For several years now, the return of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival has meant the return of Jazz Fest After Dark, a slate of programming that extends the breadth and hours of the official festival festivities to venues in and around the city’s urban core. Presented by Moon River Pizza, JFAD is the brainchild of Jason Lewis, the legendary local concert …
Go | The best concerts in Northeast Florida this week
Funk jams, Pitbull, Thievery Corporation and LPT
If you haven’t yet heard Jax-based afro-cuban salsa orchestra LPT, this week represents perhaps one of the best opportunities, as the ten-piece owns a headline spot at Viva La Fiesta in James Weldon Johnson Park Downtown. Not only will the band closeout the two day celebration of the contemporary vibrancy of the city’s Hispanic culture. The event doubles as a …
Bring the Beat Back | A brief history of the Jacksonville Jazz Festival
A highlight of the city's cultural calendar for 40 years
This year marks 40 years since the Jacksonville Jazz Festival first took place. And the only thing that’s changed more than the festival is the music itself. The name has changed, the dates have changed, and the location has changed––multiple times. One thing that’s never changed, though, is the festival’s status as a highlight of the cultural year in Northeast …
Go | The best concerts in Jax this week
All that (Jacksonville) Jazz (Festival)
Jazz Fest is upon us. And beyond the action of the two Downtown Jacksonville stages, music will be pouring out of venues across the city. There’s a lot going on. Here’s what the JME team has their ears on this week. NOTE: The CDC recommends wearing a mask indoors in public if you are in an area of substantial or high transmission even …
Underbelly Returns to Downtown Jacksonville
The team behind 1904 Music Hall has revived the popular Bay Street venue
Post-hardcore/emo group Hawthorne Heights is set to play Underbelly on Friday. And if you feel like that sentence reads as though it was copied-and-pasted from a different year, you’re not alone. To clear things up: yes, emo is thriving in 2021. And, yes, Underbelly, the much-beloved but short-lived Downtown Jacksonville music venue is back. Along with Burro Bar and Club …
Go | Live Music Recommendations
Underbelly is back!
There was a time, say 2012, when Downtown Jacksonville was the center of Northeast Florida’s live music universe. If one were to wander along Bay Street from Liberty to Main, and went to the right on Ocean toward Adams Street, one would’ve likely heard (within that six-block radius) live music pouring out of no less than four mid-sized venues––Burro Bar, …