Enigmatic singer and producer Cowgirl Clue is a one-off in an ever more homogeneous pop-industrial complex: a hyper-pop maestro who suffuses her sound and imagery with country music tropes. And it works!
The windswept vistas and beat-up trucks in promo photos and the occasional twang surfacing in the sleek-synthy haze and future-forward beats in “Rodeo Star” and “Left Unsaid” make for compelling listening.
And she’s no novelty act. Last time she played Conduit, she packed out the joint. This time should be no different. So mount up and ramble over.
Formerly a songwriter to the stars, Elena Rose penned hits for the likes of Bad Bunny, Rauw Alejandro and Karol G before stepping out on her own with debut album En Las Nubes — Con Mis Pana in 2024.
From there it was off the races for the Venezuelan-American singer, a blur of chart-topping singles, festival performances including Coachella, and a major crossover collab with Ed Sheeran.
Fresh off a showstopping performance and nabbing a songwriter award for Song of the Year a couple of weeks ago at the Latin Grammys, she’s now on a U.S. headlining tour. Find out why her time is now.
7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 29, House of Blues, Disney Springs, Lake Buena Vista, orlando.houseofblues.com, $64-$175.
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Similar to some of the recent goings-on at Austin’s, change is in the air at Drunken Monkey Coffee Bar in the Milk District.
The spot is now worker-owned and it looks like the new owners are stretching their legs a little with this after-hours experimental show.
The evening starts as soon as regular hours are over at the Monkey, when an eclectic who’s-who of young Central Florida experimental talent with a decidedly femme bent take over the place: Brass Horse, KT Kink, Eggs (from Tampa) and Selcouth.
Not only is this a great lineup, but the merest possibility of catching a noise show while drinking a Tantric Mayan (why are you giggling at us?) has us over the moon.
“We are running off of pure love of doing what we do, and I want it to be an escape for people. I want them to have 30 minutes to an hour out of their day where they can just be a little freak and run around and punch and whatever.”
Coco Kinnon, frontwoman of rising Nashville-based pop-punk band Winona Fighter, started early in music: drumming on stage at the age of 12, playing underground shows in the New England punk scene.
Kinnon, whose father raised her on rock and grunge, always found herself drawn to punk. But after joining her first band (a punk band, of course), she started to fall in love with more than just the music, but also the punk scene.
“The music is very scary and harsh, and the mosh pits can be a little much for people,” Kinnon tells Orlando Weekly, “but it’s also a community where everyone has each other’s back and everyone’s welcome, and it’s open to all new faces and to those who are young and old.”
Years later, Kinnon met bassist and producer Austin Luther, who was into late-’90s and early-aughts alternative, and lead guitarist Dan Fuson, who loved ’80s metal. The three shared a mutual drive to play in a rock band.
“So for me, it was like that feeling of taking what I grew up in and bringing it into something new and fresh, because Nashville doesn’t really have a punk scene,” says Kinnon. “And for the boys, it was like this cool introduction to a totally new community.”
Before the release of their first EP, Father Figure, in 2022, the band was just going by Kinnon’s nickname, “Coco.” Then one night, after mulling over potential band names, Luther — a pop-culture obsessive — came up with “Winona Fighter.”
Kinnon felt the name was “the perfect balance of masculine and feminine, like pretty, but harsh.” Thus Winona Fighter was born, and they are now part of the lineup of the 2025 Vans Warped Tour on the heels of their latest album, My Apologies to the Chef.
Kinnon describes the whole thing as surreal, with the band gearing up to head to Orlando not just to play the main fest, but also Will’s Pub for an official afterparty — all on Saturday.
“I grew up going to Warped Tour, and I looked up to these bands, and I looked up to bands that were as big/little as we are. I thought they were like the shit,” says Kinnon. “It’s so funny now to be in that position of, you know, we’re still grinding so much, and we’re still doing van tours. We’re still little fish in such a big pond. But to know that we are having that weird impact on people that I had with the bands I saw at Warped Tour and Warped afterparties, it’s such a really cool, exciting thing for us.”
Luther recorded their entire album in his home studio, which also doubles as a garage. Kinnon, who helped produce the record, says the band loves to do as much as possible by themselves, staying true to their DIY roots.
As a pop-punk band, they created this new album to make punk accessible to all music lovers. Kinnon says the goal was to make a record of really catchy punk music that would appeal to people unfamiliar with the genre, even to those who weren’t into “super thrashable, yelly, loud punk music.”
