Tampa neighborhoods like Tampa Heights, Riverside Heights and Seminole Heights are more-or-less known as areas of rapid gentrification where community gardens, yoga classes (not the nude kind) and the latest Ampersand & Ampersand brick and mortars are starting to outnumber blighted mini-marts and houses. Still, it doesn’t have to be all beard oil and Kenyan pourover coffee.
On Friday and Saturday, the Heights (Riverside and Seminole) are going to get really noisy when Miami invades Tampa Bay for a pair of shows at Steelworker Records and the American Legion Post 111. Check out our preview below, and extra thanks if you landed here after reading our new issue.
Erratix w/Sloth/Pain Appendix/APOC SIREN/Swamp Squallter Erratix, a South Florida industrial noise outfit, will headline the Friday show; the band’s songs range from bemusing, quiet reflections (“Intestinal Extremism”) to abrasive, almost droning exercises in sampling and nearly sub-sonic bass (“No Tolerance”).
Sloth, formerly from Ohio, now call the Tampa Bay area home, and their brand of black noise is a little more straightforward. Two brand new releases (“Baby dick-head-the bowling pin squirrel” and “aaaarrrrgggghhhh!!!!”) each clock in at well over 10 minutes long, and explore different singular, static tones. Pain Appendix, who arrive from Port St. Lucie, unleash the brutality on their latest (Degenerescence — released on New Years Day and available online for $6.66), where feedback, guttural squelches and deep, harmonic dissonance all clash for a strangely enjoyable 28-minute experience. (Jan. 13, Steelworker Records, 708 W. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd., Tampa) INFO
Caveman Cult w/Grave Ascension/Shot/Spit Bad /Bad Human Three years after CL gave it a Best of the Bay (“I Can’t Believe I’m Drinking Here"), the American Legion Post 111 still stands as one of the most unassuming places to grab a strong, cheap beverage. On Saturday, the venue (which still hosts Johnny Charro’s dance party every Thursday) goes aggro when Vivid Circle Productions and Wohrt Recs team up for a show headlined by Magic City barbarians Caveman Cult, who’ve weaved together half an hour of ballistic, balls-out death metal for their Savage War is Destiny LP (streaming below) released in May. Rick Smith (who's been in lineups for Torche, Mehkago and Shitstorm amongst others) is the Caveman behind the drums, which should be enough to get metalheads of all stripes out to the show.
Tampa’s own SHOT are one of the more melodic bands, along with powerviolence duo Bad Human. Doors for the show open at 8 p.m., but you can get there at 5:30 p.m. EST for the fish fry. Donations will be collected so Caveman Cult can literally keep some gas in the tank. (Jan. 14, American Legion Post 111, 6918. N. Florida Ave., Tampa) INFO
This article appears in Jan 12-19, 2017.