BLJune23To Web

the music was in 3rd gear - not quite up to speed but
cruising along nicely. The bill was screaming lovefest
as each band seemed to be handpicked for their indie
organic styles. Concert goers came dressed in tie-dye
shirts ready to morph into dancing bears by the time the
sun went down. Kind of reminded me of my first few
Bonnaroos when hippies still ran the show. The Tampa
Metro Youth Orchestra made a showing this year again,
feels like tradition now. After that George Pennington
& The Odyssey killed their slot and things got a little
hotter. Shevonne & The Force, Minim and Cope all
made good showings. By 3 pm, or so, The 502s went
hard. This was definitely one of my favorite discoveries
of the fest. Rising Appalachia was right there with them
too. Try hard to find a funkier more organic vibe than
what these people are producing right in front of you;
you can’t. Local Natives were a big favorite of the day.
They have had quite a run lately making it into movies
and a couple radio hits. They are for sure one the new
indie groups launching into space.
The last band of the night - the headliner - was Joe
Russo’s Almost Dead. So, this is a Grateful Dead cover
band in every sense. They don’t play the songs verbatim
because it’s the Dead and even they didn’t play their
own songs verbatim - ever. These guys are some of the
best musicians I have seen. You can tell each one was
handpicked for their specialty. Every song was probably
10 minutes long on average - jam band style - and
it was friggin’ glorious. Usually my feet are sore from
walking around huge festivals, but not at this one. This
one my feet were sore from dancing the night away…
like a bear. Thanks for having us Gasparilla - can’t wait
to do it again next year.
Photos by Tim Bretz
Brevard Live June 2023 - 13