Southern Avenue, Sugar & Spice Revue Tear It Up in Tampa
WMNF 88.5 brought two great pairs of soulful sisters to Skipper’s Smokehouse (Tampa) on Sunday, September 23rd, for a magical evening of blues, R&B, rock, and lots of soul. Southern Avenue, the smashing new quintet from Memphis, were joined by the Sugar and Spice Revue, and dancing was the order of the evening.
The Sugar and Spice Revue from Tampa got the evening off to a sparkling start with original tunes and great covers of soul, R&B, and rock’n’roll classics. The group is fronted by the Glover sisters — Myra ‘Sugar’ Glover and Velma ‘Spice’ Glover — and backed by a solid quintet. It only took a couple of songs before spice began roaming the crowd, and she spent most of the rest of the set all over the Skipperdome, delighting little girls, bumping with lucky gentlemen, and shaking what mother Loretta gave her with lots of ladies on the dance floor.
After several covers, including “Honky Tonk Women,” the band knocked out several Aretha classics: “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman” and “Rock Steady.” Next, they romped through “Proud Mary,” “Lady Marmalade,” “Thank You (Fallettinme Be Mice Elf Agin),” and “I Got You (I Feel Good).” Spice moved from stage to crowd and back, while Sugar remained on staged.
Finally, there was a wonderful version of Etta James’s “At Last,” sung by Sugar, before Spice told us a bit about Loretta, their mother and a Florida legend. The band then played a searing “Mama Used to Sing the Blues” written for her.
After a brief set break, the Memphis kids rolled on stage. Southern Avenue are led by sisters Tierinii and Tikyra Jackson. Tierinii is the whirlwind vocalist out front, while sister Tikyra is a powerful drummer who sings background vocals. The band dove into “Steady Beats,” followed by “What Did I Do.” Like much of the band’s material, that song and the next, “It’s Gonna Be Alright,” were written by Tierinii and guitarist Ori Naftaly, a fabulous string-bender.
One of the few covers the band played was “Slipped, Tripped and Fell in Love,” a song Memphis diva Ann Peebles made famous. Southern Avenue did it proud. “Come Together” was a great organ feature for Jeremy Powell. Tikyra got her turn on “Blood on the Dancefloor” with a drum tour de force, and Naftaly blistered on the bluesy “Love is the Answer.” The bass player added great background vocals along with Tikyra all evening.
We arrived at the end of the show, and the band offered their anthemic “Don’t Give Up,” a soul-stirring sing-along with everybody tearing it up. Of course we weren’t letting them go with out an encore! Southern Avenue returned to the stage for a rousing “Chain of Fools,” Tierinii with her most riveting vocals of the evening. During his solo on organ, Powell inserted a nice quote from Booker T. and the MGs’ “Hip Hug-Her.”
That’s how you close out an evening of great soul, blues, rock, and R&B. Sister Act & Sister Act 2 FTW!
