soundcheck

97X Backyard BBQ set times: Twenty One Pilots, Coheed and Cambria, New Politics and more

The set times for the 2013 97X Backyard BBQ are out, so if you have a free ticket burning a hole in your pocket, and there's one act on your must-see list, here's the scoop.

But first: Don't forget that on Friday night, rising alterna-hip-pop act Twenty One Pilots, above, will be signing autographs and taking pictures at Club Detroit in St. Petersburg. There won't be a performance, but the event is free, and they'll be giving out Backyard BBQ tickets, too. Click here for details.

The main event begins at noon at Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg. On to the 97X Backyard BBQ set times:

8:35 p.m.: Coheed and Cambria

7:05: Twenty One Pilots

5:55: New Politics

4:45: The Features

3:35: The Virginmarys

2:25: The Unlikely Candidates

1:30: 2nd Day Broadcast

12:45: Beautiful Corpses

Noon: Freelow

Click here for all the details on the 2013 97X Backyard BBQ.

Sunset Music Festival: Set Times, after parties, can't-miss acts and more

On Saturday, up to 20,000 people will descend on a parking lot at Raymond James Stadium for the second annual Sunset Music Festival, featuring David Guetta, Steve Aoki, Knife Party, Krewella (above) and many more. If that many show up, it'll be a huge step up from last year's tally, and could mean this electronic fest has a permanent place on Tampa's concert calendar.

Trying to make sense of the Sunset Music Festival lineup? Looking for set times and after party tickets? Want to know which acts to skip and which acts aren't to be missed? Get some details after the jump.

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SoundBytes: George Clinton, Fat Joe, Majical Cloudz and more

-- Moody indie outfit Majical Cloudz, above, will open for Grizzly Bear at the group's highly anticipated June 19 show at the Ritz Ybor. Click here.

-- Speaking of the Ritz: The Face to Face show that was scheduled to take place there on May 31 has been moved to the State Theatre in St. Pete. Original tickets will be honored. Click here.

-- Bradenton pop-punk heroes We the Kings will perform at Jannus Live on July 6. Tickets are $19. Click here.

-- Twenty One Pilots will appear at a pre-97X Backyard BBQ party on Friday night at Club Detroit in St. Pete, and you can win a chance to have your photo with the band. Click here for info.

-- Rapper Fat Joe will perform at Push Ultra Lounge in St. Petersburg on May 31. Click here.

-- George Clinton and Parliament Funkadelic will perform at the Slice of the Burg Festival, a block party at St. Petersburg's historic YMCA building, 116 Fifth St. S, on June 1. The event will benefit the building as well as All Children's Hospital. Tickets start at just $5. Click here and here for details.

-- Mr. Dream Weaver himself, Gary Wright, will perform at the Largo Cultural Center on Oct. 4. Tickets are $34.50 and they'll go onsale May 30 at largoarts.com. …

Beach Boys coming to the Hard Rock Cafe in Tampa

It may not be a festival, but Tampa's Seminole Hard Rock Hotel and Casino is planning a summer full of musical festivities.

Already announced for what they're calling "Hard Rock Heatwave": A pair of exhibits from the Hard Rock's expansive memorabilia collection, including items from John Lennon, Bob Marley, Kurt Cobain and Elvis Presley. Those exhibits are free and they'll go on display June 12. Click here for details.

Now the Hard Rock has booked a big name for July 18: The Beach Boys.

Before you get too excited, keep in mind that this is NOT the same Beach Boys that reunited in full last year. Brian Wilson, Al Jardine and David Marks are absent from this lineup; instead you'll get Mike Love, Bruce Johnston and some others. Still, the Hard Rock can be a surprisingly intimate place to see a show, so if you've only seen any incarnation of the Beach Boys at Tropicana Field or Ruth Eckerd Hall, it might be worth checking out.

Tickets to the Beach Boys start at $69, and they'll go onsale at 2 p.m. June 7 via Ticketmaser or at the Hard Rock Store at the casino. …

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell talk creative collaboration, fun songs, the magic of the banjo and more

Steve Martin and Edie Brickell talked about teaming on a project a couple of years ago. She's married to Paul Simon, a longtime friend of Martin's. Then, lo and behold, it actually happened, with the new album Love Has Come For You.

"I write a song on the banjo and then Edie takes that and puts a vocal melody over that," says Martin, 67. "There are always two melodies going on."