The record’s lyrics center on the human experience and universal struggles of daily life, with tracks like “You Look Like a Drunk Phoebe Bridgers” and “I’m in the Market to Please No One.”
“Everyone can listen to the record and find one song where they relate to it, because it’s like we all go through these things,” says Kinnon. “Everyone feels like it’s a lonely, unique experience, but in reality, there’s always someone who can relate to what you are going through.” For Kinnon, every day with the band feels like an impactful moment.
“Every moment, even if it’s like, we show up and the green room has our little snacks that we like, or we show up and there’s even 50 people in a room, it’s so cool to us, like, ‘Oh, we are reaching people, and we are having an impact,’” says Kinnon. “Or we write a song that we think no one’s gonna understand. But then people are on Reddit and they’re just like, ‘Wow, this song hit me hard.’ Every day we have something that happens that is just very surreal for us.”
It’s that same passion for what they’re doing that helps the band whip up high energy onstage and in the crowd. Kinnon says it’s a mix between a true love of performing and a desire to give fans an outlet.
For aspiring Warpers out there, Kinnon says that chasing viral moments won’t help you grow as artists. Instead, it’s the tough shows or embarrassing moments that help artists find themselves and their community much quicker.
“Pick up a guitar, get out, play shows. Be kind, be willing to learn and it’ll come. What you’re looking for will come if you just put your head down and keep grinding, keep learning, keep being kind. That’s all you can really do. And make music you’re excited to make.”
Adam Turla has always possessed an eye for spotting hidden signs in life.
There were signs as a college student at Indiana University that he should take his gothic-country outfit Murder by Death seriously, and that there could be a future beyond playing shows at pizza parlors and basements.
“You get a lot of little signals,” Murder by Death’s frontman tells Orlando Weekly. “It could be something as small as playing a basement show and we got our little CDs out and everybody in that room buys a CD. Or having a show where people were engaged and paying attention.”
Turla saw the signs that he could take the guitar gifted to him from a garage sale, and go pretty damned far with it. He is also cognizant enough to recognize the signs that the show is over.
After playing thousands of gigs and releasing nine studio albums, the show is indeed over for Murder by Death. Their current tour, which heads to Orlando’s Social on Tuesday, is the band’s last. The seeds for closing up shop were planted back during the early days of the COVID pandemic in 2020.
“We were on the biggest tour we ever had and then one day we were driving 16 hours home and had no future in sight. No unemployment and no help was on the way. It was kind of an eye-opener,” says Turla.
“But also I realized I was in a state of feast or famine my entire adult life. I was either completely broke, waiting to go on tour or I just got home from tour and my body is destroyed.”
The band will still play their annual Cave Shows in Tennessee, but will stop touring permanently. Turla recognizes the way the industry has changed for the worse since Murder by Death started two decades ago, in particular thanks to Spotify.
“My instinct is to say that the music industry is worse than when we started,” explains Turla. “I feel like there are more predators out there 1762400650 like Spotify. There are people trying to take our intellectual property. The music industry has always had predators.”
One of the ways that Murder by Death has gotten ahead of the game is self-funding their albums via Kickstarter. The band started using Kickstarter as a vehicle for fundraising back in 2012.
One of the albums that was funded in this manner is their latest, Egg & Dart, released this past summer. The album is focused on something that Murder by Death have been saying a lot of these past few months: goodbyes. Whether saying goodbye to a relationship, or goodbye to consuming mainstream news, the band says farewell in many different ways on Egg & Dart.
They recorded the album in Los Angeles, around the time wildfires were ravaging the city. The setting of the recording of Egg & Dart still weighs on Turla’s mind; he plans on spending time volunteering with disaster relief after the tour is wrapped.
“We went to Los Angeles to record and right around the same time [were] the wildfires in Malibu and Altadena,” remembers Turla. “Our studio was less than five miles from Altadena, and it was a wild time to be there. We had masks on outside and there were windstorms that made it worse. There were wild animals like coyotes, foxes and bears that were fleeing Altadena and you would see them in the hillside. … The whole community stepped up, and it was cool to see the way people were engaging, whether collecting clothing or goods.”
Sometimes saying goodbye means having the freedom to be your truest self. For Murder by Death, growing, evolving and, yes, aging together has allowed the band to do things musically that they couldn’t when they were younger. Egg & Dart pushes at those previous limits.
“With the last couple of records one of the things I’ve had fun doing is trying to get into the headspace of myself in my teens or 20s,” says Turla. “Trying to go back and think about what if I write a song in my 40s that I would have loved to have written in my teens or 20s that I wasn’t as experienced to write back then. I have written certain songs trying to go back and reflect on what I would have to have gotten done that I couldn’t then.”
