Venue: freeFall Theatre
City: St. Petersburg, FL
Date: February 27, 2026
Review and Photographs by: James Zambon (https://jameszambon.com)
After more than three decades performing around Tampa Bay, The Vodkanauts have their act dialed in to a wonderfully strange mix of music, comedy, and lounge-style sci-fi absurdity. Their February 27 sold out performance at freeFall Theatre in St. Petersburg proved that the band’s long-running “power lounge” concept is still as entertaining as ever. freeFall’s intimate stage was set in the round, placing the band right in the middle of the audience and turning the evening into something that felt part concert, part theater, part comedy show, and part retro space-age variety act. The room was packed, and from the opening moments it was clear the audience knew exactly what kind of delightful weirdness they were in for. Frontman Jonathan Harrison kicked things off in a sparkly jacket, immediately leaning into the humor that runs through the entire Vodkanauts experience. He joked that the jacket could be brushed one direction to look shiny or the other direction for a matte finish, setting the tone for a show where the banter and visual gags were just as important as the music itself.
The band itself was on point all night. Harrison’s charismatic vocals were backed, and accompanied by Mark Warren on guitar and backing vocals, Ryan Arsenault on keyboards, John De Bellis on bass, and Johnny Zoom on drums. The group moved effortlessly through a mix of lounge, surf, and classic pop standards, often stringing songs together into playful medleys that kept the momentum rolling throughout the evening. Part of what made the night feel so immersive was the set design. The stage looked like a perfectly curated slice of mid-century lounge culture dropped into a sci-fi universe. Two vintage-style television sets with rabbit-ear antennas sat onstage displaying the Vodkanauts logo, while a projection screen behind the band played clips from 1960s films and television shows that helped establish the retro mood. Mid-century modern furniture completed the living-room-in-space vibe, including a side table casually topped with an ashtray and a bottle of Jameson. A glowing moon sat center stage, amping up the retro-space theme, while Johnny Zoom’s kick drum kit featured the Vodkanauts name styled in a NASA-inspired font that was occasionally echoed on the projection screen during the performance. Musically, the band leaned into their signature lounge-meets-space-age aesthetic. Early highlights included a run of Tom Jones classics, flowing from “It’s Not Unusual” into “Delilah” and “She’s a Lady,” while other moments blended unexpected combinations like “Killer Joe / Rule the World.” A fantastic version of “Paint It Black” merged into Link Wray’s “Rumble,” showcasing the band’s knack for turning familiar songs into something uniquely their own.
The theatrical moments really took off during the show’s cosmic mid-section. Harrison stepped off stage while the band played “Rumble” only to reappear with a bizarre felt space helmet. As he donned it the band launched into “Space Oddity,” leaning fully into the band’s interstellar lounge theme. He exited the stage as the music built tension, leaving guitarist Mark Warren to deliver a mesmerizing theremin solo while the iconic monolith sequence from 2001: A Space Odyssey played behind them. Just when you thought things couldn’t get stranger, Harrison returned wearing a yellow Star Trek: The Original Series command shirt and wig (which locals may have seen make its most recent appearance with The Florida Bjorkestra), still sporting a goatee from earlier in the show that gave him a distinctly “Mirror Universe” look. Mid-intro he stopped himself, declaring that something didn’t look right. Out came an electric razor, and right there on stage he shaved the goatee off before launching into a hilariously dramatic, William Shatner-style rendition of “Rocket Man.” The crowd absolutely lost it! That blend of tight musicianship, theatrical staging, showmanship, and offbeat humor is exactly what has kept the Vodkanauts entertaining audiences for more than thirty years. By the end of the night, the packed Freefall Theatre crowd had been taken on a wonderfully weird ride through lounge music, surf guitar, classic pop, and sci-fi spectacle, absolute proof that the Vodkanauts remain one of Tampa Bay’s most delightfully unique live acts.
SETLIST: Sputnik’s Revenge – It’s Not Usual / Delilah / She’s a Lady – Killer Joe / Rule the World – You’ll Never Find – Got Off of My Cloud / Paint It Black / Rumble – Space Oddity / Theremin Solo / Star Trek Theme / Piano Solo / Rocket Man – Another Thing Coming – Rio / I Go to Rio / Copacabana
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