Your weekend arts forecast: Buckcherry, Animal Collective

With charismatic founder and frontman Josh Todd still at the microphone, the California rock band Buckcherry stops in at Largo’s Central Park Performing Arts Center Friday.

You read that correctly. Every once in a while the Largo venue, which leans heavily towards tribute acts and rentals to local theater companies, books a curiously big-name artist.

Buckcherry burst out of the gate in 1999 with the ferocious “Lit Up.” The band’s self-titled debut album achieved gold record status.

The intervening years came with lineup changes, tours with the likes of AC/DC and Motley Crue; more hits (including “Crazy Bitch”) and more albums – the most recent, Hellbound, was produced (during the peak days of the pandemic) by Marti Frederiksen, known for his work with Def Leppard, Aerosmith and others.

Todd and the band are playing the Central Park venue on the Hellbound tour. Tickets are here.

And Jannus Live, the venerable downtown St. Pete club with an outdoor stage, has the gloriously psychedelic 2000s’ experimental pop band Animal Collective Friday. Animal Collective consists of Dave Porter (Tare), Noah Lennox (Bear), Brian “Geologist” Weitz and Josh “Deakin” Dibb.

In a review of the 2022 album Time Skiffs, allmusic.com writes: “It’s an especially lucid reading of the sound they’ve been perfecting for over two decades at this point, and one that adds a human warmth to a group that’s long been defined by their otherworldly nature.”

Tickets for Friday’s concert are here.

A new play

LAB Theater Project’s “It Started With a Kiss” opens tonight. Photo provided.

Opening tonight at LAB Theater Project, Ybor City, is an original musical. Veteran playwright James Rayfield wrote the script for It Started With a Kiss, and the songs were penned by former bay area TV journalist Mike Deeson, who published a memoir last year (Bad News For You is Good News For Me).

The (country) musical drama stars Lance Felton and Kristy E. Pike as Earl and Ruth Ann, young marrieds who’ve seen more than their share of troubles. “This play captures the essence of country music, which is often based in storytelling through the raw emotions of relationship triumphs and failures.”

The show will run through July 24. Tickets are here.

In other theater news, Amiri Baraka’s poetic and oh-so-potent Civil Rights drama Dutchman is in its second weekend at American Stage. Tickets are here.

And more shows

Comedian Suzanne Westenhoefer has an afternoon show (4 p.m.) at Hough Hall (the big room) at the Palladium Theater. She was the first openly lesbian comedian with an HBO special, and the first openly lesbian comedian on Late Night with David Letterman. Her Sunday set (tickets are here) is sponsored by the Tampa Bay International Gay & Lesbian Film Festival.

Saturday at the Palladium Side Door (the smaller room) singer Ona Kirei celebrates her new album Mirage. She’ll be accompanied by the jazz trio La Lucha and others, and you can read a Catalyst story about Ona, and this show, here.

The art scene

The St. Petersburg Arts Alliance’s Second Saturday ArtWalk happens Saturday from 5 to 9 p.m., with more than 40 St. Pete studios and galleries opened up for your visiting pleasure. One word: Trolleys!

Here’s the ArtWalk map of who, what, where and when.

Here comes Mize Gallery’s 50^th monthly exhibit, Rain and Thunder. Approximately 30 artists contributed to this stylish and varied show, including Rebeka Lazaridis, Coralette Damme, Ashley Cantero, John Hutcherson, Vanderluc and Acute Perception. The opening reception is 6-9 p.m. Friday. See the works here.

The annual solo exhibit by iBOMS (aka Jabari Reed) is called Xebra, and it opens with a reception Friday (6-9 p.m.) at D-Gallerie. This exhibition is especially unique in that it integrates video technology developed by PixelStix, for an interactive experience. Take a look at the work here.

(More on this show Friday in the Catalyst).

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