Tampa Calling

Metal Monday came early this week with Sunday evening’s show at Czar’s Imperial Palace featuring Torche, House of Lightning and Averkiou. Death Metal, one of Tampa’s more unqiue claims to fame, has influenced a plethora of subgenres including the hardcore scene I grew up in. It was awesome to see how many old school hardcore kids made it out on a Sunday night along with a whole new group of metal afficiandos.

Torche

Hailing from Miami, Torche has a rabid fan base hooked on their unique sound – part thrash with a twist of melodic hardcore, and dare I say a bit of twang, all against a solid metal foundation. Decibel Magazine called Torche’s music a “whole new beast built from the DNA up.” Ever since Torche’s Meanderthal (Hydrahead Records) took the No. 1 spot on Decibel’s 2008 Top 40 Extreme Albums list, the band’s fan base has rapidly expanded. Thankfully, their intensity remains intact. (MORE PICS AFTER THE JUMP) Read the rest of this entry »

Pedals on our Pirate Ships finally sailed into Tampa on July 21! Which explains how I found myself out late on a Tuesday work night at Transitions Art Gallery to see Pedals on our Pirate Ships (Richmond), The Wild (Atlanta) and Regular Size People Fight (Tampa).

Pedals on our Pirate Ships

My friend Jeff made me some mix CDs last winter and the song that immediately caught my attention was “Peter Pan Syndrome,” with its chorus “Will you be my Wendy? Will you be my Tinkerbell? / Don’t be silly you can be my Tiger Lily still” and lines like “We don’t have goals but we have lots of fun” and “but secretly we all miss our mothers, we seek security in the arms of lovers.” When I couldn’t get the song out of my head, I looked up the band with a peculiar name, Pedals on our Pirate Ships, listened to the rest of the songs posted on their Myspace page, and was hooked.

Hailing from Richmond, VA, these folk punk rockers play extremely fun and catchy tunes with just a tinge of introspection. In “Reinventing Bryan Adams” Matt belts out “Why do they call it goodbye, doesn’t feel so good to me, why don’t we call a spade a spade, say what we really mean… look me in the eye and say loving you is fucking killing me” At the show, a small but enthusiastic crowd sang along at the top of their lungs to the crowd favorites, including “Peter Pan Syndrome” and “Night of the Living Wage.” Read the rest of this entry »

WMNF’s 4th Annual Americana Fest at Skipper’s Smokehouse went off without a hitch this past Saturday, July 11, a hand clappin’, boot stompin’ good time that showcased the vast array of talent in Florida’s Americana scene.

Have Gun, Will Travel

Originally masterminded by Ted Lukas, Americana Fest is all grown up. This year featured ten outstanding Florida Americana bands: Ted Lukas & the Misled, Will Quinlan & the Diviners, Have Gun, Will Travel, Thomas Wynn & the Believers, Nervous Turkey, Black Finger, Roppongi’s Ace, Mike Dunn & the Kings of New England, Matt Butcher and The Nine Volts plus a national headliner: Blue Mountain. Read the rest of this entry »

In three short years, the Reax/ThxMgmt Hot Dog Show has established itself as a must-attend event of the summer, providing a great opportunity to see a diverse group of bands, catch up with old friends, make some new ones, and of course, witness a hot dog-eating contest. This year, the Hot Dog Show took place on Friday, July 3, at Crowbar. I arrived just in time to see the first female victory in the hot dog eating contest (sorry – I didn’t catch her name!), which was followed by an animated performance by Bealsville/Plant City-based Shunda K of Yo Majesty! Bringing the evening to a dance party conclusion was Sunbears! (Jacksonville).

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Down the street from The Hold Steady at The Ritz on July 2, 2009, New Granada presented a night of local Florida musicians at New World Brewery including King of Spain, Will Quinlan & The Diviners, and Mike Dunn & The Kings of New England.

King of Spain

Alas, I only caught the last two songs but they were the artfully crafted electro-folk songs that are now synonymous with Matt Slate.

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“There’s so much joy in what we do up here…” Craig Finn of The Hold Steady exclaimed to fans near the end of their set at The Ritz on July 2, 2009, “…we are all the Hold Steady!“

The joy rang loud and proud throughout their set. Fans of The Hold Steady don’t just come and watch the band — they participate and follow along with the band antics.

