22.8.09 - Cafe Hey - Haves& Thirds, Ant
Parade and Then And Than - Tampa,
Florida.
The proposed possibility of this show happening was something I first
heard about maybe back sometime this past June or early July. The
word was that
Ant Parade wanted to actually do something
instead of the old just talking about doing something.
This particular something was to seek out local businesses that would
be willing to let local bands play open attendance all ages shows,
at their
space(s), once a month, for free. Along the way WMNF 88.5 fm agreed to
help give this
project some lift thru their support and then a local grab some fresh
grounds, a bite to eat and take a seat to pass some time joint,
Cafe Hey, eventually agreed to host the first of these shows.
Location wise, Cafe Hey sits on the outskirts of
Northern Downtown Tampa, if you get by hereabouts and haven't dropped
in
yet the chances are that you've glanced over their way more than a
couple of times as they're in one of those locations that you
practically have to drive by every once in a while. If you make the
light at Franklin and Kay you'll see them on the right as you zip on
thru, if you catch the
light and tables and chairs with an open door are in your sight, that's
the place. Tonight quite
a few people made the time to come this way from all directions, pull
over, get out of
their cars and then stroll up to see what could
happen. The cafe opened a comfortable adjacent storefront for the
performances, the first of which was Haves& Thirds, who
tends to sweep in, get ribcages bumping, tickles some up and down the
spine
and covertly seeps somewhat familiar voices into heads, all in his own
way.
Tonight's set turned out to be a little unusual, after the first song
an unidentifed, it really wasn't clear, a follower?, a clone?, popped
up and things quickly got audibly stranger, all in a good
way. A short intermission let people enjoy some of the night
breeze and
conversation while Ant Parade prepped to take the floor. That
kind of sums up what took place over the course of the next three
songs. It's easy to say that this was another one of many
consistently moving sets but that doesn't come close to sensation of
being there and hearing one of them. It's always pretty
choice. Another break allowed the opportunity for folks to
aquaint and mingle when things hit a quick boil with Then And Than,
rolling the dice on getting whacked by a sightless windmill with a
stick, a sacrificial bounty as the bait, this celebrational set got off
with a real walking the razors edge series of laughs and gasps, hardly
time to catch my breath and blamo, it was on. If there were
steamrollers, as big as ocean liners, and they roamed the land, with
engines filling the air with their thoughts during those
journeys and travels as they flattened everything in their paths,
people would most likely end up calling them Then And Than's. The
fact that the room was left in a state of temporary silence, some
surely quitely pulling for another pass thru as much as I was, made it
evident that this encounter was one for the books for more than just
myself. That was the last call for the night's bands. The
three of them kicked off, what I think a lot of people would like to
see
become, a step towards more good times out with the promise of them
likely being a couple of steps away from the norm. I enjoyed the
fact
that unlike what I'd call the usual show crowd, this event drew a group
of people that really ranged across the board, a slice of those who
always seem to make it a point to come out and lend their support for
bands like these, people who frequented the cafe and might have got
wrapped up in something unexpected, people who heard about the show
from either someone else, online, or picked up on it from any of the
local fm
broadcast word, all together it ended up with those
parties meeting at something that they probably wouldn't have hit up if
any of that progressive word hadn't been passed along. I'm not
saying that
this area doesn't have things going on like this all over the place,
practically almost all the time, it does, to certain degrees. The
difference to me
with this was that instead of having something geared primarily towards
the some,
this was set up as an open invitation to the all. That's my drift
on
it. If I happen to see some of the same faces I saw last night,
somewhere else (maybe next month, if not by chance before!), I'm going
to have to ask how this night went for them. Yeah, I
absolutely had a great time. Mandatory thanks go out to Ant
Parade for effectively turning a vision into what really came across as
a solid foundation for something else, Cafe Hey for opening their doors
in a most generous way, WMNF 88.5 fm for their assistance in putting
the word out to the community at large and without a doubt, everyone
who came 'round, some maybe a little bit out of their way, to
experience something
from outside the larger circles. My appreciation to
all.
