If there was ever a Tampa Bay band to rattle you out of a COVID-19 cage, it’s Horsewhip. The St. Petersburg outfit with deep roots in the local hardcore scene has a new lineup and is ready to return to the live setting with an outdoor early show that’ll be over by 10 p.m.
Drummer Alex Bond told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay that Horsewhip waited for vaccination rates to rise before even considering planning the band’s first show since last March. Horsewhip decided a late summer outdoor show, but “since we are currently in the middle of another outbreak, we strongly encourage attendees to be vaccinated and wear masks to the show this Saturday.”
The time between shows did allow Horsehip time to adjust to a new lineup featuring Red Room Cinema’s Dave Teten on second guitar. The personnel change thickens up the band’s already heavy sound and also brings out more of Horsewhip’s technical strengths.
We’re hoping Horsewhip shows off some of the new stuff the quartet’s been working on with Gainesville engineer John Howard (who had his hands all over on Yashira’s brutally beautiful 2018 album Shrine). Members of Yashira are in Jacksonville band Colonial Wound which returns to St. Pete after playing a free show at The Bends in 2019. Tampa hard-rock favorite Wreath is on the bill with Ricky Seelbach project Ephemera Blaq. Find Horsewhip’s Jeff Howe at Nah Dogs, the vegan ween stand he runs with his wife Jenny, in between sets.
Horsewhip w/Colonial Wound/Wreath/Ephemera Blaq. Saturday, Aug. 28, 7 p.m. $5. Wild Roots, 1949 1st Ave. S Unit A, St. Petersburg. FLYER
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This article appears in Aug 26 – Sep 1, 2021.