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A rainy evening in Tampa couldn’t put out the metal fire at the Brass Mug on Wednesday, July 1. I caught the last two bands of the evening, Seventh Rule Records labelmates Light Yourself on Fire (Tampa) and Wetnurse (NYC).

Light Yourself on Fire Read the rest of this entry »

A band of Florida traveling bards and minstrels aka the Citrus Circuit Tour made a stop at New World Brewery on Saturday, featuring Lake Worth’s Truckstop Coffee, Daytona’s Lauris Vidal, Gainesville’s The Takers and Bradento-based Have Gun, Will Travel.

Have Gun, Will Travel

With three new songs and a Tom Petty cover, Have Gun, Will Travel (HGWT) continues to innovate at each show. Accordingly, HGWT’s set had New World Brewery dancing up a storm and singing their hearts out to old favorites like “When We Were Kings” and “Blessing and a Curse” (affectionately know by fans as “Bop Ba Da” after the chorus that stays in your head all the way home). Read the rest of this entry »

A delightful and talented band of troubadours, Cory Branan, Jon Snodgrass (of Drag the River/Armchair Martian) and Joey Cape (of Lagwagon), stopped in at New World Brewery on a balmy Thursday evening last June 25. The concept behind this tour was to get these three alt-country musicians together on a stage and see what happens in a casual format, kinda like the Revival Tour.

Jon Snodgrass and Cory Branan (pictured above) kicked off the festivities by alternating songs and occasionally performing duets – check out “Born Apart.” The audience enthusiastically joined in on their performance, singing along to their favorite tunes like Sondgrass’ “Song for Gibson” and Branan’s “Prettiest Waitress In Memphis.” (MORE PICS AFTER THE JUMP.) Read the rest of this entry »

Frodus Conglomerate International (1993-1999) resurrected on June 18, 2009 at Redlight Redlight, Orlando, FL, continuing what has been an outstanding ’90s hardcore reunion year (most recently the unbroken/split lip reunion at burning fight). Supporting the resurrection was Tampa’s Guiltmaker and Orlando’s Hurrah.

Frodus Read the rest of this entry »

Pontiak galloped into New World Brewery this past Thursday, June 11, the exceptional headliner of History’s last show in Tampa supported by King of Spain and Glasgow. Another splendid Thx Mgmt show – thanks Joe.

Pontiak

To get the downlow on Pontiak, check out Eric Snider’s interview with the brothers who make up this band. Live, Pontiak delivers a constantly evolving performance, its members switching instruments (who doesn’t love the impact of double drum sets?) and keeping even the most jaded scenester interested. These mistral brothers are a talented family garnering positive media attention from sources as diverse as Pitchfork and Wired. Read the rest of this entry »

Thx Mgmt brought an all-star Florida rock n’ roll show to New World Brewery last Friday, June 5, featuring Tampa darlings The Beauvilles, Orlando-based Thomas Wynn & The Believers and Jacksonville’s Shawn Fisher & The Jukebox Gypsies. The master plan was a mini-weekend tour with stops at each of the bands’ hometowns while rotating the headliner spot and introducing the out-of-town bands to new audiences. A grand idea!

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Ed Lowery and friends (which includes the Tampa Two Stroke Scooter Club) threw a benefit concert in support of Mike Formato, a friend injured in a serious scooter accident, at New World Brewery this past Saturday May 30. It was a eclectic evening of music featuring sets by Magadog, Light Yourself on Fire and The Boozers.

Magadog

Magadog is the band that introduced me to ska at the tender age of 16, opening up a parallel universe to the SXE/hardcore scene. When I moved to DC for college, I was surprised to find that the hardcore and ska scenes didn’t interact in any purposeful way like they do here in Tampa. When Magadog broke up, it was very sad … my friends and I had so much fun through the years with them at shows with Checkered Cabs, Skavoovie and The Epitones, The Toasters, The Pietasters and many others. When Magadog reformed in 2007, we were psyched to have them back and so far, we haven’t been disappointed! With one new record out, Sunrise…, and another on the way, Ybor City, Magadog is firmly back in the skank of things. Saturday evening’s performance had the crowd skanking the night away… who doesn’t love a little skaerobics? Read the rest of this entry »

City of Ships sailed into Ybor City last Friday, May 29, and headlined a New Granada Show at New World Brewery with Tampa favorites Guiltmaker and Gainesville-based Liquid Limbs.

