“We just want to take now to thank 97x” was probably the most spoken phrase of the weekend, from almost every band and artist who took the MIDFLORIDA Credit Union Amphitheatre stages.
Last year marked the 20th anniversary of when an oldies station was switched over to the beloved alternative rock station that first gave us once-smaller names Blink-182, Twenty One Pilots (stylized “twenty one pilots), and a pre-The Black Parade My Chemical Romance. Alternative rock has been—altered a great deal since that fateful day in 2000, and from there, 97x’s annual Next Big Thing (known among its primarily youthful listeners as “NBT”) has moved to bigger venues, booked hundreds of international and local acts, and brought in thousands of fans.
This year, in honor of the 20th anniversary we couldn’t celebrate in 2020, 97x decided to make this festival their biggest one yet. Southern California-based rock quartet Weezer, family trio AJR (brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met), and rap-rock chameleons Twenty One Pilots, all served as headliners across both Friday and Saturday nights. Some local acts got in the game as well, even scoring much support and enthusiasm that some locals still strive for.
It all began Friday night around 5:45, when Tampa’s own Summer Hoop—formerly of SickHot, launched into her short, yet exuberant setlist, while leaning on her backing band for all instrumentation. She would both saunter around stage Alanis Morissette-style, and fall to her knees on “Dagger,” which just had its music video release. Her commentary included how humbled she felt to be playing at the festival she would regularly attend as a teenager. “I get my face on a t-shirt!” She joked.
Meet Me @ The Altar, an all-female band brought together by YouTube videos, came next, and the energy levels onstage from all five band members were that of The Who. Téa Campbell’s guitar moves and jumps strongly resembled a young Pete Townshend. Georgia-hailed lead singer Edith Johnson, with her neon green dreadlocks, made sure to promote the excellency of the diversity shown before the crowd, while also promoting Model Citizen—the band’s new EP from Fueled By Ramen. “My biggest fear is falling on stage, but I almost did,” she admitted, after finishing up “Brighter Days (Are Before Us).”
Glass Animals—best known for its song “Heat Waves” making it big on TikTok, made fans feel as if they were in the 80s with its usage of the big screens. During “Tangerine,” a very poorly played game of Pac-Man was displayed, and most of the graphics throughout their set were 8-bit, or Matrix-esque effects. Lead singer Dave Bayley threw a plastic pineapple into the pit during the reminiscent “Pork Soda,” and it only took one musical note for every person in the venue to recognize “Gooey.” Considering the fact that this show might not have happened at all, due to a 2018 biking accident that nearly killed drummer Joe Seaward, these Indie guys from England were more than just a good warmup for what was to come.
At 9:30, as promised, Tyler Joseph and Josh Dun—aka twenty one pilots, entered from stage left, over the intro music to their hit, “Stressed Out.” Truthfully, if that was the only TOP song you knew, there still would not be an ounce of disappointment in you by the end of the guys’ set. Being the headliners, the duo and—for the first time ever, their four-piece repertoire managed to fly right through their standard, Takeover Tour show, in its entirety. Tyler and Josh both engaged in jumping off of a wooden classroom piano, hanging out in the crowd, and obviously, numerous costume changes. Tyler being up front, his changes were a bit more noticeable. A black, sequin-dusted trench coat with sherpa came out on “The Outside.” Later, a white polo with slightly oversized white glasses were donned while Tyler sat behind the classroom piano during “Mulberry Street” (and into a cover of Elton John’s “Bennie and the Jets,” likely for the parents), and for the patter-cut, “Car Radio,” Tyler and Josh both threw on their black ski masks—which Tyler took off while standing on a risen platform in the crowd.
Normally, twenty one pilots takes much larger stages when they stop here—mainly sticking to Tampa’s Amalie Arena. So though the capacity is about the same at both venues, there was a sense of extra intimacy during the band’s all-covers, campfire jam sequence. The six gathered around a literal campfire, and jammed to an acoustic medley of Johnny Nash’s “I Can See Clearly Now,” The Temptations’ “My Girl” (with the title line being replaced with “Josh Dun”), and Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros’ “Home,” trumpet solo and all. Those weren’t even the only covers of the night. Trumpeter Jesse Blum opened the fearful “Jumpsuit” with the Halo theme song, and before jumping into the band’s COVID-inspired “Level of Concern,” War’s “Low Rider” caused a few eyebrows to raise, on the parents’ end.
Day 2 dawned in, and at 10:20, fans met back up, sipping Liquid Death and reminiscing about the night before. Due to it now being Saturday, more acts were on the bill, and therefore required the second, smaller Achieva Credit Union Stage. Achieva was a major sponsor of the festival, having handed out free wooden sunglasses, koozies, and foam light sticks for fans to wave around both nights.
