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Pop: Hot Ticket
By TOM ZUCCO and GINA VIVINETTO
© St. Petersburg Times, published March 22, 2001
Getting in touch with Christine Lavin
 You'll find Christine Lavin's many CDs in the folk section at the music store, but you might just as readily classify them as comedy. Or storytelling. Fans adore Lavin for her wonderfully spontaneous stage shows, inspired strings of song and observations, ranging from the laugh-out-loud to the sad-but-true. (To say nothing of the glow-in-the-dark baton show.) Her 2000 CD, Getting In Touch With My Inner Bitch, is as funny as the dog's mug on the cover, above, as poignant as the woman who drowns her unhappiness in no-fat ice cream, and as wacky as the Piranha Women of the Avocado Jungle of Death. The audience laughter on the disc, recorded at several live shows, makes their delight clear. She brings the show to Clearwater Saturday for an 8 p.m. show at the Octagon Arts Center, 2470 Nursery Road. Lynn Miles is the opener. Tickets are $15 advance, $18 day of show. Call (727) 531-7704.
Gotta r-e-s-p-e-c-t Aretha
Audiences at Aretha Franklin's performances always expect an exciting evening. But things can get pretty exhilarating on stage too, says the Queen of Soul's music director. Franklin, whose extraordinary range has taken her all the way from Respect to Puccini's Nessun Dorma, prepares the set list herself, and then cheerfully veers away from it, H.B. Barnum told the Hartford Courant before a Connecticut show last year. "It's the way she has always worked, and I have to say it can be exciting," Barnum said. "You know, we may rehearse a certain tune list, and then during the concert we're all set to do, say, that song from Titanic, which we will have gone over earlier in the day. But instead, she'll look out at me from the wings and shout, Brand New Me. So that's what we'll do. I tell her, "Okay, just give us 30 seconds to get it up on the stands." See how the band keeps up with the diva at her show at 8 p.m. Monday at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center. Tickets are $42.75-$65.75. Call (813) 229-7827.
Joe Walsh: Lone Eagle
Okay, so Joe Walsh knows how to accessorize. Only the Village People show up on stage with a more varied collection of hats. (His trademark Cat In The Hat stovepipe and the giant foam cowboy hats are crowd favorites.) And at 53, he still has that slightly off-center, I-might-lose-it-at-any-moment look in his eyes. But the most important thing about the Mad Hatter is that few people can coax sound out of a Fender Telecaster the way he can.
From front man for the James Gang in the early '70s, to his work with the Eagles in the mid-'70s and later, Walsh has established himself as a guitar deity. You know 'em. You love 'em: Funk 49. Walk Away. Rocky Mountain Way. Life's Been Good. Walsh is America's answer to Pete Townshend -- lots of windmills, powerhouse guitar solos and prancing about.
Walsh and his three-member band perform at 8 p.m. Friday at Ruth Eckerd Hall in Clearwater. Tickets are $32.75 and $37.75. (727) 791-7400.
-- TOM ZUCCO, Times staff writer
Unearthing gold at Jannus Landing
They Might Be Giants, hailing from Brooklyn, N.Y., would be misconstrued as geeks if it weren't for the hot, rocking accordion licks and "hits" about geography such as Istanbul (Not Constantinople). No, they are bona fide rock stars. These are the guys behind Boss Of Me, the Malcolm In The Middle tune.
For almost 20 years, John Flansburgh and John Linnell have used a playful sense of the absurd to show pop lovers that sometimes when anything goes, you strike gold. The duo write melodies that would make anyone on Tin Pan Alley grin, with lyrics referencing pop culture, pulp fiction, Star Trek, you name it.
And they aren't just Casio keyboard and drum machines anymore. No, they've got a real band and everything.
They Might Be Giants performs at 8 p.m. Saturday at Jannus Landing, 16 Second St. N, St. Petersburg. Tickets are $20 advance, $22 at the door. (727) 896-1244.
-- GINA VIVINETTO, Times pop music critic
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