John Ralston

Local indie rock fans have long since considered soft-toned rocker John Ralston as a hometown hero. As a native of Lake Worth, he has rocked out around South Florida for years, opening for, and occasionally headlining with, other local-but-then-exploded acts like Dashboard Confessional and Legends of Rodeo. But now Ralston has honed in on a sound and style of his own: one that blends four-track-style harmonies with background violins and slow-charging beats. He has mastered the role of full-frontal indie icon, and his last album, Needle Bed, even included a downloadable box of chocolates so that everyone who cares enough to support him knows he loves them. And let's face it: You can't get more indie than that. So in a sense, he's your high school boyfriend (except Ralston cut a hit record with Vagrant Records and then went on tour with Ben Lee, while yours is still living at his mom's house and scribbling in his journal). He's playing a show this Thursday with fellow local rockers Black Finger, Catalonia, and Summer Blanket, and it's all celebrating Steve Rullman's 40th, er, we mean 39th-one-more-time birthday, and also the ninth anniversary of his stellar website, thehoneycomb.com. That's a lot of local goodness all wrapped up in one party, so for all those music lovers out there with hometown pride, this is the place to be.