The monthly publication’s 1990 catalog, loosely outlined below via its cover artists and live music advertisements, reflects the variety of genres evolving and devolving in each of their interlocking scenes. It’s overtly apparent in the following three February 1990 album release advertisements:

ABOVE: Three full-page album release ads from the February 1990 issue of Thrust music magazine represent a sign of the changing musical times: an ad for local metal legends Savatage and their Gutter Ballet album; an ad for the grungy Seattle Soundgarden Louder than Love album (sold at “the alternative record store”) with a Soundgarden show on 3-3-1990 (which I’ve since learned from the comments below is a typo and was actually on 2-3-1990) at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, Florida; and an ad for our other local good-time rock-n-roll favorites the Stranger band and their No Rules album release (available on Compact Disc and Cassette). Variety!

Remember, there was no social media back then, no check-ins and selfies to scroll back to, so physical tickets, flyers, and local music magazines were your primary source of ‘event notifications,’ as well as a way to SEE pictures of those oh-so-fun-to-look-at bands.

As an ode to how awesome the 1990 local music scene was, this post includes most every music advertisement – including local club ads with band listings – featured in Thrust magazine for the entire year. I’ve tagged every band and venue named, big and small, legendary and all. Why did I go through all this effort, as I really don’t have that much time on my hands lol? For several reasons, the biggest being that the most common comment I get on my site is whether I have any flyers for some random local band someone played in back when…and it dawned on me that the most likely place to find those obscure band names are in the local club ads. So I hope I give the gift of a tangible piece of nostalgia in this fleeting digital age ;o). I also post them in the hopes that it lets people relive the ‘good old days’ for a few minutes, and also cuz I just want to enshrine them in cyberspace for archeological posterity \w/. I’ll mention I’m glad I saved these things cuz the memories are bleak on a lot of them lol.

If you have any corrections or comments or memories on any of the shows below, I would love to hear them in the comments, and of course it would be cool to see your related memorabilia. I’m not able to include many concert ticket stubs and/or prices in this post as the majority of the access was via press guest list or comped ticket stubs.

But most importantly and above all, 1990 was another amazing live music year in the Tampa Bay Area! Check out a month-to-month listing of who played in the local scene below. You can read full issues, including reviews and interviews for many of the shows and artists listed below, at the Thrust Music Magazine archives.

January, 1990

ABOVE: Motley Crue with Warrant on 1-20-1990 at the Orlando Arena in Orlando, Florida. Comped ticket. Also Motley Crue ad for the show on 1-22-1990 at the Bayfront Center in St. Petersburg, Florida. Cost $18.50 plus fees. Photo Pass – First Three Songs Only – this is typical of press photo passes; I believe this pass was used at the Orlando show.

ABOVE: The January 1990 issue of Thrust Magazine featured local legends Roxx Gang on the cover. A huge variety of bands played out and about: the Rock-It Club featured BOA, Syndicate, Intents, Kody Lee, Johnny Winter, and Stranger. The Volley Club had Rock Bottom, Harken, Kronik, Chaos, Talion, Keith Collins Krunch, Malicious Intent, Iced Earth, Brutality, Iron Cross, Medusa, Ordeal, Coven, Axis Alley and Foxxxhead. Boomerangs had Deloris Telescope, Triple Crown, and The Beat Heathens. Makos Plus featured Stranger as well as specialty 95 YNF nights with deejays Fast Eddie and Charlie Logan. Nice to see the Heavenly Hunks male revue alongside Tiny Teddy night lol. And of course I had to include the Intice Taste the Night album ad featuring my bestie wearing an Intice signage bikini \w/, and a Roxx Gang guitar contest promotional flyer.

ABOVE: January’s issue of Thrust also saw the inaugural article of The Great American Stiff (RIP), offering monthly coverage of the punk and hardcore scene. Other January concert ads: Tom Petty & the Heartbreakers with Lenny Kravitz on 1-26-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, cost $18.50 plus fees. The Ministry on 1-20-1990 at the Cuban Club in Ybor City, cost $14 advance/$16 day-of show. The Ramones on 1-27-1990, also at the Cuban Club, cost $14 advance/$16 day-of. B.B. King (two shows) on 1-21-1990 at the Tampa Theatre (wow, what a marvelous venue too) in downtown Tampa, cost $19.50 plus fees . Billy Joel on 3-6-90 at the Florida Suncoast Dome (now Tropicana Field) in St. Petersburg.

