Last weekend, on Raymond James Stadium grounds (not in the stadium itself, but one of the grass areas across the street), thousands of fans convened to enjoy the bands they remember from when they were an eyeliner-donning introvert in high school. It wasn’t even entirely about the music, either. Naturally, the name implies that baseball would also be a major factor, and boy, was it. Literal batting cages, former baseball players from Bernie Williams to Gary Sheffield making appearances, and fans, erm, sporting, the regalia of their favorite baseball teams. Surprisingly, most of the sports fans were in favor of the New York Mets or Philadelphia Phillies, as opposed to the so-called Yankees, which had a game right next door to RayJay on Sunday.
Oh, and a few times a day, former Chicago Cub Ryan Dempster would host former baseball players in a talk show-style manner, mainly to talk baseball and other interests.
This festival had it all: Three stages (Home Base, Left Field, and Right Field), $16 cheesesteaks, and two free hydration stations, much like the Florida Blue one seen at GMF last month. Then, of course, you had the hype behind the festival’s headliners, Green Day and the Lumineers—both of which had not been to Tampa since 2017.
Kicking things off musically speaking was New York City band We Are Scientists on Home Base, which dedicated “KIT” to Tom Brady. Over on the Right Field stage was Toronto-hailed all-female band The Beaches, declaring its love for the Blue Jays, and its desire to move to Florida, likely to get away from all that damned snow. And Wolf Alice—also on the Right Field stage—played more songs than “The X-Files” star David Duchovny would on the Home Base stage. Lead singer Ellie Roswell, clad in a pink dress, sat down onstage for “The Last Man on Earth.”
Jimmy Eat World was on the main stage for its first Tampa Bay appearance since a 2017 show at the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre, and I think a good chunk of fans forgot that along with “The Middle,” the band also penned “Sweetness,” another radio favorite. Incubus wasn’t bad, either, with lead singer Brandon Boyd banging the drum intro on “Megalomaniac,” just to be completely shirtless by the “Drive” finale. Over on right field, 311 was busy tearing it up while Home Base was rapidly filling up for Green Day’s impending, near-two-hour set.
“All my friends are gonna say ‘gay’ in Florida!” Frontman Billie Joe Armstrong replaced “American Idiot’s” “redneck agenda” line with. In his first concert since his 50th birthday, the bisexual frontman—who has iconically mellowed out with age—is immensely pissed about both the Don’t Say Gay bill, and the tragedies occurring in Ukraine. As a result, almost every song in the set had blue and yellow lights shine on the band for at least a few seconds. “We wanna tell the truth, we treat everyone equally! And tonight, we’re all gonna say ‘gay’ together, Florida!” Armstrong yelled during “Holiday.” The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame band’s setlist was more or less the same one from last summer’s U.S. leg of the Hella Mega Tour with Fall Out Boy and Weezer, excluding the additions of “Stuck With Me,” off of Insomniac, and “King For A Day,” which featured a “Careless Whisper” sax solo from touring multi-instrumentalist Jason Freese.
Sunday dawned in, and at 1:30, Liz Cooper and her band took the stage in front of maybe 100 fans tops. The grass still had Green Day confetti from the night before, but it was hard to look at your shoes when the Nashville musician was tearing up the Home Base stage. She did spend a whole lot of time on the ground, messing with her pedals, but when the “Hot Sass” finale rolled around, she attempted to throw cigarettes into the mouths of two of her bandmates, who mainly used it as a prop, while Liz actually lit hers up. “Thank you for joining us on this smoke break,” she closed with.
After an all-covers “All Star Baseball Jam” featuring Bernie Williams and more taking place on the Right Field stage—which was not a cringefest of people who know nothing about music—Neon Trees took the Home Base stage. “Is it cool with you guys if I say ‘gay?’” Absolute queen of a lead singer Tyler Glenn asked during the band’s “Moving in the Dark” opening. Glenn is back on his feet after having suffered a minor stroke in late 2020, and yet, his stage presence made it like nothing happened at all. “Is there a man touching my butt? I did not consent to this,” he joked as a roadie adjusted something in his back pocket. “Actually, I did. We had a whole conversation.” There was a surprise cover of “Don’t You Want Me” by The Human League, and of course, closing up was “Everybody Talks.”
Skip Marley would salute his grandfather with a number of Wailers covers on the Right Field stage, and he even ripped out his own solo works that were already well-received, including his collaborations with H.E.R. and Popcaan. O.A.R. threw playing cards into the crowd during “That Was A Crazy Game Of Poker,” which would actually continue to fly throughout the “Missing Pieces” finale. But it was Goo Goo Dolls that was the happiest to be in our presence. “COVID fucked me up. It made me mentally ill,” lead singer John Rzeznik admitted on the Right Field stage. “But this is making me sane!” Appropriately, black balloons bounced through the crowd during “Black Balloon,” all of the cell phone cameras came out during “Name,” and on “Broadway,” Rzeznik had a harmonica solo that lead to a guitar solo. “Fuck!” he laughed, shaking his hands out.
On the Home Base stage, Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats managed to get through the vast majority of its latest album, The Future, and then some. The crowd would watch Rateliff sit down at a mini organ for “A Little Honey,” and would later “whoa-oh-oo-oh” to Nathaniel Rateliff and the Night Sweats’ “SOB.” After the Right Field stage closed with a bass-heavy set, our Sunday night headliner took the main stage at 9:20.
Tampa’s first Lumineers shows without Neyla Pekarek opened with “BRIGHTSIDE,” the title track of the band’s latest record, of which every track was performed. Whether you like it or not, you’re gonna have to hear “Ho Hey” at a Lumineers concert, a segment where all members of the band joined lead singer Wesley Schultz centerstage. “It’s been five years since we’ve been back to Tampa,” Schultz admitted before launching into “Angela,” which had to be restarted due to skepticism around his guitar being out of tune. “Never Really Be Mine” was inspired by a hero of the band’s, Bruce Springsteen, and “It Wasn’t Easy To Be Happy For You” was described as “the easiest way to say ‘fuck you’ to someone.” Band members briefly went into mannequin mode before the electric portion of “Big Parade,” and during a snippet of The Rolling Stones’ “You Can’t Always Get What You Want,” midway through “Leader of the Landslide,” keyboardist and multi-instrumentalist Stealth Ulvang began dancing barefoot on top of his classroom piano.
Get our photos below, and let’s all hope that there will be another Innings Festival in Tampa next year. In Arizona, it’s been going strong since 2018, and has had a killer lineup every year.