City of Ships

Currently hailing from Richmond, Va., City of Ships produces a unique brand of heavy yet clever post-hardcore rock. Live, the band delivers a mega sound that is LOUD … the last time my ears felt like this (i.e., as if they were bleeding) was after a Deadguy/108 show in the mid-’90s. With long hair, and some strategic fan placement, the headbanging was ON. But to call City of Ships a headbanging rock band means you are missing the point. Their music is complex and incorporates a variety of musical influences all rolled up in a unique package. They are one of the few bands that you love listening to both on disc and live. City of Ships has a new record due out on July 21, 2009, Look What God Did To Us (Translation Loss Records), and they are touring extensively this summer across the US and Europe. In the meantime, check out their myspace page for teaser songs. Read the rest of this entry »

WMNF’s 2009 Tropical Heatwave managed to be a scorcher in spite of torrential downpours. The best thing about Heatwave is the ability to see a wide variety of genres in one evening in close proximity. I managed to catch 10 bands this year on 5 stages: The Beauvilles, David Dondero, James Intveld, Johnny Cakes & The Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso, Kinobe & Soul Beat Africa, Magadog, Modern Skirts, Will Quinlan & The Diviners, Roppongi’s Ace and Thomas Wynn & The Believers.

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Thx Mgmt hosted yet another fine show this past Wednesday, May 6 — Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit with Red Cortez at Crowbar.

One thing is certain: Americana fans are a committed group. From the moment the music started, the outside patio emptied, people practically sprinting inside. The audience actually watched Red Cortez, unusual for a relatively unknown opening act. As soon as Jason Isbell & The 400 Unit started setting up, people rushed the stage so they could be assured a spot up front. Read the rest of this entry »

Nostalgia is a powerful emotion that drives you to do things like spend hours looking up people you haven’t spoken to for 20 years on Facebook, or periodically dust off your yearbook to page through notations ranging from sentimental to inane. For those of us growing up in the hardcore straightedge music scene, nostalgia makes us do things like fly to Chicago for an Unbroken reunion.

The Unbroken reunion was the main event of the Burning Fight music fest held in Chicago at The Metro, May 2-3, featuring 22 hardcore bands as well as a pre-show at the Subterranean on May 1. Burning Fight was first conceived as a celebration of the publishing of Brian Peterson’s new book, Burning Fight: The Nineties Hardcore Revolution in Ethics, Politics, Spirit, and Sound. Norm Arenas had a similar concept when he published his own book, Anti-Matter Anthology, and hosted two Snapcase reunion shows in New York (also featuring 108, Triple Threat and Supertouch). A testament to how hardcore/straightedge scenes work, both shows were benefits: the Anti-Matter shows raised funds for Cal Robbins, the sick son of rock artist J. Robbins, while the Burning Fight shows benefited Rock for Reading and PAWS Chicago. Read the rest of this entry »

Saturday found a distilled presence at New World Brewery!

Whiskey & Co. headlined a fine evening of Americana along with Will Quinlan & The Diviners and Matt Butcher this past Saturday, April 25. The show was hosted by Thx Mgmt. (More pics and info about the show after the jump.) Read the rest of this entry »

Dead Confederate headlined an eclectic evening of psychedelic, experimental electronica, soul and straight up rock this past Friday, April 24, at Crowbar in Ybor City with support by The Future on Films in Space, The Beauvilles and Palantine.

Dead Confederate, which hails from Athens, Ga., is hard to describe … their stage set-up suggests metal while their stage presence more like grunge, but the music itself is decidedly clever. The Onion suggests that Dead Confederate is forging a new genre of music … check them out and decide for yourself! Read the rest of this entry »

Austin-by-way-of-Orlando’s New Roman Times were on their best game this past Saturday, April 18, at New World Brewery as they celebrated the release of their full-length, On The Sleeve, on New Granada Records. Frequently compared with indie greats like The Pixies, Versus and Sonic Youth, NRT successfully fuses quality songwriting with dance-worthy guitar-driven rock ‘n’ roll.

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I admit it that I start too many blogs lamenting about why it is that there are no shows (that I want to see, at least) for days/week/months and then there are several competing shows the same night …

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It’s not every day we’re lucky enough to see a veritable folk legend at New World Brewery — especially not one with a career as illustrious as Country Hall of Famer Charlie Louvin. On Friday, Mr. Louvin and his band graced New World Brewery with a special performance. At 82, Mr. Louvin tours regularly, releases new records and continues to inspire a new generation of musicians. He effortlessly connects with an all-ages audience by weaving stories and running commentary in between songs in a manner that most musicians can’t even dream of pulling off. Most of us can only dream of being this cool at any point in our lives — let alone at 82.

