The second year of the Innings Festival Florida was announced with a huge bang. The headliners of Imagine Dragons on Saturday and Dave Matthews Band on Sunday resonated well with those who came back after its debut year and for newcomers to the festival. Held once again at the Raymond James Stadium Grounds on March 18th and 19th, the festival was lined up to be a great time.
I arrived on site not too long after the doors had opened and the festival was already full steam ahead. Security ran very smoothly getting people scanned and checked in and there was already a crowd milling through the festival grounds. Like last year, the festival had both batting cages and speed pitching areas for those who love baseball with former Major League Baseball stars making appearances there throughout the day. And of course the musical performances. There were two stages set up towards the far end of the grounds “side by side”, except there were probably 100 feet between them. And one additional smaller stage set up on the left side of the grounds near the speed pitching area. All of the food vendors were near the entrance and there were many bars distributed throughout the festival grounds. I had a chance to check out the Corona booth and the Ghost energy drink booth which were both busy and a Whiteclaw representative was handing out sunglasses to attendees. The festival grounds looked great and now it was time to get to the music.
One thing to call out regarding the music, I absolutely loved how much time artists had to perform. At most festivals, sets are 20-40 minutes for most of the openers. Innings Festival Florida gave the majority of the artists 45 minutes to an hour to play and the headliners had an hour and a half to two hours to perform. A huge amount of time to see bands with almost no overlap except for bands that performed at the Left Field Stage. So attendees could see full sets of the majority of the artists playing that weekend.
Briscoe from Austin, TX was the first band to kick us off that day at the Home Plate stage. The band’s music draws on influences from artists like Neil Young, James Taylor, and similar music from the 60s and 70s. The group was very entertaining and the crowd cheered for them well. Briscoe sells out shows in their home town and are currently working on releasing their debut studio album. Following them at the Right Field stage presented by Verizon was the band Cydeways. The alt-reggae band from Santa Barbara, CA played a great set with some elements of hip-hop, reggae, and pop punk and it felt free-flowing. Cydeways vocalist Dustin Parks really knows how to work the crowd. The band releases their self-debut album on March 25th.
After catching some of Cydeways set I made my way over to the baseball area to see the former Major League Baseball stars. Over at the batting cages was Ray Lankford. Ray is a former center fielder who played the majority of his career with the St. Louis Cardinals and two seasons with the San Diego Padres. Ray had the distinct achievement in 1994 of being the first batter of the season and hitting a home run. He also posted 5 seasons with 20 home runs and 20 stolen bases. He finished his career with 238 home runs and 874 runs batted in. Down by the speed pitching area was Rafael Furcal. Rafael played shortstop for the Atlanta Braves, Los Angeles Dodgers, St. Louis Cardinals, and the Miami Marlins. He was a 3 time All Star and won a World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals in 2011. He was the National League Rookie of the Year in 2000. He finished his career with 113 home runs and 587 runs batted in.
While I didn’t get a chance to catch the other baseball meet and greets that day, they had a great lineup of people that included Wade Boggs, Ryan Klesko, and John Kruk.
I headed back to the Home Plate Stage for Joey Valence & Brae. It was the first time I ever heard of the duo and I was very impressed. The duo met at Penn State, became roommates, and began making music together. While it was never their intent to do music full-time, they were extremely successful at it and even performed on the Ellen Degeneres Show. The duo has an amazing vibe and energy that resembles The Beastie Boys with less hard rock. Some of the songs they performed are “Watch Yo Step”, “Startafight” and their huge hit “Double Jump”. They are definitely a group to see perform live. I ran over quickly to the Left Field stage to get some photos of the All-Star Jam hosted by Jake Peavy. Jake is a 2 time World Series Championship pitcher with the Boston Red Sox and won the NL Cy Young Award and NL Pitching Triple Crown Award with the San Diego Padres. After baseball, he started the All-Star Jam. Back over on the Right Field stage was the artist Tai Verdes. He’s a singer and songwriter with phenomenal vocals. Tai is very charismatic on stage and had the crowd in the palm of his hands. His performance included singles “A-O-K”, “DRUGS”, and “Stuck in the Middle”.
The indie pop band Japanese Breakfast was next at Home Plate Stage. The band’s last album Jubilee was nominated for Best Alternative Album and the band was nominated for Best New Artists at the 64th Annual Grammy Awards. They have a very unique sound and vibe mixing between very mellow to rock. Some of the songs they performed included “Paprika”, “Be Sweet”, and “In Heaven”. Following them at Right Field Stage was Grouplove. The alternative rock band has dual vocalists of Hannah Hooper and Christian Zucconi and they are a fabulous pair together. The Innings Festival Florida crowd absolutely loved their rock sound and so did I. They had a wonderful performance that included the live debut of “Hello” and singles “Deleter” and “Colours”.
We were closing in on the last three acts of the night and they were all superstars in their own right. First, on the Home Plate Stage was one of the most charismatic men in the music industry, Pitbull. The Latin American singer has over 25 million albums and 100 million singers sold. His music and personality are energetic and he loves to get the crowd moving. With a group of dancers decked out in baseball outfits with his hometown of Miami labeled on them, Pitbull took the festival crowd by storm and had everyone jumping, dancing, and overall having a lot of fun. He was very gracious and appreciative that festival producer C3 brought him to perform for the Tampa crowd and he ensured people were having a good time. Fans were in droves to see him with some dressing up as Pitbull and others carrying signs. While his music is not my normal selection to hear, I was very excited to see him and his performance was everything I expected. To sum it up in a word; electric.
Closing out the Right Field Stage was the rock band Weezer. They’ve been around since 1992 and have sold over 35 million albums worldwide. They have so many recognizable singles that most people probably know their songs without knowing them. And the setlist that night was a truly amazing collection of songs. The tempo started out slow with songs like “Beverly Hills” and “Island in the Sun“. They threw a change of pace performing “Susanne” acoustically. They added in “Undone – The Sweater Song” and “Say It Ain’t So” into the set. It wasn’t until much later did we get to hear my favorite Weezer song “Hash Pipe”. I really loved they also tossed into the set the cover of Toto’s “Africa”. It’s not an easy song to replicate and Weezer did a phenomenal performance of it. The crowd really loved them and I was thrilled they performed at the festival that night.
Finally closing out the night at the Home Plate Stage was the headliners Imagine Dragons. The pop rock band from Las Vegas, NV has been around since 2008 and stormed onto the scene with their debut album Night Visions in 2012 which contained the single “Radioactive”. The album went to #1 on the Billboard 200. And while they only have 6 studio albums in total, the band has sold over 75 million albums worldwide and fans were clamoring to see them perform that night. The festival grounds were tightly packed to see them play. Vocalist Dan Reynolds came out on stage shirtless and wearing what looked like swimming trunks and you could immediately hear the majority of women screaming in approval of his attire. Imagine Dragons gave the performance of a lifetime with such visual backgrounds, smoke, and stage lighting. Some of the songs they performed included “Believer”, “Demons”, “Thunder”, “On Top of the World”, and of course “Radioactive”.
Day 1 of Innings Festival Florida was truly an amazing experience of great music and great baseball experiences and meet and greets. Day 1 definitely knocked it out of the park this year.
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