Spam Allstars Celebrate 30 Years of Getting Everybody Moving

As they've played more than 2,000 shows over three decades, you'd think the members of Latin fusion funkmasters the Spam Allstars wouldn't sweat over their 30th-anniversary show on January 31 at ZeyZey.

"Are you kidding? I'll be so nervous," Andrew Yeomanson (AKA DJ Le Spam), the band's founder, tells New Times. "In fact, I'm already nervous."

The Spam Allstars began in 1995 as a side project for Yeomanson. "I was in another band that fell apart. I had a rehearsal space by the airport, and I invited other musicians to come and play," he remembers. Magic happened underneath the flight path of arriving and departing planes. The unlikely name came from a song Yeomanson created based on samples of an old commercial for the canned meat product and as a tribute to musical collectives like George Clinton's P-Funk All Stars.

Audiences across South Florida quickly fell for the band's multinational, multilingual party vibes. "I remember our first article in Miami New Times was back in '96," Yeomanson says. "John Floyd was the new music writer. He mentioned a show we played in a great punk rock club called Cheers. We only got $50, but we got to see our names in black and white for the first time."

From those humble beginnings, the local love soon followed.

"We started the vibration in the '90s, but things really resonated in the early 2000s. The fact that it happened during the CD era allowed us to stay independent," Yeomanson explains. "We'd sell CDs for $10. We weren't even good with the merch, but we sold enough CDs that it gave us the resources to tour nationally. But we found the mainstream American music scene was a challenge since our songs are either instrumentals or mostly in Spanish."

Despite the challenges the band faced from mainstream audiences, the Spam Allstars were a hit in Miami. For 15 years, Yeomanson and company hosted Fuácata, the band's Thursday night residency at Hoy Como Ayer in Little Havana. "We got booked so much in town. We were playing three shows a week. Wednesdays were at Jazid, Thursdays were Fuácata, then we'd do private shows and weddings. I'd take any fucking gig. It wore me out at the end," he adds.
For a long time, Fuácata drew big crowds, including celebrities. "Mick Jagger was there one night. He didn't come until our set break. My then-girlfriend told me he was out there, so we hurried back on stage to play. Another night, Prince came, and that was even more stressful. I was so nervous I couldn't even look at him, but I felt a purple glow coming from his direction. He left after we played two songs. I like to think it's because fans were impinging on his area and not 'cause of our music," he says jokingly.

In 2017, the band called it quits on the Thursday night party. "We weren't feeling the energy. We had some nights when there were not many tables filled. On other nights, the owner would call to say he was not opening. It got depressing," Yeomanson says.

During the COVID-19 shutdown, things slowed down even more for the Spam Allstars. Yeomanson also found a new calling in preserving musical history. "I got into tape archiving. I work for a label, JN Records, and their archive starts in the mid-'60s to now. They have so much Latin jazz, salsa, and merengue recordings that are so important to maintain."

After closing in 2019, Hoy Como Ayer reopened last year, attracting a new generation of Latin music lovers. It was only fitting that the Spam Allstars made their triumphant return to the Little Havana venue in December.

Moving forward, Yeomanson and the band's core members — percussionist Tomas Diaz, saxophonist AJ Hill, trombonist Chad Bernstein, guitarist Jose Elias, flautist Magela Herrera, and keyboardist Smurphio — are excited to celebrate 30 years at the end of January, which will hopefully serve as a springboard for them to play more frequently. "We'll go out there and do the best we can to connect with the audience," Yeomanson adds. "Ideally, we can start doing a show once a month. I think that will be a good rhythm for everyone's lifestyle."

There's also the potential for new music, but DJ Le Spam isn't making any promises. The band hasn't released an album since 2017's Trans-Oceanic, though 2022 did see the release of a new video in "No Fascists on the Dance Floor."

"We have the basis for new music that just needs to get cleaned up," Yeomanson says. "Right when things ground to a halt for us, I was making lots of beats with new arrangements. Maybe those songs can create excitement. It'll be nice if it can happen."

Spam Allstars. 8 p.m. Friday, January 31, at ZeyZey, 353 NE 61st St., Miami; zeyzeymiami.com. Tickets cost $20 to $55 via shotgun.live.