Florida Night Heat

Delivering sweat-soaked sets of Southern drone-stoner griminess and pounding spaghetti Western-tinged psych rock-tronics is Florida Night Heat. Bassist Andre Jones rages the low end, a usually bare-chested force who head-bangs or shifts in explosive bursts as beat-keeper Chris Wood crashes cymbals, wails on toms and kicks bass drum with a perfect Animal-Grrr face. Guitarist Jensen Kistler offers a calm and cool counterpoint to both, fingers dancing along the fretboard and delivering heady riffs, solos and layers of reverb and noise, all with a Mona Lisa smile. New four-song Omegas EP — recorded at BOTB 2012-winning Short Circuit Studio — will see a vinyl-only release this fall - Creative Loafing Tampa

Florida Night Heat, I’m a fan. FNH are a three piece instrumental act doing some cool, proggy groove rock. Some of my initial thoughts were these guys are fans of Zeppelin, Floyd, a little Tool and Tarantino movie soundtracks. I picked those things out, maybe because I enjoy all of them. Either way, there was enough awesomeness in Florida Night Heat’s set to go around. They jammed through their reverb and delay drenched songs like a car driving down a twisty mountain road in a foreign land, unsure what was around the next bend. There was some great interplay between the musicians in this band. At times songs had a distinctly Latin flavors sprinkled over an early 70s Pink Floyd-esque sound. “One Of These Days I’m going to cut your mojo roast pork into little pieces.” Great show guys, looking forward to seeing you again! - analogvoid

along with some of Saturday's must-see acts: Mountain Goats, Adrian Younge, Jane Jane Pollack, Florida Night Heat and more. - Tampa Bay Times

and while certain moments felt like the bowels were being shaken out of my belly, songs like “The Last Bandito” showcased the band’s ability to paint the type of sonic images Dangermouse, Danielle Luppi, and Jack White tried to dream up on Rome. - Suburban Apologist

In 2010, when Brokenmold Entertainment caravanned to Austin to support several local bands playing SXSW, the musicians of Florida Night Heat tagged along.

"We went completely uninvited, with no intentions of doing anything there, no shows set up," drummer Chris Wood recounted. On day three, in a spontaneous act of DIY whimsy, Wood and bandmates Jensen Kistler and Andre Jones decided they wanted to perform, and didn't need an official or even unofficial platform to do it.

"We've always been the band that likes to come in under the radar,” Kistler said. So they set up on a street corner on the outskirts of the SXSW bustle, used a car cigarette lighter adapter to power their amps, and delivered some magic and mayhem despite having barely enough juice to keep the bass and guitar amp going. "It cut out a few times during the set, Chris was on a modified drumset, basically on a street corner in Austin, playing for people walking by, trying to avoid cops as much as we could..."

Florida Night Heat has evolved much since that fateful weekend and even more since their 2009 inception, when Wood and Jones first picked up instruments (drums and bass) and taught themselves how to play so they could join guitarist friend Kistler in what he called a "clubhouse kind of band"; for hanging out, drinking beers, jamming, collaborating on some music, and maybe playing a house party or a few. They gelled quickly and naturally, developing a stoner-grimy Southern rock sound with loose and measured instrumentals that incorporated electro, funk, psychedelic and Ennio Morricone-style spaghetti western flavor. They even started booking gigs. For all, even Kistler, it was a novel experience. "I'd played music before but never like this, so we were all sort of on the same level."

Jones and Wood got progressively tighter and more confident in their talents, Jensen expanded on his fret maneuvers and pedal technique, and the trio settled into a comfortable groove until they had a fully-realized repertoire. Their 2011 debut full-length, #Immortality, was thus an exercise in getting all the songs they'd written up to that point onto disc and chronicles "the very beginning to the middle of our progression," according to Kistler. By the time it was released in December, however, they were already working on new material, and are currently putting the finishing touches on the four-song Omegas EP that, Kistler said, "shows where we're at right now and where we're going to go."

Omegas will see a vinyl-only release later this year. (9:45-10:25 p.m., Emerald Bar) - Creative Loafing Tampa

Florida Night Heat @ Fubar

Florida Night Heat was named just for nights like this — muggy, sweaty, late July weather that drives everyone in search of AC and cold PBR. Regulars of the Tampa music scene, FNH's instrumental stylings are a mix of R&B and punk-influenced drums and basslines with layers of post-rock guitars and electronic ambiance. Gone are the days of the trio playing to a few adventurous listeners who arrived early for another band's set; at Fubar, FNH performed to a packed bar full of fans. They're fleshing out their sound with the addition of keys and trumpet on some songs, and it suits them quite well. Almost interrupted by a short circuiting bass, the set was saved by occasional bandmate/keyboardist/part-time Brokenmold exec. (the guy is busy, right?) Matt E. Lee, who held the connector into the bass while Andre Jones finished the song. That's some teamwork. Check out some footage from their performance below. —DR

- Creative Loafing Tampa