rummer Shawn Watkins of the band Big Sad performing live; a wide-angle shot showing him behind a drum kit with a black bandana, mid-swing with drumsticks in a rehearsal or venue space.Big Sad plays Microgroove in Tampa, Florida on Sept. 21, 2024. Credit: Rachel Framingheddu / Creative Loafing Tampa Bay

Big Sad’s “Black Umbrellas” is one of the best protest songs to come out of the Bay area. On it, frontman Dave Decker (in full disclosure, also Creative Loafing Tampa Bay’s senior photojournalist) sings about Portland protests and “Feds flanked to the right like it’s World War 3.”

The punk band opens this bill at Tampa’s where it joins crust-punk outfit Headless State, post-hardcore quartet Last Bias, and The Outbreed to raise money for Americans For Immigrant Justice, a Miami-based nonprofit that provides “direct representation, impact litigation, advocacy and outreach” for some of the country’s most vulnerable people.

Black Umbrellas by Big Sad

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This article appears in Feb. 19 – 25, 2026.

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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…
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