Tampa Calling

Sunday night rock ‘n’ roll shows: difficult to book, annoying to promote and hard to get people to leave their comfortable homes and come out for bands they may not have heard about. My band Blast and the Detergents last played a Sunday night show a couple months ago at Crowbar opening for amazing touring band, Pontiak, and “gets more Tampa shows than I do” Orlando band Kingsbury.

(Another band played and I can’t remember their name — kind of Hootie and the Blowfish-sounding singer songwritery stuff… not my bag).  Anyway, the show turned out great because the DJ played some really great classic punk and rock ‘n’ roll junk, Pontiak owned and I got to play, which I always enjoy regardless of crowd size or reception.

However, I always feel bad when I fail to deliver the promise of beer drinkers for these dive bars that put up with my crazy sound. Sundays, this memorable Crowbar night included, challenge the notion of profit for these beer holes.

On the other hand, touring band always need a place to play on Sundays, and with the notorious Atlanta tour cutoff we usually cry about down here, I am satisfied when a band I like plays any night of the week down this way in our chatty little twin cities.

Chapel Hill underground rockers Americans in France destroyed the Emerald last year (I think it was a Thursday) with one-man garage-rock  band Pinche Gringo (he covered The Gories, for Christ’s sake) and now they are returning to our fair sprawl. I am bringing them into bombed-out downtown Tampa’s little bar/venue Kelly’s Pub this Sunday, May 17 around 8 or 9 p.m.  (you know how these things go).

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In 2008, I tried to take pictures at almost every show I attended. It’s a daunting task. Sometimes the lighting sucks, you may get stuck far from the stage or some venues may not let you bring a camera in at all. But when all goes right, you can go home with some swell shots of the bands.

These are my photo highlights of the year. Click on any image to view as full size.

(For my favorite albums of 2008, just click here)

Neptune 3/19/08 @ New World Brewery

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Dumbwaiters, Woven and Kingsbury @ New World Brewery 11/22/08

On a rather chilly Saturday night, Tampa’s New Granada Presents put together a show like only they can. Orlando’s Kingsbury drove over to serve up a most excellent set of atmospheric rock. Woven, from Los Angeles, brought more effect pedals on tour than most bands would know what to do with. And last but not least, Tampa’s long-running and highly reclusive Dumbwaiters came out of hiding just long enough to remind us why they are (and have been) one of the area’s best bands.

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New World Brewery on a Saturday night boasts a healthy built in-crowd of conversationalists and music lovers.  Even with the threatening cold snap on the horizon and very little local media coverage, quite a few people made it out to support the local post-punk rock band Dumbwaiters and show promoter New Granada Presents.

With the audience drinking cold beer while huddling, humping or gyrating near conveniently located space heaters on the New World patio, I wondered how many people got drawn away from this local show to see the moldy blues rock of Johnny “I played at Woodstock” Winter at Jannus Landing or Guns N’ Roses’ heroes Nazareth crust rocking at the Largo Cultural Center.  Probably none, but our continued cultural emphasis on these old bohemoths roaming the lands and garnering top dollar for performances of contrived, dated music marketed for the sake of nostalgia gets under my skin…

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