Ownership at The Bricks won’t talk to Creative Loafing Tampa Bay on the record about the details behind a COVID-19 scare that temporarily shut down the Ybor City favorite last year, but the restaurant is back hosting live music.
Promoter FWDthinkers—who, back in November told CL, “We cannot really comment on [the shutdown] as it was a Bricks operations matter…”—brings a trio led by Grammy-nominated hip-hop and jazz drummer Mike Mitchell (aka Blaque Dynamite) to the historic district, with quite the resume in tow.
Mitchell has collabed with Willow Smith and Talib Kweli and even sat in with Thundercat and Michael McDonald at Camp Flog Gnaw 2019 (warning: McDonald is beardless in the YouTube video, which is like when your dad shaved that one time when you were little and you still haven’t recovered). An absolutely stacked local lineup—Katara Trio, Gat$, Psych Montano and Shella Siddiq—plays support, and if you’re a huge music nerd, Mitchell will lead a 90-minute masterclass ahead of the gig.
Blaque Dynamite Trio/Katara Trio/Gat$/Psych Montano/Shella Siddiq. Sunday, March 7, 8 p.m. $15 ($65 includes masterclass plus show). The Bricks, Ybor City. fwdthinkersmusic.com
See a list of Tampa Bay’s “Safe & Sound” live music venues here.
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This article appears in Mar 4-10, 2021.