2018 Gasparilla Music Festival Review: The Roots, Warpaint, Spoon and more rock downtown Tampa

There’s a comment on one of CL’s Gasparilla Music Festival (GMF) social posts that points out the disproportionate amount of hip-hop artists on the bill, and it’s a fair criticism. Of the just about 50 acts slated to perform over the weekend, just three could easily be categorized as rap. From a distance, it seems puzzling when you consider GMF’s hyper-eclectic nature and the fact that hip-hop seems to be outpacing rock and roll as the genre of choice for music fans.

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THE ONLY PHOTO THAT MATTERS

But that’s not to say to that GMF hasn’t had its fair share of historic hip-hop moments. Ghostface Killah, Talib Kweli and RJD2 have all rocked epic Kiley Garden sets that rivaled anything happening on the main stage. Locals like Queen Of Ex, Jinx and Dynasty have all blown audiences away with unforgettable sets at the intimate amphitheater stage. And yesterday, for day one of GMF’s 2018 edition Chali 2na of Jurassic 5 continued the tradition when he joined New Orleans funk unit Naughty Professor to rock a set under the rainclouds. So yeah, in 2018 Mr. 2na and Tampa’s own Sam E Hues made up two-thirds of GMF’s hip-hop offerings, but rap music finally arrived on GMF’s mainstage on Saturday.

And it was glorious.

‘Illadelph Halflife arrived in 1996 as the second major-label release for the then-still-on-the-way-to-being-legendary Roots crew. The effort featured Dice Raw, Raphael Saadiq, Common, D’Angelo, Ursula Rucker and Q-Tip on many of its 20 tracks. The record was a game-changer for the band and fully-flexed the group’s knack for composition without abandoning the deep-thinking that frontman Black Thought, Questlove & Co. introduced on 1995’s Do You Want More?!!!??!.

Last night — underneath a rain-washed sky, illuminated by the lights of downtown Tampa and the adjacent Museum of Art — Black Thought unleashed bars from Halflife highlight “Clones.” The track is dense, and Black Thought’s verse uses the mic to slap your face and unleashes what the emcee calls a dominant lyrical grace from a place called wild Illadelph Isle Pensy. Hearing the Roots crew — a unit that now gets beamed into American households nightly thanks to a gig on Jimmy Fallon’s late-night talk show — was surreal.

Sure, The Roots (who could be called America’s greatest party band) turned in some recognizable hits (Guns N’ Roses’ “Sweet Child O’Mine,”) to go along with covers of Bobby Byrd (set opener “I Know You Got Soul”), Kool and the Gang (“Jungle Boogie) and Curtis Mayfield (“Move On Up”), but watching guitarist Capt. Kirk Douglas channel past GMF-headliner Erykah Badu on The Roots’ “You Got Me” (from 1999’s Things Fall Apart) felt like a watershed moment for GMF.

If it wasn’t obvious, then a pair sampler solos made it perfectly clear. Stro Elliot delivered the Miami bassiest-performance the park has ever seen, and Jeremy Ellis broke things wide open with a jaw-dropping solo that showed Curtis Hixon why he’s referred to as the Jimi Hendrix of the Sampler.

It was powerful, and The Roots’ 90-minute set was a damn near perfect mix of familiar tunes and real hip-hop. There’s no telling what hip-hop as a genre can accomplish in 2018, and we’re still a year away from the next iteration of GMF, but let’s just say that Black Thought & the Roots crew just changed the game for the downtown festival.

See more highlights from day — including a photo gallery — below.

 

UNDERHILL FAMILY ORCHESTRA UNDERMINING OUR PLANS

I have no plan, that’s the plan. I kept wanting to make a plan and reminding myself, “there is no plan. Just go with the damn flow, Stevenson.” The first sounds that caught my ear were Alabama’s Underhill Family Orchestra. Four-part harmonies, folks. Four-part harmonies! This band has this gorgeous, spiritual but not preachy, Appalachian-mountains take-me home thing going on. It’s beautiful music, spit-fired and raw. I especially dug the backwoods clang of this square tambourine rack thing-ma-jig the front woman played with gusto. Boot-tapping music with gritty-pulse, echoing across the river. —Arielle Stevenson

