LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
99.9 Gator Country morning show host Amadeus shares stories that did not make it on the air, and he takes a deeper dive into those that did make the cut. Fans of Your Hometown Morning Show will enjoy a more behind the scenes look at what goes into the making of a country radio morning show. Listen daily for this PG-13 version of the top stories making pop culture headlines, artist interviews, and much , much more.
LIVE FROM JACKSONVILLE! with Amadeus
Your March Music And Comedy Roadmap For Northeast Florida
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The lights are back on across Jacksonville, and the calendar is stacked. We kick off 2026 with a fast, story-rich tour of the city’s best stages: jam bands at the St. Augustine Amphitheatre, country heroes and comedians at Thrasher Horne, and a Broadway run that brings Moulin Rouge and A Beautiful Noise with Nick Fradiani to town. Then we go deeper with two conversations that turn dates on a page into nights you don’t want to miss.
First, the Bronx Wanderers return to Florida Theatre with a nine-piece Vegas build: strings, horns, and high-voltage harmony. They talk family chemistry, six to seven fresh additions to a fan-loved set, and why they’ll always do free meet-and-greets in the lobby. If you crave a show that treats nostalgia like rocket fuel, this is your ticket. We also flag more must-sees on that stage: Theo Von, Pat Metheny, Who’s Live Anyway, and a symphonic spectacle from The Orchestra featuring former members of ELO and ELO Part II.
Next, Eric Troyer pulls back the curtain on making ELO’s studio sheen feel alive under theater lights. From vocal textures to orchestral layers and a purpose-built video show, the goal is simple: honor Jeff Lynne’s craftsmanship without imitation and trigger those first-listen goosebumps all over again. We swap notes on the tech leaps behind Xanadu, the lasting spark of Bonnie Tyler’s Holding Out for a Hero, and why great covers—like Duran Duran’s Evil Woman—reveal how deep ELO runs in modern pop. The throughline is clear: faithful arrangements, fearless performance, and a joyful pact with the audience.
If you’re plotting your March, start with anchors like Widespread Panic’s three-night stand, Parker McCollum’s double, and Dwight Yoakam’s date at The Amp, then layer in comedy and Broadway for balance. Grab tickets early for symphonic or multi-night runs, and leave space for a weeknight wildcard. Ready to build your perfect lineup? Follow the show, share this guide with a friend, and drop a review with your top pick for March—what are you booking first?
St. Augustine Amp Highlights
Ponte Vedra Concert Hall Lineup
Thrasher Horne Comedy And Country
Broadway In Jacksonville Preview
1904/Underbelly: Parties And Rock
Florida Theatre March Preview
Bronx Wanderers Interview
SPEAKER_01Welcome to Live from Jacksonville. It's the first episode of 2026. I've had a busy January and February, but there's a ton of great shows already lined up for the new year. Let's run down what's coming up in the next few weeks. The St. Augustine Amphitheater has widespread panic for three shows March 20th through the 22nd. Parker McCollum is playing for two nights, March 27th and 28th. And Dwight Yockum is coming to the Amp on April 9th. Tickets are available at www.theamp.com. For TPC Week, the Pontavadia Concert Hall has Sounds of Sawgrass series with Tracy Lawrence on Thursday, March 12th, and Robert Earl Keene on Saturday, March 14th. Wayne Freaking Newton will be at the Pontavadia Concert Hall on March 20th. The Bodines March 25th. And the Ben Perry on April 8th. Get to PV Concert Hall dot com for tickets and other upcoming shows. The Thresher Horn Center has Justin Moore coming this Thursday, March 12th. Florida comedian and social media star OMG Itzwix will be at the Thrasher Horn Center March 14th. And Jeff Foxworthy is coming April 23rd. Grab your tickets at thcenter.org. The FSCG Artist Series, Broadway and Jacksville, is bringing Moulin Rouge, the musical running March 10th through the 15th, and A Beautiful Noise, the Neil Diamond musical, April 14th through the 19th, starring American Idol season 14 winner Nick Fradiani. I had a conversation with Nick a couple of weeks ago, and he'll be our guest on the next episode, dropping in just a few weeks. Check out FSCJ ArtistSeries.org for other shows coming to town. Five Jacks has a Taylor Swift dance party happening this Saturday, March 14th. This is an 18 and older event, so leave the kiddos at home for this one. And former Skid Row singer Sebastian Bach will be at 5 on March 31st. Go to 5jacks.com for tickets and other shows coming to 5. Finally, let's talk about the Florida Theater. They have a ton of shows coming in 2026, literally something for all ages. The Bronx Wanderers are back at the Florida Theater this Wednesday, March 11th. I spoke with Vinny and Vinny from The Wanderers last week as they were hitting Florida for some much needed sunshine.
