Slow Goodbyes: Delta Sleep Play For A Sold-Out Crowd at Crowbar
It’s been a tremendously hot week in Florida, one of those weeks that make you wish you lived literally anywhere else. But sometimes, even though the weather isn’t doing you any favors, you push through to check out a sold-out show in downtown Ybor City on Juneteenth at the legendary Crowbar, for quite possibly the final time, and realize there’s no place you’d rather be.
Crowbar has been an Ybor City institution for 20 years, and they’ll be closing their doors in July, thanks in no small part to widespread overdevelopment and gentrification efforts to push small businesses out of the city. With so few shows remaining, I knew that when Delta Sleep brought tourmates Combat and Michael Cera Palin to town, the city would show up in full force.
COMBAT
First up on the night were Baltimore emo rockers Combat. They played with a ton of emotion and had a cavalcade of high-tempo, fast-paced songs that the crowd was more than willing to dance around to. I call Combat ‘emo’, but they had a ton of indie and pop-punk-sounding songs that were frenetic and set the tone for the rest of the night.
MICHALE CERA PALIN
Next up was, maybe one of my favorite band names of all time, Michael Cera Palin out of Atlanta. The band released a pair of highly memorable EPs about a decade ago before releasing their debut LP last year. The crowd belted out the lyrics alongside vocalist and guitarist Elliott Brabant, and happily crowd surfed their way across the venue. I normally try to avoid the circle pits and crowd surfers, but I was unfortunately in prime crowd surf zone, and I was happy to do my bit in making sure my fellow emo enjoyers got a safe tour of the venue.
The band blasted through their setlist, with dozens more people jumping off the stage during the last song, and one final rowdy circle pit erupted. It was clear the room was full of longtime fans, and the band delivered a memorable set.
DELTA SLEEP
Finally, to cap off an amazing evening were the math rockers from across the pond, Delta Sleep. The band opened with “Sultans of Ping”, which has this great sing-along part in the beginning that the entire crowd sang at the top of their lungs. At this point, everyone was covered in sweat and overheating, but the band was such a good time that you almost forgot how uncomfortable you were.
They played some new tracks off their most recent album, “Blue Garden”, as well as a brand new, recently released song, “UNREAD”. The crowd surfing and circle pitting continued throughout the night, and the energy didn’t wane for a moment.
Crowbar is one of my favorite venues because of how much space you have to navigate around the room and cover all sorts of interesting angles, but nights like tonight make that tough because it was just a sea of bodies as far as the eye could see. It makes my job as a photographer a little tougher, but as a fan of the band and the Tampa music scene, it was heartwarming to see how many people had packed the venue to near-uncomfortable capacity.
The band continued to play through crowd favorites like “Planet Fantastic”, “Camp Adventure”, and another all-time sing-along jam in “Sunchaser”. It felt like an incredible cathartic release for so many in the crowd as they all sang at the top of their lungs and stormed the stage to jump into the crowd.
The band ended with “The Detail” before coming back out after a rousing call for an encore to play another favorite, “Lake Sprinkle Sprankle”. The band received a ton of love throughout the entire set and mentioned that Tampa had been their favorite tour stop so far. I wonder how often this is actually true or if bands say this at literally every show, but I have reason to believe the band was sincere because of how insane the Tampa crowd showed out.
There are only a few more shows at the Crowbar until it closes for good later next month, and I fully expect a lot of them to be just as rambunctious as this. As more and more small venues are pushed out and replaced with Live Nation-owned venues with ridiculous ticket prices, it’s becoming harder to find communal safe spaces with DIY energy. Nights like tonight prove that these spaces are not only loved but essential spaces for local and national bands to come out and bring people together.
Delta Sleep and the gang press on up the East Coast for the remainder of the tour, ending in Baltimore at the Ottobar on June 28th. If you happen to catch them, be prepared to sing along with the rest of the crowd.