To support the delicate, tuneful album, which has been a surprise hit on the Billboard charts, Brickell will join Martin and his Steep Canyon Rangers band on a summer tour, which stops at a sold-out Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg on Thursday.

The sold-out show promises to bring lots of the chemistry that helped bring the album to life in the first place.

"I've just been so inspired," says Brickell, who many will remember as the hushy, lilty singer of the 1988 hit What I Am with the New Bohemians. "I've had to alter my thinking and just let my imagination flow. The moment I heard his music, I started hearing stories. It took me back emotionally."

For more of Sean Daly's interview with Steve Martin and Edie Brickell, click here.

Review: Ghostface Killah, Adrian Younge fuse funk, hip-hop and theatricality at the Orpheum in Tampa

If you’re a rapper, how do you combat the sometimes fair, sometimes not notion that hip-hop shows are just someone on stage rhyming over instrumentals? Well, how about being backed by a live band and theatrics including masked men, oversized storybooks and ghostly women in red robes?

That’s what rapper and Wu-Tang Clan member Ghostface Killah brought to the Orpheum on Sunday night, on the only Florida stop of his Twelve Reasons to Die tour.

The name comes from his new album, which tells the tale of crime lord Tony Starks being murdered, melted in vinyl and pressed into 12 records before being resurrected as Ghostface Killah to seek revenge. For someone who started off in a hip-hop group steeped in kung-fu lore, the switch to giallo is a smooth one (it even takes place in 1960s Italy.)

The album was produced by Adrian Younge, who should be a familiar face to bay area concertgoers by now after his Antiwarpt and Guavaween sets. And it’s easy to see how Younge and his band Venice Dawn, who composed the soundtrack for Blaxploitation homage Black Dynamite and feature flourishes of spaghetti-western guitar, might’ve appealed to Ghostface Killah for his genre exercise.

Following openers like Infinite Skillz, Prince Golden and FLA ALL DAY (who played a very apologetic set after forgetting their own CD), the stage time was fairly evenly divided between Adrian Younge’s band and Ghostface Killah performing.

A couple of memorable moments came from Venice Dawn’s 40-minute “journey” to Twelve Reasons to Die, including a long lip-lock between the two vocalists and plentiful shredding on both guitar and flute from member Alfredo Fratti. Certainly, this is the most flute-laden rap show you’re likely to attend this year. (At least until that much-heralded Jethro Tull/Wu-Tang Clan collaboration takes off.)

Then Venice Dawn returned to the stage donned in masks and capes, Younge holding a giant storybook, to introduce Ghostface Killah, who would blaze through tracks like I Declare War and Enemies All Around Me. The lurid red and green lights that bathed the stage periodically only added to the cinematic feel.

Eventually the costumes came off, but the theatricality remained. At one point, Ghostface departed from the stage to signify his death at the hands of the DeLuca clan as Younge held up a red-splattered record. “12 records, y’all,” he said. “This is Tony.”

Then Younge asked the crowd to raise their cell phones and lighters in the air and sing the “la-la-lala” intro to Rise of the Ghostface Killah, as Ghostface came back — flanked by five women cloaked and holding candles — to finish the song.

If anything, the set could’ve used more tracks off Twelve Reasons to Die. There were several crowdpleasing Wu-Tang moments, including an appearance by Killah Priest and renditions of C.R.E.A.M., Tearz and Protect Ya Neck. But songs like Blood on the Cobblestones, with its propulsive drums, could’ve really benefited from the live band setting.

Still, the sheer novelty of the show certainly counts for something. When else are you going to see someone play a guitar solo on Ghostface Killah’s back? Or see him surrounded by a posse of gothic girls in rouge robes? And theatrical to the end, the concert closed by introducing each performer onstage, taking a bow and then departing. …

SoundBytes: Of Montreal, Uh Huh Her, Souls of Mischief and more

-- Electro-pop duo Uh Huh Her will perform at the State Theatre on June 28. It's going to be a huge show, and here's why: This is the weekend of St. Pete Pride, and the group has a strong lesbian following. Leisha Hailey was a cast member on The L Word and was once named the sexiest woman alive by AfterEllen.com. She and bandmate Camila Grey made headlines when they said they were kicked off a Southwest Airlines flight for kissing. Tickets to their June 28 show with Daphne Willis are $25-$35, and you can get them here.