February, 1990

The Cult with Dangerous Toys and Bonham on 2-14-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. Comped ticket. Note the “No Cameras/Recorders/Video.”

ABOVE: The February issue of Thrust featured local band Exploration X. Cool shows at the Rock-It Club including XYZ, Skid Row (see stub above), Stranger, Heartless, Race and Rulette. The Volley Club had The Attitude, Renegade, Midnite, Donnie Bennett, Hard Attack, Saber, St. Warren, Powersurge, Last Rite, Malicious Intent, Silent Scream, Mean Booper, Eulogy, The Outcasts, Shockwave, and The Pancake Farmers.

ABOVE: More music at Bodytalk in Pinellas Park: Bang Bang with Intice, Jeteye, Stiletto, Midnite, Men From Earth, Bratz, Ordeal, Killer Instinct. Boomerangs Cafe had Smoldering Ashes, ICU, Destroy All Monsters, Kingtones, The Attitude, Scrooge, Rocky Ruckman & the Beat Heathens. Masquerade featured ICU with Life and Death and Avant-Garde.

March, 1990

ABOVE: Alice Cooper with Danger Danger and The Front on 3-4-1990 at the Tampa Bay Performing Arts Center in Tampa, Florida. Ticket appears to be comped. A 1989 band-autographed press kit photo. This tour was in conjunction with Alice’s 1989 album release Trash and involved country-wide beach clean-up promotions (pretty cool, Alice). PERSONAL PHOTO: I recall being at one said beach clean-up on the Courtney Campbell Causeway in Clearwater with Thrust Magazine co-founder Chris Phillips and our son Adrian in a stroller, and an amazing pair of slouch socks.

ABOVE: Enuff Z’Nuff with Trouble on 3-8-1990 at the Rock-It Club in Tampa, Florida. The press photo is cut up to use the logo in old-school cut-and-gluestick-mock-up. You can see how it was used in the Rock-It Club advertisement below. (Meilani’s stub and club photo). UPDATE: See the comments below for more about the band Trouble.

ABOVE: The March 1990 issue of Thrust featured other local legends Savatage on the front cover and Sweet FA on the back. The inside front cover featured Peter Murphy‘s show on 3-23-1990 at the Mahaffey Theatre in St. Petersburg, Florida. The inside back cover featured a 98 Rock ad looking for the “Central Florida’s Craziest Rock-n-Roll Lunatic.” And a local music scene summary called the Black Cat featuring Blackie Rie reporting.

ABOVE: The Rock-It Club had Sacred Rite, Strutter, Sheer Threat and Enuff Z’Nuff on 3-8-1990 (see stub above) and Sweet FA on 3-4-1990. Whitesnake with Bad English on 3-25-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, cost $18.50. Bodytalk in Pinellas Park had Killer Instinct, Katz Eye, Midnite, Strange Behavior, and Stiletto. The Volley Club in Tampa has Malevolent Creation, The Guff, Brutality, Last Rite, Malicious Intent, Kronik, and Detriment, Captain Johnston, Ordeal, Stiletto, and Champagne Theatre. Last is an ad for local favorites Intice and their new album Taste the Night.

April, 1990

ABOVE: The April 1990 issue of Thrust featured The London Quireboys (now known as the Quireboys) on the cover. The Rock-It Club in Tampa had the Stranger band, Barrage, St. Warren, Saber, Syndicate, Sacred Rite, Gunner Down, Gary Richrath, and L.A. Guns with Shark Island on 4-29-1990.

