Tampa Calling

All photos by Mike Wilson.

“You guys are bringing it so hard, the power went out,” said lead singer Adam Lazarra of Taking Back Sunday (pictured) when, midway through their set at The Ritz in Ybor City, the power suddenly went out while the crowd continued singing the song to the beat of only the drums.

Needless to say, Taking Back Sunday, Anberlin and Envy on the Coast brought it, and brought it hard. Except for the bass being turned up way too loud, and occasional feedback interfering with a set, this show set the standard for alternative rock shows. (MORE PICS AFTER THE JUMP.)

It all started with the musical stylings of Envy on the Coast (EotC, pictured at bottom) from the same area as Taking Back Sunday, Long Island, New York. Everything from the dread-head lead singer to the fantastic incorporation of keyboards into the band’s mainly alterna-rock sound made this opening band an act to top, and who could expect anything less? The most suprising part of EotC’s set was during their last song, when Lazarra joined them on stage for the ending chorus. The energy of EotC set the mood for the rest of the show and even though everyone around me (myself included) complained about hurt feet from standing in line outside fbefore the show for over an hour, we all continued to jump up and down and scream all the words.

After about five or six songs, EotC left the stage and the crowd’s anticipation grew for Anberlin (frontman Stephen Christian pictured at left), a Tampa/St. Pete native band who’s made it big time. When Anberlin took the stage, the crowd went wild for one of their own, screaming the words,  jumping around, and elbowing the people that tried to confine them to a square foot of space. Anberlin ended their set with “Feel Good Drag,” a fan favorite (and mine!) and left the stage with the crowd begging for more.

TBS kicked off their show after about a 20-minute intermission, building suspense with eerie background music in the pitch dark. Finally the lights flashed and there he was, Lazarra in the flesh about five feet away from me. In his light Southern accent, he greeted the crwod, and then they were off. Throughout the set of around 15 songs, not one went by that the whole crowd didn’t know the words to. Even the lyrics to songs off their latest album, New Again (which hit shelves about two weeks ago) were yelled at the stage by adoring fans. When the band left the stage without a word towards the end of the show, the crowd was left wondering if they’d would return. As the crowd screamed “TBS” for what seemed like forever, the band finally reappeared and played two more songs, ending the night with “MakeDamnSure,” but unfortunately leaving out “Miami” which fans were screaming requests for throughout the show.

This was my second time seeing TBS in concert; the first was at Ford Ampitheatre and then, I was in the nose bleed lawn seats. If there was ever a place to see TBS, it was here, at The Ritz in Ybor, just intimate enough to feel like you really saw the band, but big enough to fit the hundreds of waiting fans.

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