RESPECTABLE STREET: The Band Feel, Connor Kelly & The Time Warp
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Festival de Bomba y Plena
MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE: Riley Burke
GRAMPS: John Maus
PROPAGANDA: Hardside, Tear Drop, Spit Truth
ARTS GARAGE: Frank Vignola & Vinny Raniolo
REVELRY: Ink + Drink Sunday Social w Marcy Minx
10/14
REVOLUTION LIVE: The Living Tombstone WAR MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM: Shaboozey
ARMORY ART CENTER: Artist Panel Discussion
10/16
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Diego Melgar
KRAVIS CENTER: Jacob Collier “Djesse Solo Show”
THE PEACH: Art Talk @ Evey Fine Art
REVOLUTION LIVE: Los Caligaris
PROPAGANDA: Germinar, Wild Spark
10/17
KRAVIS CENTER: Buena Vista Orchestra
REVOLUTION LIVE: Trampled By Turtles
GRAMPS GETAWAY: Medley
PROPAGANDA: Critters of the Night
ARTS GARAGE: Nicole Henry
10/17-19
KRAVIS CENTER: Where Did We Sit On the Bus?
10/17-18
WYNWOOD: III Points
10/18
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Calibro 35
BRYANT PARK LW: Bark Back Benefit
GRAMPS: Be Your Own Pet, Babe Haven
ARMORY ART CENTER: Heather Couch Artist Demo
PROPAGANDA: Tikki Tangle
ARTS GARAGE: Nicole Henry
AVENTURAARTS:CeliaCruz100:MigguelAnggelo’sICONS
10/19
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Buena Vista Orchestra
KILL YOUR IDOL: Automelodi, Night Foundation
REVOLUTION LIVE: Cartel
ARTS GARAGE: One Hit Wonders
AVENTURA ARTS: Miami International
10/20
PROPAGANDA: Hans Gruber & the Die Hards
10/21
WAR MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM: Kevin Gates REVOLUTION LIVE: Arlie, Nordista Freeze PROPAGANDA: The Kilograms, Raging Nathans
10/22
RESPECTABLE STREET: 98 Bitter Beings, The Bunny
The Bear, Convalescence, Ignominious
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Lila Ike
GRAMPS: Mexican Slum Rats
CULTURE ROOM: Yoke Lore
PROPAGANDA: Wicked Whispers
10/23
POMPANO AMP: Ryan Bingham & the Texas Gentlemen
10/24-26
DNTN LAKE WORTH: Snailspace
10/24
RESPECTABLE STREET: Maggie Baugh, Alexa & the Old Fashioneds
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Le Crae
GRAMPS: Oddisee
WAR MEMORIAL AUDITORIUM: AFI, TR/ST
REVOLUTION LIVE: Rico Nasty
ARTS GARAGE: Ultimate Rush Tribute
AVENTURA ARTS: Joshua Kane: Gothic at Midnight
10/25
DNTN BOYNTON BCH: Pirate Fest
KELLY’S PUB: Lighthouse the Band
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Seaworthy Collective
CULTURE ROOM: A Flock of Seagulls, Astari Nite
GRAMPS: Poison Girl Friend, Mother Soki
ARTS GARAGE: Straighten Up & Fly Right: Tribute Nat King Cole, Louis Armstrong, Frank Sinatra.
AVENTURA ARTS: Top of the World: Carpenters Tribute SWAMPGRASS: Dirty Crumbums, Orange Blackheart
10/26 – 11/9
MALTZ JUPITER THEATRE: Misery
10/26
DNTN BOYNTON BCH: Pirate Fest
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: Rocky Horror Picture Show
ARTS GARAGE: Joe Cotton Band
10/28
POMPANO AMP: Aly & AJ
10/29
RESPECTABLE STREET: Lesser Care, Night Ritualz, MOLD!, RainBoar
CULTURE ROOM: Fear Factory
PROPAGANDA: Sara Scully, DJ So What
10/30
CULTURE ROOM: Clutch
ITHINK AMP: Pierce the Veil
THE PEACH: Art Talk @ Evey Fine Art
10/31
DNTN LAKE WORTH: J Street Halloween Block Party w Spred the Dub, Lavola, Like Harvey, Soy Division & More!
