Synopsis In A Bandshell

Imagine if you will the location for the filming of MTV’s Spring Break at Daytona Beach. Erase that weekend and replace it with “Recovery Month” put on by Stewart Marchmam Act.  Now you have a picture of the “follow thru”. They should be put back to back perhaps.

SMA has been around for thirty years. The NehoSoul Band was invited to do a concert on the beach yards from the finish line of the very first Daytona 500 race.

The Daytona Beach Band Shell looks to be a relic from a lost civilization, only transplanted to the current “mardi Gras” looking surroundings of Daytona Beach.

Saturday night there were some 3000 people there to celebrate recovery. O.k. there were alot of onlookers from the bar too! and the balconies of the 16 floor hotel towering over the band shell.

The heat even at 7 p.m. when we started playin, was stifling. I found myself pouring cold water over my head during the performance. which included a spontaneous combustion, on my part, of off the charts dancin around during one of the blistering grooves the Neho Soul Band always lays down.

Dancing, for a 56 year old with bad knees,(while wearing motorcycle boots) is near suicide in normal weather. But Daytona has the humidity factor of an African Jungle.

The day after came with the kind of punishment that an old man deserves for tryin to live up to his past.

I was clearly finished physically after the three hour motorcycle run that was part of the event. Some 200 motorcycles rolled under escort from ten Motorcycle cops, stopping traffic at every intersection. I could get used to that.

The scenery was surprising in variation, I wasn’t aware some of it existed in Florida. That canopy of trees and Black Water swamp was like a New Orleans movie setting.

What was familiar was the flat land and the sandy roadsides, tall pines towering over lush tropical vegetation, and that humidity drawn from frequent rain showers serving up a deceiving momentary relief.

The recovery ride finished at the Band Shell. Bikers  lined the sidewalk with their motorcycles next to the beach to watch two bands, a dance team, and a motorcycle stunt show.

The whole event brought large numbers of curious bystanders and tourists. It was the kind of set up that I always hope for in presenting music. An event that captures the ears of the unsuspecting. When you can stop someone on the sidewalk because of the presentation and hold them there without all the hype and marketing you know you have something special.

k so there’s that. in a band shell… bryan d