Punk rock was well represented at Creative Loafing's Best Of The Bay awards last week (so not punk). One of the accolades went to Pre-Fest. The day-long music event capitalized on the abundance of existing shows already happening in advance of The Fest in Gainesville and rounded them all into Ybor City. There aren't too many scurrying kids catching shows all around Tampa Bay anymore, but there will be a lot of partying happening October 29 and 30.
Tampa gets an advance taste of all that on Saturday when Pre-Fest throws a warm-up show at New World Brewery. To celebrate, BOTB-winning outfit Awkward Age (one of the bands playing said show) is giving away their brand new LP, We Could Be Anywhere. CDs won't be available until late October, but Awkward Age couldn't keep it in their pants until then.
"We're really proud of this record," guitarist Matt Shumate told CL, "[releasing] it just seemed like a good decision."
The 11-track effort was recorded and mixed by Matt Ostraco at Tampa's Epic Problem and then mastered by Bill Henderson at Azimuth Mastering. That awesomely nightmarish artwork was handled by Pamela Hoogeboom, who is handling the full liner notes and art for the release.
Listen to We Could Be Anywhere below. Grab a pay-what-you-want download here. Doors for Saturday's free show at New World Brewery (1313 E. 8th Ave, Ybor City) open at 9 p.m. Tiny Tortures, Moodbeard, and Joyspent play support and more information is available on Facebook. More info on Pre-Fest is available here.