For the first time since Taylor Swift’s epic run in 2023, a popular artist is playing a three-night stand at Raymond James Stadium.
It’s K-pop’s frontline heroes BTS, South Korea’s top “boy band,” with 40 million albums sold. The seven-member singing, dancing phenom has been booked for April 25, 26 and 28 at the home of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers.
BTS has recorded six albums in the Korean language, and four in Japanese. The English-language singles “Dynamite,” “Butter,” “Permission to Dance” and “My Universe” (with Coldplay) reached No. 1 in the United States; many others (in Korean or Japanese) went to the top of the Billboard World Digital Song Sales chart.
Raymond James also plays host to the annual Breakaway Music Festival (EDM) April 17 and 18.
The weekend of April 10-12 brings the Tampa Bay Blues Festival to Vinoy Park in St. Petersburg (with Kenny Wayne Shephard, Los Lobos, Taj Mahal, Jimmy Vaughn and others), while the Gasparilla Music Festival (with, among others, Mt. Joy, Shakey Graves, Two Friends, Jai Wolf, Gov’t Mule and Drive-By Truckers) sets down at Tampa’s Meridian Fields.
Other outdoor concerts scheduled for the first full month of spring take place at the BayCare Sound (Dwight Yoakam, April 11; Goose, April 17; Foreigner, April 18; Joe Satriani and Steve Vai, April 24; Alabama Shakes, April 30).
Want more great guitarists? Eric Johnson (who once played in G3 with Satriani and Vai) is at the Capitol Theatre April 17; Blues stalwart Rory Block plays the Safety Harbor Art & Music Center April 24; Americana picker Billy Strings is at Benchmark Arena April 8; Luther Dickinson leads the North Mississippi All-Stars at Skipper’s Smokehouse April 25;
Actor Bill Murray’s “other” project, the blues band Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers, visits Ruth Eckerd Hall April 17. This band’s guitarists are Mike Zito and Albert Castiglia.
Singer and songwriter Lukas Nelson, who frequently performs with his dad, Willie Nelson, and fronts the band Promise of the Real (sometimes backing Neil Young), has a date and Jannus Live April 12.
The annual Sunscreen Film Festival is all set for April 30-May; among the cinematic debuts will be Occupational Hazard, the documentary about Jimmy Buffett’s early Coral Reefers Band).
Also noteworthy this month is the rescheduled date (April 28) for master illusionists Penn & Teller at the Mahaffey Theater. Penn Jillette reportedly broke his ankle in January, forcing the postponement of several tour dates, including one in St. Petersburg.
“One Froggy Evening” is one of the classic animated shorts to be accompanied by The Florida Orchestra as part of “Bugs Bunny at the Symphony,” April 18 at the Mahaffey Theater: Image: Warner Bros.
The Florida Orchestra
Inside Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, April 9 at the Mahaffey Theater
Beethoven’s Symphony No. 7, Thierry Caens’ Tribones, Grofe’s Mississippi Suite: April 10 at Straz Center Ferguson Hall; April 11 at the Mahaffey Theater; April 12 at Ruth Eckerd Hall
Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Bizet’s Carmen and Saint-Saens’ Dance Bacchanal. Soloist: Sarah Shellman, violin. April 15 (11 a.m.), Ruth Eckerd Hall; April 16 (11 a.m.), Mahaffey Theater
Bugs Bunny at the Symphony, with screenings of original Warner Bros. cartoons, April 18 (shows at 2 and 8 p.m.), Mahaffey Theater
Astor Piazzolla’s Four Seasons of Buenos Aires, Bach’s Brandenburg Concerto No. 3 and Suite No. 1, Golijov’s Last Round, April 24, Clearwater Church of the Ascencion; April 25, Peter and Cynthia Zinober Concert Hall at USF; April 26 (2 p.m.), Palladium Theater
Theater
April 1-5 A touring production of Moulin Rouge The Musical at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 9-19 The comedy Ripcord at the Off-Central. Two mismatched roommates become unlikely friends at a senior living facility
April 10-12 Hitler’s Tasters, a dark comedy from ThinkTank Theatre, at the Tampa Fringe Blackbox Theatre
April 10-May 17 Part oral history, part dramatic action, part direct address, part remembrance: And Then They Came For Me: Remembering the World of Anne Frank at freeFall Theatre
April 16-26 A fresh interpretation of Tennessee Willians’ A Streetcar Named Desire at The Studio@620
April 16-May 3 Playwright Steven Patrick explores a viral academic and philosophical upheaval in X does not equal X at LAB Theater Project
April 17-May 3 Martin Luther King and Malcolm X have a sit-down in The Meeting at Stageworks Theatre.
