Tampa has got something special. It’s not just the beaches or tropical temperatures year-round (they’re great too). We’re talking about the Tampa electronic scene, which weekend after weekend has been growing its identity and its community, one show at a time.
The Ritz Ybor hosted yet another such gathering this weekend, when Belgian-duo Ganja White Night (GWN) stopped in town for night two of its three-day Florida run.
As per usual with big-name weekend bookings at the Ritz, the show sold out earlier in the day, and drew a line of people that ran past the corner of 15th Street and 7th Avenue shortly before 10 p.m.
Opening up for the talented duo of Benjamin Bayeul and Charlie Dodson was Subdocta and Dirty Monkey, the latter of which we saw at another sold out Ritz show headlined by Blunts & Blondes this past June. Well before the evening’s headliner took the stage, the main ballroom in the Ritz was packed from its murky floor all the way up to the balcony. On a night where sweat and exhaustion were palpable in the air, the crowd was relentless in reciprocating the energy being churned out on stage.
The night’s opening lineup, which also featured Orlando native Lizzy Jane playing the front room, livened the room up for a night where the energy never relented. Subdocta briefly shared the stage with Dirt Monkey on an abbreviated back-to-back set before conceding to the more-wonky Dirt Monkey for the second opening spot.
Ganja White Night took the stage shortly after 1 a.m., at which point the crowd was properly drenched and ready.
Self-taught in electric instrumentation, GWN — which was featured on the recently announced EDC Orlando lineup — brought its live performance set to Tampa, displaying one of the more innovative styles in EDM. The duo brings to stage a variety of live recording equipment, mixing in drum pads, midi master keyboards and loopers so it can jam over live arrangements of its bass catalog. The duo clearly fed off each other, occasionally leaving one to man the boards while the other greeted the crowd at the lip of the stage.
Over the course of the two-hour set, song endings were greeted with enthusiastic applause and prolonged moments of awe from both the crowd and the artists on stage.
Ganja White Night was overtly emphatic in its attempt to excite the crowd, playing many of its hits like “Flava” and “Reminisce,” but to Tampa’s credit the crowd itself was just as much a spectacle Friday.
From the people hanging over the rafters to the raucous crowd on the floor, the Tampa electronic scene showed it’s alive and well — and why it’s so important. Moments like these mute out the differences and disagreements of normal socializing, letting music that conveys through “wobbles” rather than words bring us together just by dancing (or in this case, headbanging).
This article appears in Jul 26 – Aug 2, 2018.
