{"id":222442,"date":"2026-04-07T20:14:55","date_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:14:55","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222442\/"},"modified":"2026-04-07T20:14:55","modified_gmt":"2026-04-07T20:14:55","slug":"a-st-pete-city-attorney-is-in-a-punk-band-thats-kicking-off-this-weekends-gasparilla-music-festival","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-fl\/222442\/","title":{"rendered":"A St. Pete city attorney is in a punk band that\u2019s kicking off this weekend\u2019s Gasparilla Music Festival"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"A(L-R) Down From Jersey\u2019s Joseph Patner, Eli Goodman and Scott Robinson at Loud Studios in St. Petersburg, Florida. Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

It\u2019s Wednesday afternoon. Joseph Patner slogs through pages of dry legalese as the lead litigation attorney for the City of St. Petersburg. Inscrutable financial spreadsheets reflect off Scott Robinson\u2019s glasses while he advises clients on bankruptcy law. Eli Goodman sits in a video call, drawing on his software engineer experience to lead production of software\u2026 for software engineers.<\/p>\n

Patner subtly bobs his head. Robinson taps out a rhythm on his desk. Goodman absentmindedly hums a melody. The anticipation the three have for the evening\u2019s band practice makes stages out of their day jobs. In just a few hours, Down From Jersey\u2019s pop-punk sound will soak a local studio\u2019s sound-dampening walls in creative catharsis.<\/p>\n

The St. Pete-based trio represents a demographic that keeps the local band scene alive: adults with careers and roots who care about the art of performing but don\u2019t want to abandon their current lives for it.<\/p>\n

Music isn\u2019t a career for the group, but they\u2019re not a half-hearted hobby band either. They\u2019re working on their second album now (their first is available on streaming and vinyl), and they\u2019re scheduled to open the upcoming Gasparilla Music Festival with a 3 p.m. set on Friday at the Sparkman Wharf stage. Patner believes Down From Jersey<\/a> landed the gig because they have a good product and all conduct themselves professionally.<\/p>\n

Mainstream musicians often talk about their careers as an escape from the monotony of hometowns and desk jobs. Down From Jersey instead grounds itself in the local scene. \u201cI feel like our sound is quintessentially St. Pete,\u201d Robinson told Creative Loafing Tampa Bay during a rehearsal at St. Pete\u2019s Loud Studios.<\/p>\n

Robinson, the band\u2019s drummer, has the most extensive musical background of the group. He majored in jazz performance before touring for six years with a steel drum band across the U.S. and in Trinidad and Tobago. Robinson then joined an indie-rock band in Boston called Gatsby, with whom he toured the East Coast.<\/p>\n

The difficult reality of being a touring musician exhausted Robinson.<\/p>\n

\u201cI just kind of burned out,\u201d Robinson said. \u201cI didn\u2019t think I wanted to be in a band again until Joe and I started hanging out.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson and Patner met several years ago at St. Pete dive bar The Bends, where they bonded over a mutual taste for music. Patner, a bass player who has graced small stages across Tampa Bay since the late-\u201890s, toyed with the idea of performing with Robinson.<\/p>\n

Over the next few years, Patner and Robinson would bump into each other at bars and shows where they would conspire to expand their rhythm section into a full-grown band.<\/p>\n

At a 2023 Thanksgiving dinner with \u201cextended-ish family,\u201d Patner sat across from his wife\u2019s-niece\u2019s-husband: Eli Goodman. The two talked music and discovered they had the same favorite bands and genres.<\/p>\n

Goodman told CL that his early music days were a litany of \u201cembarrassment,\u201d from a high school ska band to a college acapella group. In his early-20s, Goodman put together an album where he played everything except the drums. \u201cI put a lot of energy into it, and I finished it, and it was kind of bad. I had this similar burnout moment where I was like, \u2018I\u2019m not doing this anymore.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

For the next 15 years. Goodman didn\u2019t pick up an instrument. Like Robinson, he didn\u2019t think he would play again until Patner suggested the three get together to perform.<\/p>\n

