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| Rockers J Roddy Walston & the Business were the winners this year at GMF! |
J Roddy and the rest of the group from Cleveland, Tennessee
had an afternoon slot on the second largest stage. Their crowd was not as large
as I expected, but that didn’t seem to bother the band, who came on stage and
never stopped rocking.
Walston himself is the lead singer and has a very iconic
style of pounding on his piano as he sings. The rest of the band provides
catchy guitar rifts and surprisingly high backup vocals to compliment Walston’s
voice nicely. The four-piece group treated the crowd to one hour of true
rock-n-roll music. This was the first time I’ve seen J Roddy Walston & the
Business live and it definitely increased my fan hood.
The highlight of the set was the group’s most well known
tune, “Heavy Bells.” This rock anthem just makes you want to sing, dance, jump
around, and most importantly, just BE LOUD. Walston sounded great singing it
live, and I’ll admit it was my favorite moment of the day.
Performance Review: 3 Stars
After enjoying a few afternoon Rolling Rocks at the Hub, conveniently located right across the street from GMF (who allows re-entry), we were back in time to catch the tail end of Delta Spirit’s set. The only reason I was familiar with this indie rock band is because their front man, Matt Vasquez, has a side project playing in a super group called Middle Brother. Vasquez plays alongside Taylor Goldsmith of Dawes and John J. McCauley III of Deer Tick in this folk rock band that has quite the cult following.
Unlike the indie folk sound of a Dawes or Deer Tick though,
Delta Spirit strays much more to the rock side. Their live performance was very
intense, and they did a great job of entertaining a crowd that was mostly there
just waiting for The Flaming Lips. Check out the song “California” to get a
nice preview of the band.
After Delta Spirit left the stage, the roadie crew for The
Flaming Lips was hard at work, setting up an elaborate stage that had glowing
neon noodle lights extending from the rafters of the stage down to the floor.
They also assembled a pyramid shaped platform of silver globes that just
increased the anticipation for the Flaming Lips to start their set.
It’s easy to say that the Tampa crowd was ready to explode
when wacky Lips’ front man Wayne Coyne took the stage. To make the fans even
rowdier, Coyne walked out carrying a giant inflatable balloon, spelling out the
words - “Fuck Yeah Tampa.” Coyne released the balloon into the Tampa sky and
took his place on stage, perched on top of the silver pyramid, confirming that
he would be very much in the spotlight.
For someone like myself who is not very familiar with The
Flaming Lips, I have to say the most entertaining part was the production of
their performance. Coyne is a strange man with stranger on-stage antics. For
the first few songs he performed while carrying a baby doll in his arms and
acting like a caring mother. He also constantly used smoke and confetti to his
advantage with a truly wondrous stage as his backdrop.
I have to say though, once you got used to the spectacular
stage, the set was quite dull. I thought their songs would be much more high
energy, but it seemed like a set list full of melancholy songs, one after the
next. I’m never a guy that will take his phone out at a show, but at times I
thought The Flaming Lips were so boring that my post concert plans began to
take priority.
One standout was “Yoshimi Battles the Pink Robots,” which
did create a nice sing a long. Also, the set closer, “A Spoonful Weighs a Ton”
was very uplifting, with the word “LOVE” flashing in large golden letters on
the backdrop as the band left the stage.
Other than those though, The Flaming Lips were a
disappointment. They’re a large production for sure, but take away the thrills
and the lights, and the stripped down music just did not sound good. I wouldn’t
recommend them.
Performance Review: 2 Stars
Overall, despite a underachieving headliner, I gotta say the
Gasparilla Music Fest organizers did a great job. This is a cool festival that
takes place in downtown Tampa! Why not spend your Saturday or full weekend
enjoying some good music!
My main recommendation for them is to not use too much of
their budget on one big headliner, which I’m sure was a factor this year.
Instead go for 4-5 quality sub headliners that appeal to a wider audience.
(Dawes and Dr. Dog were perfect in 2013) Also, look to book smaller bands that
have BIG followings in Tampa. The perfect band would have been Twenty One
Pilots. They’re the most popular band on 97X and attracted thousands to 97x’s
Backyard BBQ last spring. They would have brought in a few hundred more
Gasparilla concertgoers easily.
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