soul — something different and yet reverent. Lemon City Trio have been hitting the scene pretty hard, and have quickly made a name for themselves. In their bio, they admit to “a taste for cinematic guitar textures, hip-hop grooves, and slinky Cajun beats,” and further proclaim: “The origin story and style of this band is uniquely characteristic of the city it was born from — Miami.” Which is a sweet way to put it. Lemon City Trio plays with Electric Kif 8pm Friday June 7 at Voltaire in West Palm Beach. www.lemoncitytrio.com ~ Tim Moffatt
BOWIE: LIVE ON MARS “But her friend is nowhere to be seen/ Now she walks through her sunken dream…” It’s been three years since David Bowie passed away at 69 from liver cancer and almost 50 years since the album “Hunky Dory” was released. Who would’ve thought half a century ago that the simple, but exquisitely surreal song “Life on Mars?” could endure as a classic? Harder to believe, still, is that David Bowie could die. Someone who could reinvent himself with such ease, influencing and adapting to the times, had to be immortal — or DAVID BOWIE at least not vulnerable to something as unfortunately commonplace as cancer. Bowie deserved better, yet he’s nowhere to be seen and his fans have been left to wander. The producers of Brit Floyd and Rumours of Fleetwood Mac filled the void in 2017 with a stage production celebrating the pop music idol’s music as well as his artistry, showmanship and style, Live on Mars — A Tribute to David Bowie. Mining a deep catalogue of music and visual resources, they found the perfect vessel in singer Alex Thomas. A lifelong Bowie fan, his natural likeness and the versatility of his British-accented baritone allows him to deftly navigate the different eras and alter egos the late musician embodied. If the producers outfitted him with a contact lens to mimic Bowie’s anisocoria, well, maybe that would be too much. Rounded out by world class musicians, dancers, performers and audio/visual manipulations, this is more than nostalgia as they cover tracks like “The Jean Genie,” “Heroes,” “Ashes to Ashes,” “All the Young Dudes,” “Changes,” “Modern Love,” “Young Americans,” and more. These are the obvious choices but beyond their popularity, concertgoers have praised the reverence of how they are performed — the key factor that elevates this show above other tributes. David Bowie’s place in music will never be re-occupied. His place in the hearts of his fans won’t, either, for that bond is indescribable. Like the song? Why do its nonsense lyrics sound so fresh today, like they were ripped from the headlines and written in a cheeky kind of code? Maybe there is life on Mars after all. Live on Mars – A Tribute to David Bowie performs 8pm June 13 at the Fillmore Miami Beach. facebook.com/LIVEONMARSSHOW/ ~ Abel Folgar
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LAS NUBES record release There’s no way to hear Miami rock ’n’ roll trio Las Nubes and not hear their duality. Bilingual, new school with old-school feel, fuzz-box punk with pop sensibilities, psych infused with blues — it goes on and on. But one thing is for certain: They are one of South Florida’s most beloved bands, a distinction they’ve earned through hard work and infectious hooks.
Starting as a kind of bedroom project for singer-guitarist Ale Campos, the band evolved into Smvt with Emile Milgrim on drums and Johnny Love LAS NUBES on bass. When Love left to focus on Death Lottery, Nina Carolina arrived and Las Nubes was born. “We knew we had to keep up momentum, if not work even harder, to push the project forward,” Milgrim tells PureHoney. “Luckily there weren’t really any issues aside from constantly teaching people outside of Miami that it’s not pronounced Las Noobz.” They’ve been featured on NPR’s Alt.Latino and Remezcla’s “New Songs You Need to Hear.” Their new album, the appropriately titled “Smvt,” is a Sweat Records Records release; both Campos and Milgrim work at Sweat Records, the Miami shop. The nine-track album spans their output, from early to newest, with a fluid narrative holding the songs together. And the songs are beautiful. Catchy and danceable. Wistfully sad. The album’s artwork has a duality of its own. “We thought we’d try to have a photographer take a picture and retouch it to get a ‘vintage’ or ‘nostalgic’ feel,” says Campos. “We enlisted Emile’s partner Mariana Mendoza for that and she also suggested we look through some of her family’s old photos.” It was Mendoza’s family hacienda in Nicaragua that inspired the band name, and it’s a photo of Mendoza’s mom and friends enjoying a bachelorette slumber party in 1964 that graces the cover — an image of youthful abandon filtered by time. Even the video for the single “QSW” has the bittersweetness that permeates their music. Culled from found footage and spliced with new clips submitted by fans, it is the perfect example of how Las Nubes work and why they are loved. Las Nubes play the“Svmt” record release 7pm Thursday June 13 at The Bridge in Miami with Pesh Kab and A Fucking Bug. lasnubes.bandcamp.com ~ Abel Folgar
FATHERLESS: PRINT POSSE THEORY Like a snowflake, a fingerprint or DNA strand, art imitates nature and life in that no two works are identical. An exhibition by the self-described “collaborative print posse” Fatherless, at the IS Projects visual foundry in Fort Lauderdale, applies that maxim to the repeatable medium of printmaking. No two pieces the same, “no matter the scale,” says the online preview page for “Print Posse Theory,” a show in which mass production is turned against itself “to create something singular and unique.”