MIAMI BEACH BANDSHELL: 1964 the Tribute
RESPECTABLE STREET: The Haunt
ARTS GARAGE: Ritmos del Corazón
FILLMORE MIAMI BEACH: The Mars Volta
11/1
RESPECTABLE STREET: 38 Years of Oblivion of Montreal, Psychic Death, Surfer Blood, Liquid Pennies, The Technicians, Violet Silhouette, D-Gens, Sandman Sleeps, Burn Club, Rude Televison, Glass Chapel, Tiger 45, Layne Lyre, Shivaa, Blabscam
DNTN LW: Dia De Los Muertos
REVOLUTION LIVE: Sofia Isella, Ayleen Valentine
11/1-2
ARSHT CENTER: The Magnetic Fields
LA FEMME
by tim moffatt
In 1982, the world was inundated by new wave as well as a variety of raw, experimental sounds that were liberating in their limited technical scope. Punk taught people to use what they had at hand in order to create, regardless of budget or process. At the same time, the kids were dancing to Human League, Yazoo, and the hypnotic syncopation of Kraftwerk, and probably no one was betting that decades later these parallel musical renaissances would still be relevant.
Yet here we are, with the assorted strains of cold wave, technicolor new wave, DIY punk, and the youthful enthusiasm of yé-yé all converging in La Femme, a French band that transcends its forbears by standing on their shoulders and pointing its own way forward. Imagine Serge Gainsbourg duetting with the Velvet Underground covering Daft Punk, and you’re in the ballpark. La Femme are not constrained by era or genre, and easily switch up themes, bringing a whole new attitude to the dance party. All while still sounding like La Femme, a feat reserved for bands that have a distinct “thing.”
Despite what might be considered a minimalist approach to music, La Femme’s look is maximalist in the Sigue Sigue Sputnik sense: big hair, flashy clothes, all in-your-face style that makes watching them perform akin to a rugby match. Where should you look? Who gets your attention when everyone is a character worthy of their own close-up?
This attention to aesthetics, along with their catchy spare music, has captured the hearts and minds of France, but has also bled into the fringes of the American blogosphere. Say what you will about globalization, but making the world more intimate for artists has done wonders for the discovery and proliferation of talent. What once would have been a dubbed tape being mailed across the pond has only to be a flashy YouTube video or word-of-mouth Soundcloud track to catch fire and ignite a career. Hopefully La Femme’s ongoing Rock Machine America Tour, named for their first fully Englishlanguage album, makes converts of a new generation of musically focused space cadet bon vivants.
La Femme play 7pm Friday, October 3 at The Ground in Miami. lafemmemusic.com
ANDY BELL
by abel folgar
For nearly four decades, Andy Bell has been the luminous voice at the heart of Erasure, giving synth-pop its pulse of joy and longing. Songs like “A Little Respect” and “Sometimes” remain shimmering staples of dance floors and radio alike, carried by his soaring tenor and fearless openness. But Bell is not one to rest solely on nostalgia. With his latest solo album, Ten Crowns, and a new tour he’s turning toward a more personal, expansive vision of what pop can be.
Ten Crowns is at once intimate and theatrical, drawing from Bell’s rich history while pushing his artistry forward. The record mixes buoyant melodies with reflective undertones, a balance he’s been refining since stepping outside of Erasure with projects like Electric Blue and the Torsten series. “I always like to deliver some kind of hope when singing,” Bell tells PureHoney “It is very healing and when you can mix it into your songs, it’s like baking a magical cake.”
That sense of uplift, paired with honesty, has long defined Bell’s artistry. Reflecting on Erasure’s breakthrough hits, he says, “At the time of recording them we obviously had no idea whether the songs would resonate or not, but we had a really good feeling about them. … There are certain songs that become your calling cards and these two [A Little Respect and Sometimes] are examples of that.”
