Spanish Needles, which plays Bayboro Brewing in St. Petersburg, Florida on May 31, 2024. Credit: Photo by Joey Clay

After a busy year for the melodic punk outfit that included a debut EP release, Anthony Ateek and friends wrap up the year at one of St. Pete’s favorite vinyl hotspot-slash concert venues.

“Heavy crust” outfit Headless State and its four-song demo EP Circle Pit Politics (which was recorded in one day) are on the bill, along with a debut show from Seems, a new supergroup featuring members of local outfits Liquid Pennies and Permanent Makeup.

Ahead of Spanish Needles’ last gig of 2024, Ateek told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay about the best gigs he ever saw, and while he enjoyed the types of music he was hearing, the selling point was more of how the bands and artists mentioned inspired him to evolve into a more approachable person.

Read his full quote below.

I am going to cheat a bit here and call it a three-way tie between Los Crudos at 403 Chaos; American Steel and Ann Beretta at Sound Idea Records; and Avail, Hot Water Music, and Radon at the Skate Park of Tampa. I’m sure there are others I could have mentioned instead, however, these three shows not only touch most of the sub-genres l love in the world of punk—hardcore, East Bay Punk, melodic punk, and pop-punk—but they also featured bands that are still near and dear to me to this day. The people in the bands were, and still are, approachable and kind, and while the approaches to songwriting might be different from one another, I took away a lot from these bands and in particular these shows. I would like to give a notable mention to the Dillinger Four and Panthro U.K. United 13 show at New World Brewery, but that’s a whole other ball of wax.—Anthony Ateek, Spanish Needles

Tickets to see Spanish Needles play St. Pete’s Bananas Music on Sunday, Dec. 8 will be sold at the door for $8.