Once Nightbreakers finished its heavy, ass-shakin’, early morning set, Phoenix-based singer-songwriter Upsahl took the stage at 11:10, with nothing but her voice, a white bass, and a black, Gretsch electric. Most of the music that backed her up was pre-recorded, including much of the guitar work, but whenever she did shred out a few chords on “Lunatic,” or slap that bass on “People I Don’t Like,” she would shake the ground anyway. “Thanks for getting up at like, 10 a.m on a fuckin’ Saturday to listen to some music.” she acknowledged.
Daisy The Great took the stage three separate times on Saturday, the first time being for a full, electric set, half-comprised of songs that have not yet publicly materialized. Creative forces Kelley Nicole Dugan and Mina Walker stood up front and harmonized on “Glitter,” which just dropped the day before, and at one point, even led a full-band dance break, mid-song. Walker picked up a gorgeous teal Les Paul on “Cry In The Mirror,” and while they didn’t play their crossover with AJR, “Record Player,” the band did dust off one of its earliest tunes, “The Record Player Song,” which was basically the AJR crossover in a premature phase.
Girlfriends—made up of rapper Travis Mills and Goldfinger drummer Nick Gross, have only been a band for a bit over a year, but from their opening of the regretful “Jessica” to their jealousy-filled closer of “California,” the duo was clearly having the time of its life. “I wanna fuck my dad—oh, shit, my microphone’s still on,” Mills joked at the very end of “The First Time.” Also presented was the guys’ collaboration with blink-182’s Travis Barker, “Where Were You,” which was actually co-written by fans who sent in letters regarding their mental struggles in life. Undoubtedly, that had to have hit close to home for a number of fans who have struggled with depression and anxiety over the years.
As a confetti-filled beach ball went flying across the crowd, the ever flamboyant Mod Sun, in a blue, “I Heart RS” sweater, and his (all shirtless) band, became the last act to hit the Achieva Credit Union Stage. Opening with “Karma” and the thankful “Betterman,” Mod really drank in the fact that the stage’s crowd had grown a great deal from the morning performers. And yet, the current crowd was chickenshit compared to what was to come. During “Painkiller,” he requested a mosh pit circle to form, and for all fragile people to step aside. “If you see anyone on the fucking ground, pick ‘em up!” Mod demanded, now shirtless. He also made the crowd pinky-promise early on that if he put on a hell of a show, they’d come back to see Mod during his next show in Tampa—whenever that will be. I don’t think anybody is going to break that promise—even if my camera and I bounced around like a pinball in that mosh pit segment.
Once Mod Sun closed his set with his new collaboration with girlfriend Avril Lavigne, “Flames,” the stage was shut down, and it was time for the crowd to make their way towards the main stage that countless names have graced over the years.
Girl In Red, fronted by Norwegian queer icon Marie Ulven Ringheim, kicked off the anticipation for what was to come. The six-piece band played “Girls” early on—one of the songs that makes Ulven popular in the LGBTQ community. “I’ll Die Anyway” took a darker turn, but was still well-received anyway. “The song is about death and dying but—I think that’s enough for tonight…today,” she admitted. The confetti beach balls from before made their way over to the main stage and into the pit, which Ulven made sure to acknowledge. “I almost forgot the lyrics because these are very fun to look at!” she admitted after “We Fell In Love In October.” After “Did You Come,” off of this year’s If I Could Make It Go Quiet, she acknowledged the utter insanity of having her own guitar picks. “That’s what the rock stars do,” she said. And don’t worry, she closed with “I Wanna Be Your Girlfriend.”
After Daisy The Great played a brief acoustic set on a side stage, which featured “Glitter,” the amphitheater began to fill even more—for an act that had been hyped by almost all of the artists on both stages. Yungblud, in his first Tampa appearance, dashed out in a Cramps t-shirt, pink high-socks, and a miniskirt. Puckering his lips and running like Jagger, and swaying his hips like Elvis, the British musician ripped through “I Love You, Will You Marry Me” with a guitar strapped on—mainly as a prop. He did play some chords throughout, but while his impeccable backing band took on their jobs, Yungblud expressed his hyper energy. While finishing “Weird!,” he jumped onto Michael Rennie’s drum kit, and then right off again. At one point, he even snagged one of the videographers’ cameras to set down in front of his microphone. Yungblud described one of his newest, “mars,” as “so fucking important to me,” later covering Machine Gun Kelly’s “I Think I’m OKAY,” and closing with “Machine Gun (Fuck The NRA.)” Except he changed the chant up a little bit. “Everybody nice and pissed off?” He asked at the end, before getting the crowd to chant “fuck COVID” repeatedly.