PRINT POSSE THEORY
driven social climate.”
Located in both London, England and Rockford, Illinois, the five members of Fatherless have oddly contrasting home bases and a shared goal of empowering the masses through art. Their output has antecedents on both sides the Atlantic, from a color-shot style of Americana that echoes Norman Rockwell and Andy Warhol, to the hit-and-run tagging of British trickster Banksy. Their prints occupy, parody and illuminate what Fatherless calls today’s “consumer
It’s a perfect fit for an insurgent print workshop and exhibition space, and as IS Projects’ gallery coordinator Sammi McLean tells PureHoney, the pairing was all but inevitable once IS owner-director Ingrid Schindall met Fatherless artist Javier Jimenez at a printing event. The exhibition has been up since mid-May and runs through June, with an opening reception on Saturday, May 25. Attendees will get a glimpse of the powerful, industrial theatrics of printmaking and be let in on a tradecraft that doesn’t often spill its process secrets. Fatherless puts the heavy machinery of the medium to work with a fabricator’s laser-like deadline focus, spreading visual messages far and fast with rapid-fire machinery and power-pop visuals, Featured pieces brilliantly, precisely depict humanity at its most transcendent and stagnant. They’re a harmonious juxtaposition of the color, effervescence, malice and greed woven into our conflicted natures. “Print Posse Theory” is also an eloquent call to action and justice: With inspiring wit and skill and perceptiveness, it demolishes the self-defeating idea that individuals cannot step up and be the masters of our collective fate. Opening reception for “Print Posse Theory,” feat. works by the Fatherless Collective, is 6-11pm Saturday May 25, at IS Projects in Fort Lauderdale. Admission is free. isprojectsfl.com ~ Freddie Zandt
FRIDAY, MAY 31
SATURDAY, JUNE 8
DADA: Citizen Badger
MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Coppertones DADA: The Holidazed HULLABALOO: Joey George KILL YOUR IDOL: Breaks Yo! REVOLUTION LIVE: Kid Trunks x Craig Xen x Robb Bank$ CWS: Homegrown Sinners O’MALLEY’S: Kurt Travis, Andres, Happy Hour ARTS GARAGE: An Evening with Nicole Henry CHURCHILLS PUB: Humans of the Kitchen
VOLTAIRE: Spirit and the Cosmic Heart, Canvas Kid, InMotion, Rose Dickeson RESPECTABLE STREET: American Sigh, Humble Waters, Creature Cage FILLMORE MIAMI: Americo
KILL YOUR IDOL: Shameless Burlesque REVOLUTION LIVE: She Wants Revenge CWS: Bobby Lee Rodgers MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Spider Cherry
SATURDAY, JUNE 1
KELSEY THEATER: PB Renaissance Festival VOLTAIRE: Deb Silver Jazz, Ilya : G-Beat RESPECTABLE STREET: Vagrant Son, Holidazed, Wilder Sons FILLMORE MIAMI: Draco Rosa CWS: Marcus Amaya DADA: The Metropolitan HULLABALOO: Mood Swing ARTS GARAGE: Tito Puente Jr. KILL YOUR IDOL: Immersed Music MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Artikal Sound System
SUNDAY, JUNE 2
KELSEY THEATER: PB Renaissance Festival VOLTAIRE: Sons of a Tradesman MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Krazy Train Duo DADA: Karaoke CWS: Nyne2Five / Basement Presents Funk Brunch ARTS GARAGE: Vallery Valentine KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays
MONDAY, JUNE 3
VOLTAIRE: Yum Yum
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, JUNE 4
CHURCHILLS PUB: Dollhouse Presents Mark Sultan DADA: Spoken Word Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 5
