Photo by Elvis Ramirez “Poetess” made up a poem out of words solicited from the audience. I always figured that open mic poetry nights usually didn’t attract huge crowds. I imagined low lights, smooth music playing in between acts and a people lounging in couches relaxing, some huddled together all…
Son del Centro rock out justicia. Photo by Esther Park Concert For Fair Food Saturday, December 1, 2007 Bayfront Park, Downtown Miami Better Than: winning a lifetime supply of Whoppers. This past weekend, the Coalition of Immokalee Workers were in full effect, along with 500 or so of their supporters…
When it comes to playing Southern blues, some musicians have a stronger ear for it than others. If you really want to play it, you need an inherent ability to hear the music. When it comes to the banjo-picking and drum-thumping skills of Ben Prestage, he’s got an advantage that…
Imitation, it is said, is the sincerest form of flattery. But what do you call an exact replication? A tribute, of course. It’s a musical one in the case of Australian Pink Floyd, the world’s finest tribute band to, well, Pink Floyd. Starting way back in ’88, five Aussie musicians…
In today’s world of Cuban music, there’s nothing really exotic about a band as well rehearsed in chamber music as it is in rock. But roll back the clock to the end of the Cold War, and you’ll find Artevivo was at the heart of artistic resourcefulness on the island…
“Vocalese” is a jazz technique in which lyrics are added to instrumental tunes to convey a certain idea or feeling. Its origins can be traced to the Twenties, but it really came into vogue later, in the Fifties and beyond. And it is Kurt Elling’s passion. The Chicago-based musician develops the…
It’s almost guaranteed when you pursue a career in sports that you better have a backup plan in mind. For six-foot-nine former NBA power forward Wayman Tisdale, his plan B was a music career, and it’s gaining him just as much acclaim now as he garnered on the basketball court…
Kicking off Friday’s Suenalo Sound System show at Jazid are Deb Hooks’s do-me pumps. Um, I mean Plastic Parachute. The alt-pop quartet is a road-dog-and-a-half, doing about 250 shows per year. As time has gone on, the band has padded its resumé with opening slots for heavies such as The…
Throughout his four-decade career, Caetano Veloso has had a taste for musical innovation, keeping a keen eye on new sounds and tendencies while creating something of his own around them. It was the case in the era of Tropicalia, his native Brazil’s psychedelic response to the Summer of Love. Veloso…
It’s painful to hear the word math used to describe a style of music. And unfortunately, Heavy Heavy Low Low, hailing from San Jose, California, often get pigeonholed into the patently ponderous pseudo-genre mathcore. It’s supposed to mean there’s a lot of technique — meter shifts and such — along…
Two-thirds of New York’s Robots collaborative — Bill Patrick and Dennis Rodgers — invade Laundry Bar this Friday. The trio formed in New York in 2003, the members’ common denominator an obsessive interest in twisted, mind-bending techno and house. Patrick was a resident DJ at Arc, mainly performing warm-up duties,…
People are still talking about David Guetta’s last Miami gig, at Cameo during this past spring’s Winter Music Conference. The mess at the door was nearly unparalleled, and the sardine-squished crowd thrashed to funky, dirty house beats until nearly dawn. The party, after all, was a special WMC edition of…
Even if you don’t immediately recognize Erick Morillo by name, if you have ears and are over the age of, say, 16, you most certainly recognize his biggest hit. In the early Nineties, there were a few heady months when it looked like American-style hip-house might cross over into the…
You’re probably excited this week to accumulate more fat cells in places you don’t want them to be. But on November 23rd, the boys from the Autonomous Bassheads, in conjunction with Voodoo lounge and Culture Productions, will be presenting the 2nd Battle of the Bass showdown against Dade County and…
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…
Bonnie Raitt Thursday, Nov 13 Hard Rock Live The people who show up at Bonnie Raitt shows these days are white, married, and between the ages of 40 and 60. The only teenagers I saw were two blond chicks that sat next to me and left after the third song…
That1Guy Thursday November 15th 2007 Dada, Delray Beach Better Than: Emmet Otter’s Jug Band Christmas The Review: I had no idea what to expect out of this performance. It turns out that nothing really could have prepared me for what was about to happen. It started out with That1Guy bringing…
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…
Nightwish November 14, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: Staring at the cleavage of a hot European rocker chick stuffed into a tight, leather corset. Okay, so maybe that’s not so bad. When the lights went down and the guitars came up in the Culture Room last night, Nightwish, the melodic…
This weekend famed house artiste Laurent Garnier appears at Shine for his first gig in Miami in more than a decade. The star DJ, one of the prime cogs in the late-Eighties Madchester scene, boasts his share of storied appearances. There was the time he stood in for Guns N’…
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…
Together for less than a year, the world experimentalists of Bachaco prefer their career trajectory like their tequila: straight up. Already armed with enough original material to fill a couple of albums, the Miami band is at work on its first, as-yet-untitled full-length for Onesound Records, due out before the…