ABOVE : An ad for local band Jeteye and their debut album release (a band which incudes what I think is the only local musician I went to high school with, Donnie Brown) and the monthly ads for Bodytalk with Rampage, Jeteye, Katzeye and Midnite. Masquerade had Death, Devastation, Sanctuary and Fate’s Warning. Makos Plus had Scrooge, Last Call, Stranger, and Southern Snow. Boomerangs had Rocky Ruckman & the Beat Heathens, Bleeding Hearts, Kitty Grinds, Blonde Ambition, Cry Laughing, Kingtones, Scrooge, Legendary Green, and Mod-L Citizen. The Porthole Lounge had Renegade, Rampage, Foxxxhead, The Bleeding Hearts, Jeteye, Cast of Nasties, Stiletto, and Stranger. A Fantasma Productions ad for the Psychedelic Furs, Cowboy Junkies, Sam Kinison, John Prine, David Bowie, and Milli Vanilli. And I threw in a Metal Blade Records/available at Aces Records ad as a reminder that we still had to go to the store and buy our music in that era.

May, 1990

ABOVE: The May issue of Thrust featured Company of Wolves. The Rock-It Club line-up included Amber Rose, Intimate Acts, Heartless, Strutter, Torn Lace, The Neighborhood, The London Quireboys, XYZ, MSG (Micheal Schenker Group) with the Black Crowes (wow!), and Roxx Gang. The London Quireboys‘ 7 O’Cock Party Bus contest was a fun one on 5-16-1990.

ABOVE: Fantasma Productions ad for Cowboy Junkies, John Prine, UB-40, and Depeche Mode with Nitzer Ebb. The Porthole Lounge had Autodrive, Champagne Theatre, and the Bobby Friss Band. Bodytalk ad with Midnite, Intice, Stranger, Strange Behavior, Circus of Fools, Katzeye. Thunderzone featured the Bobby Friss Band, Midnite, Intice, Jeteye, Cast of Nasties, the Bleeding Hearts, Love Dogs, Backseat Romance, Last Call, Circus of Fools, Down & Dirty, and Stranger. Mako’s Plus had The Snow, Backseat Romance, Last Call, Asylum, and the Bleeding Hearts.

June, 1990

ABOVE: Lord Tracy with Saber on 6-17-1990 at Bodytalk in Pinellas Park, Florida. PERSONAL PHOTO: The Lord Tracy guys stopped by the Thrust Magazine offices during our son’s first birthday party in St. Petersburg, Florida.

ABOVE: The June issue of Thrust featured Lord Tracy on the cover. The Rock-It Club had a great month: Baton Rouge, Every Mother’s Nightmare, Rulette, Salty Dog, Joker’s Wild, Stranger, Killing Floor, Heartless, Love/Hate (side note: guitarist Jon E. Love is a former roomie of Chris and I from Los Angeles and it was kind of weird to be driving him around in my Fort Pinto when he was in town for this show). The Volley Club had Saber, Rampage, Renegade, Stiletto, Midnite, and Metal Mondays with Blind Sight, Mirassance, Injustice, Brutality, Artistic Butchery, Bloodshed, Mag Syndrome, Corporal Punishment, and Simon Bar Sinister.

ABOVE: Fantasma Productions ad with Jackson Brown, Janet Jackson, Eric Clapton, B-52s, Ziggy Marley and the Melody Makers, and New Kids On The Block. The Porthole Lounge had 285, Midnite and Autodrive. Bodytalk had Autodrive, Bleeding Hearts, Stranger, Emerald City, Drama, and Backseat Romance. Also Blackout, Detriment, and Mortuary (took me awhile staring at the logo to decipher that one lol) at Jannus Landing; Heart on 6-10-1990 at the USF Sun Dome; Thunderzone had Saber, Stranger, Rampage, Roxx Gang, New Legion, and Amber Rose. Masquerade with feature nights, and the Golden Nugget had Bobby Friss Band, Autodrive, Champagne Theatre, Midnite, and Renegade.

July, 1990

ABOVE: Yet another local favored-to-make-it-band, Juliet, was featured on Thrust’s July issue, promoting their new album release Revvin Me Up. I do not remember the club Biarritz but an online search reveals it was in a former dance club on U.S. 19 North in Clearwater, a few miles north of Gulf-to-Bay Blvd. I think it was around where the WalMart is now at NE Coachman Road; I recall being dragged to a male dreaded-capezio dancer show there once.