VOLTAIRE: High Note presents Gordy & Prince Naro DADA: Chandler Kerrigan KILL YOUR IDOL: Notorious Nastie CHURCHILLS PUB: Drop out of Life
THURSDAY, JUNE 6
VOLTAIRE: LIVE ft. Dionte DemOh Rose, Kerrel DJSlim Simmonds MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Tairon & Latinbeat Band CWS: Drew Dockerill KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak ARTS GARAGE: Poetry Open Mic CHURCHILLS PUB: Womanmay CD Release PROPAGANDA: I AM, Orthodox, Boundaries
FRIDAY, JUNE 7
VOLTAIRE: Electric Kif w Lemon City Trio RESPECTABLE STREET: Mod Sun, Space Coast Ghosts
MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Mona Lisa Tribe DADA: Mood Swing KILL YOUR IDOL: Notorious Nastie CWS: Bryce Allyn Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Vicious Rumors ARTS GARAGE: In Another Time Art Exhibit Opening, Nicole Henry
VOLTAIRE: Boys of Summer ft Jason Jiggs & H-Bomb RESPECTABLE STREET: Jenna’s Side Salad, Death of a Deity, Midsummer Dream, Iron Buddha
SUNDAY, JUNE 9
VOLTAIRE: Rebel Beaches Fashion Show
MATHEWS BREWING CO.: 33 Years Duo DADA: Karaoke ARTS GARAGE: The Five Boroughs CWS: Joey Calderaio (A.M.) / Basement Presents Funk Brunch KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays CHURCHILLS PUB: Exet 7, Jordan Davis, Matt Shill, Rod Kenzy, Adam Ford
MONDAY, JUNE 10
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, JUNE 11
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam ARTS GARAGE: All Arts Open Mic
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 12
VOLTAIRE: Hip Hop Renaissance DADA: Ashleigh & Connor KILL YOUR IDOL: Sewerzlutz
THURSDAY, JUNE 13
VOLTAIRE: Lambda Celsius (Athens), Fever Beam (St Pete), Spoon Dogs (Orlando), Coral Canyons FILLMORE MIAMI: Live on Mars: Bowie Tribute MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Summer Gill KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak CWS: Bonn E Maiy
FRIDAY, JUNE 14
VOLTAIRE: All the V Words Album Release w Haute Tension, Vagnauts, Mega Flugg FILLMORE MIAMI: Brit Floyd MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Guavatron DADA: The State Of KILL YOUR IDOL: Vicewave REVOLUTION LIVE: Slushii CWS: Nyne2Five
RESPECTABLE STREET: Bowie Ball
CHURCHILLS PUB: Angel Du$t, Gouge Away, Glitterer ARTS GARAGE: Davina and the Vagabonds
SATURDAY, JUNE 15
VOLTAIRE: DunRight Saturday Night RESPECTABLE STREET: Aces High Festival
MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Krazy Train DADA: Carlo Barbacci REVOLUTION LIVE: Carnival of Crue – A Tribute to Motley Crue CWS: Spred the Dub ARTS GARAGE: Garage Queens and Kings HULLABALOO: Matchstick Johnny KILL YOUR IDOL: Keep It Deep CHURCHILLS PUB: #CultureShock DJ Sin Sekt, Sir Champa, Dr Octopussy
SUNDAY, JUNE 16
DADA: Karaoke CWS: Marcus Amaya / Basement Presents Funk Brunch ARTS GARAGE: Sheba the Mississippi Queen and the Bluesmen KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays
MONDAY, JUNE 17
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
TUESDAY, JUNE 18
TUESDAY, JUNE 25
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam ARTS GARAGE: Jam Session
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 26 VOLTAIRE: RAW
DADA: Chris Myth & Matchstick Johnny KILL YOUR IDOL: The Rockadictos MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Crazy Fingers Band CHURCHILLS PUB: Master, Hellwitch, Faethom
DADA: Comedy Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Open Jam
