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SoundCheck: Trey Songz, Dropkick Murphys, Fun, Dark Star Orchestra, the Casualties, Grimes<p></p>

 
Tampa Bay Times
Published Feb. 29, 2012

TREY SONGZ

Details: Tuesday 7:30 p.m. Straz Center for the Performing Arts, 1010 N MacInnes Place, Tampa. $48.50. (813) 229-7827.

Trey Songz makes the kind of steamy, unashamed mattress music that's adored by ladies and feared by headboards (Neighbors Know My Name). R. Kelly-like bottle popper Say Aah and Nicki Minaj collaboration Bottoms Up are among his best-known tunes, but Songz, a.k.a. "Mr. Steal Your Girl," is at his best when he's moving the party from the club to the bedroom (Can't Be Friends).

DROPKICK MURPHYS

With Frank Turner and the Sleeping Souls

Details: Monday 7 p.m. The Ritz Ybor, 1503 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $27.50. (813) 247-2555.

For whiskey-downing pub-rock pioneers Flogging Molly and Dropkick Murphys, the month of March is like tax season for accountants. It's "our big time," says Dropkick guitarist Tim Brennan. Indeed, it seems the Quincy, Mass., band's hash of stumbling punk and fightin' folk has become as crucial to good St. Patty's month partying as frothy pints and shepherd's pie. When platinum-selling single I'm Shipping Up to Boston (the centerpiece song in Martin Scorsese's The Departed) starts up, the Ritz Ybor is going off.

Fun

Details: Wednesday 7 p.m. State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $17-$20. (727) 895-3045.

It's not every week that we're treated to a show by the group with the No. 1 download in the country. We Are Young is a buoyant piano-pop sing-along with the super-encouraging assertion "We can burn brighter than the sun." No wonder Glee was quick to scoop it up. The group, composed of members of the Format, Steel Train and Anathallo, released Some Nights last week.

The Casualties

With Toxic Holocaust, Feral Babies, the Scurvy, Generichrist

Details: Wednesday 8 p.m. The Brass Mug, 14811 N Florida Ave., Tampa. $8-$10. www.twobeardspresents.com.

New location. Same old loud, grimy rock shows. The Brass Mug, a place that's been referred to as "the CBGB of Tampa," is settling into its new Florida Avenue location. Fittingly, the Casualties will fill the space with the kind of punk-rock anthems that are meant to be shouted, snarled or chanted — just as the Mug intended from the start.

Dark Star Orchestra

Details: Friday 8 p.m. Jannus Live, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. $22. (727) 565-0551.

Dark Star Orchestra is raising the dead one show at a time. Each night, this free-spirited, Jerry-honoring act chooses one of the Grateful Dead's 2,500 live sets to recreate. That means the band plays an original Dead set list, in order, song by song. So, you might get a September '81 show from the Playhouse Theatre in Edinburgh, Scotland, or, say, a '77 set from the Robertson Gym at UC Santa Barbara. Finding out is half the fun. The Dallas Morning News says it's "the next best thing to being there."

Grimes

With Born of Gold

Details: Tuesday 8 p.m. Orpheum, 1915 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $7-$10. www.theorpheum.com.

If you ask us, the name Grimes sounds more suitable for a detective on a CBS crime drama or an aspiring sludge metal act than a one-woman electronic pop project. But Grimes is in fact Claire Boucher, the delicate figure behind cyborgy yet remarkably pretty breakout disc Visions. The floaty, synthy voyage into the unknown has been praised by the New York Times and Pitchfork, to name a few. Others have said Boucher's work recalls the merging of the Twin Peaks and Tron soundtracks.

Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons

Details: Tonight at 8. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $59.50-$103. (727) 791-7400.

Before Snooki, the Situation and Pauly D became Jersey's most recognized residents, doo-wop fellas Frankie Valli and the Four Seasons were doing the Newark projects proud with dreamy, falsetto-fueled pop music. Hits (Sherry, Big Girls Don't Cry) and high notes are on the schedule for the group's regular Clearwater showing. We just wonder what Frankie thinks about the Shore phrase "gym, tan, laundry"?

Times correspondent Carole Liparoto can be reached at carole.liparoto@gmail.com.