THE BILLY STRINGS SPECTACULAR

I had this feeling I was gonna fall in love with Billy Strings. I didn’t listen to his music before the festival, I wanted it to be special…I was right to do so. Holy hell that’s some big country vocals bellowing out a compact frontman! And shoot if the whole band isn’t a string picking, guitar-pedal-meddling bunch of dreamy mountain boys. Soul-shaking Southern rock and country are alive and well here, and thankfully without any of the confederate son bullshit. Throw in some well-educated folk and it's a goddamn party y’all. Banjo, mandolin, upright bass, and guitar all working seamlessly and in tandem. This music is typically played by old man winter looking fellas at a backyard hog roast somewhere; these are some young good-lookin’ dudes who can really play. I loved the long drawn-out jams, pulsing but sparsely populated by tripping outputs from Strings’ guitar and the occasional shredding onslaught. Billy Strings is the real deal; a Converse cowboy. Is it possible for Bluegrass to get heavy, like heavy? I think so. —AS

CORY HENRY WASHING OUR SOULS WITH THE FUNK

Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles will scrub your soul clean. I was drawn into their show by Henry’s vocalists Denise and Tiffany, their voices carrying over the festival space like soul angels on high. Clouds rolling in on the edge of Tampa, the sounds they evoked were downright biblical.  I’m half-convinced Tiffany summoned rain to start with the ilk of her voice, which moved effortlessly and with force. Denise reminded me of a young and brash Sharon Jones, all soul-crushing growling and guttural vocal power. Plus, her dance moves were undeniable. When I wasn’t crushing on the singers, I was in awe of Henry’s command over the stage. Part Curtis Mayfield, part Stevie Wonder and dash of something else that is entirely his own. Henry doesn’t shy away from the unrest of our current climate, his words are a call to action and his music is a cry for unity. A particularly moving cover of “Rolling on the River,” poured over the crowd like honey. The bass player laid into thick callbacks for Henry to converse with via the keys, ending with Henry dancing across the stage until his beanie and glasses flew off into the city. Things are scary right now, music matters in these times. Henry is one of the musicians making the kind of music that helps movements mobilize or at least acknowledges the pain. It’s funkier and deeper, and all roots. Good Lord do not underestimate the power of an organ onstage; it’s downright evocative. —AS

TEARS FROM HEAVEN

I’m all about gray festival days. It means we stay cooler, and it tricks my brain into thinking that I can have extra beer since I’m not getting dehydrated (fake news). Leave it to Mt. Zion Baptist Choir, however, to bring out the sun. The St. Pete-based collective’s festival-opening set is a tradition now in its seventh year, and I can’t wait for the day when the rest of the city figures out that getting your face blasted by gospel is a spiritually cleansing, sorta-tear-inducing experience. —Ray Roa

SERIOUSLY, TEARS FROM HEAVEN

Gray skies did return to GMF on Saturday afternoon, and they brought Warpaint along for the ride. To call the Los Angeles band's set moody would've been an understatement. The minarets at the old Tampa Bay Hotel have never looked more nefarious than they did on Saturday as Warpaint — especially drummer Stella Mozgawa and bassist Jenny Lee Lindberg — laid down layers of guitar wash ("Keep It Healthy"), off-kilter melodies and harmonies that made the rain droplets feel like a straight-up soul-cleansing. —RR

SEEING BRITT FROM SPOON, AND THEN SEEING SPOON

Spoon frontman Britt Daniel made his way out into the crowd to watch a few moments of Warpaint's set, but getting to see him lead the Texas indie rock outfit on the Curtis Hixon Stage felt like quite the achievement for Tampa — which was not lost on Daniel himself. "This is quite the lineup," Daniel — who last brought Spoon to town for a scorching summertime club show last year — said. "It's a thrill to play with Warpaint, and we've got the Roots coming on after us." Sure, Britt, but the way you strutted and stalked that stage while Alex Fischel, Gerardo Larios and Jim Eno gave songs like "Hot Thoughts" and "Do I Have To Talk You Into It" new life made for one of the best sets that festival has ever seen. —RR

FR33DBACK SINGING IN THE RAIN

Rain, rain and rain. It was the story of the day (it was a sprinkle compared to normal Sunshine State deluges, but it was the wettest GMF that I can remember). You know who didn't give a damn though? Fr33dback. The Tampa producer totally left his very expensive toys out in the rain and enjoyed the hell out of his set of glitchy future sounds. And to close it all out? A flipped around version of Ace of Base's "I Saw The Sign," which a smiling amphitheater crowd was happy to sing along to. —RR

THE LOCALS

Saturday, and the entire fest in a way, really belonged to the local. GMF connects a new wave of local artists to local music fans each and every year, and if attendees follow their rock and roll (Johnny Mile & the Kilometers, Ries Brothers), pop (Ella Jet — shoutout Levie For with the phat keyboard sounds), rap (Sam E Hues), soul (C-Rena) and world-travellin' (Acho Brother), hearts then they're guaranteed to have a host of new, homegrown bands to love for as long as they live here.

See a full gallery of shots from the first day of Gasparilla Music Festival below.