Best of Orlando 2025: Local Music
Hey nonny no? The inaugural Florida Dungeon Fest was an intriguing highlight of early 2025, bringing practitioners of dungeon synth — think John Carpenter meets Dungeons & Dragons and old 8-bit arcade games, all with a healthy dose of metal theatrics — from all over the country to Orlando to ply their medieval musicks. The highlights were many: a Byronesque Hillsfar conjuring gorgeous dark ambience at Conduit; the Conan-plays-keytar intensity of Seregost; and the courtly Ren Faire dancing that broke out in lieu of a circle pit during the second (k)night at Audubon Park Church. Well met, ye lords and ladies.
This independent jazz haven went from being squeezed out of its fringey original location in late 2023 to making a grand reopening this summer in the high-profile space of the former Winter Park Library. Not only is it now in a prime location, it earned the very coveted and public spot by beating out Winter Park leviathan Rollins College, which also vied for the venue. It's a triumph of organic, community-based culture against steep institutional odds.
460 E. New England Ave., Winter Park, bluebambooartcenter.com
Young Orlando R&B artist Isaiah Falls is crystallizing into a new pop icon with breathless velocity. His big breakout only happened last year, when 2024's Drugs n' Lullabies landed on lots of high-profile tastemaker lists; it has since garnered tens of millions of plays. On the heat of that fire, Falls unveiled his latest release on a groundswell of hype, ambition and worldwide touring. And that album LVRS Paradise (Side A) is the biggest Orlando release in a long time.
Proof that we're getting wiser as a city: We're appreciating our history before it's, well, history. In the Orlando music scene, there are few documentarians greater than rock photographer Jim Leatherman, whose ongoing work spans four decades. This year, Joshua "Danger" Dobbs — himself one of the most devoted keepers of our music history with Orlando Punk Archive — organized Jim Fest, a concert featuring some of Leatherman's favorite local bands. Jim's alive, well and still snapping photos at most of the cool shows around town. But Jim Fest sought to honor a living legend in his very presence. That's how it should be done.
April 11, 2025
2025 is shaping up to be Daniel Hanson's year. The Fast Preacher frontman has had a great run of late: opening for Etran de L'Aïr at The Social last September, sharing the stage with Future Islands at The Beacham in May, and making a summer appearance at Dog Days Fest in Savannah. His creative streak is formidable, too. Hanson released the heartfelt single "Take It, Fake It" at the end of December, and in alignment with the Strawberry Moon of June, followed up with the sultry "Full Moon." Bring on the full album — fast.
Because craft-beer trailblazer Redlight Redlight was founded by people deeply embedded in the Orlando music scene, they celebrated their 20th anniversary with not simply a party but a mini music festival. And because it's Redlight, it was a hall-of-fame lineup that brought defining 2000s legacy bands back home from far away (Gasoline Heart) and back from death itself (History) to join the likes of Mike Dunn, New Eagles and Skeletizer. More than just a concert, it was a golden chapter of Orlando indie-rock history revived and reunited again.
March 9, 2025
Orlando musician Eva Strangelace has lived many musical lives locally, whether with Call In Dead, M.A.C.E. or Caustic Bats. But we're irresistibly drawn to her latest eponymous project, Strangelace, wherein the transgender hellraiser displays a much more somber and reflective side — composing solo cello and voice soundscapes that are nothing less than hymns for a dying world. We're reminded of the ghostly works released on seminal British label 4AD by artists like This Mortal Coil and Dead Can Dance, ethereal yet suffused with Floridian humidity.
When local Americana icon Terri Binion moved away this spring, it left a major hole in the Orlando music landscape. But the farewell event at Will's Pub organized by fellow legend Kaleigh Baker said just as much about our scene as it did Binion's legacy. Before a capacity crowd, a glittery cavalcade of the area's top musicians performed Terri's songs and spoke about her impact on them. It was a house aglow with love, a community-wide reflection that beamed back all the beauty and positivity that Binion's given Orlando for over a quarter-century. And it was a chest-swelling display of local heart and pride.
May 12, 2025
Post-rock group Zeta is not new to the intersection of politics and alternative art. The Venezuelan outfit, nomadic but based in South Florida and managed by Orlando's Montgomery Drive, was founded more than two decades ago and has not let up since. The band is a coalescence of its past, with roots stretching back to its start in a nation burdened by political turmoil, and its present, wrapped in an ethos that champions marginalized groups in the face of Trump's America. The band's recent show at Will's, after one of their members lost TPS status and moved back to Venezuela, was a loud, pissed-off temper tantrum fueled by the fiercest resource we have: community.
July 9, 2025
