For 2018, I wrote a post on tons of live music Sara, my wife, and I saw during the year. It took a long time and much of it was not fresh in my mind, so for value, I decided to break down 2019 into parts. It has definitely been a good start to the year in live music…

January 12 – Parsons Dance Company

Parsons Dance Company, a worldwide-touring group from New York, came to FSU and did an afternoon, discounted, “sensory friendly” show mainly aimed at kids and those with special needs – so we were able to take our son! They did four very cool pieces, including stylized classical to a Mozart symphony; a “hand dance” where the only thing visible were the dancers’ hands; a very fun New Orleans-style dance with big band music; and my favorite, a long, virtuosic tabla recording with two pairs of dancers evoking the sound of the drums with their movements. It was all very impressive and fun, and they had a cute Q&A session for the kids afterward as well.

January 18 – The Band Be Easy

This was a band from Jacksonville playing a free show at Fifth and Thomas, a cool little nightclub in Tallahassee. While they seem to have a lot of reggae originals, the group stuck to covers this evening, but great covers. Highlights included classics like Prince’s “Raspberry Beret”, “Kiss”, and “Let’s Go Crazy”, David Bowie’s “Let’s Dance”, Jimi Hendrix’s “All Along the Watchtower”, and more contemporary tunes like “Sail” by AWOLNATION and “No Diggity” by Blackstreet.

These guys were on point. All of the covers sounded true to the originals, but with an enthusiasm that suggested real love for the music. The guitar player absolutely wailed, and I was pleased to see a Roland System-8, a synthesizer I had recently acquired, among the instruments in front of the keys player. It’s not often that I’m super stoked on a cover band, but these guys really hit hard. I’d see them play a set of covers again, but I’d also be pretty excited to see them play their originals if given the opportunity. I’d like to see them at the upcoming Gadsen Reggae Festival, for example.

January 19 – The Honey Hounds

Two nights in a row: another free show at Fifth and Thomas, another band from Jacksonville. This blues-rock trio played a number of original tunes, but they had some great covers as well, including “Back Door Man” by The Doors and “Tainted Love” by Soft Cell. Their originals sounded great, but I was only able to identify one after the show: “Animal”. This is another group I’d be happy to see again, especially if it’s another free show like this.

February 2 – Miscast Musicals

We had a great time attending this event last October, and this was another delightful evening at Theatre Tallahassee.  With songs from A Chorus Line, You’re a Good Man, Charlie Brown, Into the Woods, Kinky Boots, The Book of Mormon, Hamilton, Little Shop of Horrors, Avenue Q, Hair, and many more, we were treated to a total of 22 songs from Broadway classics and modern hits, but with a twist, as each was sung by a performer of the opposite gender than the role is typically played. This made for a great mix of vocal excellence and comedy moments. We hope this becomes a regularly recurring event!

February  15 – Arsenic and Old Lace

Theatre Tallahassee put on Arsenic and Old Lace, which I’ve come to understand is a classic. While I hadn’t heard of it before, I can certainly see why people enjoy it – the play was hilarious and dark at the same time, blending various horror tropes into what was ostensibly a comedy.

Like most community theater, the performance had a mix of talent levels, but that’s part of the fun. The ladies who played the two aunts were absolutely excellent, as were most of the other leads. While I’ll always lean towards musicals, any live theater at all is such a blast.

February 16 – The Trongone Band

We hung out for an hour or so this evening and watched Virginia-based The Trongone Band for no cover charge at local venue Fifth and Thomas.

Billed as a four-piece but performing as a three-piece, I was extremely impressed with the keyboard player, who held down his parts with the right hand and played a flawless bass synthesizer with the left. These guys also looked great, sporting a classic long-hair-and-beard combo. The music was straightforward blues-based rock played with precision and enthusiasm. They were really good, but after an hour or so we kind of decided, “Yeah, we get it,” and headed out.

February 21 – Hairspray

I’m so impressed with FSU’s School of Theatre. I’ve seen a lot of professional musical productions, and while this may be “just” a college play, many of the performers just need their break on Broadway and they’ll be well on their way in their careers.

Each of the leads was excellent in their own way. In particular, the girl who played Penny had a crazy powerful singing voice. There wasn’t a single cringe-inducing moment or an actor that we thought was an obvious weak link. The ensemble sounded great and the dancing was incredibly in sync. There was even a decent range of ages among the performers to where it didn’t feel like it was a bunch of kids playing adults’ roles, although it helps that most of the roles are in fact high school kids.

I just can’t say enough good things about the FSU productions, including Hairspray. My only regret remains that we haven’t seen more in our time in Tallahassee, but we will be continuing to rectify that.

February 22 – Grind (an Alice in Chains Tribute) w/ Core (a Stone Temple Pilots Tribute)

Alice in Chains is in my opinion the best early-90s grunge band, so I was all for attending this show the moment I saw it. The tickets were only about $8, which only added to my resolve.

We showed up and Core, a Stone Temple Pilots tribute act, was already underway. I’ve never really spent a lot of time listening to STP, but they obviously are well in the zeitgeist, as I was familiar with almost every song played in this hour-long set.

The band sounded really good – all of the familiar riffs sounded just like I’d heard them before. The crowd was pretty small, and Sara and I were the youngest people there, which we found amusing. Core was hyping Grind, the Alice in Chains tribute, and people seemed pretty excited for some of those great tunes. Taking a walk during the break, we reflected on how it was kind of sad that the openers were using the headliners for cheers so frequently, but we figured that’s kind of their job.

Then we returned and saw we had been punked.

Sure enough, it was the same band but in different outfits and wigs. This was a pretty funny gimmick and I for one was caught off guard by it, though the signs were there should I have looked hard enough.

The crowd had grown a bit by this time and was really into the Alice in Chains tunes. The only acknowledgment of the tomfoolery was the lead singer saying, “How about Core? What a fantastic group of guys,” or something along those lines. Between inviting a lady up to sing “Man in the Box” and giving out branded guitar picks to audience members, I appreciated the band’s enthusiasm for what they were doing and getting other people pumped by it. It was a great tribute that we enjoyed to the very end.

March 16 – Miscast Musicals 3

Theatre Tallahassee is really churning these events out now. While we had our usual fun, frankly, Miscast Musicals 3 did not meet the level of its two predecessors. Maybe we liked the songs worse, maybe there was less time to prepare, or maybe it was just an off evening for the performers. There were still a lot of great moments and songs, most notably the couple who sang the absurdist and dark love song “Unworthy of Your Love” from Assassins and the guy who gave his all in singing “I Don’t Know How to Love Him” from Jesus Christ Superstar. 

These folks had clearly been to FSU recently because there was also a lot of Hairspray. We’ll continue going to these as long as Theatre Tallahassee keeps putting them on!

March 17 – STRFKR in Gainesville

This concert got the full-length-review treatment, and it’s a good thing, because I had a lot of words on it.

That’s everything of note for now, but the year is far from over. April is absolutely packed with entertaining stuff, and it only looks to get better from there.