Weekend spotlight: Bill Murray’s blues, RayJay’s Breakaway

Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray) is the lead singer for Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers, the blues/rock band onstage at Ruth Eckerd Hall Friday; the group features ace guitarists Albert Castiglia and Mike Zito, both multiple blues award winners. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show are at this link.

A reviewer for Boston’s Glide Magazine said Murray’s rendition of “Werewolves of London,” the Warren Zevon song, “felt less like a professional vocal performance and more like the world’s most charismatic uncle hijacking a wedding band. While his pitch occasionally strayed, his commitment was absolute.”

Ultimately, the critic was won over. “It is a show built on friendship, a love for the blues, and the infectious thrill of a man who has done everything else in Hollywood and decided that, at 75, he’d rather just be in a rock band.”

The Breakaway electronic music festival takes over Raymond James Stadium Friday and Saturday. Photo provided.

Breakaway weekend

Raymond James Stadium pulsates to the annual Breakaway Music Festival, an annual celebration of EDM (electronic dance music) and hip hop Friday and Saturday. The event, 18+, features music on two stages. Hours both days are 4 p.m. to midnight, with late-night afterparties scheduled.

Visit the Breakaway Tampa website for performances schedules, ticketing and other pertinent information.

Concert calendar

Country music duo LoCash (“I Know Somebody,” “Hometown Home”) headlines “Boots & Bats” at Sprowls Horizon Sports Park, the new outdoor athletic facility in Pinellas Park, Friday at 7:30 p.m. Find tickets here.

The Jam band Goose performs, freeforms and improvises Friday at the BayCare Sound, in advance of album No. 6, Big Modern. The show begins at 7 p.m. (and it’s sure to be a long one). Find tickets here.

Electric guitar legend Eric Johnson and his band will be on the Capitol Theatre stage Friday; tickets are here. And here is the Catalyst interview with Johnson from earlier this week.

Canada’s Classic Albums Live will deliver a note-for-note interpretation of Fleetwood Mac’s Rumours album tonight at the Capitol Theatre. Find tickets for the 8:00 show right here.

Original lead singer Lou Gramm is Foreigner’s “special guest” Saturday at the BayCare Sound. Publicity photo.

Foreigner headlines at the BayCare Sound Saturday. Luis Maldonado is the vocalist for the band, which doesn’t include any members from the hit-making days. However, original lead singer Lou Gramm (one of the great rock ‘n’ roll belters) will make an appearance; he reportedly sings “half a dozen” songs with the band of ringers. This show includes a full live performance of the mega-selling Foreigner 4 album. Night Ranger opens at 7:30; find tickets here.

From 2-4 p.m. Saturday, Gramm will be at Daddy Kool Records, inside The Factory St. Pete, to sign autographs.

From The Florida Orchestra, Bugs Bunny at the Symphony is a live orchestral performance timed, to the second, to high resolution screenings of the original 1940s and ‘50s Warner Bros. cartoons. It’s at the Mahaffey Theater at 2 and 8 p.m. Saturday. Read more at this link; tickets are here.

Saturday at the Capitol Theatre: The originally-from-Florida 1980s and ‘90s pop/metal band Saigon Kick, with founding singer and guitarist Jason Bieler and drummer Phil Varone still leading the charge. Tickets.

The pride of Raleigh, North Carolina (and a band we don’t see around here often enough), the alt-rocking Americana outfit American Aquarium plays Skipper’s Smokehouse Saturday. See this link for tickets.

Women of Jazz returns to the Palladium Theater Sunday for Year 14; the 4 p.m. show, produced by the Al Downing Jazz Association, features performances by saxophonist Valerie Gillespie along with xocalists Belinda Womack, Theo Valentin and Allison Nash, and a band that includes Judi Glover on piano, Holly Cordero on bass and Jean Bolduc on drums. There will also be a performance by the organization’s Young Women of Jazz Youth Group. Tickets are at this link.

Founding lead singer Ali Campbell and England’s reggae-spendant UB40 return to the bay area for a Sunday show at Ruth Eckerd Hall; tickets are here.

At freeFall Theatre, the Holocaust drama “And Then They Came For Me” is entering its second weekend. Image: Thee Photo Ninja.

On theater stages

From director Erica Sutherlin: Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire opens tonight and runs through April 26 at The Studio@620. Find showtimes and tickets here.

Playwright Steven Patrick explores a viral academic and philosophical upheaval in X does not equal X, opening tonight (through May 3) at LAB Theater Project. The director is Anne Tully Griswold. Find showtimes and tickets here.

Opening Friday: Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have a sit-down in The Meeting, directed by Rory Lawrence, at Stageworks Theatre. It runs through May 3. Find showtimes and tickets here.

The comedy Ripcord is back onstage at the Off-Central tonight, and will continue through its last curtain call Sunday afternoon. Find showtimes and tickets here.

And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank enters its second weekend at FreeFall Theatre tonight (the intense drama continues through May 17). Find showtimes and tickets here. Cast members Noa Friedman and Cameron Kubly guest on Friday’s edition of the Catalyst podcast Arts Alive!

Getting close to the last curtain: American Stage’s outdoor production of the Stephen Sondheim/James Lapine musical Into the Woods is at Demens Landing Park through April 26. Showtimes are at 7:30 p.m. (there are no matinees); find everything you need at this link.

A theatrical event

Hedwig and the Angry Concert, at 7 p.m. Sunday at Independent Bar & Kitchen in Tampa’s Seminole Heights, reunites Spencer Meyers and Amy Gray, who respectively played Hedwig and Yitzak in Jobsite Theatre’s 2018 production of Hedwig and the Angry Inch. Sunday’s event, a fundraiser for Jobsite, was reason enough for Gray to temporarily return from her home in Colorado. Jeremy Douglass, Mark Warren and Elwood Bond comprise the band.

It’s free, with donations gratefully accepted. The Independent is at 5016 N. Florida Avenue.

Coming soon

April 21 Alyssa Edwards at the Capitol Theatre

April 21 Maren Morris at Seminole Hard Rock Event Center

April 22/23 Graham Nash at the Capitol Theatre

April 22 Boys Like Girls at Seminole Hard Rock Event Center

April 23 Theresa Caputo at the Mahaffey Theater

April 23 Diego Figueiredo at the Palladium Side Door

April 23 Chris Tucker at Straz Center Morsani Hall

April 24 Joe Satriani and Steve Vai at the BayCare Sound

April 24 & 26 Opera Tampa MacBeth in Straz Center Ferguson Hall

April 24 Rory Block at Safety Harbor Art & Music Center

April 24 Jazz guitarist Dave Stryker at New Tampa Performing Arts Center

April 24 Jeff Foxworthy at Ruth Eckerd Hall

April 24 Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra at the Capitol Theatre

April 25, 26 & 28 BTS at Raymond James Stadium

April 25 North Mississippi All Stars at Skipper’s Smokehouse

April 25 Alton Brown at Ruth Eckerd Hall

April 25 Justin Hayward at the Capitol Theatre

April 28 Penn & Teller at the Mahaffey Theater

April 28 Florence + The Machine at Benchmark Arena

Your Weekend Spotlight appears every Thursday in the Catalyst’s CREATE section. 

Please add us to your mailing list – send all press releases and event info to bill@stpetecatalyst.com.

You can also submit your events to the Catalyst calendar, by clicking here.