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Music

Hot Ticket: Piano Man gets party started

By SEAN DALY and JOHN FLEMING
Published January 12, 2006

"Take me to the action! Take me to the track! Take me to a party if they're bettin' in the back!" When Billy Joel plays the St. Pete Times Forum tonight - and kicks off a bay area concert year that has all the looks of another blockbuster - he'd be wise to play Easy Money, a forgotten cut from 1983's Innocent Man album (and the title track from the criminally underrated Rodney Dangerfield movie). Joel's funky, horn-tastic tribute to James Brown takes a prominent place on his new rarity-intensive box set, My Lives, and is a go-go-go reminder that the recently maligned Piano Man could once rock with a sense of humor and a sense of swagger.

Joel is 56 now and hasn't made any new pop music in more than a decade. But that doesn't mean he has stayed out of the news: Substance abuse, myriad car accidents and another marriage to a much younger woman have made him a PR disaster. Nevertheless, Joel has forged a rep as a workhorse live performer, so expect all the hits and a lot of gusto.

Billy Joel pounds the ivories at 8 tonight, St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $39.50-$75. (813) 301-2500.

"Rollin' down the street, smokin' indo, sippin' on gin and juice - laid-back, with my mind on my money and my money on my mind." Ever since he came out of Long Beach, Calif., and starred as one of Dr. Dre's Chronic MCs, rapper Snoop Dogg, a.k.a. Calvin Broadus, has made his own share of headlines. In 2005 alone, the Doggfather was accused of raping a makeup artist (the suit was dropped) and sued a Philadelphia auto dealer for illegally using his image to sell cars.

For all his negative press, however, Snoop, 34, has won over mainstream America with hit after hit (Gin and Juice, baby), a series of comic film appearances (including a role as Huggy Bear in the remake of Starsky & Hutch) and his patented "izzle" speak, which has become the hottest playground word game since pig Latin. There's real charm, real star power to Snoop, and his appearance in St. Petersburg will no doubt cause a great deal of buzz.

Snoop Dogg gets down at 8 p.m. Friday at Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. $39.99. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100 or (727) 896-2276.

"Peelin' off my boots and chaps, I'm saddle sore. Four bits gets you time in the racks. I scream for more." History will no doubt be very kind to Aerosmith, if only for the band's tireless, never-ending tour of hip-thrusting classic rock 'n' roll. On their current jaunt, 57-year-old Steve Tyler & Co. are joined by opening act Lenny Kravitz, another man who never tires of randy guitar licks and arena-rock loudness. Buzz from the ongoing tour is that the acts have occasionally been playing a few tunes together. I'd like to see Kravitz take lead on Aerosmith's Back in the Saddle, and ax god Joe Perry tear up Lenny's Are You Gonna Go My Way.

Aerosmith, with Lenny Kravitz, rocks off at 7:30 p.m. Tuesday, St. Pete Times Forum, 401 Channelside Drive, Tampa. $53.25-$123.25. (813) 287-8844 or (727) 898-2100 or (813) 301-2500.

- SEAN DALY, Times pop music critic

When Kathleen Battle gives a recital at Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center, it will be an increasingly rare appearance by the soprano, whose career took a disastrous turn in 1993 when the Metropolitan Opera fired her for outrageous diva behavior. Now heard mainly in recitals and orchestra concerts, Battle's opera days were probably numbered anyway, given her age (she turns 58 this year) and resistance to doing anything but the ingenue roles that made her a star. Still, she remains a beguiling artist, and her recital program includes arias from Handel's Samson and Donizetti's Linda di Chamonix, songs of Mendelssohn and Strauss and spirituals.

Incidentally, Battle has another Tampa Bay area connection this season, performing a concert with the Detroit Symphony Orchestra on March 11 under the Florida Orchestra's former resident conductor Thomas Wilkins. There she will perform Honey and Rue, a song cycle composed for her by Andre Previn with lyrics by Nobel Prize-winning novelist Toni Morrison. Other projects in recent years include her crossover jazz album So Many Stars and a moving rendition of Lovers on the soundtrack of the Chinese action movie House of Flying Daggers. Battle's recital is at 8 p.m. Saturday in TBPAC's Morsani Hall. $29.50-$85. 813 229-7827 or toll-free 1-800-955-1045; www.tbpac.org

- JOHN FLEMING, Times performing arts critic

[Last modified January 11, 2006, 10:48:18]