Bell is taking his standbys into fresh territory, performing with a Nashville four-piece band led by Grammy-winning producer Dave Audé. “We have reconstructed brand new versions of the old hits which sound more up to date, with Vince’s blessing,” he says, referring to his Erasure mate Vince Clarke. “My confidence is soaring and it’s infectious for the audiences.”
Bell also leans into his role as a truth-teller, embracing vulnerability as part of the job. “I believe any performer is kind of a conduit and creature of the night,” he says. “You have to be vulnerable, naked, and honest.” With the new album, Bell provides new proof that pop can still be cathartic, courageous and beautifully, defiantly human.
Andy Bell performs 7pm Friday / Saturday, October 10 / 11, at Revolution Live in Ft. Lauderdale. andybell.com
ALLAH-LAS
by abel folgar
There’s a particular kind of Los Angeles myth that never really fades: the Bukowskisoaked dive bars, the cracked sidewalks that run past mid-century bungalows, the smell of the Pacific rolling in through the basin. For the Allah-Las, that myth isn’t nostalgia for its own sake, but a living current they keep returning to, a well of inspiration that feels as endless as the city itself.
Formed in 2008 by friends who met working at LA’s beloved Amoeba Music record store, the Allah-Las — Miles Michaud, Pedrum Siadatian, Spencer Dunham and Matthew Correia — quickly became one of LA’s defining modern psych outfits. Their self-titled debut album arrived in 2012, all hazy reverb and garage-tinged melody, followed by Worship the Sun, Calico Review, LAHS, and last year’s Zuma 85. Over five albums, the band has pushed their jangly foundation outward, folding in everything from surf twang to cinematic textures, each record a quiet reinvention.
“We were all friends before starting the band,” Michaud tells PureHoney. “So, whenever any tensions arose, there was always a bigger picture involved, bigger than just the livelihood of the band. It was the livelihood of our friendships, and that’s what brought us closer over the years.” That closeness has kept their sound adventurous without losing cohesion. “We don’t try to make a monolithic sound,” Michaud adds. “We experiment and broaden our horizons, and hopefully the horizons of our listeners too.”
Much of that experimentation is rooted in Los Angeles itself. “We’ve always been fascinated with history, especially the history of LA,” Michaud says. “We’re very nostalgic for old Hollywood and the different eras of LA history. There’s this endless well of inspiration in the city’s many incarnations.”
That cinematic curiosity bleeds naturally into their music. “We draw a lot of inspiration from Italian film soundtracks,” Michaud admits, a clue to why their songs feel like they already belong to some imagined reel of California history. For the Allah-Las, joined on tour by free jazz-informed psychedelic duo (and fellow Angelenos) Monde UFO, LA is both muse and mirror, always reinventing, always alive, and always worth another listen.
The Allah-Las and Monde UFO perform 8pm Saturday, Oct. 11 at Zey Zey in Miami.
DRINKS + SELECT APPS
PETITE LEAGUE
by olivia feldman
Petite League have worked hard to maintain their DIY ethos in the decade since their scrappy college basement show days at Syracuse University. The lo-fi power pop project is the baby of songwriter, composer, guitarist and vocalist Lorenzo Gillis Cook, who set the tone when he and his housemates
established The Scarier Dome space in 2016, a riff on their hometown’s old Carrier Dome basketball stadium.
Living there by day and booking and playing shows there by night, Petite League selfreleased their first two albums on Bandcamp, made tapes and screen-printed their own merch. “Growing up in that world and seeing music as a community thing and not a super serious thing, but something to get behind and do for fun,” Cook tells PureHoney,” it was very DIY and that definitely is the origin of the band.” After relocating to New York City, Petite League received some label attention and comparisons to Big Apple rockers The Strokes. But as the band grew and prospered, they found they didn’t need the outside help and started their own label instead, Zap World Records.
On their latest LP, released in May, Dead Star City Tours, Cook took inspiration from indie pop group The Drums, paring back guitar chords for more single-string lines, drum machines and synthesizers. Along with Henry Schoonmaker (drums), Adam Greenberg (guitar) and Kevin McCallum (bass), he also took a page from Paul Westerberg’s melancholy songwriting playbook. On the second single, “Ghosts,” an effortlessly catchy, jangle-pop refrain (with synth) bursts through Cook’s playful yet yearning vocal about a lost love who haunts his dreams.