THURSDAY, JUNE 27
WEDNESDAY, JUNE 19
DADA: Subculture Artists Collective KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak CWS: Samantha Russell CHURCHILLS PUB: All Folk’d Up ARTS GARAGE: Mod 27
VOLTAIRE: Dirty Laundry Comedy Show DADA: Eden iTernal
REVOLUTION LIVE: Reel Big Fish, Bowling For Soup KILL YOUR IDOL: The Mojo Hands CHURCHILLS PUB: Trans Blues Night
THURSDAY, JUNE 20
VOLTAIRE: Malletlab ft. Stefon Harris, Nick Werth, Drew Tucker, Nathan Skinner FILLMORE MIAMI: NAV MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Krazy Train Duo KILL YOUR IDOL: Karaoke with Shelley Novak CWS: Mitch Herrick CHURCHILLS PUB: Stumble & Fall ARTS GARAGE: 3rd Thursday: Art Meets Music
FRIDAY, JUNE 21
MAKE MUSIC MIAMI: Enjoy FREE performances all over Miami/Dade County VOLTAIRE: VTF Project Album Release w Off Orbit, Barajah, Koffin Varnish MATHEWS BREWING CO.: The Flyers DADA: Irie Vibes KILL YOUR IDOL: American Grime CWS: Bobby Lee Rodgers
RESPECTABLE STREET: Drake Bell
PROPAGANDA: Traitors, Bodysnatcher CHURCHILLS PUB: Folk, Punk, & Friends ARTS GARAGE: The Alex Lopez Xpress Rocks the Blues
SATURDAY, JUNE 22
VOLTAIRE: Yum Yum RESPECTABLE STRET: Chaser, Royal Hearts, Grounds
DADA: Fireside Prophets HULLABALOO: Beartoe Trio REVOLUTION LIVE: Strangelove – A Tribute to Depeche Mode CWS: Stereo Mix MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Big Jam Theory ARTS GARAGE: Ed Calle Quintet CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Underground Film Festival
SUNDAY, JUNE 23
VOLTAIRE: JM & the Sweets
MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Rosario Craig Trio DADA: Karaoke CWS: Shaun Rosario & Mike Hill (A.M.) / The Basement Presents Funk Brunch (P.M.) KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays ARTS GARAGE: Gumby Navedo – A Tribute to Orquesta Aragon CHURCHILLS PUB: Fiddlehead, Fury, Abuse of Power, Diztort, Politics of Jam
MONDAY, JUNE 24
DADA: Open Mic KILL YOUR IDOL: Drag Mondays CHURCHILLS PUB: Miami Jazz Jam
VOLTAIRE: Calentura
FRIDAY, JUNE 28
VOLTAIRE: Dvid Kevin Release Party MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Franscene Band DADA: A Good Rosé CWS: Spider Cherry KILL YOUR IDOL: Shameless Burlesque
RESPECTABLE STREET: MASS: Dark Under Ground Movement
ARTS GARAGE: Jimmy Williamson – Through the Looking Glass
SATURDAY, JUNE 29
VOLTAIRE: Trevor Davis : LIT DADA: Xotic Yeyo HULLABALOO: The Blackbirds KILL YOUR IDOL: The Wire CWS: Rhythm Flow
RESPECTABLE STREET: Emo Night Brooklyn MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Spider Cherry CHURCHILLS PUB: Motley Crue Tribute ARTS GARAGE: Twanguero
SUNDAY, JUNE 30
VOLTAIRE: Chachuba (Chicago), Brass Lightning (New Orleans)
DADA: Karaoke KILL YOUR IDOL: Gameshow Sundays MATHEWS BREWING CO.: Altered Roots Duo CWS: Shaun Rosario & Mike Hill / Basement Presents Funk Brunch CHURCHILLS PUB: Soul Sessions ARTS GARAGE: Bill Muter’s “Topless in Tokyo”
Wisler Elias
MALLETLAB’s drew tucker Acclaimed vibraphonist Drew Tucker has an international following, but it’s here that he’s especially beloved as a bandleader, educator and champion of ensemble music. From 2004-2018, Tucker was percussion director at Boca Raton High School. In 2017, he and Eric Rucker created MalletLab, a collective, intensive resource for mallet-instrument players worldwide. Since the retirement of Grammy winner Gary Burton, Tucker is the best-known vibes player coming out of South Florida.
