Blowfly Load Tribute
BLOW YOUR LOAD: Blowfly & Load Tribute
Miami has a rep for being ground zero for sleaze and depravity. They even made a show in the 80’s all about how the city was basically made of cocaine, girls in bikinis and drug dealers and cops in pastel suits. (Miami Vice, if you’re too young to remember) The unofficial Mayor of the city is Uncle Luke, a man who had previously been banned from selling his record in record stores because it was considered obscene; as well as, having his strip club shut down because of gangster type shenanigans. Iggy Pop, one of the wildest men to ever play rock and roll moved from New York City to Dade County because, “there are too many chiefs and not enough Indians.” roaming the streets of Gotham. It’s no surprise then that someone like Blowfly would emerge from a city so drippy with sweat and stank.
Blowfly, a.k.a Clarence Reid, was a producer, song writer and performer who worked with many soul and R&B heavy hitters in the 60’s and 70’s. For fun he re-wrote hit songs with profane lyrics and performed them at parties or in the studio. However, this caught on and he decided to record a party record called, The Weird World of Blowfly. When he performed out he would wear outlandish costumes to protect his identity, and his day job. Blowfly was the original dirty rapper and was sampled by everyone from DMX, Wu Tang and Beyonce, to name a few. Unfortunately, he never retained the rights to any of his music and thus was never properly made whole based on his samples. Blowfly recorded and toured right up until his death in January of this year, leaving a gaping hole in the South Florida scene.
Load was a South Florida punk band that lived hard and played hard. It’s that ethos that stole Bobby Johnston and Jeff Tucci from us not too long ago. Whiskey on Beer is a documentary about the band that is being made by Gary and Rick Ahmed. It was during the indie go-go fundraising campaign for that project that Blowfly’s manager, band mate and longtime friend Tom Bowker made a threat that would become the catalyst for the, Blow your Load tribute show. Rick and Gary were coming up short on their indie go-go goal and Bowker threatened to put together his own fundraiser with his own band of all stars. A threat Bowker has made good on, much to the begrudging delight of everyone involved.
Blow your Load, is a collection of old friends and some new faces getting together to celebrate Blowfly’s legacy and Load’s infamy. Both of which deserve way more credit than they’ve previously been afforded. The event features performances by: Shark Valley Sisters; itself made up of scene legends, The Gun Hoes and D.J. Skidmark. However, the real spotlights to this shit show are the Overtown Soul Revue, performing Blowfly and Clarence Reid originals; and the Load Orchestra, an all-star Miami band made up of musicians from all over the South Florida scene such as: Load, Blowfly, Cavity, Floor, the Crumbs, the Holy Terrors, Holly Hunt and Chickenhead, to name a few. The proceeds from this show are being split to benefit, Whiskey on Beer and the Blowfly Underground Mural Project, an attempt to immortalize Clarence Reid in all of his Blowfly glory on as many walls as possible all across the world. Blowfly may have called Miami home, but he and his band toured the world several times and left a lasting impression in every city they played. Load and Blowfly playing together is an event that should have happened a long time ago and sadly will never be. However, the next best thing is to get everyone who loved them together in order to celebrate their music and ensure their legacy lives on to be discovered by (and to ruin) young minds for generations.
Blow your Load, takes place Friday, June 17th at Churchill’s Pub, 5501 NE 2nd Avenue, Miami, 33137. Doors are at 9pm and there is a $12 cover charge. Come celebrate the filth and the fury. RSVP
