The BayCare Sound
97X Next Big Thing Legends
CLEARWATER — Clean Earth Systems and 97X Tampa Bay’s New Alternative will present 97X Next Big Thing Legends on Friday, Sept. 4, 6 p.m., at The BayCare Sound, 255 Drew St., Clearwater.
The concert will feature Yellowcard with special guests Waterparks and Dylan Cotrone. Tickets start at $60. Visit www.rutheckerdhall.com.
Yellowcard meant it when they said goodbye. The lights dimmed on one of the most beloved pop-punk and alt-rock bands of the 2000s with intention and authenticity. Wrapping things up with a farewell tour, Yellowcard exited the “right” way, with grace, appreciation, and finality.
But the story wasn’t complete. Legacy cracked the door. Healing blew it wide open. Riding a resurgence that saw the global “Ocean Avenue” 20th anniversary tour featured in Forbes and a reconciliation that put all four members at peace with their legacy and each other, Yellowcard just made the most ambitious and emotionally resonant record of their career. “Better Days,” the band’s first album in nearly a decade, was produced by blink-182’s Travis Barker, who also played drums on every track.
“Better Days” is an unflinching reflection on gratitude, forgiveness, perspective, and purpose. Once ubiquitous on MTV and the Billboard Hot 100, the Vans Warped Tour veterans, whose first two albums produced double-platinum and gold title tracks, sound fully recharged and revitalized in 2026. William Ryan Key, Sean Mackin, Ryan Mendez, and Josh Portman have never sounded stronger.
Their first release with powerhouse label Better Noise Music, “Better Days” is Yellowcard’s testimony that healing is a process, growth is nonlinear, and sometimes the best chapter opens after the supposed ending.
Waterparks writes anthems that define artistic eras, emotionally precise, sonically distinct, and color-coded. Awsten Knight, Geoff Wigington, and Otto Wood have built one of modern rock’s most vibrant, shapeshifting catalogs, reaching 1 billion streams and a No. 1 Alternative Album in the United States.
Waterparks take creative risks without sacrificing gigantic melodic hooks. The band’s biggest streaming hits, “I Miss Having Sex But At Least I Don’t Wanna Die Anymore” (2019) and “Stupid for You” (2016), are a stark contrast in texture and dynamics. “JINX,” the band’s sixth full-length album, opens with cinematic flair juxtaposed with emotional intimacy: “Tell Me Why” is a story of death, purgatory, confrontation, and return. That deliberate juxtaposition runs throughout “JINX,” with each song asserting its purpose rather than blending into a palette.
Dylan Cotrone makes feel-good, guitar-driven alt-pop that blends the laid-back spirit of Sublime and Jack Johnson with modern hooks, nostalgic storytelling, and coastal energy. Raised in Bradenton, he first built an audience online through viral covers and original songs before breaking through with releases like “Lazy,” “Cigarette,” and his “Dog House.”
Seminole City Center
Phoenix5
SEMINOLE — The next First Friday Seminole event will feature a performance by Phoenix5 on Friday, Sept. 4, 6-9 p.m., in front of Studio Movie Grill at Seminole City Center, 11201 Park Blvd. N., Seminole.
The concert is free. Visit www.seminolecitycenter.com.
According to the band’s website, Phoenix5 is a two-time award-winning funk, soul, rock, and reggae collective built on a mission: to move the crowd from the inside out. Recently crowned Best Live Performers of 2025 by The Guide to Florida’s Best of Florida competition, Phoenix5 delivers a high-frequency, soul-stirring live show that is as powerful as it is unforgettable.
Since their debut in December 2022, the band has performed over 350 shows across Florida and beyond, from festival main stages to community block parties, becoming one of the most in-demand live acts in the region.
Known for their unmatched crowd connection and high-energy flow, Phoenix5 reimagines the music of legends like Prince, Bob Marley, Stevie Wonder, ZZ Top, Amy Winehouse, Dua Lipa, and Michael Jackson, blending the familiar with the funky to create something truly original. Their performances feature themed artist blocks and mini tributes, creating a rhythmic journey that honors the greats while igniting the now.
Coolers are not allowed, but food and drinks will be available for purchase from Seminole City Center tenants and vendors. Attendees may bring lawn chairs. Vendors other than Seminole City Center tenants are not permitted. The event is subject to change due to weather.