Just months after a West Coast tour, they’re back on the road heading south, with Gramps in Miami as the finale. Cook felt the city pulling him back after a Petite League show in Miami in February. “All these kids showed up, and it was kind of a revealing thing to realize that people are very appreciative when you come out of your way to play for them, in a way that’s kind of foreign to us,” he says.
Petite League performs 7pm Saturday, Oct. 4 at Gramps in Miami. petiteleague.com
SNAILSPACE
by kelli bodle
South Florida has a way of sneaking into your bloodstream: slow, humid, and stubbornly resistant to the fast-twitch reflexes of big-city living. For PureHoney artist of the month Ryan Miller, the person behind the mysterious SNAILSPACE Instagram, moving here from New York at age 13 changed everything, from “how long it took to be handed my order at McDonald’s” to the speed of his footsteps. What started as cultureshock at the leisurely pace – including flip-flopped surfers telling him to “chill out” — eventually seeped into his work in the form of a snail.
First, they were minor details in larger compositions, but eventually they became full-blown muses. Now based in Lake Worth Beach, he is hosting SNAILSPACE, an exhibition there that asks viewers to do the unthinkable in 2025: slow down, stop scrolling, and linger. It is billed as “an immersive pop-up art show featuring paintings, prints, snails, sips, snacks, sculptures, and the passage of time.” It posits that time and attention, our most valuable currencies, should be conserved “in a world obsessed with hustle and urgency.”
Miller recalls his move to the Florida: “I’ll never forget the first couple of months. Everything literally slowed down … in middle school, walking through the halls with a new friend, he told me to slow down and that I was walking too fast. He said he could tell I was from New York, and that’s just not how they do it here. He wore flip-flops, had long hair, and was a surfer, of course. They know how to live properly.”
“I don’t know if it was deliberate, but not long after, snails started sneaking into my work,” he continues. “At first, as playful little Easter eggs, but also because they embodied this pace and perspective that felt opposite to the frantic hustle culture I’d grown up around. Over time, they went from hidden details to the central focus of an entire body of work. SNAILSPACE is the culmination of years spent thinking about time, stillness, and noticing the beauty in what people will step over without a glance.”
The mystery of SNAILSPACE is that it existed online for weeks without fanfare — just a watch-this-space Instagram handle with one or two images of snails posted. You could RSVP for details, though they remained deliberately scarce, But as opening night on Friday, October 24 nears, Miller opens up a little. It’s in downtown Lake Worth Beach. Yes, it’s an exhibition about snails.
More than that, he says, “It’s about giving yourself permission to step out of the rush, even for a moment. Whether someone comes away thinking about the texture of a painting, the curve of a sculpture, or just remembering the last time they saw a real snail after the rain.”
It’s also an analog exhibition. “For this show, I felt it was the right time in my life to get back to my traditional art roots — before Wacom tablets and iPads — putting a paintbrush to canvas,” Miller says. “Art created by humans (it’s weird that I even have to say that) is at a strange moment, with AI taking jobs from artists and designers alike.”
“In my industry,” says Miller, also the owner of Gatsby Printworks screen printing in Lake Worth Beach, “AI always meant Adobe Illustrator, not Artificial Intelligence. Choosing traditional media wasn’t just nostalgic for me, but it reinforced the show’s message. At the same time, the subject pushed me toward media that demanded that slowness. Every brushstroke is a record of time spent and decisions made in the moment … something a machine can’t replicate.
“I won’t lie,” he adds, “not having that Command Z/undo button took some getting used to.”
One concession to modernity: You have to visit a website to RSVP for the exhibition and learn its exact location. As of press time, opening was fully booked, but spaces were available for Saturday the 25th. Details on the Sunday session were likewise TBA.
That it’s happening in Lake Worth Beach makes sense: Miller is a Lake Worth hype man. “We’ve made it clear we’re an art town,” he says. “SNAILSPACE was born here, and I was adamant about finding a space for it here. It feels right to debut it in a community that already embraces slowing down to really look at art.”