ABOVE: Boomerangs Cafe had Jeteye, Headlights, The Blues Punks, Kingtones, and Secret Service. The Volley Club had Backseat Romance, Champagne Theatre, Hemlock, with Monday Alternative nights featuring the Pink Lincolns, Crankshaft, The Johnsons, Mag Syndrome, Red Asphalt, Mistreater, Attika, Trash Palance, Alloy Witch, and Prodigy, and also Tuesday metal night with Mortuary, Last Rite, Templar, Detriment, Broken Faith, Public Nuisance, Crankshaft, No Fraud, Psycho Love Dogs, Blues Punks, and Crystal Heart. ML Chasers had Delores Telescope, Circus, and Backstreet Romance. The Golden Nugget up north in Holiday had Emerald City, Autodrive, Third Degree, Champagne Theatre, and the Stranger band.

August, 1990

ABOVE: Kiss with Slaughter and Danger Danger on 8-4-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. I vaguely remember the backstage area where the guys signed stuff (my poor memory banks, sigh). This pass is permanently enshrined on the back of a Thrust magazine sticker, which is kinda cool.

ABOVE: The August 1990 issue of Thrust featured Faith no More. To do this very day I clearly remember standing in Club Detroit in downtown St. Petersburg hearing Faith No More’s rock rap Epic for the first time and slipping into an immensely woah realization right then and there that I was in a time portal, and nothing would ever be the same. Deep stuff moment. Clearwater club ML Chasers had Autodrive, Stranger, Circus, and Champagne Theatre…and oh 75 cents ladies’ drinks all night. Boomerangs had Headlites, Smoldering Ashes, Factory Black, Men From Earth, Deloris Telescope, Bomb-A-Gogo, Emerald City, Kingstones, Rocky Ruckman, Walk-the-Chalk, and Ellis Telly. Tampa’s Volley Club had Jeteye, Champagne Theatre, Renegade, Attitude, along with Metal Mondays and Psycho Tuesdays with Mortuary, Simon Bar Sinister, Last Rite, Infiltration, Sophistry, Broken Faith, Sinseared, Sex Rex, Cast of Nasties, Basil-Rat-Bomb, Blues Punks, Road Whore, Genitortuers, Assuck, and Crystal Heart.

ABOVE: Bad Company with Damn Yankees on 9-1-1990 at Orlando Arena in Orlando, Florida, cost $10.50 advance/service charge $13.50. The Masquerade with Catherine Wheel, Mad for Electra, Innocent Splendor, Monday Mornings, Multicolor House, Ellis Telly,Slaughterhouse Intruder, Vengeance, Inc., Flat Duo Jets, Cast Of Nasties with Stiff Kitty, Men From East, Factory Black, and Xavier. The Suncoast Summer Music Festival started on 8-10-1990 at the Manatee Civic Center in Bradenton, Florida and featured some national headliners and a ton of local and touring bands. The club Bodytalk became the The Rock and had Rampage, Arson, Jokers Wild, Emerald City, Champagne Theatre, Roxx Gang, and Stranger. A new club called The Filling Station had Espionage and Too Rude. Also some love to local area favorites the Bleeding Hearts, whose hits like Take It On the Chin could be bought at Aces Records, Spec’s, and Peaches Records & Tapes. I’m happy to see Earl on Facebook playing with his son Dylan occasionally in the Phoenix area

September, 1990

ABOVE: Livestock!!! Thank you to my favorite concert ticket sites setlist.fm and concertarchives.org for the above screenshots…as usual in all concert searches, they were the best places I could find the line-ups for the the inaugural version of Tampa Bay Area’s most famous festival: Livestock. This long-running Tampa Bay Area rock music festival cannot be overlooked, even though for some reason I cannot find anything about it in Thrust, neither ad nor review. LIVESTOCK was held on September 29-30, 1990 at Zephyrhills Festival Park in Zephyrhills, Florida. According to these sites, which are fan-updated and usually pretty accurate, the event featured some or all of Uncle Sally, Bobby Friss, Rocky Ruckman & the Beat Heathens, Saber, Deloris Telescope, King’s X, Stranger, Cry Wolf, Every Mother’s Nightmare, Savatage, Stranger, Trixter, Blackfoot, Bleeding Hearts, and Spread Eagle. The sites also includes an extensive listing of all the festivals from 1990-2006, which got bigger each year. Also side note, sadly this is the same festival at which – three years later in 1993 – Chris Oliva of Savatage was driving to when he was killed in a car accident (RIP). Would love to see any clarifications, corrections, comments, or memories in the comments section below – I’d love to see a schedule handout if anyone has one ;o).

