Free food and live music are on the menu every Tuesday night at Heroes Bar, 506 Southard St., from 7 p.m. to 4 a.m.
For the past six months, Tripp Neely and Jeremy Smith of Heroes have hosted TrippN Tuesdays open-mic nights, and in doing so have become heroes themselves to Key West’s younger generation of musicians. The night has become the newest and perhaps most organic open mic in the city.
Neely, also a wildly popular server at Martin’s restaurant on Duval Street, has a deep connection with music that stems from his childhood, when he spent four days in a coma after suffering a 40-foot fall. His mother played music for him every day. He attributes that music and his mother’s care to his recovery.
A fast-talking, excitable guy, Neely wears his passions on his sleeve. Ideas and theories seep out of him like water forcing its way through cracks in a dam. He will bend your ear about the healing power of music and rhythms. He will name you 10 players in town and expound upon why they are great. He is a big fan of the island community he calls home and wants nothing more than to bring it together for the purpose of celebrating what he celebrates — music and the people who make it.
His passion for music is matched only by his support for those who have served in the military and law enforcement. That energy fuels the concept behind TrippN Tuesdays.
Heroes Bar is filled from top to bottom with patches and insignia of thousands of patrons from all branches of service, including those who served as first responders, nurses and medical staff.
TrippN open mic night has taken on a life of its own. Well-known local players often stop in late, to jam after their gigs, drawn by the free food as much as the music. But even more fulfilling for Tripp is how encouraging the atmosphere is to the newer musicians who play there. Many are just cutting their teeth in the local live music scene, going from one joint to another and looking for gigs. TrippN Tuesdays gives them a valuable chance to mingle with and learn from seasoned players. Anyone who chooses this performing life comes to understand that actual stage time, playing with great musicians, in front of other great musicians is worth the hours of practice in a room by yourself.
Disco Nap is one of those newer acts, composed of players who were largely strangers to each other prior to TrippN Tuesdays. Disco Nap now has its own weekly gig at Heroes Bar and looks forward to its next step in world domination (musically speaking).
This sort of musical melding can become the stuff of legend once a group or soloist starts to thrive. Like a child taking its first steps, uttering its first sentences or singing its first notes, this evolution is what many of us in the Key West music community came here to find. And we’re grateful to Neely for providing it.
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