Ryan Miller’s SNAILSPACE exhibition takes place Friday-Sunday, October 24-26 in downtown Lake Worth Beach, location TBA. www.snail.space @snailspacelwb
BUENA VISTA ORCHESTRA
by abel folgar
There are certain sounds that feel eternal: The warm wash of brass, the hypnotic sway of percussion, and the aching sweetness of voices that can move mountains. Out of the backstreets and dance halls of Havana’s Buenavista quarter came one of those sounds, carried into the world by musicians like Compay Segundo, Ibrahim Ferrer, and Israel “Cachao” López who defined Cuba’s soul for generations as the Buena Vista Social Club
The newest incarnation of the social music club, led by veteran trombonist Jesús “Aguaje” Ramos is keeping tradition alive since the original group organized in 1996 by the British record label, World Circuit, disbanded in 2015. Ramos was born in Pinar del Río, Cuba, in 1951, where he first gained renown for his work with the Afro-Cuban All Stars, Estrellas de Areito, and collaborations with icons like Ferrer, Rubén González, and Omara Portuondo. He joined Buena Vista in 1997, and his long career has made him a respected guardian of Cuba’s musical traditions like son cubano, bolero, danzón, cha-cha-cha and more.
The Buena Vista Orchestra is Ramos’s modern vessel for that tradition. It unites veteran musicians from the original Buena Vista Social Club with younger generations who carry both respect and fresh energy. Onstage, audiences can expect to hear beloved classics like “Chan Chan,” “El Cuarto de Tula,” and “Candela,” along with lesser-known gems that Ramos and the ensemble have revived.
Much of their global recognition can be traced to Wim Wenders’ 1999 documentary Buena Vista Social Club. The film turned once-local legends, some well into their twilight years, into international stars, drawing new generations into the romance of Cuban jazz and the lived history behind it. Suddenly, Cuban music wasn’t just heritage, it was part of the world’s zeitgeist, soundtracking coffeehouses, nightclubs, and college dorm rooms alike. Now, under Ramos’s guidance, the Buena Vista Orchestra keeps that flame alive. It’s more than nostalgia; it’s proof that music rooted in tradition can continue to evolve, that rhythm and memory can dance together in the present. In their hands, Havana still breathes –timeless, unbroken, and gloriously alive.
Jesus “Aguaje” Ramos & His Buena Vista Orchestra perform Friday, Oct. 17 at Kravis Center in WPB, and Sunday, Oct. 19 at Miami Beach Bandshell in Miami Beach.
THE MAGNETIC FIELDS
by david rolland
To create 69 love songs seems like the work of a lifetime. Stephin Merritt, the mastermind behind The Magnetic Fields, accomplished the feat in a single year.
“I was sitting in a gay piano bar in Midtown Manhattan,” Merritt tells PureHoney in an interview coinciding with a bout of respiratory distress that has made his famously deep voice perhaps a bit lower. “They were playing Sondheim songs and Jesus Christ Superstar and I thought I should do a theatrical revue. I wanted to break out of being identified with rock music. I imagined having six drag queens singing a whole lot of songs while competing for applause. The one who got the most applause would be the only one who got paid.”
At first Merritt planned to write 100 songs for the revue. “But then I realized 100 three-minute songs would be 300 minutes and that would be too long,” he says. “Then I thought what other meaningful numbers are there? Eighty-six songs about death? Still too long. I’ll save that for another time. Seventy-six patriotic love songs? Then I got down to 69 and I thought the interplay of that number being a dirty joke and love songs was right up my alley.”
While the songs never formed a theatrical revue — though Merritt still threatens that as a possibility — the resulting album, 69 Love Songs came out in 1999 as an instant indie-pop classic: melancholy, funny, biting, tuneful and stylistically all over the map. It was released on three CDs and as a vinyl set lasting a smidgen under three hours. The Magnetic Fields will take two nights, November 1-2, at Miami’s Arsht Center to play the album in its entirety.
