Iron and Wine April 12, 2008 Revolution, Ft. Lauderdale Better Than: A cellarful of John Henry. Saturday night at Revolution, the 999 other keen-eared indie music types in attendance formed, perhaps, the best-behaved bunch of rock club attendees I’ve ever encountered. The object of their focus: Sam Beam, the man…
Caribou Culture Room, Ft. Lauderdale April 5, 2008 Better Than: Having The Amboy Dukes drop by to help you with your homework. First things first. I (and you, if you were lucky enough to be there) have gotta thank Ahmed Gallab of Sinkane, who took over the traps for Caribou’s…
The Mars Volta April 2, 2008 The Fillmore Miami Beach at The Jackie Gleason Theatre Better Than: Being cooked in a cauldron of chaos. If it is true, as some rabid fan boys might believe, that you haven’t lived till you’ve been nearly kicked in the kisser by Cedric Bixler-Zavala’s…
Underworld at Ultra Music Festival Bicentennial Park Saturday, March 29, 2008 Even after 10 years of the Ultra Music Festival and 23 years of Winter Music Conference, it’s still sometimes difficult to fathom the onslaught this week brings to Miami. I mean, really. Pulling myself outta Moby’s set in the…
If Scottish singing sensation Calvin Harris is not the hardest working man in electro-land, by the end of this weekend he will be, because the cat’s got three – count ‘em – shows coming up in two days. New Times took a quick phoner from the man before he crossed…
Macy Gray March 23, 2008 The Florida Room at the Delano, Miami Beach There are songs in the world; then there are songs – songs so unbelievably beautiful that they touch the whole wide world at large. Macy Gray’s “I Try” is such a song, and last night she sang…
Jay-Z at The Fillmore Miami Beach March 21, 2008 Better Than: You Even Know The Review: If somebody told me a week or so ago that I’d be spending this Good Friday at The Fillmore digging Jay-Z, I’d have told ‘em off. I mean, c’mon. Jay Z? At The Fillmore?…
G. Love and Special Sauce March 7, 2008 Langerado Better Than:All the jam in Welch’s reserves. Forget Umphrey’s McGee and the Disco Biscuits and whatever’s left of the Dead (and that includes you, Dark Star Orchestra), ‘cause when it comes to full fest groove, there is but one band that…
Last Night: Matt Pond PA and The Walkmen at Langerado Matt Pond PA, The Walkmen March 7, 2008 Langerado, Big Cypress Reserve Better Than: A hot-buttered steam bath. Matt Pond PA If there were two more incongruous acts to stage in the swamplands, I can’t think of ’em. I mean,…
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…
Jose Gonzalez February 29, 2008 Artime Theatre Better Than: Sitting in an isolation tank in the middle of Biscayne. Miami is so much fucking cooler than most people give it credit for. We’ve got the Book Fair, we’ve got Winter Music Conference, and, of course, we’ve got Art Basel Miami…
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…
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…
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…
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…
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;…
