FREETake one
Tidewater Beat
Tides · BaitBands · Boils

The Gulf Coast’s Weekly Entertainment PaperCorpus Christi to JacksonvillePrinted Tuesdays in Biloxi, Miss.

Vol. 18, No. 27Tuesday, October 1, 1996Free
← Back issuesRecovered by the Sideband Label archive September 28, 2026.

Show Report · Jacksonville

Nothing Dialed Back in Jacksonville

Sass Master Flash brought the Non-Negotiable tour down from Atlanta Saturday. Tasha Merriweather set the terms. The room accepted them.

By Lionel Odom · Tidewater Beat

A woman with a bass guitar on a city street
Monique Battle. File photo, Atlanta, 1992. Photo courtesy of Sass Master Flash

JACKSONVILLE, Fla. — Sass Master Flash came down from Atlanta on Saturday to play Jacksonville, the fifth stop on a tour behind their fourth record, Non-Negotiable. Tasha Merriweather, who goes by Flash, writes the words, runs the rehearsals and, as she said from the stage Saturday, sets the terms.

The band behind her plays live funk. Kendrick Holloway is on turntables. Monique Battle plays bass. Andre Sims plays drums. Lorraine Pugh plays keyboards and sings the backing parts. It is not a large band. It sounds like one.

Ms. Merriweather took every vocal in one pass, the way she does on the records. Between songs the sound man asked whether she wanted more of anything in her monitor. She said she had the correct amount.

Between songs the sound man asked whether she wanted more of anything in her monitor. She said she had the correct amount.

Some people have said this band has too much sass. A radio programmer said so in 1992, and Ms. Merriweather wrote him a letter. He did not write back. The band printed his reply, which is to say no reply, on its third record under the heading “Confirmation.”

Saturday nobody said too much. Ms. Battle played the bass line to “Terms” alone for a full minute before anybody else came in, and nobody in the room wanted her to stop. Mr. Holloway cut sparingly and exactly. Ms. Pugh’s harmonies on “Auburn Avenue” were the prettiest thing we heard all month.

After the show Ms. Merriweather signed records at a folding table for forty-five minutes. She signed every one in full.

The tour goes on to Birmingham, Memphis and New Orleans, then Charlotte, then home.

Around the Coast

Quittin’ Snakes

We hear from Jacksonville that Quittin’ Snakes have played what they were going to play. Bobby Ray Durrence said so at a Tuesday rehearsal. Phil Strickland said okay. Terry Mizell said he figured. Dale Conner said nothing. There will not be a farewell show. The last record, Quittin’, came out last year. — L. O.

Live This Weekend

Listings are taken by telephone until Friday noon. Call Tina. If it is not here, nobody called.

Jacksonville

  • Sat.Sass Master FlashClub downtown, 9 p.m.Non-Negotiable Tour.
  • Wed.JukeboxThe Copperhead Saloon, 3 p.m. till.Darlene is behind the bar.

Pensacola

Biloxi–Gulfport

  • Fri.Jukebox and dartsBack Bay Lounge, 8 p.m.
  • Sat.Fall seafood festivalPoint Cadet, All day.

New Orleans

Tides This Weekend

Biloxi–GulfportBiloxi Bay entrance
Fri. 10/4H 2:48p 1.5
Sat. 10/5L 8:12a 1.1H 4:30p 1.4
Sun. 10/6L 11:12a 1.0
Mobile BayDauphin Island
Fri. 10/4H 2:12p 1.3
Sat. 10/5L 7:12a 0.9H 4:06p 1.2
Sun. 10/6L 10:24a 0.9
PensacolaBay entrance
Fri. 10/4H 1:54p 1.3
Sat. 10/5L 7:12a 0.9H 3:48p 1.1
Sun. 10/6L 9:54a 0.8
GalvestonBolivar Roads
Fri. 10/4H 4:30a 1.2L 9:30a 0.9H 4:30p 1.6L 11:18p 0.9
Sat. 10/5H 5:00a 1.3L 10:54a 0.9H 5:36p 1.4L 11:36p 1.0
Sun. 10/6H 5:30a 1.4L 12:18p 0.8H 6:48p 1.3L 11:54p 1.1
Corpus ChristiGulf side, Padre Island
Fri. 10/4H 4:42a 1.2L 9:42a 1.0H 4:60p 1.6L 11:54p 1.0
Sat. 10/5H 5:12a 1.3L 11:18a 0.9H 6:06p 1.4
Sun. 10/6L 12:00a 1.1H 5:48a 1.4L 12:48p 0.9H 7:24p 1.3

Heights in feet above mean lower low water. All times Central. One high and one low most days; Galveston and Corpus Christi sometimes get two. A hard north wind will hold the water out a half foot or more. A south wind will push it back in. These are predictions, not promises.

Bait & Boil Report

By Nolan Seymour · Water: 79°. The first front is due Thursday. Believe it when you feel it.

At the dock & the shop

  • Live shrimp$3.50 doz.
  • White shrimp, 21–25, heads off, at the dock$4.50 lb.
  • Blue crabs, No. 1$14 doz.
  • Mullet75¢ lb.

Redfish are at the jetties at Mayport and the passes along the Panhandle on the outgoing tide. Flounder are starting to move toward the passes ahead of the cold. White shrimp are good and the price is holding. The mullet run will follow the first real front.

We are not through hurricane season. It ends November 30. See the box.

Boil of the Week

Shrimp, while they are this good. Boil them in the shell, two minutes after the water comes back up, and get them on ice.

Letters to the Editor

Write to the Editor, P.O. Box 4120, Biloxi, Miss. 39533. Sign your name. We will withhold it if you ask.

Editor:

Saw Sass Master Flash in Jacksonville Saturday. It was not too much. It was the correct amount.

— K. Wright, Fernandina Beach, Fla.

Editor:

Your bait man says the reds are at the jetties. My grandson and I went to the jetties. He is right. Please do not tell him I said so.

— Name withheld, Mayport, Fla.

We told him. — Ed.

Classifieds

Boats & Motors

  • Flat skiff, 17 ft., 60 hp, trailer. $5,500. Fernandina. 904-555-0153.

Wanted

  • Plywood storm panels, pre-cut, for a three-bedroom house. Gulf Breeze. 904-555-0108.

Records & Mail Order