Lately we’ve seen bands try to relive past glories and reunite for tours. Bands that Murder by Death have worked with musically or toured with, such as My Chemical Romance and Minus the Bear, have reunited recently for reunion shows. But Turla is adamant (at the moment) that we won’t be seeing a Murder by Death reunion tour at the Social in 2035.
“When you do a farewell tour you are ending an era, even if you are a band that intends to come back. We don’t plan on touring again,” he says. “We might play some more shows down the line, but aren’t going to be a band that plays 26 shows in 30 days. The intention is not to do that again.”
With that in mind, Murder by Death are taking it all in on this last ride, and are excited to play the Social one more time.
“We would play at Will’s Pub and the Social once or twice a year back in the day,” says Turla. “I remember one time in 2006 we did this two-night stand at the Social with Lucero and it was this wild tour where we were up all night partying really hard every night. It was a different time, but it was really fun. Whenever we go to Florida we try to go to the ocean or try to go walk on the beach. We try to engage in nature in some way because there’s a great natural element to Florida.”
(Murder by Death with BJ Barham, 6 p.m. Tuesday, Nov. 11, The Social, 46 N. Orange Ave., foundation-presents.com, $35)
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Plus everything else premiering on Netflix, Prime Video, Hulu, Peacock and Disney+ this week
Never anywhere has it ever been easy to be trans, but these are especially hostile times.
It’s enough to make anyone on the wrong end of it lose their shit a little. That trial and angst powers the darkwave songs of Orlando trans artist Crimesididntcommit, who’ll be celebrating her new album, Made to Fade, this weekend with a release show alongside alternative electronic acts Kaiju Bride, Alienobserver, Fisherpriceguillotine and DJ Rocky Black. Come dance it out.
7:30 p.m. Friday, Nov. 7, Stardust Video & Coffee, $8-$10.
It’s been a long time coming, but Jack’s Mannequin finally made it to Orlando on their reunion tour — and the city showed up. The show sold out the day tickets went on sale, and from the moment Andrew McMahon sat at the piano and hit the first notes of “Holiday From Real,” the night became one big rush of nostalgia.
McMahon and the band tore through all three albums, blending favorites like “Bruised,” “The Mixed Tape,” “Dark Blue” and “The Resolution,” along with deeper cuts like “Cellphone” and “Amelia Jean.” It felt less like a concert and more like a shared memory, 20 songs of collective emotion, dancing and impassioned sing-alongs.
Opener Hellogoodbye set the tone for the night and even surprised fans by announcing their return to Orlando next year for the Zombies! Aliens! Vampires! Dinosaurs! 20th anniversary tour.
Credit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian SuarezCredit: Ian Suarez
Louche post-punk outfit French Police (actually from Chicago, and deffo not cops) are out on a two-month U.S. tour that swoops into Orlando this week. The exact date is the day after Halloween, noted here for those of you who need one last fix of Spooky Season stimulation before it’s all Mariah Carey Xmas jingle-jangle all the time.
The quartet released their newest single, “Libra,” just ahead of the tour, and it’s got a welcome lithe sensuality, in contrast to many of their peers’ leaden dourness. French Police understands, like Sisters of Mercy, you need some boogie with your brooding.
So come surrender yourself to the proper authorities.
6 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 1, The Social, 54 N. Orange Ave., foundation-presents.com, $22.
This bill is a tight capture of two good young bands on the up.
With taut songs that pack punch, kick and hooks galore, San Diego headliners Sun Room are a raggedly perfect merge of surf and garage that rocks like The Strokes partying with FIDLAR.
Baton Rouge indie-rock openers The Bends also bring the grit and concision, only with some Southern heat and drawl like a scrappier Kings of Leon.
Together, they’re a strapping double shot of bands who know how to deliver the goods with just the right amount of muss but zero fuss.
Nick Dittmeier & the Sawdusters are an Indiana act that’s “alt-country” primarily in the sense that they’re more real country than the pap most people believe is country music nowadays.
No goofball rap or pop corn here, just some hard twang, rock thump and touches of 1970s outlaw country. Hallelujah.
Orlando was introduced to the leaders of the new school of heavy music when Chat Pile and Fleshwater ranged through a packed Beacham on Wednesday night. Matt Keller Lehman saw the carnage up close and personal.