Bastille is anything but a stranger to 97x, having played both NBT in 2018, and Backyard BBQ in 2014. So after fellow NBT veteran—and guest co-host, Andrew McMahon, introduced the band, and it opened with “Distorted Light Beam,” the feeling was more about nostalgia, rather than “wow, these guys are pretty good!” That didn’t mean that there was nothing new for Bastille to show, though. “We tried to use the pandemic to make some new music,” lead singer Dan Smith announced before going into the band’s frustrating “What You Gonna Do???” When Smith wasn’t running around the stage and on top of monitors and amps, he was centerstage on secondary synthesizers, like when he previewed Bastille’s next album, Give Me The Future with “No Bad Days.” Those light sticks that Achieva handed out lit up in green, red, and blue quickly, and so many would airdrum along with the rest of Bastille’s set—especially during the youthful “Quarter Past Midnight,” and the unmistakable radio hit “Pompeii.”
All Time Low was next, and its set was a bit shakier than expected. Lead singer Alex Gaskarth was recovering from a head cold (not COVID) that messed up his voice, so for much of the set, he leaned on whatever fans knew certain lyrics in All Time Low’s catalog. “Lost in Stereo” saw cassette tapes flash by on the big screen, and “Weightless” opened with a “free Britney” from Alex. This wasn’t the band’s first time in Tampa this year, though—it played for the Tampa Bay Lightning’s first game of the season in October.
AJR wasted zero time in providing the most unique set of the 20th NBT. Brothers Adam, Jack, and Ryan Met all maniacally ran out onstage together, and opened with “Bummerland,” followed by “3 O’Clock Things,” the latter of which featured a solo from trumpeter Arnetta Johnson. Lead singer Jack Met made his way to a tablet, and remixed “I Got No Strings” from Disney’s Pinocchio—something he’s only done onstage a handful of times. But if you know anything about AJR, you know that they’re not unfamiliar to using other people’s recordings for instrumentation purposes. The horn section at the end of Paul Simon’s “My Little Town” was thrown into “Way Less Sad,” and of course, SpongeBob Squarepants’ “I’m ready” made up the song that put the clan on the map—which shares a title with the sample, and evidently, was left out of the set.
Ryan Met, over on keyboards and at one point, a ukulele, got the most applause—much to Jack’s dismay. “When we first came out, I don’t know if I’ve ever been hit with more marijuana smoke,” Ryan pointed out. (you wouldn’t believe how many cops were there) AJR also made sure to do a mini-advertisement for its upcoming show on their OK Orchestra tour this spring—at the same exact venue. While it was sure to be longer, it wouldn’t be as unique as Saturday night. The brothers welcomed Kelley and Mina of Daisy The Great onstage, for their third and final slot on a stage that day–to finally give the crowd “Record Player,” a hit from the late summer. Following the mini collaboration, AJR fulfilled the obligation of performing “100 Bad Days,” caused light sticks to beat along on “Bang!,” and even began “Burn The House Down” with a live mini-documentary on how the brothers lay down their music.
A little while after their finale of “Weak” came the headliner, which was also no stranger to Tampa, but had never done NBT before. Weezer, featuring rock’s biggest dork, Rivers Cuomo, took the stage at 9:30 to a transposed recording of Van Halen’s “Jump,” just to launch into “Hero,” off of the band’s latest album, Van Weezer. The California boys finished the U.S. leg of the Hella Mega Tour with Green Day and Fall Out Boy in September, and Tampa’s Raymond James Stadium was not on the tour itinerary. So, for the folks who didn’t drive to Miami or Jacksonville over the summer, Weezer’s setlist remained almost identical to what it was on the Hella Mega Tour.
“Beverly Hills” was a huge hit, especially considering the line “Take my picture by the pool/‘Cause I’m the next big thing.” Having done a ton of covers in the last few years, it was only natural for Weezer to recently give its take on Metallica’s “Enter Sandman” for a tribute album—the former of which made it onto the setlist. And I don’t think any of the diehards in the house will forget the nice surprise that was Pinkerton’s “Pink Triangle.” Although, the band missed an insane chance with AJR sitting backstage: The two groups collaborated on a new version of Weezer’s “All My Favorite Songs” earlier this year, so a live version together was inevitable, right? While it allegedly said it would happen on Weezer’s setlists, no Met brothers were in sight during the orchestra-based lament.
Closing out the set—and the 20th NBT, was “Say It Ain’t So,” and then “Buddy Holly,” the last and first songs that Weezer played during their last time at the old Gary, back in 2018.
Now that live music is pretty much back (as long as the Omicron variant fucks off very soon), who knows what next year’s NBT will have in store? My Chemical Romance hasn’t played here in years, and they’re doing their U.S. reunion tour next fall. Perhaps Green Day will do two appearances in Tampa next year.
In the meantime, let’s just suffer from post-concert depression together, by keeping on 97x all day. Or until the commercials begin, anyway.
Josh Bradley Live 