In less than a week, SunFest returns to South Florida – five action-packed days of partying with 50 bands, featuring some of the best talent in the country. More than 175,000 visitors are expected at the event, which began in 1982 along West Palm Beach’s waterfront. This year’s lineup offers standard nods to the pop charts with mainstream performers like Meghan Trainor, Train and Jason Derulo. But festival planners also nailed down some major talent from other realms.
Alabama Shakes, a genre-bending band even the group itself has difficulty pigeonholing, will be playing Sunday night. Saturday night, the Grammy Award-winning band The Roots will be pumping out its soulful jazz and hip-hop sound with legendary percussionist Questlove. And all weekend, sprinkled around the three stages, are acts out of the 1970s and ’80s including Salt-N-Pepa, the divas who did “Push It Good.” And new Internet sensation Scott Bradlee delivers his viral Postmodern Jukebox, reinventing new hits by having them played in period styles.
Alabama Shakes’ latest release “Sound & Color” has the group’s longtime fans excited by its unique edge, as newcomers to the band’s music take note of the twist on traditional R&B and heart-wrenching soul.
Singer Brittany Howard emits emotion in every note and guitarist Heath Fogg adds his own rich depth – you never know what new corner each song will take. The Shakes are sure to be a highlight of SunFest, not to be missed even if staying up late has you sleeping at your desk Monday morning.
If you’ve heard The Roots on “The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon” playing covers and background for Fallon’s bits, you’ve had a taste of their genius – but only a taste. Taking hip-hop and adding real instrumentals without digital enhancement has elevated this eight-man group to a level grassroots jazz lovers rave about.
Music aside, SunFest is as much an experience as it is a series of concerts packed into a three-quarter-mile strip of Flagler Drive. There are food vendors, with plenty of beers on offer and three floating rum bars, in addition to family-friendly activity areas and a fine arts show.
SunFest begins Wednesday, April 27 and ends May 1 with a fireworks show at 9 p.m. Tickets are available online, and while the crowds are mostly manageable, it’s always good to buy passes in advance. You can even upgrade and access the VIP air-conditioned bathrooms.
Kravis Center is hosting the national tour of “A Night with Janis Joplin” Saturday. By and large it is a concert of Joplin hits featuring Mary Bridget Davies as the powerhouse rock vocalist, with a running biography as the backdrop. It follows Joplin’s highs and lows until her death of a heroin overdose at 27. Singing her heart out from San Francisco to Woodstock, Joplin inspired the rock musical’s writer/director Randy Johnson with hits like “Me and Bobby McGee” and “Piece of My Heart.” Davies, whose impersonation is widely regarded as brilliant, was nomiated for a Tony for her 2013 performance on Broadway. This is the next to last performance of the tour.
The nationally acclaimed Melbourne Art Festival will be held this weekend in the historic downtown district. The festival begins Saturday with a 7:30 a.m. 5k that sends 1,000 runners over the Melbourne Causeway. Following the run, artists’ tents will line the lenght of Melbourne’s New Have Ave., along with entertainment, food and activities. Acts such as Professor Pennygood’s Mighty Flea Circus on Saturday will keep things lively on the main stage. Sunday will finish out with the sounds of Zosa, a phenomenal Led Zeppelin tribute band.
If you want to avoid the crowds and enjoy an evening more on the scale of a college dorm lounge, consider the southern rock of Tinsley Ellis. He’s playing the Sunrise Theatre’s black-box stage Friday night. A blues guitarist in the tradition of the Allman Brothers Band and his old friends Derek Trucks and Warren Hayes, the Atlanta native has toured every state and much of Europe in his long career. “Rolling Stone” called his playing “feral,” adding that his “non-stop gigging” – 150 nights a year – had “sharpened his six-string to a razor’s edge.” Tickets are only $20 in advance, $25 the day of the show. The concert starts at 8 p.m.
