Dunedin Brewery Spring Beer Jam Rocks Once Again

Photographs courtesy of Nymania Productions

It’s officially spring in Dunedin once the Dunedin Brewery Spring Beer Jam has blown up the coastal Florida town, and it was pure dynamite again this year. Four days of superb music rocked the outdoor tent and the indoor stage, and there was of course great beer on tap and food prepared to make the weekend magical.

THURSDAY

Funk You

Augusta, Georgia, represented first, with Funk You immediately shoving the dance party into overdrive. Gavin Hamilton and the outstanding nine-man band tore into a great set of original funk with some great covers thrown in. You simply can’t sit down when these guys are groovin’. Want to know “What Is Hip?” Funk You Is Hip!

Joe Marcinek with Some Heavy Pets

As much as Joe Marcinek shines as a guitarist, his even greater talent is assembling ensembles from all ends of the earth and evoking amazing performances from them. That was true of this set, as Marcinek was joined by 3/5 of The Heavy Pets: Jim Wuest on keyboards and vocals, Tony D’Amato on bass, and Jamie Newitt on drums. As many times as we’ve heard The heavy Pets, somehow Marcinek got them jamming in great new directions. HOW DOES HE DO THAT?

They opened with two songs from Marcinek’s fabulous new organ trio record JMIII, “Mojo” and “Funnily.” Everybody had solo space in real jazz jam style, Wuest crushing on electric piano. They offered “Mighty Quinn,” which began slowly but soared into glorious space, Wuest on MOOG.

“Hyperbole,” from Marcinek’s first album, was stunning, but the set exploded when DunBrew proprietor Michael Lynn Bryant joined in on MOOG as they hit DEEP space, then twisting into an almost-“Wharf Rat”-like jam, then going uptempo. They covered the Meters, then went DEEP funk with wah-wah pedal, clavinet, Alex Sears joining in on keyboards and Jon Ditty spitting rhymes. Finally, they shut the night down with two great tracks from Marcinek’s second, Slink: “George Washington” first, then “Bernie.” D’Amato and Newitt were in beast mode all set long.

FRIDAY

We missed the Friday night festivities, so we’ll let Mike Nymania’s photos tell the story!

The Heavy Pets

The Groove Orient

SATURDAY

Fat Mannequin

Once again, we missed this superb duo featuring Heavy Pets guitarists Jeff Lloyd and Mike Garulli playing acoustic guitars, with help from Pets bassist Tony D’Amato.

Skallop

Skallop is the improv project featuring Bryant, guitar, keyboards, and vocals; Trevor McDannel, bass; Tucker Sody, drums; and Dave Gerulat, percussion. Naturally, with so much musical talent in the vicinity, the great set also had great guest sit-ins from Alex Sears, keyboards; Joe Marcinek and Joe ‘King’ Knobel, guitars; and Michael Garrie, drums. Throughout the course of the set, they careened from jazz to prog to funk to space and everywhere else they wanted to go.

Jon Ditty X DJ Hurley

This dynamic duo were celebrating the release of their new album Factory Recall. There is just so much energy in every performance when these two collab, and the added impetus of the Beer Jam and and album release sent this show through the roof.

The Heavy Pets

It didn’t take long to figure out that this wasn’t the normal setlist sort of thing. Three songs in, they covered “Blinded by Science,” and those of us who remember the last AURA Music and Arts Festival (of blessed memory) in 2016 recall the titanic Tribute to the ’80s that the Pets delivered. This was a match. They dug deep into the funk, jamming all the while. Marcinek jumped up for “If You Want Me to Stay,” Wuest on vocals. In fact, everybody but D’Amato sang at some point.

Bryant came up for a rap, then Jon Ditty, and Jordan Garno sat in on guitar. They cruised through “Mothership Connection” and “Swing Down Sweet Chariot” (Parliament version). Ditty spit more rhymes over an “Eminence Front” instrumental backing. And I made a note as they played “Don’t You (Forget About Me)”: “When you play a cover more powerful than the original.”

It was insane. Newitt rapped through part of “Rapper’s Delight” (I think) after they played a deluxe cover of “Castles Made of Sand.” WOW

SUNDAY

DJ 45REVOLVER

Hardest-working man in show business!

S.P.O.R.E.

Here is a band that has gone through some personnel changes on lead guitar. When the quartet, expanded to a quintet with the ubiquitous Bryant on synths, played Oktobeerfest, the S.P.O.R.E. set was fun but not particularly riveting.

It’s amazing what a difference six months makes. This set was magnificent. This was badass prog of the sort the band has delivered in the past, and much of the credit must go to Joe ‘King’ Knobel; this was by far the best set I’ve heard from him. Steve Honig is always a monster on bass, and Chris Richard had things anchored from his drum kit. Alex Sears and Bryant work so well together (in all that they do) on keyboards. Magic. Watch out, OBJ!

DYNOHUNTER

I’d be lying if I said my main focus of the entire weekend wasn’t the closing band, Boulder’s DYNOHUNTER. I’ve enjoyed this band the past few years, but they absolutely cemented the deal on Sunday at Suwannee Hulaween with a face-melting set on the Campground Stage, thankfully recorded and available on Soundcloud. And the band had released several EPs of great music recently as well. How would this set match up?

OH EM GEE. Two hours and 15 minutes of brilliant livetronica, with Clark Smith, tenor saxophone and production; Fred Reisen, bass and production; and Nic Thornsberry, drums. No matter how wonderful I thought this set might be, I underestimated by a factor of at least ten. This music isn’t for everyone, but, if you really dig livetronica, then it simply doesn’t get any better than this. And it was clear that they loved playing at Dunedin Brewery, honored to shut this one down so perfectly.

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