SPEAKER_02Oh, well, we were just in New York and New Jersey, uh, I want to say like five, six days ago, right after they got hit with that cyclone bomb. And uh you could see the snow mounds that were like six, seven feet high. It was ridiculous.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. I have a friend that lives in Boston and he was going through it too.
SPEAKER_02I can't imagine.
SPEAKER_01We are so excited to have you guys coming back to the Florida Theater on Wednesday, March 11th. As soon as the show was over last year and I found out you guys were coming back, I told Kevin, I gotta get a date because I gotta buy my tickets.
SPEAKER_02You're too sweet. We love it. We're excited to be back, truly.
SPEAKER_01It was such an amazing experience. I didn't know what to expect going in, but man, what a show you guys put on.
SPEAKER_02Thanks. We have no idea what to expect either half the time.
SPEAKER_01For anyone who's never seen The Bronx Wanderers, how do you explain or tell the tell the show?
SPEAKER_02Uh so basically, my dad is the singer, my little brother is the drummer, and my two high school friends round out the band. So I like to tell people we're sponsored by ProZach and Jack Daniels. Perfect. And this year we have something really special because we're bringing our nine-piece Vegas band. So we're gonna have a string section, a horn section, so we're actually gonna bring the actual Vegas show to Jacksonville.
SPEAKER_01Wow, that's fantastic. How different is the set list from what we saw a year ago?
SPEAKER_02Uh, we have about six to seven new songs. We're keeping in all the favorites like Bohemian Rhapsody and stuff like that. But I mean, the new stuff that we're doing is just unbelievable. I really can't wait to show Jacksonville this Vegas show.
SPEAKER_01Man, I am super excited. I know you guys have been playing with Kevin between here and I think he was the Tampa area for a number of years, but somehow I just discovered you guys last year, and I'm already cannot wait for the show on March 11th.
SPEAKER_02We're happy you and other people still discover us and we make more friends as we go. That's what it's about.
SPEAKER_01Well, we are so looking forward to having you guys. And uh, like I said, the first time I saw the show, I was completely blown away. And then I met you guys in the lobby there at the Florida Theater, and you're so nice and so like generous with your time. I I just love folks like you.
SPEAKER_02Without people like you and without the fans that show up, there is no show, and that is never lost on us. So we will always do a free meet and greet. We'll always take the time to shake anybody's hand and say thanks for coming out. And we always promise to make it better the next year. So if people came last year, I promise you it's gonna be different this year. Dad luckily is still wearing his leather pants. I don't know if that's fortunate or not, but you know, he's still rocking at 67 years old, so God bless him.
SPEAKER_01That's amazing. And then I cannot wait to see you guys with a full band, a full orchestra.
SPEAKER_02Oh, you're gonna love it. I promise you, you're gonna love it, and so will everybody else. We're really excited to bring it out.
Florida Theatre More March Shows
SPEAKER_01Awesome. Well, tickets are available at Floridatheater.com. It's Wednesday, March 11th. The Brock's Wanderers. Thank you guys so much for your time this morning. Safe travels.
SPEAKER_02Thanks so much for having us on, Amadeus. Really appreciate you, man.
The Orchestra Featuring ELO Members
SPEAKER_01Also coming to the Florida Theater, Theo Vaughn for two nights, March 13th and 14th. Pat Matheny, March 17th, and Who's Live anyway on March 19th. Now, sandwiched in between Pat Matheny and Who's Live is the Orchestra, starring former members of ELO and ELO Part 2. I recently had a chance to chat with Eric Troyer from the Orchestra, and here's a bit of our conversation.
SPEAKER_00Well, we're really excited to be there. We've done a bunch of shows there at the Florida Theater, and we love Jacksonville. I mean, uh who who who doesn't? But um, so it's gonna be a great show. We, you know, this the the orchestra players that we work with are fantastic, and you know, it's a long day because we rehearse with them and then we do the show, so it's almost like we do two shows in the whole in, you know, in one day. Whenever we get a chance, we love to play with symphonic players. I mean, it's just it's such a gas.
SPEAKER_01Hey, before we go any further, I read that you uh played on the Footloose soundtrack. It's like all-time number one favorite soundtrack outside of anything Prince did.