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Lucero played a long, raucous set Friday night at New World Brewery, plowing steadfastly through their extensive catalog while managing to thoroughly engage a sold-out audience. Lucero’s regular band members are Roy Berry (drums), Ben Nichols (vocals/guitar), John C. Stubblefield (bass) and Brian Venable (guitar). On this tour, they are joined by Todd Beene (pedal steel) and Rick Steff (keyboard/accordion).

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The Cigar City Tattoo Convention took over Ybor City’s Cuban Club this past weekend and brought much more than tattoos, including some special musical guests. Friday night’s lineup included Drag The River, Joey Cape, Whiskey & Co, Tim Version and Nessie. Murphy’s Law meant there was also a great show at New World Brewery featuring Life of Pi, Military Junior and Blast and The Detergents. I bounced back and forth between the venues and captured some fun moments. Links to complete photo sets are at the bottom of the post.

Nessie at The Cuban Club

Nessie is Joey Neill (bass/vocals), Joe Going (drums) & Scott Harrell (vocals/guitar)

Tim Version at The Cuban Club

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Though a naturally occurring gas, radon in the building world can be a big problem.  Luckily in the music world, recurrent Radon means rejoicing.  Radon version 1.0 was a stalwart of the Florida scene in the ’90s.  Since reforming they have put out a new album on No Idea Records and have been out playing shows in support. Sadly, this was my first time catching them since the reformation. On Saturday, December 27, Transitions Art Gallery was packed to welcome Radon back to Tampa and enjoy the opening acts. Alas, I only managed to catch Lemuria briefly before Radon took the stage.

Lemuria

Lemuria might just be my new favorite band of the minute. Hailing from Buffalo, NY, the trio creates an irresistible indie pop akin to [insert references to '90s indie bands here] but with their own unique twist.  In summary, Lemuria is just plain fun.

Lemuria = Sheena Ozzella – Guitar / Vocals, Alexander Kerns – Drums / Vocals & Jason Draper – Bass

Clapping along to Lemuria

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Have Gun, Will Travel performing at New World Brewery Sat., Dec. 27.

After the Radon show , I skedaddled over to New World Brewery just in time to catch Have Gun, Will Travel in another fine Thx Mgmt-hosted bill. HGWT is consistently one of my favorite live acts because they continue to innovate each time I see them with fresh improvisations on their material and inevitably a new song or two. Read the rest of this entry »

In Commonwealth countries, the day after Christmas is known as Boxing Day or St. Stephen’s Day, when everyone commonly gathered together and celebrated in various ways. (When I lived in Dublin, Ireland, I got to see Mummers perform on the post-holiday holiday.)  Sadly, in Tampa, we don’t have Mummers but thanks to THX MGMT, we were treated to a great night of local music featuring Geri X, Rec Center, Sons of Hippies, and The Actomatics. Read the rest of this entry »

Hankshaw & Friends

The annual New Granada Christmas Show at New World Brewery featuring King of Spain, Davey von Bohlen, Hankshaw and Jarvik 7 was a splendid night of reunions with a grand soundtrack.  The show has a reputation for unique elements (including in past years the reunions of Scrog, Pohgoh and appearances by elusive bands like The Blackwoods Orchestra) and it’s a place to meet up with friends from near and far.

King of Spain… Read the rest of this entry »

An otherwise ordinary Monday evening was transformed into a fantastic inferno of colors, costumes and characters at The Ritz featuring Of Montreal, Fiery Furnaces, and Fire Zuave. It was impressive how many people were in attendance given the competition with the Bucs game and it being a Monday.  Proof positive that the Tampa area has a plethora of indie music fans.

See photos after the break. Click here for Leilani’s in-depth review and killer video.
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After several days of family togetherness and gorging on Thanksgiving leftovers, Saturday evening at New World Brewery was a welcome respite brought to us by THX Mgmt.  The show featured a diverse group of Florida bands: Beardsley,  Incredible Crisis, Zillionaire, and Sunbears! I got there a bit late after being distracted playing trucks with my friend’s three year old so I missed Beardsley… but I did manage to capture the rest of the bands.

Incredible Crisis

This was my first time seeing this band and I look forward to seeing them again in the future.

