04 May FriYAY: Don’t be late
Please tell me you saw Billy Idol last night. If you missed that bleach blonde rock god or you just want to relive it all, we’ve got you covered.
OK, now while I try and get “Rebel Yell” out of my head, let’s move on. Are you ready for the best Friday of your year? It’s not because your office is letting you wear jeans or is serving up a happy hour. It’s because shortly, you’ll be soaking up Day 2 of where music meets the waterfront.
Gates for our Florida festival open at 5 p.m. and the tunes will start flowing shortly after, so set an alarm because you don’t want to miss these openers.
Hell & Hollar
Hell & Hollar
For fans of The Black Keys and Gary Clark Jr., Hell & Hollar is a band cranking out bluesy rock that’ll keep your foot tapping for the entire set.
The group calls itself a stoner rock band, citing Jack White as an influence and you’ll realize why pretty quickly. Its 2017 single, “Ciudad Muerto,” is a 10 minute journey through emotions and time signatures, keeping you hooked the whole way through.
“We are extremely excited to play SunFest,” lead singer Blake Burns told us. “It’s our first major festival performance and it’s right here at home. So we get to share that experience with our family and friends!”
Hell & Hollar’s debut EP, “442,” is slated to drop sometime this year, but just last week it released the album’s first single, “Showdown” — a heavy hitting rock tune with an intoxicating chorus and new features including some organ samples. The band recorded “442” in Nashville and you can truly feel the city’s influence. “Showdown” has this wonderfully familiar feeling to it, like it could’ve come out years ago, if it weren’t for Burns’ cheeky lyrics about his Facebook page.
“People should expect a fun upbeat high power rock set from us,” Burns continued. “We are primed and ready to go.”
Be able to say you saw these guys first by catching them this evening.
Hell & Hollar perform at the JetBlue Stage at 6 p.m.
Brother Sundance
Brother Sundance
New school, fresh, stirring, mesmerizing — I could go on.
I first stumbled upon “Blind” by Brother Sundance on a Spotify discover playlist and those were the adjectives that came to mind.
This South Florida based 19-year-old is an up-and-coming musician who I’m convinced will take the scene by storm.
The Delray Beach resident has a haunting voice that rolls over songs like “You & Me” and “The Hurt” with the assurance and confidence of someone who has been doing this for years. And evidently, he has, having picked up his first set of drumsticks at 2-years-old and a guitar by his freshman year of high school.
Brother Sundance, whose real name is Rylan Talerico, cites influences such as Adele and Young the Giant, and you get that with his musician-ship. But there’s also a hint of G-Eazy swagger and some Adam Levine-resembling vocal chops.
The singer’s EP “Honey,” dropped last year and he’s since been making the rounds — from SXSW in Texas to his song “You & Me” making it into ABC’s TV show, “The Fosters.”
I can easily say that this is just the beginning for this young man. So do yourself a favor and catch him now so when he’s on some massive award show you can say “I remember when.”
Brother Sundance performs at the Tire Kingdom Stage at 6:15 p.m.