“It’s important to know the concert is one show spread out over two nights,” Merritt says. “If you want to hear both ‘The Book of Love’ and ‘Papa Was a Rodeo’ you’ll have to come both nights.” The Saturday performance ends at song No. 35, “Promises of Eternity,” and Sunday picks up with the next track, “World Love.” Merritt adds that fans of the album should not expect replicas: ”We don’t like to be faithful to the record. We do things differently. I might decide not to play guitar on a song and instead play ukulele. We keep it loose.”
Though The Magnetic Fields have put out a dozen releases, including 2017’s 50 Song Memoir, 69 Love Songs is arguably their most celebrated work. And to be clear, Merritt says he really did write and record all of it in under 365 days. ”It was fun. I enlisted friends,” he recalls. “I told them I wasn’t socializing that year, but if they wanted to help make the record I’d be happy to see them. I had charts written all over the walls and schedules of what song needed to be written by what time.”
In a sense Merritt had prepared for that record his entire life. “My mother played guitar and I started taking lessons at seven,” he says. “I took piano and percussion lessons around the same time. Then in high school I took organ lessons and then harp lessons.” By the time he started The Magnetic Fields in 1991 he had a vision of what they would sound like. “I’d feel limited by being in a rock group or bluegrass,” Merritt says. “I want all the palette. The main instrument in our first album [1991’s Distant Plastic Trees] was a sampler. I felt like I had the whole world at my fingertips.”
When asked if it’s difficult to play the songs from memory almost three decades later, Merritt is honest: “I don’t have a good memory. Every time I go on tour I have to relearn the songs. I’m not capable of singing them all by memory. I have a lyric sheet in gigantic type.” Does performing these songs transport him back to early days? “I’m in the middle of playing a concert; I don’t have the time to be nostalgic,” he says. Merritt also plans to release a new album sometime in 2026. No hint yet how many songs.
The Magnetic Fields perform 69 Love Songs on Saturday and Sunday, November 1 and 2, at the Arsht Center in Miami. houseoftomorrow.com
MARCELLO KRASILCIC
STEPHIN MERRITT
SUBTROPIC FILM FESTIVAL
by sean piccoli
Not every zingy title that Noelia Solange came up with for the programming at the next Subtropic Film Festival survived the in-house review process. There was, for instance, the “Angry Cheerleader” block, as Subtropic founding director Solange took to calling it: five cinematic shorts by emerging Florida filmmakers that explore what Solange calls “the darker side of the female psyche.”
The five films — Blabla, Girl Itch, Stone and Flesh Gummy Bear, Frenesi, and Birthday Girl — are still on the program at the third annual Subtropic festival happening November 7-9 in West Palm Beach. But the angry cheerleader has bowed out: That curated half-hour block is instead called “Yea I’m Good, Just A Bit Tired,” after the popular meme featuring a Hello Kitty doll going up in flames. The themed blocks — there are a dozen of them — and the festival picks they represent are a product of Solange’s offbeat devotion to a cause. “At the end of the day,” she tells PureHoney, “this festival is truly a celebration of South Florida independent film.”
The festival opens on November 7 at Norton Museum of Art with a screening of The Python Hunt, a feature-length documentary by Xander Robin about the state-sponsored Everglades snake kill. The Python Hunt has won accolades this year at major festivals including SXSW, but Broward-based filmmaker Robin didn’t hesitate when Solange approached him about bringing it to an insurgent like Subtropic. Robin tells us that he likes Subtropic for championing homegrown filmmaking with an “underground artist perspective.” He’s also pleased to have The Python Hunt playing at the Norton. Robin will be there for the screening and a Q&A. An opening-night party at TW Fine Art follows.
Subtropic continues on November 8 at 9 at the Afflux Studios complex at G-Star School of the Arts, where the blocks of short films on various themes get rolling, from edgy and experimental to kid-friendly. There are more feature-length films on tap as well as panel discussions, parties, meet-and-greets with filmmakers, an awards presentation, and handson workshops for learning how to shoot with both digital and vintage Kodak movie cameras.