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Let’s face it – Gainesville always does things a bit differently.  So it is no wonder that the celebration of Festivus (aka Fest 7) Gainesville style is actually the amalgamation of more than 250 bands over 3 days in 8 venues throughout Hogtown wrangled by Tony Weinbender (of No Idea Records) and friends.   In its seventh year, Fest has grown up to become a destination for people from all over the world to see the best in independent music.  Special thanks to Tony for continuing to put this event together each year.

Over the weekend (10.31.08 – 11.2.08), I managed to see a myriad of music genres and capture no less than 26 bands: A Wilhelm Scream, American Cheeseburger, Ampere, Asshole Parade, Atom & His Package, Bouncing Souls (pictured above), Bridge and Tunnel, Building The State, Chris Wollard & The Ship Thieves, City of Ships, Coalesce, Dillinger Four, Foundation, Have Gun, Will Travel, Japanther, The Menzingers, Paint it Black, Red Clay River, Rehasher, Strike Anywhere, The Takers, Tim Version, Triclops!, The Wading Girl, Whiskey & Co and Young Widows. Tampa Bay was well represented with lots of hometown heroes making it on the Fest schedule especially the Kiss of Death Records and ADD Records bands.

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Thursday was a busy night for the Tampa music scene with pre-Gainesville Fest shows taking place at New World Brewery, Crowbar, Transitions Art Gallery at SPOT and The Springs Theater… it was tough to choose just one show but Drag The River, Two Cow Garage, Nessie and Brahm Bones at New World Brewery won out.

Drag the River

Two Cow Garage

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Editor’s note: Pictures and text by Nicole Kibert.

Palantine’s Melee CD release party at New World Brewery in Ybor City on Sat., Oct. 18, proved a bit frightening (see haunting Halloween decorations).  Luckily, the evening did not turn into an actual melee, affray or fracas. Rather, it was a night filled with some of the best rock Tampa Bay has to offer.

The Gleaming Amoebas opened the show (sadly I missed their set – I heard they were good and really how could a band that mixes flamenco and indie rock not be?).

Next up, The Semis (Billy Summer, Matt Simmons, Don Butler and Cristian). The foursome delivered a high-energy set of rad hair metal and winningly dirty power pop!

As Palantine (live: Vinnie Cosentino, Brian Johnson and Jeff Fox) took the stage, people gathered around in expectation of a catchy, melodic-yet-guitar-heavy set.  As their MySpace suggests, the band is best enjoyed at full volume, and this act showed they were well worth the effort to make it out on a drizzling Saturday evening, even while the Tampa Bay Rays battled in the playoffs.

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A unique collaborative event transpired at the Orpheum to ring out September in style – an honest to goodness full on revival awakening the masses to the not so secret Americana wave. The Revival Tour featuring Chuck Ragan (Hot Water Music), Ben Nichols (Lucero) and Tim Barry (Avail; pictured left) along with friends Todd Beene (Glossary), Jon Gaunt (Whiskey & Co), Austin Lucas, Bob Lucas (Austin’s dad), and Digger Barnes proves that hardcore kids can evolve while staying true to hardcore ideals. Back in the 90s going to shows at The Stone Lounge, and later 403 Chaos, along with the Hardback in Gainesville and many other venues up and down the eastern seaboard, I often wondered what would happen to all us hardcore kids as we got older. Local music fans already knew it was possible having witnessed the successful evolution of The Chase Theory to Have Gun, Will Travel. The Revival Tour reaffirms that transition while enabling us to hear new music discussing the issues of our day – war, economic crisis, etc. from a critical vantage. In traditional revival fashion, once the music started it kept on rolling as the musicians tag teamed in and out through each others sets until the final farewells rang out.

During Tim Barry’s set, a microphone outage, provided a glimpse back to the hardcore days:

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Finale of Jeremy Gloff’s Rockopera for the release of “1987″

SoundFX: Live occurred Saturday evening at Crowbar featuring Jeremy Gloff, Giddy-Up, Helicopter! and Venus in Furs with inimitable sounds of the Crate Brothers and DJ Brian Oblivion. Jeremy Gloff celebrated the release of 1987 in what can only be accurately described as pop operatic format depicting the import of the 1980s on young Jeremy. For more sound stills of an all around pretty furry weekend, click to see the SoundFX Weekend Photo Collection.

Giddy-Up, Helicopter!

Venus in Furs