Nite Out
Satisfaction guaranteed
It's not only rock 'n' roll, but you'll like it: Local bands lend their individual styles to the music of the Rolling Stones during a three-day marathon.
By MARTY CLEAR, Times Correspondent
© St. Petersburg Times
published July 24, 2003
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[Times files: 1965]
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Rolling Stones, from left, Brian Jones, Bill Wyman, Keith Richards, Charlie Watts and Mick Jagger played Jack Russell Stadium in Clearwater in 1965. Unfortunately, they’re not expected at the tribute this weekend.
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Mick Jagger turns 60 on Saturday. To celebrate, the Tampa Bay area's top bands are going to perform a couple hundred of Sir Mick's greatest hits.
"Gimme Shelter: A Rolling Stones Tribute" is the next, and largest, installment in community radio station WMNF-FM's series of fundraising concerts in which local bands of all genres play songs by a single artist.
The events have become massively popular with bands and fans.
"At first, I just picked bands I liked," said Flee, WMNF's music director and the prime mover behind the tribute shows. "But after the first one, bands started contacting me asking if they could play."
Previous tribute shows (featuring songs by Elvis Presley, Elvis Costello, the Beatles and Motown artists) lasted several hours or all day. The Rolling Stones tribute will cover three days.
Even Flee admits it might be a bit excessive.
"Basically, I started doing it and no one stopped me," he said.
The tribute gets going Friday, with a six-hour show at St. Petersburg's State Theatre. Twenty bands, including alt-rock stalwarts Sparky's Nightmare, power popsters Barely Pink and surf-music mavens the Vodkanauts, are scheduled to perform.
Saturday there's a marathon 12-hour concert at Skipper's Smokehouse in Tampa with 35 bands. Experimental pop band Handshake Squad, Americana outfit Pagan Saints and River Cove ramblers, a popular bluegrass band, are among the headliners.
On Sunday the action moves to Margarita Maggie's in Sarasota, where ambient Goth-rock band Bald Daisy, the bluesy Frayed Knot Band and a cappella singer Kat White Star are scheduled to appear.
Each band selects a few songs from the Stones' almost infinite catalog and performs them in their own style. You might hear a jazz version of Monkey Man, followed a few minutes later by a funk rendition of Moonlight Mile.
The event is called "Gimme Shelter" because the money raised will help WMNF pay for its new building. The total price tag for the building is $2-million, and Flee said the station has collected about half that amount.
The other motive for "Gimme Shelter" and the other tribute concerts, Flee said, is to give much needed exposure to local bands.
Virtually all the bands in the Rolling Stones tribute usually perform their own material.
"We really like doing these tribute shows," said Natty Moss Bond, a veteran of several past events. "We just hope that the next one will be a tribute to the great music that local bands have created."
Bond will perform in two bands at the Stones tribute, Sparky's Nightmare and Ronny Elliott & the Nationals.
Flee realizes the irony of promoting bands that make new music by asking them to play other people's songs. But he says some WMNF officials are skittish about tampering with the successful all-covers formula.
He's still pushing for an event where these bands can showcase their own music, he said. He's also considering a Neil Young tribute and a concert of songs by one-hit wonders.
PREVIEW: "Gimme Shelter: A Rolling Stones Tribute" is scheduled for 7 p.m. until 1 a.m. Friday at the State Theatre, 687 Central Ave., St Petersburg; noon to midnight Saturday at Skipper's Smokehouse, 910 Skipper Road, Tampa; and 3 until 9 p.m. Sunday at Margarita Maggie's, 1927 Ringling Blvd., Sarasota. Tickets are $12 in advance or $15 at the door for each evening. Call 727 895-3045 for information about the State Theatre show, (813) 971-0666 for Skipper's and (941) 951-0335 for Margarita Maggie's. WMNF's Web site, www.wmnf.org has additional information.
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