June 9, 2026

Year: 2025

Kool and the Gang

Kool and the Gang at Jacksonville Jazz Festival (May 23, 2025)

vusleeper May 24, 2025

One of the biggest free Jazz festivals in the country, the Jacksonville Jazz Festival, in Jacksonville, Florida, is currently underway this Memorial Day Weekend. Officially, the event kicked off on Thursday (May 22), with a Jacksonville Jazz Piano Competition at The Florida Theatre. The winners got a cash reward, as well as the opportunity to play on Saturday (today) to an audience, estimated to reach about twenty-five thousand attendees (keep in mind that the majority of people will show up much later in the day).

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Friko at Fine Line (05-22-2025)

dave@weheartmusic.com May 23, 2025

Downtown was quiet with no ravenous sports fans or torrential rain filling the streets. In fact, it was a perfect night to stroll to a venue. Even better was the casual scene at the velvet rope as the person in front of me and a Fine Line staffer shared a bonding moment for the patron wore a baseball cap with Snoopy donning headphones and the staffer sported a Snoopy flying ace tattoo on his left arm.

Snoopy has found much love with the Gen Z generation and it was a young crowd that waited for one of the hottest bands out of Chicago (Friko) to take the stage.

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Devo at Mosswood Meltdown, Oakland (July 19-20, 2025)

Best of the Fests: Mosswood Meltdown and Portola Music Festival

Robin Lapid May 21, 2025

Get ready for those tasty East Bay summer vibes: For my tastes, nothing says Hella Oakland more than the annual Mosswood Meltdown. This year’s weekend music fest takes place July 19-20 at Mosswood Park, natch, and, per usual, features the inimitable filmmaker and indie tastemaker John Waters as your cheeky host. This year, many of the acts are making their only Bay Area appearance at the fest, including DEVO, Osees, The Exploding Hearts, Shannon & the Clams. Also appearing are ‘90s riot grrrl band Bratmobile and Kreayshawn, who’s doing her first show in over a decade. You might be baking under that East Bay sun, but you’ll for sure be doing it in style.

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GWAR at Milwaukee Metal Fest (May 18, 2025)

Milwaukee Metal Fest 2025

q65a7c5c26e9907 May 21, 2025

Here is a report of Milwaukee Metal Fest. The event took place over the weekend, May 16 to May 18 (with a pre-party kickoff on Thursday night) at The Rave/Eagles Ballroom, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.

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Misfit Corner Comics

Misfit Corner Comics at Beach Boulevard Flea Market

vusleeper May 18, 2025

By now you all know my sad tale of losing about half my comic book collection when I moved to Jacksonville. I have sworn to never buy anything again… but you all knew that wasn’t going to last. I just have to be smart about what goes into my collection and what I can live without. One thing that I know I can’t get back into is collecting toys. Toys takes up so much space, valuable space that I don’t have.

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Weekend Gamer: Update (May 2025)

vusleeper May 16, 2025

As for the gaming, I finally got around to putting together my Galaga Arcade1Up. I’ve had this thing in the original box for more than a year, because I knew eventually, I had to move to Jacksonville, and it was just easier to leave things in its compact state. When I put it together, I soon realized I did not bring my Pac-Man and Street Fighter II console controllers… so instead of putting the Galaga side art, I prefer the bright yellowness of the Pac-Man side.

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The Magnetic Fields at Fitzgerald Theater (May 9-10, 2025)

The Magnetic Fields at Fitzgerald Theater (May 9-10, 2025)

Matt May 12, 2025

Five Artists, Four sets, three records (or CDs if you prefer), two nights, and one Stephin Merritt: 69 Love Songs the 25th Anniversary tour at the Fitzgerald Theatre in St. Paul. What a sublime couple of evenings. The Magnetic Fields know how to put on a performance and those in attendance were treated to an amazing one. I had the pleasure of seeing them perform 69 Love Songs like this back in 2002 and was blown away by the fidelity to the sound of the album while simultaneously being its own event. The voices of Shirley Simms and Stephin Merritt were flawless. Having been to my fair share of recent shows by bands from the ‘90s and ‘00s, I was not sure what to expect of their voices 23 years later. Well, spoiler alert, they’re still flawless, and I don’t say that lightly.

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