With summer at least unofficially upon us, tours by major artists are sprouting up like so many mushrooms after one of our micro rainstorms. I decided to trawl the schedule in South Florida over the next three months, and I developed this completely subjective list of concerts to look forward to. I excluded shows that are already sold-out with no resale tickets available, so if you wanted to see Cigarettes After Sex on June 28 or the Cure on July 1, you’re probably, as the crude saying goes, S.O.L.
Duran Duran
The band so nice they named it twice, Duran Duran finally achieved its long-overdue induction into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame last year. Catch the group ride this glory into a summer tour chock full of ‘80s arena-swaying sing-alongs, plus cuts from Duran Duran’s well-received 2021 release, Future Past. Bastille, an electronic pop group whose members undoubtedly grew up listening to Duran Duran, opens the show.
June 18, 7 p.m., FLA Live Arena, $35-$72.50
Garbage and Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds
Nineties alt-rock legends Garbage, led by captivating vocalist Shirley Manson, continues to tour its rich catalog with a road-hardened intensity, whether performing iconic classics like “Stupid Girl” and “Queer” or churning numbers from 2021’s No Gods No Monsters. Noel Gallagher’s High Flying Birds, formed by Oasis’ primary songwriter, reveals a depth of maturity in his songwriting that was seldom present in his previous group. The great electro-pop act Metric opens the show.
June 21, 7 p.m., iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, $29.50-$79.50
Brit Floyd, 50 Years of Dark Side
This year’s Dark Side of the Moon 50th anniversary celebrations continue with one of the UK’s foremost interpreters of Pink Floyd’s paradigm-shattering music. Expect laser lights and state-of-the-art theatrics as the band performs Dark Side in its entirety alongside favorites from much of Pink Floyd’s catalog.
June 23, 7:30 p.m., Mizner Park Amphitheater, $45-$135
Black Midi
There’s more than a little Frank Zappa, Captain Beefheart and King Crimson influence on this phantasmagoric English band, which has released three uncontainable albums on the esteemed Rough Trade label. The virtuosic core trio borrows from the wilder corners of art rock and progressive rock for an aesthetic that seems both behind and ahead of its time—in a good way.
June 23, 8 p.m., Gramps, $25-$30
The Smile
Thom Yorke and Jonny Greenwood’s Radiohead side project is an adventurous beast all its own—less moody and crystalline than late Radiohead but openly embracing both their straight-ahead rock roots and heady, proggish math rock, complete with unusual time signatures. Not for nothing was the Smile invited to play the esteemed Montreaux Jazz Festival in 2022, a testament to a sound that seeks to transcend the parameters of any one genre.
June 29, 8 p.m., James L. Knight Center, $37.50-$76.75
Blink-182 with Turnstile
For this tour, we’re excited not so much for the headliner—although this summer does mark the heralded return of Blink-182’s Tom Delonge to the band he helped form—but for opening act Turnstile, which in just a couple short years has risen to the top of the independent music hierarchy. Melding hardcore punk with a kind of ethereal, shoegaze-y beauty, Turnstile has played just about every festival in the country (they’re even performing at the rap-focused Rolling Loud), and it will be surreal and thrilling to see them command such an enormous space as the FLA Live Arena.
July 11, 7:30 p.m., FLA Live Arena, $24.75 and up
A Flock of Seagulls
Founding vocalist Mike Score no longer sports the gravity-defying bouffant of A Flock of Seagulls’ early days; in fact, he’s bald, and looks a bit more like Pixies’ Frank Black. No matter; as the only original member of the new-wave titans, he stills brings it vocally, and his younger bandmates perform synthpop staples like “Space Age Love Song” and “I Ran” with reverential majesty.
Aug. 4, 7:30 p.m., Culture Room, $38.50-$75
Black Flag
Since their 1976 formation, California’s hardcore punk pioneers have shed more singers than a choir audition. Yet Mike Vallely, who has been on vocal duties since 2013, is the group’s second-longest-serving member, spitting out nihilistic lyrics with the controlled fury of the influential Henry Rollins. Greg Ginn, the lone original member, still grounds Black Flag from the guitar, and the anthems—from “Damaged” to “Gimme Gimme Gimme”—still resonate.
Aug. 12, 7:30 p.m., Culture Room, $26.50
Smashing Pumpkins
Billy Corgan’s enduring alternative standard bearers, whose equally crunchy and twinkly sound has influenced art-rock musicians for generations, tour in support of ATUM, their newly released three-act rock opera. Interpol, the brooding Manhattan post-punks, and Rival Sons open the concert.
Aug. 19, 6:30 p.m., iTHINK Financial Amphitheatre, $41 and up
The Mission U.K.
In this embarrassment of goth and post-punk riches, Respectable Street has scheduled three landmark bands that seldom tour, all on one bill. Headliners The Mission (U.K.), formed by two members of the foundational British act Sisters of Mercy, has not performed in Florida in 24 years, and stateside sightings of Chameleons and Theatre of Hate are as rare as a spotted owl.
Sept. 10, 7 p.m., Respectable Street, $56
For more of Boca magazine’s arts and entertainment coverage, click here.