So watching Tucker leave town to move to Atlanta won’t be painless, but he will ease the goodbye the best way possible — with music, giving concerts including MalletLab’s “The Vibe (*Literally),” a showcase with him and some of his favorite contemporaries. Headliner Stefon Harris “is one of the best vibraphone players in the world,” Tucker tells PureHoney. Co-headliner Nick Werth DREW TUCKER takes the instrument into the 21st century and beyond, utilizing distortion to alter its resonant, chiming sound. MalletLab is just one way Tucker works to keep jazz and percussion alive and relevant for generations to come. Ever the teacher, he exudes a cool, approachable realness that makes him a natural for sparking interest in an instrument that can be daunting. One of his faculty photos shows him lounging with copies of two favorite LPs: J. Dilla’s “Donuts” and Michael Jackson’s “Thriller.” The title of his web page, itsnotaxylophone.com, is cheerfully instructional. Think of the vibraphone as the xylophone’s electric successor, a motor-powered platform of tuned metal bars with tremendous, bell-like sustain. Invented in the jazz era, it was the signature instrument of Lionel Hampton and has found its way on to records by the Beach Boys, A Tribe Called Quest, Pink Floyd, Violent Femmes and Nas. Tucker’s own musical tastes are of a piece. In concert, he’ll cover Prince or The Police. In conversation, he cites grunge, hip hop, and rock ’n roll as influences. “If I play music that means something to me, it will mean something to the audience,” he says. “You don’t go to a show to hear a great saxophonist play the saxophone; you go to a show because the artist bleeds for their instrument.” MalletLab with Stefon Harris, Nick Werth, Drew Tucker and Nathan S is 8pm Thursday June 20 at Voltaire in WPB. itsnotaxylophone.com ~ Freddie Zandt
KARAOK E Wednesdays HULLABALOO PRESENTS
Every Wednesday at 9pm Starting February 27th 5 Monkey In Paradise Vodka Cocktails
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NIGHTLIFE
OPEN THURS / FRI / SAT 9PM-2AM 517 CLEMATIS STREET • WPB • HULLABALOOWPB.COM
BOWLING FOR SOUP Pop music is a blank canvas. For all the complaining about quality of music in the age of Auto-Tune and SoundCloud rap, pop has always been whatever it’s supposed to be by the nature of being pop(ular). See how that works? Some artists today write using algorithms that mimic hit-song properties and Spotify playlist characteristics. Is that wrong? Not really. It’s pop, after all. Assembling musical parts in the Frankenstein mold is not new. If, for example, you took some Green Day, a little All American Rejects and maybe some Weezer, stitched it together BOWLING FOR SOUP and brought it to life with lightning you would have the prototypical punk-pop band, a.k.a. Bowling for Soup. From Wichita Falls, Texas, Bowling for Soup gelled in the early ’90s and began a remarkable unbroken streak: a self-titled, self-released debut album in 1994; a stretch in the embrace of a major-label subsidiary, Jive Records, as rostermates with everyone from Usher to Britney Spears; and on into 2013, when the band — by then back to self-releasing albums (now with crowdfunding) — announced a break. Along the way, they appeared in the movie “Cursed,” recorded a cover of Modern English’s “I Melt with You” for Disney’s “Sky High” and co-wrote and performed the theme song for Disney Channel’s “Phineas and Ferb.” Say what you will about the musical stylings — even they did with their 2013 song, “Critically Disdained” — but anyone who knows a workaholic knows the promise of slowing down is an empty one. Bowling for Soup resumed touring in 2014 and soldiered on through the inevitable band-life tensions and rumors of imminent breakup. Another fulllength studio album — the band’s tenth — arrived in 2016. Eric Chandler, the original bass player, officially exited this year after a prolonged absence from touring, replaced by Rob Felicetti, previously of the Ataris. And so here we are, 25 years on, with an anniversary tour and nary a checkered flag in sight. Some artists describe success as finally realizing they didn’t have to do everything that came their way. Apparently no one told Bowling for Soup they’ve made it. Bowling for Soup, with Reel Big Fish and Nerf Herder, play 6pm June 19th at Revolution Live in Fort Lauderdale. bowlingforsoup.com ~ Tim Moffatt
16 E ATLANTIC AVE / DELRAY / HONEYDELRAY.COM
MONSIEUR PERINE, CHUChO VALDES When Chicano Batman stepped onto the riser at ArtsPark at Young Circle in Hollywood on May 5, it was the Los Angeles band’s first headlining Florida show — and a reunion of sorts for two other parties: The city of Hollywood and the Rhythm Foundation, the taste-making Miami Beach concert promoter behind many great South Florida gigs.
