hardrockcalling.co.uk

Stevie Wonder was more than halfway through his secret show at Hard Rock Live in Hollywood, getting amped for another sing-along, when one of his singers brought out a fiery cake with an actual guitar in the place of a candle.

"I didn't see it coming!" Wonder said ironically. And then we all sang him "Happy Birthday." Like the Stevie Wonder version of the song? We sang it to Stevie Wonder. This actually happened last night.

On the eve of Stevie's special day, he performed an intimate show to a crowd of both sitters and crazed dancers at a paired down Hard Rock Live. The casino invited him as part of a new initiative to give their VIP clients new kinds of entertainment experiences. And we were there.

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Alex Markow

"Um, where the fuck am I?"

It was a rhetorical question. I asked myself this as I stared slack-jawed at the driveway of a mansion I very well knew was in Weston. Out there, by myself, I was hunting down what was supposed would be a wild pool party full of Miami socialites, but all I saw were construction workers.

"Excuse me," I called through the window of my car, "I'm looking..."

Before I could finish, they waved me towards the back. So I had found the place after all.

See also
- Photos: Pelvic Thrust Pinky Up Pool Party in Weston

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Is there really anything better in life than loud rock 'n' roll? If you're asking us, definitely not. And, based on what we witnessed at Friday night's Clutch gig with the Sword, we've got plenty of South Floridians to keep us company in the antiquated world of fuzz addled guitars and hollerin' vocals we've chosen to occupy. The show was indeed the glorious celebration of volume that we expected from Maryland's hard-rock heroes that left fans with smiles drawn and ears ringing.

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Eleanor Stills

If you want to feel young, go to a Crosby, Stills & Nash concert where the generation that coined "never trust anyone over thirty" are all now in their sixties. The two women in the seats in front of me discussed the travails of hot flashes as they waited for the veteran supergroup to take the stage.

At eight o'clock, the background music grew louder. It was an instrumental version of the Beatles' "A Day In The Life." The volume slowly increased so the women had to shout to be heard. "I was in Washington, D.C., in the winter, where it was below freezing, and I still felt hot!"

That crazy psychedelic bridge reached its crescendo and the crowd stood at ovation as left to right Stephen Stills, Graham Nash, and David Crosby came on stage.

See also
- David Crosby, Stoner Time Machine, History Lesson
- Five Things You Didn't Know About Crosby, Stills & Nash

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Jonathan Weiner

Pop-punk has acted as a gateway drug into musical subcultures for many a generation, and while there are plenty of catchy punk-rock bands to lure in young listeners, few have had the staying power of Alkaline Trio.

The Chicago based group has put out consistently great albums that never stray too far from their roots, while simultaneously evolving in subtle ways with each. The dark nature of the band's lyrics have also given its albums the edge of maturity that have made them a band fans keep as they grow, rather than just a nostalgic guilty pleasure.

Several generations of Alkaline Trio fans convened within the walls of Fort Lauderdale's Revolution Live last night to scream the "whoa-oh-ohs" of songs, both classic and new, at the top of their lungs. And the band delivered the anthemic choruses in spades.

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- Alkaline Trio's Matt Skiba Gets Personal on My Shame Is True : "It's a Pretty F*#$in' Morose Album"

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Last night, we checked the pulse of South Florida's hardcore scene by attending another one of Breakeven Booking's excellent show offerings at the Talent Farm in Pembroke Pines. This particular edition of weeknight hardcore featured the live debut of three local bands and two of California's rising stars of the core, Santa Barbera's Downpresser, and Reaper Records' thrash-crossover darling, Take Offense.

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Ian Witlen

You know those days when a well-crafted Hallmark commercial makes you weep like someone just stomped on your pet hamster? Premenstrual ladies? Coke-heads? Ya feel me?!

Well, when my eyes kept welling up watching Jimmy Cliff preach the reggae gospel of "peace and love" to a swarm of sweaty SunFesters, I wondered if it was just "one of those moments" or an actual moment. By the end of his ridiculously energetic hour and a half long set, I was certain that it was the concert experience that got me into a great big authentic emotional twist.

Cliff is a 65-year old monster. He twerked. He jumped higher than David Lee Roth. He became a lion with a roar, a pharaoh in his tomb with stillness, a tree in the wind with smooth tai chi movements. Jimmy Cliff most definitely earned every one of my tears.

See also
- PHOTOS: SunFest Day 5 with Jimmy Cliff, Less than Jake, Mac Miller, and Kendrick Lamar
- Mac Miller Versus Kendrick Lamar: SunFest MC Battle 2013

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Christina Mendenhall

Sometimes it feels like the whole dubstep craze has blown over. Surely, the kids have moved on from the bass-driven wobbles that Justin Bieber and Taylor Swift have adopted, among others.

But then, Borgore comes to play a show at Revolution, and he's got the kids lining up around the block just to lick his ice cream. The rowdy, sweaty, sold-out show seemed to say dubstep is anything but a blown-out fad.

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Ian Witlen

The skies cleared for the last day of the 31st annual SunFest, finally allowing the summer-kickoff waterfront jam to live up to its name. The sun was shining, and fiercely, the entire afternoon as Canadian comedic pop rock troupe Barenaked Ladies performed on the festival's main Ford Stage. For the rest of the day, it was dominated by rappers and turntables.

The two hip-hop headliners Mac Miller and Kendrick Lamar are both West Palm crowd pleasers. But we took it upon ourselves to pit the two against each other in an MC battle. They didn't know they were up for any wins or losses, and we ain't gonna tell you who won right here, but read on to see who dominated the stage at SunFest.

See also
- SunFest 2013 Day Five in Downtown West Palm Beach
- Kendrick Lamar Tells Us His Favorite Love Song at the Black Friday Festival (VIDEO)

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Jessica Daly

On day four, SunFest festivities in downtown West Palm Beach took a decidedly EDM turn as flocks of teens donning white tanks, neon sweatbands, bikini tops and every possible kind of booty-short flooded the grounds lining the intracoastal waterway. The vibe was a lot less like the "mini Woodstock" my dad described from his memories of the '80s SunFests, and much more like a mutant offspring of Miami's annual rave spectacle, Ultra.

After days of heavy rain, flooding finally gave way to clear skies and summer temperatures, adding fuel to those already amped for Life in Color, "the World's Largest Paint Party." The headlining event at the Ford main stage delivered five hours of non-stop EDM shreddage, accompanied by beat-matched cannon blasts of water-soluble dayglo body paint splattered across the crowd.

See also
- PHOTOS: SunFest Day Four with Life in Color

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