April 28-May 3 A touring production of Stereophonic at the Straz Center’s Morsani Hall.
Ongoing theater
The Jobsite Theater production of The Shark is Broken continues through April in the Straz Center Shimberg Playhouse
The American Stage production of Into the Woods continues through April 26 in Demens Landing Park
The April calendar
Florence (Welch) + the Machine: April 28 at Benchmark Arena. Publicity photo.
April 1 Gladys Knight at Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
April 3 Sebastian Bach and White Lion at Ferg’s Entertainment Complex
April 3 We Them One’s Comedy Tour at Benchmark Arena
April 4 Ali Wong (comedy) at the Mahaffey Theater (April 3 sold out)
April 4 Cream of Clapton Band at the Capitol Theatre
April 8 Blessd at the Mahaffey Theater
April 8 Billy Strings at Benchmark Arena
April 10 & 11: Gasparilla Music Festival at Meridian Fields
April 10 & 11 Tampa Bay Blues Festival at Vinoy Park
April 10 Gabriel Iglesias (comedy) at Benchmark Arena
April 10 Santana at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 11 Dwight Yoakam at the BayCare Sound
April 11 Demitri Martin (comedy) at the Straz Center Ferguson Hall
April 11 Eric Church at Benchmark Arena
April 12 B2K & Bow Wow at Benchmark Arena
April 12 Lukas Nelson at Jannus Live
April 15 Chamber Series at the Palladium Theater
April 17 Bill Murray & His Blood Brothers at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 17 Goose at the BayCare Sound
April 17 & 18 Breakaway Music Festival at Raymond James Stadium
April 17 Eric Johnson at the Capitol Theatre
April 18 Foreigner at the BayCare Sound
April 18 Saigon Kick at the Capitol Theatre
April 18 American Aquarium at Skipper’s Smokehouse
April 19 UB40 at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 19 Women of Jazz at the Palladium Theater
April 21 Alyssa Edwards at the Capitol Theatre
April 21 Maren Morris at Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
April 22/23 Graham Nash at the Capitol Theatre
April 22 Boys Like Girls at Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
April 23 Theresa Caputo at the Mahaffey Theater
April 23 Diego Figueiredo at the Palladium Side Door
April 23 Chris Tucker (comedy) at Straz Center Morsani Hall
April 24 Joe Satriani and Steve Vai at the BayCare Sound
April 24 & 26 Opera Tampa MacBeth in Straz Center Ferguson Hall
April 24 Rory Block at Safety Harbor Art & Music Center
April 24 Jazz guitarist Dave Stryker at New Tampa Performing Arts Center
April 24 Jeff Foxworthy (comedy) at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 24 Ottmar Liebert & Luna Negra at the Capitol Theatre
April 25, 26 & 28 BTS at Raymond James Stadium
April 25 North Mississippi All Stars at Skipper’s Smokehouse
April 25 Alton Brown at Ruth Eckerd Hall
April 25 Justin Hayward at the Capitol Theatre
April 28 Penn & Teller at the Mahaffey Theater
April 28 Florence + The Machine at Benchmark Arena
April 29 Nate Najar & Daniela Soledade at the Palladium Theater
April 30 Alabama Shakes at the BayCare Sound
April 30 Sit Down for Standup (comedy) at the Palladium Side Door
Websites
Central Park Performing Arts Center
James Museum of Western & Wildlife Art
Museum of Fine Arts St. Petersburg
New Tampa Performing Arts Center
Palladium Theater/Side Door Cabaret
Ruth Eckerd Hall/BayCareSound/Murray Theatre
Safety Harbor Art & Music Center
Seminole Hard Rock Event Center
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