Frankie’s Patio, Tampa, Florida
Ok folks, if you miss JPJ, you’ll regret it. Last night at Frankie’s Patio in Tampa, he put on a show that blew the competition out of the water. He was up against the CSN reunion tour, and thanked the audience for choosing to come see him instead. None of us would have missed JPJ for the world last night. In fact, the crowd got larger as the night wore on, and people walking by were enticed to come in. The venue was a covered two-story patio, concrete floor, tarp as the back upper wall to release sound so you don’t suffer the horrible bounce-back off the brick wall of the building next door. They were therefore able to crank up the sound levels without room-induced feedback and distortion. It was the loudest show that still sounded good I’ve ever been to. Because we arrived a little bit late, we were able to find the venue by listening to the first song being played. It sounded great as we approached the place. We got to the front door as he launched into the second song and had to get thru the restaurant area to get to the patio. No loss in sound, as the bar opens to both sides to take orders.
There were no tables or chairs at all, unless you wanted to sit on one of the planter boxes in the back. So we slid into the audience about 5 people back from the stage, right in front of the speakers. The next song was Grind, and I can’t even describe the feeling of the bass going thru my body, it was powerful. I started dancing and didn’t stop until the set break. (If anyone was there, yup, that was me dancing in the red shirt and black pants.) He joked about how nice it was to play Florida in the summer as sweat dripped from his nose, blue in the lights. A member of the audience reminded him it wasn’t even summer yet, and he laughed and said, ‘right, exactly.’ Later, he grabbed a towel to mop the sweat between songs, it was a tiny little hand towel, he joked, ‘this is a low budget tour.’ At the next song break, he grabbed a new, bath-sized towel and said, ‘I guess they went back and stole this one from the hotel.’ There was a pair of air-guitarists with their heads in the speaker, pounding away on their instruments as soon as No Quarter started. People were laughing out loud when they saw it. Perfect unison, two gray heads banging away! I noticed last night’s version sounded a lot like the Listen To This Eddie boot.
We were introduced to the man who makes his guitars, but the audience was so loud I couldn’t hear his name. JPJ told us he didn’t trust him alone with the instruments and had to come along on tour to babysit them. In fact the audience was so loud, I couldn’t hear the name of the drummer either, and he was introduced more than once. Well, ok, the show was so loud it still sounds like I have a whole forest of crickets in my head, and that may have factored into the general inability to hear some comments. For the second set, I managed to move to a more central location, still not too far back from the stage. Again, I started dancing and couldn’t stop, in fact, a space opened up around me. My roommate managed to snap some pics, as security was letting everyone shoot from anywhere they pleased. Even the nice camcorder we saw getting some great footage (we could see the screen as it was taped) went unmolested completely. I’m really hoping someone did audio tape as well.
For most of the show, I felt transported to a steamy bayou, listening to a master play. When the Levee Breaks was taken to a new level. The second encore, Black Dog, had the audience doing a sing along. The look on JPJ’s face as he first heard the horrifically off-key crowd trying to sing was hysterical! We sounded awful, but he made sure to let us get all the oh-oh oh-oh’s out every time. The drummer was trying to keep us in time, beating his sticks. No real luck there! If you miss JPJ, you will regret it…
Crystal Solana Bryan
The show started around 8:20pm and ended at around 10:40 pm. Basically, there was no advertising for show. As a result, audience was mainly of loyal fans. Approximately 250 in size. Same set as Orlando, only a little tighter. Jones, is having a lot of fun with this tour. He graciouslly signed autographs and posed for pictures with all the fans who waited after the show. I had the opportunity to speak with him. Like Jimmy, he is very kind and soft spoken. The show itself was excellent.
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