ABOVE: Article, adverstisements, and registration materials for the metal music industry convention Foundations Forum which took place at a rockstar-tattered Sheraton hotel in Los Angles starting on 9-13-1990. Thrust had a booth at this event. PERSONAL PHOTO: Myself in my black hair days and Chris Phillips, Thrust magazine co-founders, at an L.A. beach while in town for this event. Kinda funny that I’ve seen girls wearing this exact same ensemble of high-waisted loose jeans and crop tops in 2023-24, particularly after the seemingly decades-long spate of low-rise skinny jeans (thanks be).

ABOVE: The September issue of Thrust featured the still-touring-today all-girl metal band, Vixen. The Golden Nugget had Autodrive, Renegade, and Third Degree; the Banana Boat has Third Degree, Quis-E-Modo, and Equinox; the Green Iguana in Tampa had numerous bands whose names I do not recognize (more Top 40 I think). The Volley Club had the Tampa Bay Metal Awards with Mordecai, Mortuary, Fester, Crunch, Atheist, and Bloodshed; Backseat Romance with Entourage, Autodrive ending their cover band career, Hemlock, Silent Scream, Moriarty, Roadkill, Amnity, Mistreater, Vengreance, Inc., Backseat Romance, Stiff Kitty, Sinseared, April 13th, Julian Kostner, and Blonde Rage. Thunderbay Cafe had Bobby Friss, The Other Band, White Summer, and Stranger. Boomerangs had Donnie Bennet, Maximum, Drama, Bomb-A-Gogo, Grassy Knoll Gunman, Rocky Ruckman & the Beat Heathens, Emerald City, and Kingtones. Masquerade had Legendary Green, Life In Times, The Lloyds, A Split Second, Thrill Kill Cult, A Flock of Seagulls, and Saber. The Filling Station had Attica, Inmates, and Circus of Fools. Billy Idol with Faith No More on 9-28-1990 at the Orlando Arena and 9-30-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida, cost $18.50.

October, 1990

ABOVE: Ronnie James Dio with Love/Hate and Cold Sweat on 10-5-1990 at the Lakeland Civic Center Arena. Comped ticket. Again, it was kinda weird and cool to see our ex-L.A.-roomie on stage at my high school-primary-concert-venue out in the boonies in Lakeland. As an FYI, Dio.net has a massively-organized fan tour database. Cool site. And sorry to be gross, but yes, that appears to be long black hair stuck to the back of the backstage pass. But I guess if I wanted my DNA to live on anywhere, I can’t think of a better place for it than the back of a Dio backstage pass lol.

ABOVE: The October issue of Thrust featured Jane’s Addiction on the cover. I can’t help but remember (since it happens so rarely from those days lol) that at one point Perry Ferrell lived across the hall from the offices of L.A.’s local music magazine Rock City News on the second floor of a somewhat seedy Hollywood Boulevard building (circa 1988). I went there once with Chris when he was helping Ruben Blue go from typeset to digital on our ever so handy and surprising portable Mac Plus. An ad for the “debut performance of the new” Intice who played at the Volley Club (note you can still catch Jeff Vitolo and the Quarter Mile Rebels around town playing rockabilly) with Phobia. Clearwater’s Boomerangs had Emerald City, Midnight, Rocky Ruckman, Scrooge, Web Feet, Deloris Telescope and Split Decision. The Golden Nugget had the Bleeding Hearts, Stranger, Circus, Heartless, Backseat Romance, and Emerald City. The Volley Club had Backseat Romance, Rip and Tear, Champagne Theatre, Sweet Cheater, Hemlock, Emerald City, The Attitude, Nitro, Iced Earth, Drunken Gods, Bludgeon, Metalween, Nocturnus, Brutality, Pain Eater. Fleetwood Mac on 10-25-1990 at the USF Sun Dome in Tampa, Florida. Winger on 11-12-1990 at the Bayfront Arena in St. Petersburg, Florida, cost $8 advance/$10 day of show. And I had to throw in the Every Mother’s Nightmare ad for their contest winner, who won a free show by the band at his house, which ended up being held at the clubhouse of an apartment complex on the Southeast corner of US 19 & Drew Street (behind the shopping center) in Clearwater, and which I think about almost every time I drive by there lol.

