The dance party was in full swing by the time we made it to the Ritz Theater in Ybor City a little after 11 p.m. last Saturday, October 10, right at the tail end of Thievery Corporation’s set. In fact, they launched into the last song as we threaded our way through the thick crowd of sweaty, blissfully writhing bodies. The place was packed, everyone seemed to be having a blast, and you could tell the adrenaline was still running on high when the band said their goodbyes. The cheers hadn't yet dissipated when Thievery Corporation returned to the stage for an encore. And then another. And then another. [All photos by Phil Bardi; bassist Ashish Vyas and singer Natalia Clavier pictured left]
There were a lot of players up there adding their own unique essences to the vibrant, driving worldtronica. DJ Rob Garza [pictured below, after the jump] provided the foundation, spinning mid-tempo backbeats on a raised platform behind a long, horizontal LED screen, at his back a huge rig with vertical lights that blasted different washes of bright color at key moments, and two vertical LED screens on either side of the rig, with all three of the LED screens displaying images and animations on their textured surfaces. (Eric Hilton, Garza's producer partner-in-crime, was absent when I got there, and I don’t know if I just missed him, but he never showed for the rest of the set.)
This article appears in Oct 8-14, 2009.