Music

Poison was more rose than thorn in the beginning.

When will domestic abusers such as Chris Brown get their reckoning?

Boy George is calling from Australia, where he’s finalizing filming as a coach on that country’s seventh season of The Voice. He’s purportedly on the phone to discuss his and Culture Club’s upcoming summer tour with the B-52’s and Tom Bailey of Thompson Twins, but he has something else on his mind: wedding cakes.

Last night, West Palm Beach was the launching pad for this summer’s Weezer and Pixies double-headliner tour. Fans were privy to a trifecta of bands that made for the perfect evening of rock ‘n’ roll, simultaneously presenting the past, present, and future of rock.

Thirty Seconds to Mars, Culture Club with the B-52’s, Poison and Cheap Trick, and more of the best concerts in South Florida this week, June 25 through July 1.

Last month, when a band named after the Pixies song “Debaser” was announced the night before the Pixies were in town to coheadline a tour with Weezer, the hint seemed pretty clear: The Pixies were using an alias, which happened to be the name of one of their most popular songs. Although there was no official confirmation, enough people took a leap of faith to sell out the room. They were amply rewarded with an action-packed set that was almost like a riddle or an SAT math question. How can a rock band play 41 songs in two hours?

What a cover of Toto’s “Africa” can mean for the music industry.

I got into the indie-rock legends not long after they had broken up in 1993. It took a couple listens for me to fall into their spell of the dynamic that inspired Nirvana, Radiohead, and every other band of the era. Their music had no dead spots. It was all energy and drive. The lyrics, though, were what kept me coming back. They were mysterious enough that it was hard to know what singer Black Francis was hollering about.

Having the Pixies open for Weezer would have been indie rock sacrilege. Not to worry, the two bands are co-headlining this Friday’s show at Coral Sky Amphitheatre in West Palm Beach. For a complete change of pace, you can catch bro country poster boy Luke Bryan at the same venue on Thursday night. Debaser plays Revolution Live that night, and the Black Dahlia Murder headlines the Fort Lauderdale venue on Saturday night.  Here’s a look at all of these and more of the best concerts in South Florida this week.

The Pen & The Piano Tour hits Revolution Live this Friday.

Styles, who shot to international fame at the age of 16 with the boy band One Direction before launching his recent solo career, has spent the past eight years performing for stadiums of preteen and teenage girls.

Judging by its name, you might think Combichrist is a Sunday-morning church band. But then you hear those notes of super-aggro-industrial electronic music ripping through the air. It all becomes beautiful blasphemy built exclusively for raging like a maniac.

Who’s responsible for those catchy breakup bops you’ve been replaying in your head for months? The culprit is surely English singer and model Dua Lipa, whose “New Rules” and “Idgaf” have become the undeniable single ladies anthems of 2018. She’ll bring those songs and impeccable fashion to Bayfront Park this Tuesday. But if pop stars aren’t your thing, you might be interested in the total opposite end of the musical spectrum, namely Norwegian industrial metal band Combichrist at Culture Room this weekend. And if you’re somewhere in between, Andrew McMahon in the Wilderness wraps up the work week with a show at Revolution Live this Friday.Here’s a look at all of these and more of the best concerts in South Florida this week.

LGBTQ fans have long played a crucial role in the careers of pop stars, but artists have not always returned the favor. Tour mates Harry Styles and Kacey Musgraves are rewriting the rules about how queer communities and identities should be approached within the mainstream medium of pop music.

The free party offers one of the founders of Joy Division and New Order, Peter Hook, who will perform with his band the Light. Respectable Street owner Rodney Mayo explains why this booking is a personal triumph. “I am the biggest Joy Division fan. I’ve been trying to get Peter Hook to play for 30 years,” he says. Now that’s commitment.