\"YouTube<\/p>\n

\u201cI grew up,\u201d Robinson said of his reason for going back to performing. \u201cI wasn\u2019t so angry about the music scene anymore.\u201d He realized that taking things less seriously\u2014and \u201cnot spending 10 hours in a van every day\u201d\u2014could make music fun again.<\/p>\n

\u201cAfter sort of breaking the seal, \u2026 I really have reconnected with [songwriting] as a deep, calming thing that I\u2019ve always been so passionate about,\u201d Goodman told CL. \u201cI like to sing, I like to play the guitar, but I love to write songs.\u201d<\/p>\n

Robinson called Goodman\u2019s songs a \u201clifeline\u201d for the band. Since he had already written a few originals, Down From Jersey wouldn\u2019t have to start out as a cover band. The three of them reworked songs from Goodman\u2019s \u201ckind of bad\u201d album and collaborated on new compositions.<\/p>\n

The gritty, rebellious culture of the punk genre isn\u2019t typically associated with married, salaried professionals. To get to the angsty drama that defines the sound, Goodman often writes from the perspective of a fictional caricature of his past self.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m a pretty happy person in a very loving relationship. I don\u2019t have a lot of drama,\u201d Goodman said. \u201cI have a persona that I like to write from now that\u2019s a little bit more angsty, a little bit like my younger self. \u2026 I feel like it\u2019s a chance to explore that thing that\u2019s not really present in my day to day life at all.\u201d<\/p>\n

Patner told CL that each Down From Jersey song centers around a relationship, whether to a person, place, time or person. One track, \u201cLinger,\u201d is about how much St. Pete has changed, mourning the loss of dozens of small music venues on Central Avenue. The band\u2019s next song will focus on the recent loss of Patner\u2019s dog.<\/p>\n

In the band\u2019s first days, Goodman was coping with his father\u2019s death. The band\u2019s first practice happened the day before Goodman flew to California to say goodbye to his dad. By coincidence, songwriting found Goodman just before he would need a cathartic outlet for his grief.<\/p>\n

Music gives Down From Jersey\u2019s members a safe environment to explore the full range of their emotions and creativity. \u201cMy job [with the city] is not to have opinions, but to help further my client\u2019s goals,\u201d Patner told CL. \u201cI can express myself here in ways that, obviously, in my day job, I cannot.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s really become a safe space, too, because we can expose our vulnerabilities and write lyrics that are heartfelt,\u201d Robinson added. \u201cIt\u2019s very therapeutic for us to come in here once a week and work together, work through our emotions, and hopefully make good music.\u201d<\/p>\n

The three prioritize their happy home lives above everything else. Down From Jersey isn\u2019t using music as an escape. Performing is an enhancement and a diversification of the joy the band members already have in their lives.<\/p>\n

Patner has been integrated in Tampa Bay\u2019s music scene for decades. He \u201csurvived\u201d Ybor City\u2019s cover band days as a performer, eventually graduating to originals with his former band, Broken Tail Light. He frequented plenty of now-defunct venues, picking up CL (then called the Weekly Planet) from newsstands every Thursday afternoon to plan out his weekend. Patner has seen the region grow from a charming kid to a gangly teenager who hasn\u2019t quite gotten used to their new proportions.<\/p>\n

As Tampa Bay\u2019s cities experiment and try to find their new identities, Down From Jersey remains the kind of band that keeps the local music scene local. Its members aren\u2019t outsiders passing through, and they\u2019re not trying to make it big and get out of town. They\u2019re locals, and they\u2019re sharing the stage with the other artists who give Tampa Bay its unique sound.<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

\"\"Credit: Dave Decker \/ Creative Loafing Tampa Bay<\/p>\n

Pitch in to help make the Tampa Bay Journalism Project a success.<\/a><\/p>\n

Subscribe to Creative Loafing newsletters.<\/a><\/p>\n

Follow us:\u00a0Google News<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0NewsBreak<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Reddit<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Instagram<\/a>\u00a0|\u00a0Facebook\u00a0<\/a>|\u00a0BlueSky<\/a><\/p>\n

This article appears in Apr. 02 \u2013 08, 2026<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\n\tRelated\n<\/p>\n

\t