-- It's always a massive party when experimental, arty psych-pop collective Of Montreal play Ybor City, so get your tickets early to see them at Czar on July 6. Tickets are $20-$25. Click here.

-- Early-'90s hip-hop colletive Souls of Mischief will perform at the State Theatre on July 25. Tickets are $15. Click here.

-- Two excellent rappers, Sirah and K-Flay, will open for Icona Pop when the duo hits the Ritz Ybor on Aug. 18.

-- Billboard named EDM performer/songwriter/experimentalist Robert DeLong one of its 13 artists to watch in 2013, so be sure to check him out at Push Ultra Lounge in St. Petersburg on June 21. Keep an eye out here for ticket details. …

This week in Tampa: Steve Martin, Ghostface Killah, Attack Attack! and more

Let's not kid ourselves: The biggest concert in Florida this weekend is taking place over two days in Orlando, as Paul McCartney has two shows at the Amway Center on Saturday and Sunday. Your humble Soundcheck editor has a ticket to the Sunday show, and it's burning a hole in his pocket.

Closer to home, though, there are still some awesome shows this week: Steve Martin and the Steep Canyon Rangers, Ghostface Killah with Adrian Younge, Attack Attack!, Bad Veins, The Wilson Van, Quincy Mumford and the Reason, The Hush Sound, Hockey, Lauren Mann and the Fairly Odd Folk, The Original Wailers, Conrad Oberg and more. Here to walk you through it all is Ray Roa... …

Ticket Window: Jason Aldean, Imagine Dragons, Backstreet Boys, Icona Pop and more

Now that I Love It is looking more and more like the Song of Summer 2013, the newly announced Icona Pop show at the Ritz Ybor is going to become a hot ticket. Get it early when it goes onsale this week so you don't miss out.

Other Tampa Bay concert tickets with tickets going on sale this week: Obituary (June 8, Orpheum), Psychedelic Furs (July 28, State Theatre), Icona Pop (Aug. 18, Ritz Ybor), Backstreet Boys (Aug. 23, MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds), Jason Aldean (Sept. 6, Live Nation Amphitheatre), Diana Ross (Sept. 10, Mahaffey Theater), Joe Satriani (Sept. 11, Ruth Eckerd Hall), Imagine Dragons (Sept. 24, USF Sun Dome) and Larry the Cable Guy (Oct. 12, Ruth Eckerd Hall).

Click here for this week's edition of Ticket Window.

Tampa amphitheatre's new name: MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds

From left: Live Nation's David Harb and Marc Abend and MidFlorida Credit Union's Kevin Jones show off the new logo for the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds on May 15, 2013.

Why, oh why, can't Tampa's largest outdoor concert venue pick a name that won't make local music fans cringe in abject horror?

The Ford Amphitheatre was a fine name. The 1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheatre was an abomination. Recently, it's gone by the generic but non-offensive (and at least somewhat musical) name Live Nation Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds.

The venue's new name, unveiled Wednesday, is the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds, which is not quite as ridiculous as the 1-800-Ask-Gary Amphitheatre, but boy, is it a mouthful -- not to mention it sounds about as cool as, well, filling out a small business loan application at MidFlorida Credit Union.

How many fans will delight in telling their grandchildren, "I saw Black Sabbath at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds back in 2013!" How often will people say, "Brah, it's gonna be so sick seeing Five Finger Death Punch at this year's Mayhem Festival at the MidFlorida Credit Union Amphitheatre at the Florida State Fairgrounds!"

Seriously. Look at this list. Tell us you wouldn't trade the new name for any other name on there. At this point, we would be THRILLED to swap names with the Comfort Dental Amphitheatre in Englewood, Colo.

We don't know what people will be calling this thing for short -- certainly no casual fan will use the entire nine-word, 61-letter name -- but we recommend calling it the MF Amphitheatre. Or the MF'er for short.

Sean Daly has the full story on the name change.

-- Jay Cridlin, tbt*Full Story

Green Day's 'American Idiot' returns to the stage at the Straz Center in Tampa

The rock musical has been around since Hair in the 1960s, and some of them have rocked pretty hard, such as Spring Awakening and Rock of Ages. But none rock as hard as American Idiot, the rock opera based on Green Day's smash 2004 album of the same name.

“This is the most unapologetic rock show that Broadway has seen to date," says Evan Jay Newman, music director and keyboard player with the tour that opens Friday for a three-day gig at the Straz Center for the Performing Arts.

