The kids may be trundling off to school Monday but Space Coast Symphony has designs on their last day of summer: A Sunday afternoon of music from the sound tracks of animated movies and TV shows will put the silliness of “The Simpsons” and “Shrek” in a whole new light.
The concert is free for kids 18 and under and is set to start at 3 p.m., with film clips aired on a big screen behind the musicians. Tickets for those over 18 are $20 if bought online; $25 at the door.
By now, fans of the orchestra know well that conductor Aaron Collins is a lifelong movie buff and loves to give his Melbourne and Vero audiences an ear for appreciating a film not just for its visual effects but for its score. Now he’s behind a novel idea: a competition in conjunction with the upcoming Melbourne Independent Film Festival.
Filmmakers were invited to submit a three-minute silent film; the six best entries have been assigned a composer who, with the director’s input, will score the short. The films will be screened with Space Coast Orchestra playing the music on Oct.24. We’ll keep you posted on details.
If you’re headed over the bridge to the beach, you might want to drop into the loop in front of Riverside Theatre this weekend, even if you’re not sure about sticking around for the Comedy Zone. The theater has set up a live music stage and an outdoor bar to the left of the box office window, and they’re inviting the general public as well as patrons of the comedy shows. The music starts at 6:15. Friday night, it’s the Wiley Nash Band; Saturday night, it’s salsa music – with dance lessons.
The public can also have a go at the gambling tables inside in the lobby, set up as part of the Comedy Zone summer fun series. A $15 ticket gets you $40 play money for the tables.
And if you want to see the actual comedy shows – a guaranteed good time, especially if you invest in a couple of $2 beers – they’re at 7:30 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. both nights. Frankie Paul and John Charles are on the bill. General admission tickets are $16.
Saturday is Stuart’s Dancin’ in the Streets festival in the old downtown, with live music starting at 3 p.m. on five stages and going until midnight. The nearby Lyric Theatre is hosting Taylor Dayne in two shows at 4 p.m. and 7 p.m.
And in our own back yard, at the Patio restaurant, the Ladies of Soul take the stage Friday night, with a show that recently had Sean Sexton dancing till midnight. Since the start of summer, Ladies of Soul’s three powerhouse vocalists – April “Dejá” French, Shamara Turner and Shante Love – backed by a three- to four-piece band, have been crowding into spaces like Blue Star Bourbon Bar and other hangouts and belting out covers of Donna Summer, Beyoncé and Sade. At the Patio, they’re playing every other Friday night starting at 8:30 p.m.
If you’re up for a drive, country mega-star Tim McGraw is playing at the South Florida Fairgrounds in West Palm Beach, along with Billy Currington and Chase Bryant, and the venue, sad to say, is no longer evocative of Florida sunsets. Coral Sky Amphitheatre, the original name of the vast open-air venue that holds 19,000, is now going to be called Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre. When will this madness end? Coral Sky was a beautiful name for a good-time space developed in 1996. But soon the whacky trend took hold to give sponsors naming rights as though they birthed the place.
There was Mars Music, Sound Advice and Cruzan (the rum) before music promoters Live Nation reverted back to Coral Sky in February. Late last month, they found a new sponsor. It is now the Perfect Vodka Amphitheatre. And just what makes Perfect Vodka perfect? It’s gluten-free. Cue Patisserie guys’ howls of protest. No shots for you!
The three acts playing Perfect this weekend faced a much more significant controversy before the start of the Shotgun Rider summer tour. McGraw, who was personal friends with one of the victims of the Sandy Hook Elementary shootings, decided to make a Hartford concert last month a benefit for Sandy Hook Promise, a non-profit aiming to protect children from gun violence by teaching safe gun storage and promoting mental health.
The flare-up of protest including from the NRA caused Currington to drop out of the concert, saying he didn’t know about it when he signed on as opening act. Turned out, there were no obvious protesters and the show went on as usual. Currington is back on board for Perfect Vodka.
