In increasingly dystopian and authoritarian times, it’s perversely refreshing that there are still folks out there being stubbornly and proudly freakish — and gaining a loyal audience for it!
So it is with one Buckethead, a gifted and nonlinear guitar shredder who greets his adoring public from behind an expressionless mask, KFC bucket perched jauntily atop his head. Lest ye chuckle, know that his work entranced one Axl Rose, who conscripted him into Guns N’ roses to replace Slash.
Now the be-bucketed one is in Florida for a few shows — this state could surely use some fearless iconoclasts — so expect a blizzard of off-kilter guitar theatrics. If you ask nicely, Buckethead might treat you to a reading of “War Pigs,” which he’s been covering at recent gigs in tribute to a fellow “madman of rock,” Ozzy Osbourne.
8 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 13, The Plaza Live, 425 N. Bumby Ave., plazaliveorlando.org, $70-$190.
This article appears in Sept. 10-16, 2025.