Day 30: Tampa, FL
Welcome
Yesterday we travelled to Tampa for a show at the legendary Crow Bar.
We all had a nice long sleep. The schedule for the day looked fairly relaxed so we treated ourselves to a proper breakfast, heading to a spot recommended by the stage crew from The Beacham. It was called Shakers American Café, and the interior of this restaurant was decorated extensively with salt and pepper shakers of every conceivable appearance. I ordered a Grilled Salmon Salad, with the Cajun seasoning, and the apple cider vinegar dressing, over mixed greens, broccoli, cauliflowers, mushrooms, olives, and onions. We all enjoyed the pace of this morning, a slow start to the day sitting around the breakfast table together.
Kayleen took us out of Orlando on Interstate 4, the highway that runs diagonally across the centre of the state all the way from Daytona Beach, to Tampa. It was only a couple of hours driving to get to Florida’s third most populous city, and this time we didn’t run into any interruptions. We did stop at a guitar centre, though, to pick up a few essential supplies, and pick through the used pedals cabinet. One member of the band who has asked not to be named did make a withdrawal from the guitar pedal cabinet, while I managed to control myself and resisted buying a giant Peavey bass amp to match my new bass.
Trying out the smallest guitar.
Pulling up to our venue in the neighbourhood of Ybor, Kayleen had to be extremely careful not to run over any of the chickens that were roaming around the cobbled streets. These are historic chickens, protected by Tampa law, and rumoured to have descended from the birds who would have been a primary food source of this neighbourhood’s residents 100 years ago. The neighbourhood of Ybor was once the cigar capital of the world. Tampa Town was still a small fishing village when Vicente Martinez Ybor founded this new settlement in 1886, on land to the northeast of Tampa. He and other cigar manufacturers established factories, manned by immigrant workers from Cuba, Italy, and Spain, and grew a profitable industry that helped Tampa to grow into a thriving city in a very short period of years.
The Crowbar.
The Crowbar is a legendary venue in Tampa. It is one of these places that is big enough to host touring bands and small enough to foster a healthy local music scene, and that’s exactly why people love it. We had a local band called Pohgoh come out to augment the evening’s line-up. They have been on the Tampa scene since the mid 90s (although they did break up for 19 years) and it was obvious how much adoration and respect they got from all the Tampans who attended. Lunar Vacation played second and were also warmly received by the crowd.
The tramlines in historic Ybor.
We have played quite a variety of venues on this tour, and the Crow Bar lays quite clearly at one end of the spectrum. Every surface is covered in graffiti. The greenroom is tiny and there is only seating for two people. You are close to the audience, enough to see the whites in their eyes – and you need to be careful you don’t accidentally bonk them with your guitar headstock. The sound on stage is rough, but that doesn’t matter because the vibe is so good in the room, and everyone is excited to be there. We had an incredible time playing in this very special space, and we tried to deliver the most rocking version of our set to fit the most rocking room of the tour.
Here are a few photos I stumbled upon and stole from this nice website. I think they do a great job of capturing the mood of the evening, so thanks, Dave Decker.
📸 Dave Decker.
I had the pleasure of talking to many folks afterwards, one of whom has created his own bootleg breakfastandtravelupdates merch, something which I wholeheartedly endorse. Great work, James.
Here is Tristan’s video mashup of the day’s events.