Presented by Seminole City Center and the Rotary Club of Seminole Lake, each First Friday features entertainment complemented by prize giveaways, a raffle and more. The raffle will include a $1,400 e-bike compliments of Electrified of St. Petersburg. Proceeds from the raffle benefit Seminole Lake Rotary Club’s Red Sled Initiative, as well as Irish 31 iCare Foundation and Cheers to Public Service Initiative.
For more information, visit www.seminolecitycenter.com.
Skipper’s Smokehouse
Blacktop Mojo
Formed in late 2012 by vocalist Matt James and drummer Nathan Gillis in the small East Texas town of Palestine, Blacktop Mojo’s fiery blend of sludgy grooves, classic rock guitar riffs, and southern metal shredding falls somewhere between Soundgarden, Lynyrd Skynyrd, and ZZ Top to form a sound deemed by some as “Texas grunge.” According to Satellite Touring, their music draws on a multitude of genres and styles to form a hodgepodge of dirty, heavy rock and roll mixed with sensual and at times even, carnal blues. After their debut album “I Am” in 2014, the band spent a few years cutting their teeth in dive bars, dancehalls, and honkytonks around Texas.
In 2017, during the recording of their sophomore record “Burn The Ships,” the guys quit their day jobs, moving into a small house together. The house created an unbreakable fellowship between the band and a culture of constant creativity.
Since then, the band has kept a relentless touring and recording schedule, with multiple songs reaching the Top 40 on both the Mediabase and Billboard Rock Charts, no small feat for an independent artist. The band continues to grow the old-fashioned way by hitting the road, sweating it out on stage, and growing slowly, but surely, by word of mouth. “When you come see us,” says lead singer Matt James, “You’re seeing rock and roll the way it used to be: A group of people on stage playing their instruments right in front of your face. No laptops, no backing tracks. What you see is what you get.”
The Orpheum
Rezn
TAMPA — Chicago psychedelic sludge metal band Rezn will perform on Tuesday, Sept. 8, 7 p.m., at the Orpheum, 14802 N. Nebraska Ave., Tampa.
Tickets start at $28.69. Visit www.theorpheum.com.
Over the last decade, Rezn have carved out a unique place in the landscape of heavy music, chiseling away at the crude formations of the topography, mining the most concentrated metallic ore from the dirt, and shaping it all into something monumental, imposing, and divine. While the quartet has always fused seismic riffs with effortless beauty and grandeur, their shifting strategies for wielding that polarity have involved varied compositional and stylistic decisions, most notably the light-and-dark contrast of companion albums “Solace” (2023) and “Burden” (2024). But with their newest full-length offering, “Cycles in the Infinite Dream,” Rezn masterfully harness the oppressive weight of their full sonic armory to celestial melodies and sublime synesthesia-inducing atmospherics in a manner so seamless it feels otherworldly, as if occupying a liminal space between two realities.
While Rezn traffic in the unbridled realms of metal and untethered reaches of psychedelia, their latest release showcases a band working with discipline and intention, even when those intentions are rendered to be purposefully cryptic. As the album title implies, “Cycles in the Infinite Dream” explores the nexus of our waking and nocturnal worlds.
“We moved towards the dream and subconscious state as a lyrical concept and melodic theme,” the band explains. “The pseudo-waking state is a reflection of a second existence—something that you can flee to or be imprisoned by.” Much like the subconscious-guided work of David Lynch, “Cycles in the Infinite Dream” exists as parallax between the artist and the audience, creating an obscured and distorted space that is both familiar and alien, like a corridor into our past where we recognize our surroundings but somehow still feel lost within its warped geometry.
Oscura
Seven Year Witch
BRADENTON — South Carolina’s Seven Year Witch will take the stage on Wednesday, Sept. 2, 7 p.m., at Oscura, 816 Manatee Ave. E., Bradenton.
Tickets are $10 in advance and $15 the day of the show. Visit oscura.live.
According to Satellite Touring, Seven Year Witch has been on a mission to keep real rock and roll alive by playing it loud, fast, and dangerously. What started as a Carolina cult favorite has evolved into one of the most relentless touring acts in modern rock, pushing their high‑voltage ideology across the United States and overseas with absolutely no intention of slowing down.
“Songs Our Mothers Love,” the band’s debut album, will not conform to any standard subgenre box. Instead, it smashes together blues grit, punk energy, garage‑rock swagger, and ’70s rock and roll attitude, creating a sound that feels familiar, dangerous, and completely their own.
Young, hungry, and unapologetically wild, they remain a band of scoundrels hell‑bent on taking over the world — one crowd at a time.