Day One of Tampa’s Gasparilla Music Festival on March 9th treated the sun-soaked central Florida crowd to a variety of musical talent, from local favorites to up and coming talent to big-name headliners. Throughout the performances, the festival, which is itself a nonprofit group, provided ample opportunities to give back to the community, such as with the charity Recycled Tunes, which provides used musical equipment for impoverished children.
Prior to the musical festivities, local cycling studio SOHO Cycling put on a charity ride. Around fifty riders clipped into the indoor bikes to ride outdoors in the Tampa heat for the annual Ride the Park event, which raised $58,000 for Recycled Tunes.
Kicking off the music, Dr. Kevin Parrott led a Gospel revival. Backed by a band and a full choir, Parrott jammed and danced onstage while singing uplifting Gospel songs, both original and standards, most notably a rousing funky rendition of “Jesus Is On the Mainline.”
Tampa singer J’Nelle followed with her own upbeat, soulful music. The singer channeled her Trinidadian roots for a Caribbean-inflected R&B performance that was lacking in originality but not in spirit. J’Nelle played mostly covers, including Stevie Wonder’s “Higher Ground” and a swaggering performance of Erykah Badu’s “On & On,” though she did sprinkle in a couple original tunes.
Magic City Hippies brought some Miami funk injected with hints of rock and hip hop. Frontman Robby Hunter danced and posed onstage while the band laid down tight, danceable grooves. Though they slowed things down briefly for the slow jam “Limestone,” their staple was upbeat, energetic, funky pop. Hunter’s voice ranged from a soft croon to rapid-fire rap to smooth falsetto, all while laying down staccato funk riffs on the guitar.
Nashville’s White Denim brought the first solid rock performance to the main stage. With a set that highlighted the band’s progressive and psychedelic influences, James Petralli and company tore through the fiery performance. Petralli belted out the vocals through gritted teeth while laying down soaring guitar solos and crunching power chords. At times, he even sang the same notes he was soloing on guitar. Throughout the set, Petralli kept checking on how much time was left in the performance and songs were modified to fit the allotment. Dynamic rockers “Mirrored in Reverse” and “Say What You Want” showed the band’s versatility, as they loosely jammed through an improvised set, abruptly shifting between fast and slow, heavy and soft, rock chords and jazz solos.
Toro y Moi brought a dance party to Tampa, with Chaz Bear and his backing band laying down infectious beats ranging from subtle chillwave to potent dancehall pop. Two songs into the set, the band dropped the party earwig “Ordinary Pleasure,” Bear stepping away from his keyboard to dance around the stage. Through slow, chill songs like “Monte Carlo” and “Girl Like You” to the dance thumper “Say That,” which contrats frenetic drums with slow keyboard notes, Toro y Moi delivered the most fun performance of the day.
L.A. band Black Rebel Motorcycle Club was introduced by a man who asked if the crowd wanted to hear some old-fashioned rock & roll. It was a rhetorical question, but in an era where such bands are now outliers, BRMC are a breath of fresh air. Serving up their own brand of dirty, blues-based rock, the hard rocking trio unleashed a set of some of its best work, including the acoustic stomper “Beat the Devil’s Tattoo” and the uptempo shuffling “Teenage Disease.” Guitarist Peter Hayes and bassist/guitarist Robert Levon Been shared lead vocal duties, sometimes trading off in the same song. Backed by powerful drummer Leah Shapiro, the trio made a big sound, with Been’s atypical style of playing a bass more like a guitar and with Hayes playing harmonica and utilizing various effects while shredding on guitar. After the pulverizing “Conscience Killer,” one of the band’s heaviest songs, Black Rebel Motorcycle Club then ended the set with two of its most-loved tracks from the debut album, the strutting rockers “Spread Your Love” and “Whatever Happened to my Rock ‘n Roll.”
After a day of R&B, funk, chillwave, and rock, Avett Brothers ended the first day on a softer note, treating the crowd with its toe-tapping folk rock. They opened with an instrumental, with Seth Avett and Scott Avett playing intertwining licks on electric guitar and banjo, respectively before transitioning to one of its most rock-influenced songs, “Vanity.” Though Avett Brothers rock a bit more live than on the albums, the performance is most notable for its soft crooners, the sound stripped down to highlight the vocal harmonies and the crowd as it sang along, as with “Left on Laura, Left on Lisa.” Hit songs like “Head Full of Doubt/ Road Full of Promise” were crowd pleasers, but no song was better received than the high-RPM “Talk on Indolence,” a song that pushes the boundaries of how fast a folk song can be. It was a performance that showcased the Avett Brothers’ strengths, strong harmonies, polished songwriting, and occasional bursts of stomping energy.
