Incubus and Jane's, Reincarnated — Plus the Big Names Next Door in Hollywood
Friday, Aug 14, the tribute machine at Revolution Live keeps humming, and this week it's aiming at the late-'90s alt-rock canon. Remake Yourself, a Tribute to Incubus, headlines, with Jane's Affliction — a Jane's Addiction tribute, and yes, that pun is doing a lot of work — opening. Music at 7 p.m., 100 SW 3rd Ave, in the heart of Himmarshee.
It's a smart pairing. Incubus and Jane's Addiction bracket a specific strain of alt-rock that valued groove and texture over three chords and a scream — Incubus with its funk-tinged, turntable-laced radio era, Jane's with the art-damaged Perry Farrell howl that basically invented the modern festival. Getting both in one room is a coherent evening rather than a grab bag, and if the bands respect the source material's weirdness instead of sanding it into a covers set, this is a genuinely good Friday. At 7 p.m. it's an early night out, which in mid-August South Florida counts as mercy.
Now, honesty compels a bigger point, because this is the week the marquee names roll through — and they are not playing Fort Lauderdale. They're at Hard Rock Live, which sits inside the Seminole Hard Rock in HOLLYWOOD, a different city one exit down the road. We love the room; we are not going to let anyone pretend it's ours. So consider this a neighborly directions-giving, not a hometown brag.
The Hard Rock slate is stacked. Tuesday, Aug 11, Ella Mai brings her "Do You Still Love Me?" Tour at 8 p.m., which means the smooth, slow-burn R&B crowd got the week's first big night. Wednesday, Aug 12, 5 Seconds of Summer bring the "Everyone's a Star!" World Tour with The Band Camino opening at 7:30 — a pop-rock double bill that will fill the place with people who scream every word and mean it. And Friday, Aug 14 — the very same night as the tribute show at Rev — Jordan Davis plays at 8 p.m., which sets up a genuine fork in the road: country radio's easy-charm hitmaker in Hollywood, or late-'90s alt-rock reincarnated in Fort Lauderdale. There is no wrong answer, only a drive-time calculation.
That geographic split is worth sitting with, because it's the whole shape of the off-season in one weekend. The big touring dollars land at the casino room in Hollywood — the arena-adjacent shed with the production budget and the ticketing muscle. The homegrown, keep-the-scene-alive programming happens at the 1,300-cap club downtown. Both matter. But if you only ever chase the names on the Hard Rock marquee, you'll drive past the actual Fort Lauderdale scene without noticing it's there. The tribute bands at Rev are not the consolation prize; they're the thing that keeps a music town a music town when the tours aren't coming.
So here's the plan, depending on who you are. Big-swing, casino-lights, sing-along energy: point the car at Hollywood — Ella Mai Tuesday, 5SOS Wednesday, Jordan Davis Friday. Loyalist who wants to spend the money in your own zip code and hear "Stellar" and "Been Caught Stealing" filtered through bands who love them: Rev, Friday, 7 p.m. Just know which city you're in when you buy the ticket, because Google Maps will, and so will your friend waiting at the wrong bar.
Off-season doesn't mean off. It means you have to read the map a little more carefully. This week, the map runs from Himmarshee to Hollywood — and both ends are worth the drive.
Sources: Revolution Live Concerts; Revolution Live — Concertfix; Hard Rock Live — Concerts50; Jordan Davis — Ticketmaster