SPEAKER_00Can you tell me what you did uh on that? Well, um I believe Holdin' Out for Hero is the uh a tune that I did with. It's a Stein uh Jim Steinman tune. And um, I worked a lot with Jim Steinman back in the day. And um, yeah, so we uh we did that's I think that's from Footloose, isn't it? Yeah. Yeah, yeah. That was a Bonnie Tyler song on Footloose. That's Bonnie Tyler, yeah, that's that was on that. Yeah. Um yeah, that's that's the only thing I had to do with uh Footloof, but uh it was that song has lived on too. It's got a life of its own.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've I heard it recently in a commercial for something.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, probably I don't know, there's one of those gambling apps that usually.
SPEAKER_01Is it like every time you hear it, you're like cha-ching, cha-ching, cha-ching? Yeah. Uh yeah, actually. It's funny you mentioned Steinman because I was telling your wife yesterday, she's like, I'm trying to imagine what Amadeus looks like, and I said, picture Meatloaf with a crew cut.
SPEAKER_00Oh my god. He ended up with a crew cut um after you know, later in his career. I worked uh I worked a lot with Meatloaf too, did touring with him and uh do European tour once with him, worked with him in the studio. Uh I could tell stories, oh my god, lots of stories.
SPEAKER_01I'm sure you could. I saw recently his band is touring with this kid, Caleb Johnson from American Idol, and they do um kind of the Bad Out of Hell um show. And uh man, just that music alone and the memories you go down when you s when you hear that band. That's for sure, yeah. Speaking of which, let's talk about uh the songs that the orchestra plays on their show.
ELO Legacy, Covers, And Production
SPEAKER_00We've been I've been doing this for for thirty-some years. I started ELO part two with Dev Bevan and a host of other uh original ELO members. And then gradually through the years they've kind of filtered away and I've kept going. We we have uh uh an ELO original member, uh Dave Scott Morgan, he's playing with us now. And um, you know, we've been carrying the music, we've been carrying the torch for a long time. Uh now there's uh every other band plays, you know, ELO music, but you know, we feel like we were, you know, kind of um an offshoot of Electric Light Orchestra way back in the day when we started ELO Part Two. And it's you know, we've sort of uh gradually um evolved into what we are now, the orchestra uh starring ELO and ELO Part Two former members. So, you know, we feel like we're carrying the torch. We try to recreate the music as faithfully as possible and and have a really good time while we're doing it. And we put on a spectacular show. Um we don't just stand there and uh, you know, with a wig on and uh classes. Um, you know, like a lot of these bands do, we're interpreting the music, it's joyful music, and we're we're a joyful band. We're band of brothers, and we actually have a a female violin player who's incredible. And um, you know, we put on we're we put on a a night of entertainment. We have a video show that goes with it too. So please the uh symphony uh players and the video show and uh you know what we do, it's like it's amazing.
SPEAKER_01You mentioned other artists recording ELO's songs. Durand Duran recently leaned into a bunch of uh Halloween themed songs, and they covered uh Evil Woman for the re-release of their latest album, and man was it good. You you don't you don't realize the connection that ELO made with all these other artists until you hear those artists perform those songs and then there's this thread. You're like, oh, I get it now.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and some of the interpretations are really good. It's always kind of fun to uh you know hear it done in a different way. We're we're trying to really play it like originally was. I mean, nobody sounds like Jeff Lynn, so um we don't try to imitate his voice, but we try to fill out, you know, do the harmonies and um create a a lot of all the vocal textures that um you you wouldn't you know would normally hear on an ELO record.
SPEAKER_01Well, you mentioned Jeff Lynn. I think uh Xanadu is one of my favorite soundtracks as well as Footloose, just because of the work that he did on that. Just the harmonies, the the production, the things that he got away with musically are amazing on that album. That's a great album.
SPEAKER_00That was really hit at a time when the technology had had kind of a leap forward. And um so yeah, you're right. There's a lot of really cool stuff on there. And um they they did a lot of playing around with cool new toys in the studio at the time.
SPEAKER_01I put Jeff in the same category with like there was the Beatles and the Beach Boys, Phil Spector, and then Jeff Lynn. Like just took everything to that next level.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, he really he was a great producer and uh amazing songwriter. Yeah, so we're trying to recall those days when you first heard those songs, you know, and the emotional attachment you get from from remembering those songs. It and that's why we try to play them as true as possible.
SPEAKER_01Well, we are looking forward to seeing the orchestra starring former members of ELO and ELO Part 2, Wednesday, March 18th at the Florida Theater. Tickets are on sale now at Floridatheater.com. Eric, thank you so much for your time today. Thank you for uh helping us out here. The orchestra will be at the Florida Theater on Wednesday, March 18th. Tickets for all these shows are available at Florida Theater.com. All right, that's gonna do it for this episode. I'll drop another one as we get closer to April with any newly announced shows to keep you on top of what's happening live from Jacksonville.