Over the past five years, Creative Loafing’s Sensory Overload has featured musical acts ranging from the Soulphonics & Ruby Velle to Apes and Androids to Eliot Lipp. This year's lineup was, for the most part, filled with local acts that proved their worthiness by the thick crowd of people who were packed into New World Brewery by the time I arrived a little before 10 p.m. [Photos by Phil Bardi.]
The entire event was spread over several Ybor venues, with the majority of music presented at The Roosevelt (a mixed-use space off 15th Street, between 7th and 8th Avenues), and at New World on the regular ground-level stage as well as on a small arty stage that had been erected in the outdoor courtyard. The stages were separated by three hanging panels with video projections playing on it throughout the night.
I did a lot of back and forth between the two venues beginning with the first half of Joe Popp’s acoustic set at New World. The NYC-by-way-of-Tampa punk rocker performed solo on acoustic guitar, his powerful, ragged-deep vocals a nice complement to his spirited strumming and forthright songwriting. He also slipped in a plug for Jobsite Theater’s encore production of Pericles; Popp composed the music for the "comic rock mob musical" based on Shakespeare's play, and he also stars in the limited engagement reprise presented April 7-11 at the Straz Center.
This article appears in Mar 24-30, 2010.