I was all set to badmouth Vampire Weekend when they were to take the stage at Langerado yesterday, but the Ivy League louts denied me the privilege. Seems a little TV show called Saturday Night Live trumps Big Cypress, so the boy band decided to stay home and do their…
Would it hurt to once in a while raise your fist in more than a mere whisper?
Leon Russell February 23, 2008 The Culture Room Better Than: And old 45 and a Kleenex. There are very few songs that I’d travel some seventy-plus miles to hear sung live – very, very few. But among that short list is Leon Russell’s “A Song for You.” Covered over the…
Casiotone for the Painfully Alone February 16, 2007 The White Room Better Than: Having Dostoevsky read to you by an ex-lover. Hard to believe anyone would put their faith in heartbreak, let alone turn out en masse to listen to it. But that’s Miami – ever ready to flip the…
You don’t need to know the music of Casiotone for the Painfully Alone to know that somehow, somewhere, sometime, you too have trod down that same long, dark road. But it helps, if only for the fact that you can commiserate. You might even get a bit gleeful hearing how…
Marilyn Manson January 20, 2008 The Fillmore Miami Beach Better Than: You can imagine. Only a dingbat or a dolt doesn’t dig Marilyn Manson. Really. I mean, unless you’ve absolutely no sense of humor, let alone sense of the absurd, or you believe rock shouldn’t come from a loud place,…
Photo by Ivon David Rojas The Foo Fighters were joined by Against Me! and Jimmy Eat World. Foo Fighters January 16, 2008 BankAtlantic Center Better Than: The ‘70s all over again. Media: Click here to see a slidehow from the concert. Timing. It really is all about timing. Oh, not…
Marilyn Manson’s dame games may make the most headlines, but the fact of the matter remains that the cat and his cronies continue to concoct some of the most muscular music imaginable. Smart, too — even if the keen does tend to veer toward gore and gruesome. Manson’s latest long-player,…
ZZ Top December 28, 2007 Hard Rock Live Better Than: Not having dared at all. The Review: “ZZ Top at the Hard Rock?!?!” “That’s what I said.” “Wow! You know that’s one of the few bands I’ve never seen?” “Really? So you’ll go, then?” “No, sorry. I’ve got other plans.”…
Dave Navarro & DJ Skribble December 22, 2007 Pawn Shop Lounge Better Than: A fistfight in front of a mirror. Contrary to unpopular opinion, kids still get riled about rock; when the rock comes dosed with bottom heavy rap, they get really riled. Make that: really, really riled. Witness Dave…
Youssou N’Dour November 16, 2007 Gusman Theater Better Than: Being at S.O.B.’s in the Eighties The Review: If it makes sense that Youssou N’Dour kicked-off his current North American tour in the polyglot melting pot that is Miami, it makes even more sense that he did it at the behest…
Tegan and Sara November 13, 2007 The Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than: An aimless drive – but not by much. The Review:I didn’t wanna dig Tegan and Sara’s Culture Room show Tuesday night – I expected to. In fact, I’d never even considered anything otherwise. I mean, I dug…
She has teamed with Iggy, Elvis, Moby, Los Fabulosos Cadillacs, and Miss Guy (of Toilet Boys). She has spoken up and out on AIDS, the Human Rights Campaign, and even the incarceration of Lil’ Kim. Her songs are now tracking a West End staging of Desperately Seeking Susan and racing…
Annie Lennox October 31, 2007 The Carnival Center Better Than: A Weimar-era balladeer in a blender. I don’t know what’s better, that I got a privileged seat for the set of Annie Lennox last night, or that I got to sit next to the Herald’s Howard Cohen, who I thought…
Juliette and the Licks October 30, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: Patti Smith fronting the MC5 – or just as good anyway. It’s a sad state of affairs when more people turn out on a Tuesday for the Tiki-fied floor show at Mai Kai than for a second South Florida…
Annie Lennox has sung onstage with greats like Aretha Franklin and David Bowie. She has recorded alongside Al Green and Paul Simon. She has won four Grammies, seven Brit Awards, a Golden Globe, and an Oscar. She has sold some 80 million records with her former band the Eurythmics and…
Evanescence October 23, 2007 BankUnited Center Better Than: Entering a bat cave with an angel by your side. It seems only natural that Amy Lee is perfectly at home in arenas. After all, her voice is the size of the sky. Even at a coo, it rises from the horizon;…
Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Cat Power October 22, 2007 Studio A Better Than: Finding out Syd Barrett still sings in honky tonks. The Review: The last time I caught Cat Power at Studio A, it was just her, her pain, her anger and her keyboard – and a crowd of…
James Blood Ulmer October 20, 2007 The Colony Theatre, Miami Beach Better Than: A back alley brawl between jazz and blues. The Review: Back when I first moved in New York, one of the greatest musical pleasures I had was catching James Blood Ulmer get all “avant-gutbucket” at a dingy…
Hot Hot Heat October 19, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: A B12 shot of mid-‘80s nostalgia. The Review: I hate beginning with a negative (there’s too much bad in the world already), but I will say this: if I never had to stand through another song by Bedouin Soundclash, my…
Amy Lee scares the hell outta me. Oh, it’s not so much that she’s hot or that she’s talented or that she’s famous (though she is decidedly all three), but that she’s sweet. And sweet can be scary, especially when it’s coming from someone so supposedly creepy. By phone, the…
It doesn’t take a rocket scientist to tell that the dark side of the Eighties still shadows our soundscape. All it takes is a radio or a healthy addiction to a blog aggregator. Popular acts such as She Wants Revenge, Blaqk Audio, and even Interpol mine those fabled depths for…
