Gavin DeGraw
With Mike Sanchez
Details: Today, 7 p.m. Ritz Ybor, 1503 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $24.50. (813) 247-2555.
Some Tampa Bay residents may remember a local kid named Billy Norris, a kid movie critic for the St. Petersburg Times who appeared on David Letterman's shows and other national outlets. He's also a classically trained bassist. His full-time gig these days is touring with dreamy singer-songwriter Gavin DeGraw. It's good work — DeGraw, best known for the earworms Chariot, Follow Through and I Don't Want to Be (the theme to One Tree Hill), is a laid-back dude who plays good-time pop music.
Jay Cridlin, Times staff writer
Matt & Kim
With the Thermals and DJ Autobot (of Flosstradamus)
Details: Tuesday, 8 p.m. Czar, 1420 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $20. (813) 247-2664.
Up there with wrinkly babies and kittens that play piano, Brooklyn's Matt Johnson and Kim Schifino are impossibly adorable. With unchecked enthusiasm, the dancing drum-and-keyboard couple delivers DIY pop-rock songs about cutting your pants into shorts and throwing your shoes in the ocean (Daylight). It's equal parts sugar, sweat and smiles (quite possibly balloons, too), and it could do more for your mental state than Paxil. See these two exuberant young artists now before they become Crest Whitestrips spokespeople.
All Star Rock Tour
Featuring Orleans, Joe Lynn Turner, John Cafferty, John Ford Coley and Robbie Dupree
Details: Saturday, 8 p.m. The Mahaffey Theater, 400 First St. S, St. Petersburg. $28-$38. (727) 892-5767.
There's an endearing term some folks (bloggers, music critics, Jimmy Fallon) use to describe the soft, polished rock that came out of the mid 1970s and early '80s. They call it "Yacht Rock" because the genre's smooth, mellow tones have a tendency to conjure up champagne-sipping and lamb-shank-braising on luxury yachts. Orleans (Still the One), John Ford Coley (I'd Really Love to See You Tonight) and Robbie Dupree (Steal Away) are among the hitmakers performing. So grab your bubbly, El Capitan, and rock (smoothly) on.
Primus
Details: Tuesday, 7:30 p.m. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $29.50-$39.50. (727) 791-7400.
Take the weird, progressive ways of Captain Beefheart, add the slap-bass funkiness of early Red Hot Chili Peppers, dab with some big brown beaver humor and bring to boil to form Primus, the Cali band behind some of the most perverse and intricate tunes known to man. Green Naugahyde, written and recorded at Les Claypool's Rancho Relaxo (named for an episode of The Simpsons), is the group's first release since 1999's Antipop.
Car Bomb Driver
With the Spears and Dead Cat Lounge
Details: Saturday, 9 p.m. The Local 662, 662 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $5.
After an extended hiatus, St. Petersburg's 15-year punk veterans Car Bomb Driver are back on the scene. Their commitment to short but raucous punk about the blahs of teenage suburban life has earned them slots opening for the Misfits, among others. A few weeks back, they played Dunedin Brewery's annual Ramones tribute show (and new EP Official Bootleg even features a song called I Just Wanna Be a Ramone), but this is the official comeback show, says the band.
Times correspondent Carole Liparoto can be reached at carole.liparoto@gmail.com.
Loading...