Weekend spotlight: Head East, Collective Soul, Tedeschi Trucks

The midwestern rock band Head East, touring in celebration of the 50^th anniversary of its most successful album (1975’s Flat as a Pancake), will be onstage Friday at the Ferg’s Sports Bar Concert Pavilion in St. Pete.

The gold album yielded a gold single, “Never Been Any Reason,” which is one of those cornerstone ‘70s rock tracks featured in the film Dazed and Confused (it’s on the Even More soundtrack album, the second volume of tunes from that classic stoner celluloid). Head East’s highest-charting single (No. 46 in Billboard) was a cover of Rod Argent’s “Since You’ve Been Gone” in 1978.

Keyboard player Roger Boyd is the band’s sole original member. Tickets for the 7 p.m. show (with Panco Black Root) are here.

The Georgia-based ‘90s rock band Collective Soul (“Shine,” “Heavy,” “December”), with founding singer/songwriters Ed and Dean Roland still out front, is at the Mahaffey Theater tonight. Tickets are here.

Playing Jannus Live Friday is The Fray, the Colorado band that landed two multi-platinum albums in a row (How to Save a Life, 2005 and The Fray, 2009). Founding singer and songwriter Isaac Slade departed the band in 2022. The show is sold out.

Sunday brings the Tedeschi Trucks Band to the BayCare Sound. Derek Trucks is one of the totemic rock/blues guitarists of our time, and Susan Tedeschi – his wife – is a great blues singer/songwriter, and a pretty great guitarist too. This is a fiery, Southern-fried band with some of the South’s premiere musicians in its ranks. Duane Betts and Palmetto Motel open the show at 6:30 p.m. The word got out early on this one – only lawn seating is available (click here).

Hip hop icon Ice Cube is at Benchmark Arena Sunday, on his Truth to Power – Four Decades of Attitude tour. Tickets are at this link.

Tallahassee-born rapper and singer T-Pain (platinum albums: Epiphany, Three Ringz) is at the BayCare Sound Tuesday (Oct. 14). At press time, the show was very close to sold out.

The Samba Conmingo dancers perform Friday with O Som do Jazz. Photo provided.

And more concerts

Also sold out is Sunday’s Jannus Live appearance from Shaboozey, the country music/hip hop artist so prominently featured on Beyonce’s Cowboy Carter album.

It’s a four-night standup comedy-palooza at the Tampa Theatre this weekend, with Heather McMahan (tonight), Felipe Esparza (Friday), Jack Carr (Saturday) and Trevor Wallace (Sunday). Meet the comics, and purchase tickets, at this link.

St. Petersburg’s Brazilian music ensemble O Som do Jazz performs at 6 p.m. Friday at the outdoor stage at the Warehouse Arts District Association’s ArtsXchange campus, with the Samba Conmingo dance company. It’s the first event in WADA’s “music and dance series” (throughout October) dubbed Under the Stars. See the other concert events, and find tickets, at this link.

Canada’s Marianas Trench plays Jannus Live Saturday; tickets are here.

The New Tampa Performing Arts Center has bay area saxophonist Jeremy Carter and his band onstage Saturday with Up All Night. For the 8 p.m. show, co-produced by the Tampa Jazz Club, the Jeremy Carter Group includes James Suggs (trumpet), Alejandro Arenas (bass), Patrick Bettison (keyboards) and Rod Alnord (drums). Find tickets here.

Country singer Gary Allan (“Man to Man,” “Nothing on But the Radio”) visits Ruth Eckerd Hall Saturday. Find tickets here.

The 17-piece Three O’ Clock Band performs Sunday at 3 p.m. at Peace Memorial Presbyterian Church, 110 S. Ft. Harrison Ave., Clearwater. Admission to the Big Band concert – music of Count Basie, Glenn Miller, Artie Shaw, the gang – is through a free-will offering at the door. Learn more at this link.

Warren Haynes, another of America’s premiere electric guitar artists (he and Derek Trucks have shared many a stage) is at Ruth Eckerd Hall Tuesday (Oct. 14) with his longtime band Gov’t Mule. Tickets are here.

The classics

Sean O’Loughlin conducts The Florida Orchestra for Summer Breeze: Yacht Rock Classics Friday (8 p.m., Straz Center Morsani Hall) and Sunday (2 p.m., Mahaffey Theater). Joined by a rock combo and three vocalists, TFO will roll out soft ‘70s and ‘80s tunes from the likes of Steely Dan, Seals & Crofts, Christopher Cross, Toto and the Doobie Brothers. You know, those guys. Find the entire program, along with tickets, at this link.

Saturday (8 p.m.) in Morsani Hall, Straz Center (Tampa), a symphony orchestra – with chorus – will perform music from the Final Fantasy series, accompanying a specially-created HD video compilation. Find tickets, along with additional info, at this link.

American Stage’s “Weird in St. Pete” bunch, at Duncan McClellan Gallery. Photo provided.

On theater stages

Going strong in the Jaeb Theatre, at Tampa’s Straz Center, is the mock-horror farce Dracula: A Comedy of Terrors. It’ll be in residence there through Oct. 26 before heading out on tour. Showtimes and tickets.

American Stage’s interactive Weird in St. Pete is continuing at Duncan McClellan Gallery. The (traveling) audience visits an odd lot of characters from the city’s past. Weird cast member Culver Casson guests on our Arts Alive! podcast Friday. Showtimes and tickets.

Friday and Saturday at The Studio @620, it’s St. Pete playwright Margo Hammond’s exploration of the life and legend of artist, model and performer Amanda Lear, and the world’s obsession with her assigned-at-birth gender. Read all about I Am a Mistery in this Catalyst story.

In its opening weekend is White, a dark comedy by Pulitzer Prize-winning playwright James Ijames. The show, at the Off-Central, concerns a white, male artist who hires a Black, female actress to pretend she created his paintings. Find out more in this Catalyst story.

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

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