We would be remiss to compile a list of notable Tampa acts without mentioning Hudson Woodbridge, a Georgia-born bluesman who moved to the Bay area as a child after his parents died. Woodbridge eventually moved to Chicago, where he’d develop his signature, prewar slide-guitar sound, but not before adopting the name “Tampa Red” as an homage to the city and his light skin tone.
1960s: Manhattan Casino
Built in 1925 at 642 22nd St. S. in St. Pete, the Manhattan Casino in the four decades leading up the the Civil Rights movement hosted names like James Brown, Count Basie, Cab Calloway, Ray Charles and more as they made their way through the “Chitlin’ Circuit” of mostly Southern venues considered safe for black people during Jim Crow. The venue closed in ‘68, and the soul food restaurant Sylvia’s occupied its ground floor from 2013-16. The city’s now taking bids for new tenants.
1982: Tropical Heatwave
A cross-genre festival like Gasparilla Music Festival might not exist in Tampa Bay without Tropical Heatwave, a hyper-eclectic, majorly trippy homegrown festival that reigned over Ybor for three decades before a fast-changing music-fest ecosystem and poor profits forced community radio station WMNF to suspend the event in 2016.
1984: Nasty Savage
The ’80s were an incredible time for metal, and this Brandon High School-originating outfit would play a huge part in it as they rose to fame on the back of wicked live performances that earned Nasty Savage placements on Metal Massacre compilations that would ignite the careers of bands like Metallica and Overkill.
1987: Butthole Surfers
The Surfers’ “riot show” in 1987 — at the Clearwater National Guard Armory of all places — proved to be the one of the rowdiest in Tampa Bay concert history. "(They) basically smashed their guitar over a kid's head in the audience, kicked a girl in the face that was in the front row, broke her nose," Tampa author and filmmaker Tony Patino once told the Tampa Bay Times. "Because the skinheads were on the stage getting all over this dancer they had, this female topless dancer. That show ended quick."
1989: GG Allin at Harbor Club
The site of this show is debatable, but most accounts place it at the Harbor Club in Sulphur Springs, and video of the 1989 performance is textbook GG Allin thanks to his nearly nonexistent shorts and give-no-fucks, sloppy punk performance. Some showgoers say he spent the next few days holed up in an Ybor City venue behind what’s now Crowbar shooting heroin. The anti-authority icon would die four years later from an overdose.
\\1990: Green Day
If you look up early Green Day touring history, you’ll find a July 1990 show at The Paint Factory. Don’t be fooled, the venue was actually called Skyscrapers, and the band arrived just months after the release of its Slappy EP and years before infamous Brass Mug shows and 1994s Dookie would lead the band on a path to superstardom.
1990: Nirvana at Masquerade
Only serious record collectors and live-music junkies showed up for a May 1990 Ybor City performance from the future grunge godfathers (“Smells Like Teen Spirit” wouldn’t hit MTV for at least another year). Kurt Cobain would commit suicide almost exactly four years after this show at Masquerade's first Ybor location, at the opposite end of 7th Avenue from The Ritz.
1992: Rabbit In The Moon
If you went to a Bay area rave in the ’90s, there was a chance that you saw Rabbit in the Moon. The Tampa trio of Bunny, David Cristophere and DJ Monk pushed the boundaries of live electronic music across the world thanks to a live show replete with stage theatrics, costumes and an embrace of the positive side of life. Monk left the group in the early 2000s, but they’ve carried on since and have a show booked in Orlando this August.
2014: Benjamin Booker & Merchandise
Two Tampa-originating acts broke out on the national and international scene in 2014. One (hard-to-categorize rock outfit Merchandise, signed to 4AD) decided to mostly stay in Tampa and create art here, while another (blues-punk songwriter Benjamin Booker, signed to ATO) changed his hometown to New Orleans, going on to earn critical praise and opportunities to compose with legends like Mavis Staples.
Read more about the music issue here. Watch a teaser for a cool local doc below.
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This article appears in Jul 13-20, 2017.