November, 1990

ABOVE: Santana with possibly John Lee Hooker on 11-20-1990 at the Mahaffey Theater in St. Petersburg, Florida. Comped ticket. An autographed page from Thrust magazine featuring their interview with Carlos. Santana.com has a great concert tour site with old setlists but I cannot seem to confirm the opening act for this one.

ABOVE: The November 1990 cover of Thrust featured Queensryche, the year of their epic release Empire. (The Empire tour did not hit the Tampa Bay Area until July 1991, at which I had the most amazing backstage experience with Geoff Tate doing a meet-n-greet fan warm up rendition of Silent Lucidity in an amazing sounding brick cavern of a room inside the Bayfront Center in St. Pete \w/). A Rock-It Club Thrust magazine one-year anniversary celebration ad featuring Cold Sweat, Nevada Beach, the Bleeding Hearts, and Intice. Boomerang’s Cafe had Men From Earth, Maximum D.B., Eqinox, Drama, Deloris Telescope, King Tones and Drama. No Clubs Presents ad for shows at Jannus Landing and The Cuban Club: Annhilator with Realm and Reverend, Danzig with Trouble, Sepultura with Atheist and Obituary, Exodus, and Skinny Puppy. A Spec’s Music & Video ad for Cry Wolf‘s new album, as well as for the Sepultera, Obituary, and Sadus album tours – appropriately targeting the world-famous Brandon Hardcore/Punk/Metal scene.

December, 1990

ABOVE: The band featured on the December 1990 issue of Thrust is a surefire omen of times to come: Alice In Chains, soon to become legendary lords of grunge. If I recall, this was their very first magazine cover. It is autographed to my son Adrian, who was a toddler at the time. Thrust was getting some quality advertising at this point: label ads for Judas Priest Painkiller and Megadeth Rust In Peace, and studio ads for major motion pictures. But of course the local classics are still there: ML Chaser’s had Jeteye, Roxx Gang, The Attitude, Stranger, Scrooge, and Champagne Theatre. A No Clubs Presents ad for the Cuban Club and Jannus Landing with Skinny Puppy, Agnostic Front, Tyger Tyger, Suicidal Tendencies, Roadkill, Marry My Hope, and Men From Earth. Boomerang’s Cafe had Outpatients, Scrooge, Arazmo, Maximum D.B., and Delores Telescope.

ABOVE: Random autographed press materials and a mashup of Tampa Bay/Los Angeles-based business cards, many likely gathered at Foundations Forums. A business card from Richard Aaron (RIP), a well-known rock photographer who did the shot of, of all things, the photo of Van Halen on the back of the Woman and Children First album, taken in Orlando, Florida in 1981, a show my 16-year old self was in attendance at (see my 1981 Concert Ticket Stubs post). Warren Wyatt Management, a popular local band manager; Metal Masters, a local cable channel video show (RIP Libby); Chameleon Records in Los Angeles; Coconut Teaszer in Hollywood; Rock-It Club owner Fred Gulpa, UltraViolet Communications with Violet Szilvas; The Peckinpahs, a Los Angeles-based punk/non-hair band (clarifying this for Beverly A.V.R.); Rain Song Records with Brett Miller (my son’s godfather) and Paul Passarelli (RIP); Ace’s Records in Tampa, and more. Autographed 1990-dated press photos from Spread Eagle, Adrian Belew, Adrian Vandenberg, Doro, The Blonz, and the last photo is a snapshot from a Thrust proof sheet with Earl and Arch from the Bleeding Hearts.

All in all a magical musical year! #HappyToBeOldCuzIGrewUpWhenIDid

As always, thanks for taking a look here and making me happy I saved all this stuff ;o)

For more autographs and photos of many of the bands mentioned above check out:

.

Copyright 2024. Rocksandy. All rights reserved.

For permission to use any rocksandy photos, to make any corrections or clarifications, to add any other verified credits, for non-watermarked copies, or anything else, please leave a comment below, and thank you! You can also contact me at rocksandyblog@yahoo.com. \w/