"If you walk in expecting a Rodgers and Hammerstein show, you're going to be kind of blown out of your seat."

American Idiot has shows at 8 p.m. Friday, 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday and 1 and 6:30 p.m. Sunday at the Straz Center. Tickets are $44.50-$79.50. Click here for details.

For more on American Idiot at the Straz, click here for John Fleming's story.

Bonus: What other albums would make for good rock musicals? Sean Daly has three ideas.

SoundBytes: Kevin James, Psychedelic Furs, Kitty and more

-- The King of Queens himself, Kevin James, is coming to St. Pete for a night of stand-up comedy. He'll perform at the Mahaffey Theater on Aug. 24. Tickets start at $52.50, and they'll go onsale May 23. Click here.

-- Eighties pop heavyweights the Psychedelic Furs are returning to the State Theatre in St. Petersburg on July 28. Tickets start at $25 and they'll go onsale Friday. Click here.

-- Country singer John Michael Montgomery always seemed like a bad fit for the Orpheum in Ybor City. Today we learned his show, which was scheduled for this Thursday, has been canceled. Instead, the show has been moved to the Friday Morning Musicale Theatre, 809 W Horatio Street, Tampa. Tickets sold to the Orpheum show will be refunded within the next week; tickets to the new show, which will feature reserved seating instead of general admission, can be purchased here. It's kind of a bum deal for JMM fans -- originally, tickets started at just $30; now, they start at $55. But hey, maybe the step up in venue will be worth the extra cash. …

SoundBytes: Larry the Cable Guy, Mindless Behavior, Icona Pop, David Liebe Hart and more

-- Hands down, the weirdest show of the summer: David Liebe Hart, above, and James Quall, the oddball singer-comic-entertainers made famous on Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job!, are coming to Crowbar on July 2 for what is being described as "a set of puppetry, standup comedy, impressions, raps and songs!" Tickets are $10. Click here.

-- Speaking of comedy that's not for everyone: Larry the Cable Guy will return to Ruth Eckerd Hall for two shows on Oct. 12. Tickets are $49.75-$100. Click here.

-- If you miss Twenty One Pilots at the 97X Backyard BBQ on May 25, good news: They'll be joining Panic at the Disco as the support on Fall Out Boy's "Save Rock and Roll Tour," which hits the USF Sun Dome on Sept. 29. Not sure how "rock and roll" the synth-pop/hip-hop duo is, but that'll no doubt help ensure this show sells well. …

Imagine Dragons coming to the USF Sun Dome in Tampa

It's time. Imagine Dragons are finally coming back to Tampa.

The Las Vegas rockers behind huge hits It's Time and Radioactive are coming to the USF Sun Dome in Tampa on Sept. 24, the venue announced today. Tickets are $34.50-$39.50, and they'll go onsale Friday. Click here.

It's a big deal for a number of reasons. Imagine Dragons' set at last year's 97X Backyard BBQ made Soundcheck's list of 2012's best concerts not just once, but twice. Then they played a sold-out show at the Ritz Ybor alongside Awolnation. And they were all set to be one of the biggest acts at last year's 97X Next Big Thing ... that is, before singer Dan Reynolds came down with a throat infection and had to cancel.

Since then, Imagine Dragons have played a couple of sold-out shows in Orlando, but this will mark their long-awaited return to Tampa Bay. The fact that they're playing the Sun Dome confirms what we suspected all along: This was an arena band just waiting to happen. …

One year in, has the new USF Sun Dome changed the Tampa concert scene?

When the USF Sun Dome reopened last year after a prolonged $35-million renovation, it looked like it might revitalize a certain segment of the Tampa Bay concert industry. Acts like Elton John, Florence and the Machine, Wiz Khalifa, Kirk Franklin, Chris Tomlin and Keith Sweat all booked shows there. Fall Out Boy is coming this fall.

A year after the Sun Dome reopened, has it really made a difference in the shows we see coming to town?

"They have really been aggressive about marketing themselves and booking shows," said Dave Brooks, managing editor at Venues Today magazine, which recently listed the Sun Dome as second in Florida's "top stops" in mid-sized entertainment venues.

"The music industry and acts love anything new and shiny," Brooks said. "The fact that they went through this renovation gives them a lot of buzz. And it gives acts a reason to give them another look."

Click here for Erin Sullivan's full story about the renovated USF Sun Dome's full impact on the Tampa Bay concert scene.