Innings Festival and it’s always diverse lineup hit Tampa, Florida recently. A unique Festival celebrating live music & baseball took place on the grounds of the Tampa Bay Bucaneer’s, Raymond James Stadium.
Day 1 featured a harder rock type lineup, opened by We Are Scientists, The Beaches, and former X-Files star David Duchovny’s band, which drew a huge crowd to the Home Plate Stage. One of my favorite parts of festivals, is discovering new bands that may not have been on your personal radar before, and for me, that was Wolf Alice from London, England. It was their first show before their scheduled headline tour which kicked off in Atlanta the next day. Definitely look forward to catching them again at some point.
Jimmy Eat World and Highly Suspect took the stage next, followed by Incubus. Incubus falls under the category of bands I’ve wanted to see forever, but never lined up at the right time. Their set was full of fan favorites and in my opinion was one of the best of the day. 311 followed, and Green Day closed out the day with a heavy Pyro-technic infused set full of sing-alongs and fan appearances. Billie-Joe brought fans on-stage multiple times to sing, dance and even play guitar to a cover of “Knowledge” by Operation Ivy. They sounded absolutely flawless and it was a treat to see them perform a set list of over 20 songs. Major Leaguers such as Tino Martinez, Gary Sheffield and Andrew Jones made appearances throughout the day as well.
Day 2 featured an alt-rock type lineup, opened up by Liz Cooper and former Major League Pitcher Jake Peavy’s All-Star Jam. Neon Trees were next, fronted by Tyler Glenn who is a magician at getting the crowd going. I’ve seen them a few times before and it was awesome to see them play to such a huge crowd. Skip Marley followed, delivering a high energy and upbeat set.
Next on the Agenda, hailing from Maryland and also my personal home town of Rockville was O.A.R.. I had really high expectations for them, and was really excited to see them for the first time, and they exceeded every single one. Goo Goo Dolls hit the Left Field stage, playing out 17 songs over the course of a little over an hour, closing with their hit single “Iris”.
Circling back to Day 1’s comment about discovering bands I wasn’t familiar with, my Day 2 band that stood out, was Khruangbin. They’re a 3 piece band, playing mostly instrumental songs, but I was very drawn in. Their stage set up was very unique and colorful, and I loved every second of their set. Which leads to the final closing act, not of the day, but the entire festival, the Lumineers. I will definitely admit, they’re not my type of music, but a household name. Throughout their set, I recognized songs here and there but the crowd knew every word of every song and it was a warming set to watch.
Overall, the entire festival was an absolute blast. There wasn’t a single act with a weak crowd, everyone was festive wearing their baseball teams shirts and jerseys and it was fun to get out and enjoy a weekend of amazing open-air music. Covid might have slowed us down a bit, but festival’s are returning full throttle bigger and better than ever. Until next time!
Words & Photos by: Terry Dobbins/Scenes of Madness