KILL YOUR IDOL
Their revived partnership in 2019 has brought back the muchmissed Hollywood ArtsPark MONSIEUR PERINE Experience concerts, which restarted with Chicano Batman after a few years off and continued on May 11 with New Orleans’ Dirty Dozen Brass Band. The series wraps with Colombian swingsters Monsieur Periné on June 15 and Cuban jazz pianist Chucho Valdez on June 22. Here’s hoping the revival is long-term. “Working in Broward’s best outdoor performance venue is an honor for us,” Rhythm Foundation director James Quinlan tells PureHoney, “providing an incredible platform to expose artists who might not normally play the South Florida market.” Monsieur Periné, from Bogotá, start out as devotees of old-school gypsy jazz, and then playfully draw out the style pioneered by Django Reinhardt and his Hot Club of Paris, giving it a Latin flair with rhythms and instruments from the band’s own backyard. Monsieur Periné’s other muse is a captivating singer, Catalina García, whose bright voice and effortless charm are a perfect fit for this savvy retro project. Miami singer-songwriter Javier Garcia, an eclectic Latin rock and pop stylist, opens. Pianist Chucho Valdés rose to international fame and music royalty as leader of Irakere, a Havana-based band that advanced jazz and Afro-Cuban music in tandem. Before that, he cut an album, “Jazz Batá,” in 1972 that laid groundwork for those giant steps, with Mingus-like piano set to batá — a hand drum used in Santeria — in a kind of modernist dialogue with the ancients. Valdés has now resumed that conversation with “Jazz Bata 2,” a 2018 album and companion tour. Opening is Cortadito, a Cuban son and bolero ensemble led by Miamian Jose Elias of Grammy-nominated Conjunto Progreso and the turntablist jam band Spam Allstars. Hollywood ArtsPark Experience concludes with two 8pm Saturday concerts at ArtsPark at Young Circle in Hollywood: Monsieur Periné on June 15 and Chucho Valdés on June 22. Admission is free. rhythmfoundation.com ~ Sean Piccoli
RAD SHOWS, ALCOHOL, ETC. OPEN TIL 5AM DAILY 222 ESPANOLA WAY MIAMI BEACH SUB-CULTURE.ORG/KILL-YOUR-IDOL
DRAKE BELL For fans, there is nothing like watching a childhood comedy icon grow and mature alongside them in real time. From co-writing his show’s theme song to studio releases of his own, Drake Bell is one of those lifelong companions. Starring in the wildly successful Nickelodeon series, “Drake & Josh,” his acting credentials are broad and extensive. However, it’s apparent that writing and preforming music are Bell’s passions most tended to. He has evolved not only with the times, but even more so through his own personal growth and journey, as evidenced throughout his catalog. Bell’s first two albums, “Telegraph” (2005) and “It’s Only Time” (2006), were pop-fueled and fast-paced. In 2014 he put out a heartpumping rockabilly album, “Ready Steady Go!” with Brian Setzer of Stray Cats fame DRAKE BELL producing. At 32, Bell is following the route of many veteran singer-songwriters with an all-acoustic tour. Bell has long been considered a heartthrob, but never so much as with the release of his newest sexually charged, reggaeton-inspired single, “Fuego Lento.” The video is simple, steamy and sultry. Bell, who speaks minimal Spanish, nevertheless decided to write part of a verse in the language of the loyal fanbase that brought him to No. 1 on Mexico’s pop charts. “I’ve never sung in Spanish,” he told Billboard magazine last fall. “Every time I go down [to Latin America], if I’m just like ‘Buenos [sic] Noches,’ the crowd goes insane. I was like, ‘I have to sing in Spanish for the fans down there. It’s been too long — they’ve been so loyal to me, and I haven’t given them anything in their language.’ ” Lately Bell is releasing music in the shorter EP format, creating at his own pace, where and when he chooses, without “an A&R person telling me what to do,” he told Billboard, all of which might explain his varied and somewhat episodic body of work. From surviving and thriving as a child actor to nailing a Blues Brothers homage with co-star Josh Peck, to taking his artistry into his own hands, Bell reminds us that our past can influence our future without dictating it. Drake Bell performs 8pm June 21 at Respectable Street in WPB. ~ Freddie Zandt