Ripping across this massive country with my band Permanent Makeup, people in other towns want to know how we survive in Florida. Isn’t it all old people? Isn’t everyone crazy? Tampa? Isn’t all the music mid-tempo, chugging pop punk?
I always start out on the defensive, and my answers are always nuanced. Here’s my most consistent answer in a nutshell: Tampa Bay is a blank slate — it’s what you make it. We can be as creatively free as we want, and there are people who will support the bands doing their own thing and pushing boundaries. Like anything, there’s an ebb and flow to the amount of local DIY and touring bands coming through, but we make it work. The difficult thing about living in Florida is that we bulldoze our history, so every new generation that tries to make things happen feels like they are starting from scratch and building something from nothing.
Did you know there was a pizza shop on the south side of St. Pete that hosted shows in the early 90s? How about Slayer almost playing Astro Skate before the show was cancelled by concerned parents? Butthole Surfers played the Clearwater armory in 1989, too, but their set was cut short by a skinhead riot. Have you ever heard IMA, Home, or Assück? I wasn’t around for any of these things, but I am a student of history, so I learn and I feel less lonely knowing people have been trying to make cool stuff happen in this area for decades. These histories are small parts isolated and destroyed.
In my experience, it’s even difficult to hear about the cool stuff going on locally. Sprawl is our greatest enemy, but this is where we live. Sci-fi author William Gibson winks at us from 30 years ago as we scrounge the internet for hints about the next cool show with no central physical locations to find information. In September, I fortunately got the information to catch a terrific show in Tampa featuring locals Career and Drug. It was a crusher. Drug’s punchy but dark riffs and sounds provided the perfect opening for the overdriven bass-led onslaught of Career. Crazy rhythms, long forms, guitars bristling between shrapnel chaos and bright, concise expression with keyboard atmosphere all supported the "town crier" style poetic words. No booze at the show meant music was the reason and the reason crushed us all with intent and delivery.
So dig this big crux: Attending DIY shows is worth driving over the Howard Franklin Bridge. In St Petersburg, where I live, there are lots of cool events going on, but opening up my geographical options to include Tampa have enhanced my cultural life here. Find the cool stuff going on, carpool and allow a show to melt your face off.
Permanent Makeup comes home from tour on November 10 when they open for Mothers at New World Brewery in Ybor City. Details on the show are available at local.cltampa.com.
This article appears in Nov 10-17, 2016.