Autopsy IV and I spent this past Saturday, May 15, moseying up and down the streets of Ybor City, and taking in the sights and sounds of the 29th annual Tropical Heatwave. The following is a record of our separate Heatwave adventures paired with our Tweets and a slew of fab photos by Phil Bardi and Jeff O'Kelley. Enjoy!
LEILANI: I came, I saw, and over a period of nine hours, I conquered. While this was only my second Tropical Heatwave ever, I had it all figured out. See, Heatwave is all about sampling – it's a genre-crossing buffet of music that features national acts amid a selection of high-quality local fare. Try a band here, try a band there, and then it's off to the next and next and next. But even as you're scurrying, you know it's casual because chances are real good that 'MNF will bring back most of them again, so it's more a matter of catching said acts for long enough to figure out whether they're worth investing your time in the future. The local bands are an added bonus, since they play around town often enough that if you discover a few you like, you can drop in and see them at local music establishments all over town whenever you want. Mostly.
I manged to sample the offerings of a whopping 16 bands, some for only a minute or two, others for a few or several songs, but it still managed to feel like a musical feast.
TWEET: [3:15 p.m.] @Leilani79 These panel lights are blinding.
My day started at at the CL Space, where Creative Loafing and and Homemade Music Symposium had teamed up to present three Pre-Heat Music Industry Panels, at which local musicians were offered insight and advice from key players in the Bay area music scene. I took part in the Demo Listening Party with WMNF's Flee (WMNF), Husky Jon of 97X, and entertainment lawyer Kevin Astel, Esq., and basically, we listened to demo tracks by three local artists and offered our thoughts and creative criticism on both the recordings and how to better promote them.
Two artists were pre-selected, one chosen at random from the audience of musicians. First up was Johnny Cakes and the Four Horsemen of the Apocalypso (also a Heatwave performer), and they brought a high-energy ska-reggae track with lots of horns and rhythm changes. The next, Warlock-Z, provided a beat-heavy laptop electronica number he'd created specifically for a video game. The randomly-chosen artist from the audience ended up being Bobby Lee Rodgers, who wasn’t actually in attendance (his super fan showed up in his place), wasn’t actually from Florida (he’s based in Savannah, Ga., but was playing a few dates down here that weekend), and wasn’t really a struggling artist (I interviewed him a few years back when he was touring with Col. Bruce Hampton and The Codetalkers, and the song that was played for us came from his first already-released solo album). Yes, it was a little like being in a music editor's version of The Twilight Zone, since I've been a fan of Rodgers for years and the chosen song was barely recognizable as the the fiery jazz-country-swing-blues artist I knew.
Afterwards, I spent some time chatting with all those who'd attended, got CDs from the artists who didn't get the chance to have their songs picked apart, and after changing into heat-friendly clothes, I made myw ay into the press of people to catch Nervous Turkey and Jim Morey Band, and dropped into Orpheum to see the very tail end of Lauris Vidal and Andy Zipf, who jumped from stage to floor, sang at the top of their lungs while playing their acoustic guitars and skipping amidst the packed crowd, and vaulted back on stage for their finish.
AUTOPSY IV: Going into this year’s Heatwave, I kept saying that it was either a sad statement or a grand statement about the state of Tampa's local scene that most of the "must see" bands were homegrown. Now, after sampling Heatwave's offerings, I've decided that it's a grand and (mostly) accurate statement about the state of our local scene.
My day started early with Nervous Turkey opening the El Pasaje Plaza festivities. [Pictured right, photo by Phil.]
[4:19pm] @autopsy4: I'm at Tropical Heatwave w/@cl_streetteam @reaxmagazine @laughterkey.
[4:43pm] @autopsy4: Watching Nervous Turkey as Tropical Heatwave lives up to the name with a pronounced sweat ring on my shirt
[5:19pm] @autopsy4: This is the first show I've ever seen Ernie finish with his shirt on.
[5:23pm] @autopsy4: and there went the shirt
So, let's just address the big white elephant in the room. Word around town was that Heatwave was Nervous Turkey's final show. The band never officially announced this, and later that evening, I tried to get Ernie to tell me one way or the other, but he avoided the issue all together. Let's just hope it's all a rumor or that they work out whatever issues they may have and soldier on.
This article appears in May 13-19, 2010.