Tampa’s Prescribed Fire brings myriad of rock influences to its polyrhythmic instrumental music

From ‘70s stoner-rock to math-rock, disco, and swing, it’s all there.

click to enlarge Prescribed Fire - Photo by Dave Decker
Photo by Dave Decker
Prescribed Fire
Drummer and music instructor Shawn Watkins hates to admit it, but some of his playing for instru-metal polyrhythmic power trio Prescribed Fire is influenced by math-rock. It also takes cues from ‘70s stoner-rock, but also disco and swing.

In front of him onstage and in the mix are guitarist Christa McHugh and bassist Kevin Coss who plays in punk band Down By Law.

For Prescribed Fire, McHugh told CL they ditched the idea of auditioning a singer and threw out the notion of adhering to any typical song structures.

“We started breaking the rules and things really clicked,” she added. Coss adds that his tastes for everything from jazz to classic-rock and post-punk make it into the arrangements—including new music the band is prepping ahead of a run of shows this fall.See a list of the best Tampa Bay instrumental bands you can listen to right now.

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Ray Roa

Read his 2016 intro letter and disclosures from 2022 and 2021. Ray Roa started freelancing for Creative Loafing Tampa in January 2011 and was hired as music editor in August 2016. He became Editor-In-Chief in August 2019. Past work can be seen at Suburban Apologist, Tampa Bay Times, Consequence of Sound and The...
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