Subtropic Film Festival takes place November 7-9 in West Palm Beach. subtropic.org
YULIIA SAFONKINA
NOELIA SOLANGE
J STREET BLOCK PARTY
by amanda moore
It’s a Halloween tableau straight from the algorithm: Wednesday Addams drifts by in black lace, while a neon Labubu bounces alongside Blue Origin’s all-female space crew, helmets glowing under the streetlights. Across the block, Travis Kelce clings to a sequined Taylor Swift as twin Elphabas from Wicked belt harmonies into the night. A Lilo tosses candy, Stitch hot on her heels, as Squid Game guards corral the crowd toward the outdoor stage where Spred the Dub explodes into brass.
This isn’t a dreamscape or a graphic novel — it’s a glimpse of the possible future at the J Street Block Party lighting up downtown Lake Worth Beach this Halloween. The event revives a tradition once central to the city’s music and nightlife, roaring back with fresh energy after nearly a decade away. Known for drawing thousands, the party had faded into local legend. Now, thanks to organizers Alexandra Dupuis and Jon Jordan, the block is alive again on All Hallow’s Eve. “This is about bringing people back to J Street,” Jordan, former co-owner of Lake Worth Beach live music venue Propaganda, tells PureHoney. “It’s Halloween, it’s a return, and it’s all about local — local bands, local businesses, local community. The more people show up, the bigger and better these parties will get.”
The lineup reflects that vision. Outdoor and indoor stages along J Street will host Lavola, Like Harvey and Soy Division, while aerialist Ella Peach adds high-flying circus burlesque. Rudy’s brings The Dillies, Pomona morphs into a late-night dance floor, and Propaganda anchors the block with bands deep into the early hours. Beyond the music, the night promises a bar-and-candy crawl, local vendors, and surprises around every corner.
Halloween carries extra weight in South Florida, where dress-up becomes performance art and entire blocks transform into stages. At J Street, theater collides with live music and community spirit, amplified by fixtures like Bamboo Room, Dancing Elephant, and Common Grounds. It promises to be a living gallery of local creativity as Lake Worth Beach reasserts itself as a hub for art, nightlife, and unforgettable memories.
The Halloween J Street Block Party runs 6pm–2am, Friday, October 31 on J Street in DNTN LWB
RSC 38 YEARS: OF MONTREAL PSYCHIC DEATH +
36 MORE!
by erik kvarnberg
The origin story for Athens, Georgia’s indie-pop heroes of Montreal starts with a teen-aged Kevin Barnes writing and recording music on a four-track cassette machine in his bedroom here in Palm Beach Gardens. Barnes, a native Midwesterner, lived only a few years in South Florida beginning in the late 1980s, but they were defining years. When Barnes wasn’t holed up in his bedroom studio, he was going to shows — or trying to — at local venues including downtown West Palm Beach’s Respectable Street
“I wasn’t old enough to get into ‘Respect’s’ so I just sort of hung outside,” Barnes tells PureHoney. Some of the first concerts he attended were nearby at the WormHole, a shortlived record shop, thrift store, art gallery and performance space opened by PureHoney founder Steev Rullman and three partners.
Respectable’s, as it’s also nicknamed, was by then already drawing buzzy bands to a corner of the country routinely neglected by tour bookers. Thanks to the labors of founder-owner Rodney Mayo, who opened Respectable Street in June of 1987 inside a former Salvation Army outpost, South Florida was soon welcoming alternative rock acts including Red Hot Chili Peppers, They Might Be Giants and My Life With The Thrill Kill Kult. And Barnes eventually got through the door — with his own band. of Montreal are repeat visitors to Respectable Street over a span that saw Mayo spark a downtown nightlife transformation by providing an outlet for young, music- and culture-hungry South Floridians. of Montreal return to headline Respectable Street’s birthday celebration of “38 Years of Oblivion,” joined by fellow Georgians Psychic Death and 36 more bands. He doesn’t tip his entire plan but does allow that he’s bringing the traditional of Montreal circus-style spectacle, with costumes to match an occasion at a club that holds a special place for him.
