As Tall as Lions July 11, 2007 Culture Room Better Than: Paying $200 for recycled nostalgia The Review: Coordinated in vests & dress pants like they were late to play a VH1 afterparty, As Tall As Lions’ hit the stage at freeway speeds, merging their sounds in and out of…
The first time Kristine Young, frontwoman for, um, Kristeenyoung, was summoned to meet Morrissey, she was summarily ejected from his Rome recording studio. “His producer for his last record videotaped one of our shows at the Delancey [in New York]. Over in Rome, where they were making the record, he…
Breakage and Mayhem don’t necessarily sound like things clubbers would submit themselves to willingly. But in this case they should, for this duo comprises notable evangelists for drum ‘n’ bass at a time when the form has pushed past its initial mass excitement in the States. The seven-year discography of…
First things first: Starlight Mints do not sound like the Flaming Lips. Yes, both bands beam an oddness only Norman, Oklahomans could conjure. Yes, SM’s “The Bandit” (from the 2000 album The Dream That Stuff Was Made Of) could have come from Wayne Coyne’s “Jelly”-era songbook. But there the comparisons…
Which would you rather see: a concert appearance with the septuagenarian rockers from Deep Purple, or a performance of the band’s legendary “Smoke on the Water” featuring 1683 guitarists (which happened in Kansas City last month)? At least one has a whiff of unpredictability to it. Like any good Seventies…
A gravitating presence, charismatic flair and enchanting voice. Those are just a few of the traits Rey Ruiz devotees will be treated to when the Cuban salsero takes the stage at Escape (inside the Howard Johnson, Hialeah) on Saturday night. Ruiz hits Miami on Saturday Fresh off making the rounds…
Photo by Jeffrey Delannoy Better Than: Every other large-scale concert of the year so far. The Review: Believe the hype. It’s not often I’ll say that. But last night’s Dolphin Stadium stop of the Police megatour revealed a band so technically assured and connected onstage, even after a 21-year break,…
Better than: Attending the mullet infested and fanny pack wearing Lilith Fair. The Review: Amendment XXI recently opened a weekly Friday night party for the “new progressive woman,” a.k.a., a lesbian free for all. The event was colorfully titled Heroine, as in a female hero, and featured a pool table,…
American Idols Live July 6, 2007 BankAtlantic Center, Sunrise, FL Better than: Watching the show Photo by Lauren Papiernik Hours before the American Idols Live show at the BankAtlantic Center I was standing in the rain trying to find my way into the arena. At the last minute I found…
Looks like it’s time for more rock´n´roll from the swamp. Gainesville’s favorite homeboys, Sister Hazel are heading south on tour and hoping they can still cause a stir. They’ve got loads of talent in the alt-rock department, and, at least, used to sell out large venues and arenas in the…
Among all the music that resonates through the nighttime streets of Miami, little of it gets dubbed as “the sound of South Beach.” No we’re not talking about the vocal skills of the homeless people muttering to themselves, but rather the synthesized psychedelic noise candy that pumps through nightclub speakers…
Ah, Finland. Frozen tundra of absolute mystery. The country that even the rest of Scandinavia makes fun of. The place whose most recent major international musical offering is Lordi, winner of the 2006 Eurovision song contest. (In case you missed that competition, Lordi is a metal band whose members dress…
His thirties might be a threat that’s still five years off, but Marc Broussard’s voice sounds twice its age when in blue-eyed-soul character. Broussard’s third LP, S.O.S.: Save Our Soul, hit stores last month. It’s a leap of faith in image (goodbye, peach fuzz; hello, Brokeback Mountain) and in sound…
By 1952 Louis Armstrong’s international ubiquity was so established that even a six-year-old Rio de Janeiro boy taking trumpet lessons could develop an obsession with him. Claudio Roditi would, a few years later, expand his jazz fantasies to include Dizzy Gillespie and Miles Davis. In 1970 he began studying the…
The Police reunion has been hailed as the musical event of the millennium. But an online missive from drummer Stewart Copeland, following the opening date of the band’s North American tour, in Vancouver, warned all was not well. Mentions of miscues and onstage fumbles suggested that after an absence of…
Coming to international fame in the Nineties via his double-entendre-titled Bang the Box mix series, Chicago’s Bad Boy Bill (William Renkosik) has never been known for subtlety. And that’s okay, because sometimes there’s the plain and simple need to be whooped on the head with a huge groove and a…
Joan Jett 6/30/07 When we got to Dolphin Stadium and realized it was silly foam hat day; I knew it would take an awful lot of domestic, stadium-sized beers to survive until Joan Jett played. Turns out, I was right. So we roamed through the mini-mall labyrinth in search of…
René ”Residente” Pérez Better than: Trading in your new Daddy Yankee CD for a slightly used paddleball. Calle 13 is from Puerto Rico, but on Friday, Residente and Visitante were running on Cuban time. La Covacha’s patio/concert area was bloated with eager audience members by 1 a.m., which also happened…
DJ Goodroid Better Than: Listening to Y100’s techno hour and calling it a party. The Review: Drumwerks is back at Soho Lounge every Thursday night, only this time they’ve included a new resident DJ, Goodroid, who claims to have the only dubstep set in Miami. Either way, it’s always fun…
Tony Orlando June 27, 2007 Hard Rock Live at the Seminole Hard Rock Hotel & Casino Better Than: An Elvis impersonator When you’re a singer whose career is based on hit songs you can count on one hand and your 15 minutes of fame lasted five years, it’s probably best…
If you’ve dipped your toes in the waters of the Florida rave scene during the past, oh, fifteen years, you’ve probably collected some warm, fuzzy half-memories of Rabbit in the Moon. Remember the time at Ultra when that space man landed onstage and showered the crowd with sparks from his…
Calle 13 crashed its way into the reggaeton party in 2005, coming seemingly out of nowhere with its hard-hitting eponymous debut. Booty-shaking though it was, the Puerto Rico-based duo’s album offered a much-needed respite from reggaeton’s seemingly nonstop party antics. So it really wasn’t a great shock when Calle 13…