Hardy concertgoers packed in to Will’s Pub on Monday night for a veritable mini-fest of punk bands from around the world. For this 10th edition of the now-venerable showcase Foreign Dissent, the crowd was treated to Germinar (Chile), Small State (Germany), Swear (Italy), LEXT (Japan), Toodles and the Hectic Pity (England), Back Teeth (England), Descartes A Kant (Mexico), Harker (England), Modern Shakes (England) and Sunliner (England). Jim Leatherman’s photos from the hectic night reflect that running order, if you’re looking to play who’s who.
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The boys are back in town and ready to perform not one, but two nights at the Kia Center as part of their reunion “JONAS20 Greetings From Your Hometown” tour.
This tour marks a huge milestone in their career, as after 20 years of various ups and downs, the brothers reconvened and released a new album, Greetings From Your Hometown. There will be familiar hits, new songs and even solo interludes (bathroom break?) from the three siblings.
Fan demand led to another night being added, so the setlists will likely be even more expansive. Opening the show is The All-American Rejects, but past shows have revealed the brothers’ knack for bringing out nostalgia-riffic surprise guests as well.
7:30 p.m. Sunday-Monday, Oct. 26-27, Kia Center, 400 W. Church St., kiacenter.com, $94-$464.
On Friday night, the Timucua Arts Foundation hosted Songwriters in the Round, where local singer-songwriters collaborated with both each other and the 15-strong Mudita Orchestra live on that storied stage. It was an evening of breathtaking and intimate performances from three of the area’s best singer troubadours — host Hannah Stokes, Patrick Hagerman and Hannah Harber Wynn — but given the full flight of orchestral accompaniment.
Credit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim LeathermanCredit: Jim Leatherman
The Band Camino brought their NeverAlways tour to Orlando on Monday, with massive hooks and cinematic gestures to spare. Oh, and a Justin Bieber cover.
Phantogram get enigmatic in Orlando Credit: Live Nation
Chameleonic but icy-cool L.A. electro duo Phantogram are back on the road and returning to Orlando this fall, buoyed by bold new sounds and styles.
Case in point: new single “In My Head,” written in collaboration with Charli XCX ally Whethan. This is a band that can tour with the Deftones, casually drop Krautrock references in interviews and then tease a collab with Big Boi, sunglasses still firmly in place.
7 p.m., Sunday,, Oct. 19, House of Blues, Disney Springs, orlando.houseofblues.com, $49-$147.
Minus the Bear get nostalgic in Orlando Credit: Courtesy Facebook
Does absence truly make the heart grow fonder? If you’re a Minus the Bear fan, apparently the quote holds the actual weight of a bear. The Seattle-based alternative rock band will be making their first appearance in the City Beautiful since 2018 when they return to Beacham on Tuesday.
The band broke up in 2018, but this past winter they announced their triumphant return to the stage. Minus the Bear will bring the nostalgia to Orlando, playing their fan-favorite 2005 album Menos El Oso in its entirety. Hearing David Knudson’s distinct style of guitar-tapping never gets old, and the sold-out crowd will be deep in their feels hearing the opening lines to “Pachuca Sunrise” live after such a long hiatus.
Emo legends Bayonne are the opening act for the Orlando show, rounding out the bill for a perfect night of elder emo millennial escapism.
Turnstile go big in Orlando Credit: Gold Theory Artists
The last time Turnstile touched down in Orlando, a sold-out House of Blues briefly became the sweatiest place in the city. We’re expecting no less passion or perspiration when the hardcore punk favorites return this week, this time on an even bigger stage.
The tour is in support of Never Enough, the band’s latest release since 2021’s widely well-received Glow On. The Never Enough tour launched in Nashville and finishes up in Orlando on Sunday at the Orlando Amphitheater. It’s one of only two Florida shows, the other at Miami’s III Points Music Festival.
Support for the Orlando show comes courtesy of Amyl & the Sniffers, Speed and Jane Remover.
Gasoline Heart conjure the spirit of Backbooth Credit: Facebook
In the history of Orlando indie clubs, much-missed downtown spot Backbooth is, without question, in the hall of fame. Among the many reasons, one was its double duty as both concert venue and dance club.
Well, this weekend Will’s Pub will, in effect, become Backbooth for a night. First, erstwhile local legends Gasoline Heart will return to bring back those glory days of the 2000s with their triumphant rock anthems.
But because it’s also a celebration of Gasoline Heart bassist John Fortson’s 50th birthday, the concert will be followed by a reunion of iconic Backbooth indie dance night Midnight Mass spun by DJ Zouain. Indie-rock cover band New Eagles opens. This one will be a greatest-hits parade all night long.
8 p.m. Saturday, Oct. 18, Will’s Pub, $10.
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