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SoundCheck: John Mellencamp, Kenny Rogers among top live music picks

 
Pentatonix
Pentatonix
Published March 17, 2015

John Mellencamp

With Carlene Carter

Details: Today and Friday 7:30 p.m. Ruth Eckerd Hall, 1111 N McMullen-Booth Road, Clearwater. $43.25-$136.75. (727) 791-7400.

Fans of the Coug get two chances to see the Voice of the Heartland play Ruth Eckerd Hall in support of his new album, Plain Spoken. It's a collection of songs that looks to Dylan's Blood on the Tracks to help add quiet, deeply introspective narratives to Mellencamp's quiver of classic American tunes. He may be aging (63 doesn't look too bad on the man, though), but his gristly, beatup voice has actually grown more impressive on each of his 22 studio albums. Expect him to revisit a lot of those over the course of this two-night stand. Carlene Carter opens the show.

Busch Gardens Food and Wine Festival

With Kenny Rogers (Saturday), Pentatonix (Sunday)

Details: Saturday and Sunday 6 p.m. Busch Gardens, 10165 N McKinley Drive, Tampa. Free with park admission: $95, $90. Toll-free 1-888-800-5447.

On Saturday, Busch Gardens' nearly two-month-long Food & Wine festival rolls on with the Coward of the County, Kenny Rogers. The 76-year-old — who could double as Col. Sanders' handsome brother — hasn't released a groundbreaking album in years, but that doesn't really matter when you've got four decades (and 32 studio LPs) to back you up. Performing Sunday is a cappella quintet Pentatonix, whose profile got a huge boost after they won the third season of NBC's The Sing-Off. Before you brush them off as another TV-made success story, make yourself a believer by listening to their medley Daft Punk, which earned them a trophy at this year's Grammys.

Delbert McClinton

Details: Friday 8 p.m. Capitol Theatre, 405 Cleveland St., Clearwater. $50-$60. (727) 791-7400.

Were you alive in 1980 (or have parents who never left the decade)? Then you definitely know about the horn blasts and boogie-ready guitar licks of Delbert McClinton's big hit Giving It Up for Your Love. It showed off the 74-year-old's affection for throwing a little funk on top of his electric-blues singer-songwriter fare, and it's a trend he milked on songs like horn-a-licious Standing on Shaky Ground as well as the boot-scootin' shuffle of Go On. He's also got a soulful side (his cover of Otis Redding's I've Got Dreams to Remember is proof), and even won a Grammy, thanks to an early '90s collaboration with Bonnie Raitt (Good Man, Good Woman). He'll look back at a 42-year career, and play some new tunes from 2013's Blind, Crippled and Crazy, at this show.

Agnostic Front

With Science, Coldside

Details: Friday 8 p.m. Orpheum, 1915 E Seventh Ave., Ybor City. $15. (813) 248-9500.

There's a story about Agnostic Front's Vinnie Stigma literally scalping himself after he hit his head on a monitor while moshing to an opening band. "The skin was hanging off," is how he remembers that 1982 moment at legendary NYC rock club CBGB. "My skull was exposed." The guitarist, needless to say, missed that show. All that attitude comes roaring into Ybor City this weekend when Stigma and frontman Roger Miret headline festivities for an equally awesome event, the Skatepark of Tampa's Tampa Pro. Local hard-core outfit Science play support, and while they'll have the always rowdy SPoT revelers warmed up early, expect complete madness to break out when Agnostic Front — who've been at it 30 years — come supporting a new album (the exceptionally angry The American Dream Died, due April 7) as well as 10 more LPs of equally pissed-off punk (Dead Yuppies, Riot Riot Upstart).

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Ozomatli

With La Santa Cecilia, Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics

Details: Saturday 3 p.m. Vinoy Park, 701 Bayshore Drive NE, St. Petersburg. Free. (727) 893-7441.

If Spring Beer Fling's suds-soaked party is a little bit too self-serving (or expensive) for your tastes, then the Concert for Fair Food at St. Pete's Vinoy Park is there to be your philanthropic (and free) alternative. The day begins with a parade that starts in Bartlett Park at noon and ends 3 miles away at Vinoy Park, where Grammy winning Afro-Latin septet Ozomatli headline with a raucous live show that injects their love of salsa, jazz and funk with the tenets of the West Coast hip-hop they grew up with in Los Angeles. The band are no strangers to social activism (watch their TEDx talks) and will rally attendees after La Santa Cecilia and Ruby Velle and the Soulphonics open the show.

Bleachers

With Joywave, Night Terrors of 1927

Details: Wednesday 7 p.m. State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St. Petersburg. $25.50. (727) 895-3045.

Bleachers stole the show at Tampa's Coral Skies Music Festival last fall with a midafternoon set of stadium ready, '80s-loving, big-hook wielding pop that Freddie Mercury and the Cranberries would be proud of. It's all thanks to frontman Jack Antonoff, the guitarist for Fun., who cut his teeth in underappreciated retro-pop outfit Steel Train. The 30-year-old is a tabloid fixture, thanks to his Tampa-hating fiancee Lena Dunham. It's unlikely the State Theatre will be able to handle all the bombastic melodies and big ol' harmonies of Bleachers songs like Rollercoaster and I Wanna Get Better.

Contact Times correspondent Ray Roa at SuburbanApologist.com.