Weekend spotlight: Tommy Stinson, AC/DC, Wanda Sykes

Tommy Stinson, the bass player for Minneapolis’ most famous rock ‘n’ rock bad boys, the Replacements, played a terrific solo singer/songwriter show in early 2024 at the St. Petersburg Shuffleboard Club.

He’s back in town, to perform tonight at St. Pete Brewing. Tickets for the 6 p.m. show are at this link.

Tommy Stinson.

Stinson told the Catalyst last time around that he plays small, off-the-beaten-path venues for a very specific reason. “When I play my own shows, I make more of the money. If I play other venues, they take up to half of the f–in’ take. I can’t really tour for that … so it’s in terms of ‘Well, what’s the best way of doing this for me to make the most out of it?’ And that’s the way I do it.

“I’m a social beast, so there’s an intimate part of me playing some of these shows that, y’know, people don’t normally get when they go see their favorite musicians or whatever, that kind of crap. Again, I get off on that part. It kind of fuels my creative juices in a way.”

The boys from Down Under

There isn’t much left to be said about AC/DC, the powerhouse rock ‘n’ roll band out of Australia that visits Raymond James Stadium Friday, on its first American tour in nine years.

With 200 million albums sold, AC/DC – now 52 years young – has left most of its imitators in the dust. Back in Black (1980) is one of the top-selling albums in history.

As with all bands of this vintage, there have been some personnel changes over the years. Co-founder Angus Young is still out there on lead guitar (in his trademark schoolboy outfit) as is lead vocalist Brian Johnson, who joined the band in 1980). Johnson also happens to make his home in the Sarasota area.

Bass player Chris Chaney has been with AC/DC since 1977.

The rhythm guitarist is Stevie Young (nephew of Angus), and session player Matt Laug is on drums (filling in for longtime drummer Phil Rudd).

Find tickets for Friday’s concert at this link.

Sunday at the Mahaffey Theatre: Comedian and actor Wanda Sykes. Publicity photo.

The (other) concerts

Michael Franti and Spearhead were supposed to be back in town Friday, to bring barefoot good vibes to the BayCare Sound. But the singer/songwriter’s wife Sara, eight months pregnant, went into labor Tuesday. The show has been rescheduled for Sept. 19. No word yet on how everybody’s doing, but Franti is the guest on our Arts Alive! podcast Friday (the interview was recorded before this week’s big news).

England’s Minister of Mope, the singer known as Morrissey, canceled Friday’s Mahaffey Theater show earlier this week. Although no official reason was given, Morrissey canceled several California concerts last week due to “a severe sinusitis attack.” The new date is Jan. 20, 2026.

Saturday brings showbiz supernova Hauser, a classically-trained cellist who fronts a rock, jazz and soul band (plus plays the classics) to the BayCare Sound. We spoke with Hauser a few days ago; here’s that interview.

Saturday at the Capitol Theatre: Comedian Tom Papa (see Tom Papa: Home Free on Netflix). Tickets are here.

And Wanda Sykes, the acerbic comic (and Curb Your Enthusiasm actor) has two shows (5 and 8 p.m.) Sunday at the Mahaffey Theater. Find tickets for both, either/or, at this link.

Drag performer Alyssa Edwards is at the Capitol Theatre Sunday. Find tickets here.

Katrina Stevenson is in the cast of “The Butterfly’s Evil Spell” at Jobsite Theatre. Image: Stage Photography of Tampa.

On theater stages

Craig Houk’s Cooler is in its opening weekend at LAB Theatre Project in Tampa. Katie Calahan directs the dark comedy about two longtime acting rivals playing poker and opening old wounds. Find tickets and showtimes at this link.

Also just opened is David Ives’ Venus in Fur, at The Studio@620 in a production by St. Petersburg’s new Dead Canary Theatre Company. It’s a sexually-charged back-and-forth between a theater director (Travis Moore) and an actress (Rachel Prather) who’s slightly more than she seems. Showtimes and tickets are here.

It’s the final weekend for the Jason Robert Brown musical Songs For a New World, done quite beautifully by ThinkTank Theatre, at the JCC on the Cohn Campus in Tampa. Showtimes and tickets are here.

And Federico Garcia Lorca’s poetic and ephemeral The Butterfly’s Evil Spell (with music by Jeremy Douglass) continues at Jobsite Theater, in the Straz Center’s Shimberg Playhouse. Find all you need at this link.

The classics

One Piece Music Symphony, tonight in the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall, is the latest entry in the anime-with-symphony sweepstakes. A 50-piece orchestra will play composer Kohei Tanaka’s music as scenes from the One Piece animated series and video games are screened in high definition. Tickets are at this link.

Vocalists Tamika Lawrence, Shaleah Adkisson and Scott Coulter step out in front of The Florida Orchestra for this weekend’s symphonic tribute to the music of Tina Turner. Here’s the schedule: Friday, 8 p.m., Straz Center Morsani Hall; Saturday, 8 p.m., Mahaffey Theater; Sunday, 7:30 p.m., Ruth Eckerd Hall. Tickets for all performances are at this link.

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

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