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Archive for the ‘Music’ Category

Florida is a great place to head this summer for fun in the sun. With several cities all hosting major events, the gorgeous beaches, and the amusement parks there’s no telling to what you can find to do. This summer is a particularly active time for concerts in Tampa.

The Ford Amphitheater in Tampa is a large venue seating 20,000 and is the first outdoor concert facility in the Tampa Bay Area. This is the place to go to see some big name bands and concert festivals when you’re staying in Tampa . This summer has an all star line up kicking off in may with the 2010 Country Megaticket show featuring Kenny Chesney, Brad Paisley, Toby Keith, George Strait, Rascal Flatts, and more. and finishing off the summer in September with a concert from the Kings of Leon.

This May the Ford Amphitheater will play host to Tim McGraw’s Southern Voice tour on the 7th in conjunction with the 2010 Country Mega ticket making this the place to be if you love country and are in Tampa or the surrounding area. My little sister I’m sure would be thrilled and packing her bags for Florida if she heard about all her favorite bands and musicians playing one venue on the same night. The the following week, on the 14th of May, Country fans are in for another treat as the Country Throwdown tour comes to town with Montgomery Gentry and Jamey Johnson. Don’t worry, if you’re in Florida in May and wanting to see a large concert but country music just doesn’t float your boat, the Bamboozle Road Show will be there to offer you some pop music from cute guys who actually play their own instruments.

June may not have as many events lined up as May but they’re sure to sell out fast. On June 3rd Sting will be preforming some of his biggest hits and some Police classics accompanied by the Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra. Ticket sales for the general public for the Tampa show begin March 29 at 10 a.m., hurry and get yours before they sell out. Towards the end of June, on the 28th, The Dave Matthews Band will also play the amphitheater.

Needing something a little faster paced? Don’t think the rock lovers and metal heads will be excluded this summer. I suspect they saved the best for last as on August 10th you’re not going to want to miss The Rockstar Energy Drink Mayhem Festival . You can look forward to an evening of KORN, Rob Zombie, Atreyu, and so many more to mosh and head bang to spread across three stages. Finally, in September The Kings of Leon take stage on the 18th for those more into rock than metal.

Cultural experiments have an endless fascination for me, and I don’t know if it’s appropriate to even talk about.  But I love to see people and ideas mix, and I love to see what comes of the mixing, and I understand this attitude isn’t really offensive to anyone.  However, I also get a very secret but palpable thrill when the mix fails utterly, and the experiment turns out to be a very bad idea.  I almost enjoy coming to Boston and staying at one of these just because there’s always plenty of very bad art that’s being made in the name of cultural understanding.

At the same time, this is exactly why performances by groups like the Idan Raichel Project are so rejuvenating.  This is a particularly raw blend of many influences, and in the hands of inexperienced artists, this is the sort of multiculturalism that can produce horrible results.  This, on the other hand, is absolutely splendid, and is a testament to the ability of all of his collaborators.  The list is very daunting, too, and at last count, he was working with over 80 performers from very diverse backgrounds.  When this comes to Boston in March, it will be a major event.

This is something that the audiences who are easily pleased already will be content to gush over, but it will also give the intelligentsia something to chew on.  Idan Raichel has a focus on Israel, promoting and developing music from this region, but striking influences here also come from Ethiopia and South Africa, along with gypsy and Arabic forms that give this electronic music a complex and powerful texture.  This will be something to tell the kids about, and it’s exciting to me to feel my own cynicism melt away under the influence of this remarkable sound.