Barnes says that of Montreal’s base is, in his words, people who are “pretty much down,” and those who have stayed with the band through all its phases. The music has evolved since he formed of Montreal in Athens and aligned it with the Beatles-influenced Elephant 6 band collective. Barnes says every new life experience still brings new inspiration. “It’s the thing that I find the most exciting and fulfilling and challenging,” he says, “and that energy hasn’t really dissipated over the years.”
of Montreal starts with Cherry Peel, a debut album that flashes its Beatles influences with a crooked smile. Most of the songs are tethered by acoustic guitar and shimmering harmonies. The heartfelt “Tim I Wish You Were Born a Girl” feels like the long-lost sibling of The Flaming Lips’ “She Don’t Use Jelly,” while “Don’t Ask Me to Explain” is a playful, hooky sprint a la Plumtree or Le Tigre. Pick any track, really — it could be “In Dreams I Dance With You” or “Springtime Is the Season” — and it’s going to be something fun, and weird, and exciting. This weirdness remains a feature of Barnes’ writing. “I like existing in awkward, confusing spaces,” he says. “To me that’s more exciting than doing something that feels more linear or has a history behind it. It feels more exciting to have no rules.”
The 2000’s saw the rise of some of of Montreal’s most popular tracks. “Gronlantic Edit,” from 2007, tops their Spotify playlist at this moment, and for good reason. It’s almost a Scissor Sisters one-up, balanced between electroclash and disco, with Barnes’ own peculiar spin on everything. Not far down the list, 2004’s “Lysergic Bliss,” is a veritable theatre production with ever-changing backdrops, physics-defying energy and an a capella section joined by the drums kicking back in with perfect timing.
That decade also saw Barnes cashing in some of his indie-cool points. There was the Outback Steakhouse jingle adapted from the band’s 2005 track, “Wraith Pinned to the Mist and Other Games,” (from the band’s breakthrough 2005 album, The Sunlandic Twins), plus a T-Mobile ad and music on Fox Television’s hit teen drama, The O.C. Barnes recalls that these forays into the commercial mainstream went against Elephant 6’s anti-corporate, anti-stardom ethos. He has since forgiven himself, seeing it as a sign that the universe was providing in times of need.
The most recent product of Barnes’ perpetual music motion machine is of Montreal’s 2024 album, Lady on the Cusp, made in a blur of songwriting sessions. Compared to most of his other work, a lot of Lady on the Cusp was written spontaneously. “I find it more exciting and fulfilling to make different sections, and not have anything repeat,” Barnes says, “and have it just be a little bit more open as far as structure and the way the song ends has nothing to do with the way the songs started.” The first two tracks recall the extreme assemblage of Japan’s Satanicpornocultshop, glitchy and overwhelming. Up next, “Rude Girl on Rotation” is nostalgic music perfect for gazing out a car window. Songs like “I Can Read Smoke” fall closer to meditative bossa nova at times. “Soporific Cell” feels like Barnes holding hands with Elton John and Tame Impala of Montreal are planning on entering the studio again soon and promising to release new music in 2026.
Another notable return visitor to Respectable Street for the 38th will be Atlanta-based synth-and-noise punks Psychic Death. This energetically dark band played last year’s Bumblefest and has, since settling in with drummer James Cramer in 2021, found themselves trying to squeeze in writing and recording time amid an onslaught of tours and shows.
Cramer, singer-guitarist Blake Lumry, bassist Zach Estess and keyboardist Ryan Stark did knock out an EP in 2024, No Sounds, whose title track traps a banshee wail inside a droning screech, much like Nirvana’s “Radio Friendly Unit Shifter” intro. They’ve returned in 2025 with the single, “Wait For Me,” its dismal power blending in nicely with the likes of Madrid’s [VVV] Trippin’you and New York’s A Place To Bury Strangers. Their 2023 EP, Ghostface Cowboy, evokes the deathrock pall of Rozz Williams’ Christian Death and the under-appreciated Altar De Fey
To no one’s surprise, Respectable Street is still breathing and presenting music that’s respectful, indeed, of people’s desire to hear something different, challenging and new. Respectable Street’s 38th anniversary party featuring of Montreal, Psychic Death and 36 more bands takes place Saturday, November 1 in downtown West Palm Beach. ofmontreal.net, psychicdeath666.bandcamp.com, sub-culture.org/respectable-street
