Jam Cruise 12’s Five Best Acts to See at Sea

Music is always a little extra-special when it’s being played in the middle of the ocean. For instance, when the Titanic was going down, and the band played on. That was not normal chamber music. Similarly, but in a much, much, much more cheerful way, the music aboard Jam Cruise is…

Ex Norwegian Intends to Hook Their Listeners on Crack

Backstage In South Florida: Music vet and New Times scribe Lee Zimmerman shares observations, insights, and updates relating to South Florida’s musical environs. Ex Norwegian returns! Back in the day, the imminent arrival of a new album by the Beatles or the Stones was something of an event, a cause…

SunFest’s Top 10 Most Memorable Fashions

Besides a small minority of Lilly Pulitzer lovin’ hipsters and like 30 Japanese chicks, there’s no young person in the world looking to West Palm Beach for fashion advice. Not that they shouldn’t, but it’s not like a night out on Clematis is the same as opening the pages of…

Jimmy Cliff Made Us Cry at SunFest in West Palm Beach

You know those days when a well-crafted Hallmark commercial makes you weep like someone just stomped on your pet hamster? Premenstrual ladies? Coke-heads? Ya feel me?! Well, when my eyes kept welling up watching Jimmy Cliff preach the reggae gospel of “peace and love” to a swarm of sweaty SunFesters,…

Mac Miller Versus Kendrick Lamar: SunFest MC Battle 2013

The skies cleared for the last day of the 31st annual SunFest, finally allowing the summer-kickoff waterfront jam to live up to its name. The sun was shining, and fiercely, the entire afternoon as Canadian comedic pop rock troupe Barenaked Ladies performed on the festival’s main Ford Stage. For the…

Top Five Deep Thoughts on Merengue-Pop Star Elvis Crespo

Born in New York City and reared in Puerto Rico, Elvis Crespo will forever be known as the baby-faced merengue-pop crooner behind the 1998 international smash hit “Suavemente.” At that burgeoning time of serious powerhouse Latin male vocalists, Crespo suffered from the fading memory of one-hit wonder Gerardo’s “Rico Suave”…

Opeth Bring Progressive Metal to Fort Lauderdale Tomorrow

It has been said that no matter what flavor of heavy metal you prefer or what band you’re most attached to, there is a Swedish group out there that does it better. For fans of progressive metal, Stockholm’s Opeth is the reigning king of post-Rush prog. Fleet-fingered guitarist/composer/vocalist Mikael Akerfeldt…

Top Five Picks for Local, Beach-Friendly Bands at SunFest 2013

Each year, West Palm Beach is granted its fill of national acts thanks to the waterfront concert SunFest. This year, there’s a buttload of big names, like Smashing Pumpkins and Slightly Stoopid, Kendrick Lamar and Black Crowes. But the folks behind the scenes are no dummies; they know that South…

Top Ten Best Acts to Perform at SunFest 2013

If we are superior at anything at New Times, it is at having opinions. We’re talking like we even have something to say about the kind of toilet paper your mom buys (leaves stuff in our butts!) or the size of raindrops falling from the sky (they’re too skinny). So,…

SunFest Secrets Uncovered: Tips to Maximize Your Festival Experience

Don’t blink too long, or it’ll already be SunFest! For the average downtown West Palmer, our whole year revolves around this five-day festival of awesomeness. It’s basically the only time any huge national music acts come to Clematis. Oh, and wait, there’re like 50 of them! For the newbie, this…