With his eyes closed and guitar pick cradled loosely between his index finger and thumb, Tony Centurione stands on a white-lit stage, covering a song by the band he sports on his T-shirt.
"Bertha, don't you come around here anymore," he sings, strumming his electric guitar.
A blonde girl spins on the dance floor, attempting to recruit a partner. In a dark corner two friends argue about the meaning of the song; is it about a mechanical fan or an actual woman? It was 1971 when "Bertha" was first performed, and 38 years later it still absorbs an audience.
Beside Centurione, bandmate Andrew Strach plucks at his bass guitar, leaning back and forth, into the spotlight and out. His long curly hair copies the movements of his body. The first time Strach met Centurione, it was another Grateful Dead T-shirt that sparked a conversation between the strangers. They have come a long way from the days of playing bluegrass in the back bedroom of Strach's house.
They have formed a band.
After the show, the guys sit side-by-side in the living room of that same house, UFO Hunters turned on consuming all of their attention. Two other bandmates lounge around the coffee table full of McDonald's cheeseburger wrappers, pleading for a channel change.
"Dude, please," Zach Liebman said, taking a sip of his beer. "This is so fake. I can't even believe you buy this crap." The drummer rarely finishes a sentence without tossing the word dude into it. His friends describe him as "the chillest person you'll ever meet."
Brandt Collings nods his head in agreement. He is more reserved than the rest of the band, though onstage he sings most of the band's original songs. When he does speak, it's about the Grateful Dead, Phish or String Cheese Incident. A "Steal Your Face" emblem sticks to the side of his electric guitar when he plays, displaying his devotion to the Grateful Dead.
"That's how we all met," he said. "We all love music, and we've kind of connected that way."
Except for Scott Baltz, the keyboard player, who is absent from the room. He was recruited on Craigslist.
The band debuted on June 28, 2008, at an outdoor music festival arranged by friends in Ocala . The event was dubbed Jamnaldo.
Liebman describes Jamnaldo as a casual event, with a huge stage and a setting that looks like something out of the movie Pan's Labyrinth; creepy, but a huge success.
"We rocked it," Centurione said.
After Jamnaldo, the band began playing a bi-weekly spot at Tim and Terry's. A manager there heard their first performance and gave them the chance to play at the bar.
"Once we cut our teeth with Tim and Terry's we started getting into bigger things," Centurione said.
Since then, the band has performed at Common Grounds and Market Street, opening for bigger acts like Dubconscious and Perpetual Groove.
"Which was pretty much the pinnacle of my life so far," Liebman said. "No no, dude. I'm just kidding. But it was really cool."
The guys classify their music as jam/funk/experimental, but Brandt said it's really hard to put a label on the type of music that they play. Their covers include Talking Heads, String Cheese Incident, Phish, the Beatles, The Who, Pink Floyd, Bob Dylan and of course the Grateful Dead.
Bassists Andrew Strach said that covering other bands is important to Juniper Spring because you can only play good music when you master good music first.
"You've got to be an idiot not to want to build upon what rock'n'roll has been building for generations," he said.
Now, the band plays a mix of covers and Juniper Spring originals.
"The fans have responded really well," Andrew says. "I think they like us."
The band has big aspirations of the future.
"Our goal is to take over the world."
Centurione thinks for a second, then retracts this statement.
"No, just kidding. Ultimately, it's to play music for a living," he said.
The members agree that a nightly spot somewhere would be an ideal situation for Juniper Spring. "Playing with each other is reward enough though," Strach said.
His bandmates tease him for his sappy comment, but then agree that it is true.
"I just want to play music that I love with these guys," Centurione said. "If I could do that for a living, then that would be awesome."
