There is something extra special about a house party concert, both for audiences and performers. Everyone feels free to freak out a bit harder. At fisherman Jon West’s two decades of “Backyard Rock Shows” on his vast compound out in the Pinellas sticks, I remember everyone was always half naked, barefoot or in flipflops, wet and smelling of sunscreen.
Jon West, who lost his battle with colon cancer this March at the age of 45, was known as an avid fisherman. The Old Salt fishing website adds “storyteller extraordinaire, avid writer, captain, mate, husband and friend” to Jon’s description. But to many musicians in Tampa and St. Petersburg, as well as some select national acts, West was also a unique musical impresario, regularly hosting very special concerts in a verdant, loving environment.
At first, this meant playing in front of an active pigeon coop. One could hear the birds cooing and humping between songs. “It would start raining and you’d just be standing out there exposed with your amp hoping nothing bad happened,” recalls guitarist George Eckerle, currently of Fowler’s Bluff, who has played West’s BRS in three different bands.
Jon's widow, Christine West, surprised me by telling me I'd played guitar at the couple’s first-ever yard concert in 1996. Longtime friend of Jon's and Tampa Bay concert promoter (as well as part-time CL graphic designer) Jack Spatafora, who at the time played bass in our band, convinced the Wests to host Michigan ambient guitar duo, Windy and Carl. From there, Jon caught the bug.
Spatafora and West had shared a rabid interest in punk rock music while attending Boca Ciega High School together. Spatafora introduced West to many various local and national music scenes and, in turn, Jon hipped many of his fishing buddies to live music they might not otherwise have experienced. “I'm just glad I was able to share Jon with so many people via us doing those initial shows in the backyard,” says Spatafora. “Jon touched so many lives via introducing him to our scene.”
Jon's yard always seemed massive with only 50 or 60 wet people jumping around dancing. “Then we opened that up the second half of the yard six or seven years ago,” recalls Christine. Following a major renovation in 2007, the couple bought their neighbor’s house and giant yard. When their homemade concert venue totaled 1.8 acres, Eckerle says, “He got this big stage in the middle of the yard, and put up a huge tent to cover the stage, and nice tiki lights all over the place — it was suddenly a proper performance place, complete with smoke machines and lights, plus Frisbee golf, monstrous bamboo plants and pine trees. It was intense playing in all that greenery, like a jungle! It was always a real treat.”
West hosted only around four shows a year. “But Facebook came along and the parties went from 60 people to 250 people,” Christine remembers. The parties grew big enough to draw national acts. “One year we were gonna go to see Jon’s favorite musician, JerryJoseph, in Mexico on New Years Eve — until we figured out that for the same money, we could just hire Jerry to come to our house and play,” Christine laughs. “And it worked, money-wise! So we just did more of it.”
Jon became a host for the Listening Room Festival music series, curated by veteran local musician and home-show pioneer Fran Snyder. The BRS hosted Drag the River (Colorado), Thomas Wynn and the Believers (Orlando), and Joey Kneiser (Tennessee), “And Glossary, my favorite band,” says Christine. “Jon got 'em here for me.”
Christine says she is interested in keeping the BRS tradition going, but doesn’t think she has the energy. “I will have to hire five guys to replace to Jon,” she chuckles. “Jon would spend a lot of time working it: hunting down bands, tracking their tours to try to hook it up so that when they were down in Florida he could work with their schedule. He did all the promoting. Then when the bands went on the tour, he was relentless about spreading the word about them here, and helping them get gigs across the country.”
Author Michael Patrick Welch is the first writer-in-residence at Keep St. Pete Lit's LitSpace. He'll host a Freelance Writing Master Class on Saturday, April 9.
This article appears in Mar 31 – Apr 6, 2016.