Congratulations to the band The Living
Daylights, formerly known as The
Scumdogs, for being the Rock-n-Roll Shootout Winners! The Living
Daylights will play at SunFest Saturday, May 4, 2013
at 5:45pm on the Tire Kingdom Stage.
The Finale took place on Saturday, April 13 at 1:00 pm. at the Pavilion at
Seminole Casino Coconut Creek, 5550 NW 40th Street, Coconut Creek FL
33073. During the Finale the 4 weekly winners and the winner
of the online competition competed for a slot to play at SunFest,
Saturday, May 4, 2013.
|
 |
Each evening 6 bands competed for a slot in the Finale on Saturday, April
13th. The four weekly winners competed with the winner of an online competition. The
winning band also earnd $2500 in cash from Seminole Casino Coconut Creek.
The competition was opened to local blues or rock bands with five or fewer
members ages 21 or over. They were to play at least one original song, and
could not be a “tribute” band. The five winning bands advanced
to the final where they continued to be judged for their skill, showmanship,
originality of presentation, and crowd enthusiasm.
SunFest has a habit, every year, of booking its most interesting
breakthrough bands at times when nobody’s there to see them. Don’t
let the 6 p.m. midweek start time of Roadkill Ghost Choir deter you from catching
them – they’re
worth driving through rush hour, and not just for their exceptional band name.
The six-piece indie-folk act hails from that music hotbed of DeLand, Fla.,
making spacious Americana music conjuring Fleet Foxes and Gram Parsons, but
with the driving intensity of Radiohead and The National. The band only has
a digital EP out at this point, but if you attend this evening’s show,
you can say you saw them before they blew up.
They’ll be followed at 7:30 p.m. on the Tire Kingdom Stage by Edward
Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeros, a band that already blew up in 2009 with the
popular country-pop stomper “Home.” Its accompanying album hit
No. 5 on the U.S. album charts despite its lack of major-label distribution,
and if the band’s music isn’t as well known as fellow-travelers
Mumford & Sons, that’s surely the only reason. Timelessly accessible,
the band is known for its busy live performances, with up to 10 musicians playing
everything from piano and trumpet to marimba, accordion and clavinet.
Thursday, May 2
Performing at 7 p.m. on the Ford Stage, The Curve is a local-boys-done-good
story, a hardworking five-piece band from West Palm Beach whose members have
opened for Daughtry and Of Montreal. Lead guitarist Biaggio Cangiano works
as an event production manager at the Kravis Center for his day job, and lead
singer Mike Sanchez is a former winner of Roxy’s $10,000 Rock Band Karaoke
Contest on Clematis Street. The group plays radio-friendly music similar to
matchbox twenty; for more on its SunFest show, read our own Cassie Morien’s
interview, published earlier this week on SunFest’s site.
Following them on the Ford stage will be Train, that ubiquitous pop-rock success
story from San Francisco. Just eight months after touring Mizner Park Amphitheater,
the trio is already back as one of SunFest’s major headliners. The group
won its first Grammy for 2001’s “Drops of Jupiter,” and its
2009 international hit “Hey, Soul Sister” went six times platinum.
Expect to hear these megahits as well as “Calling All Angels” and “Drive
By.” The band recently made news by refusing to perform at the Boy Scouts
of America’s 2013 National Scout Jamboree if the organization didn’t
reverse its policy on prohibiting gay scouts. Good for them.
Friday, May 3
Gary Clark Jr. (7 p.m., Tire Kingdom Stage) has been performing blues music
in his native Austin, Texas since 1996, but it wasn’t until he was discovered
by renowned filmmaker John Sayles and cast in the director’s 2007 film “Honeydripper,” about
a struggling Alabama blues club, that he finally began to receive the recognition
he deserved. A far cry from the navel-gazing acoustic bluesmen of yore, Clark
sings with a clear voice, a galvanizing stage presence and backed by the sear
of electric guitars, justifying his high praise as the next great hope for
Texas blues. He’s performed with everyones from Pinetop Perkins to Stevie
Ray Vaughn and the Rolling Stones.
Later on, at 9:45 p.m. on the Ford stage, The Offspring will headline the
evening’s festivities. Slated to perform at December’s UR1 Festival
in Miami before it was canceled, the Offspring has returned to grace us with
its presence and perform its rousing brand of snotty punk-rock abandon. The
group has sold more than 40 million albums worldwide, an astonishing number
for a punk rock act. If they haven’t quite reached the success of ‘90s
hits like “Come Out and Play,” “Self Esteem” and “Pretty
Fly (For a White Guy),” it’s only because those hits set the bar
impossibly high. The band is supporting its ninth album, “Days Go By.”
Saturday, May 4
Get the afternoon started at 3 p.m. on the FPL stage with The Airborne Toxic
Event, a catchy quintet from California that broke into the indie and alt-rock
mainstream in 2008 and hasn’t looked back since. For a band that took
its name from a section in a Don DeLillo novel, it’s no surprise that
they’ve proven to be exceptionally literate lyricists, whether reflecting
on failed relationships, war criminals or drone strikes. Meanwhile, the band’s
extensive catalog of cover songs, ranging from The Clash to Bruce Springsteen
to the Magnetic Fields, suggests the depth of its musicality. This concert
happens just four days after the release of its third LP, “Such Hot Blood,” so
expect the band to be fresh and in top form.
The evening’s headliners include Cheap Trick and Phillip Phillips, but
there’s really nothing to compare to Life in Color, which performs for
a full five hours, from 6 to 11 p.m. on the Ford Stage. Life in Color is not
a specific group so much as an all-out music circus, and its last local event,
in December at the Miami Beach Convention Center, drew more than 14,000 electronic
music fans raving to the genre’s top deejays, complete with stilt walkers,
acrobats on trampolines and an “astronaut” drenching the audience
in multicolored paint. Tonight, expect more of that infectious energy – including
fire performers, contortionists and its signature paint cannon – to complement
tunes from Grammy-winning producer Morgan Page (pictured) and local DJ David
Solano.
Sunday, May 5
At 3 p.m. today, don’t miss my favorite act of the entire festival,
Jimmy Cliff, on the Tire Kingdom stage. In my eyes, Cliff is just as important
as Bob Marley in the reggae scene, having released a whopping 30 albums in
his nearly 50 years as a recording artist. His starring role in the 1972 Jamaican
cult film “The Harder They Come” led to him recording a number
of iconic songs for the soundtrack, including the title track and “You
Can Get it If You Really Want,” one of the music world’s great
celebrations of optimism and a reggae breakthrough in the United States. His
credibility has never waned, and his voice continues to soar, even at age 65.
Last year’s “Rebirth,” his first release in seven years,
won the Grammy Award for Best Reggae Album, thanks in part to a production
credit from lifetime fan Tim Armstrong, of Rancid.
SunFest has received a number of complaints in the past for booking hip-hop
acts in its lineup, with most of these gripes about “the element” the
groups attract being clear examples of dog-whistle racism. Thankfully, organizers
have continued to book important rap acts, and there is perhaps none hotter
than Kendrick Lamar (7:45 p.m. at Ford Stage). Lamar is a great story, rising
from poverty in Compton and eschewing the gang-banging and drug-dealing of
his peers. The silken-voiced, astronomically talented 25-year-old started out
making mixtapes under a different moniker, but found his niche writing confessional
songs under his own name, rapping about family life instead of gangsta negativity;
his hits, like “Poetic Justice” and “Recipe,” sound
like instant classics.
|
