Trail of Dead / Those Peabodys (Orlando, FL; Social Sapphire Club) 
03.04.02

Back in the early 90’s I used to go to every concert that I could. Many of these shows had the same theme: loud music, moshing, crowd surfing and stage diving. Most of the time us minors would get loaded in one way or another and then do our best to survive the “pit”. The next day our bodies would resemble those of a tattered football player after a game. Sometimes the spectacle of the music wasn’t even the real motivating factor, it was the mayhem. Even though these days are primarily behind us, I still hold onto them with pure relevance of my young, adult life.

It had been years since seeing a show that brought the pure chaos of the 90’s grunge-rock scene. This is until I went to Orlando and saw the Trail of Dead. Many people had built their live performances up, reminiscent of the days Nirvana brewed bedlam onstage. The concert was at the Social Sapphire Club, a small but intimate venue resembling more of a martini bar. It was newly renovated with polished wood within every nook and cranny (even the bathroom!). The concert hall lies between two solid brick walls which cause the sound to bounce and reverb creating a deafening experience with boisterous shows.

The opening band, Those Peabodys, also hail from Austin, Texas. They reminded me a lot of an old British Mod band. They are made up of a four-piece with heavy guitars and screaming lyrics. They are quite the accomplished performers, bouncing off the walls, and never really stopping until their last song. The downside was that you really couldn’t distinguish between any of their songs. Everything pretty much blended together with the same tempo and rhythm. I had never heard of Those Peabodys before their performance though I am curious if their cd sounds anything like their live shows. This really didn’t play well to the crowd, as there wasn’t a great deal of feedback for them. They were visually stimulating, but that is as far as it went.

TOD is also a four-piece dressed in mostly black with an occasional red shirt thrown in. They began with a couple of new songs off their new LP Source Tags & Codes. The crowd instantly began moshing, never letting up until after the last encore. I had thought there was some code among bands today that stated moshing was no longer allowed. However, I believe this policy (if it exists) is exempt for TOD shows. Many of the audience members appeared to be at the event for this exact reason. Even with the undersized stage, TOD managed to take advantage of every little space they could find. Their performance was nothing short of intense and rowdy. No matter who was singing vocals, they were muted by the overbearing drums and guitars. This didn’t seem to bother the crowd much as many of them continued to bounce lively with the band. The members definitely were characters especially Jason Reece. With the same looks and personality, Reece reminded me of Stifler from the American Pie movies. Several times he recited incoherent words into the mike while rubbing his body face down on the floor. At times TOD was off the mark with Conrad Keely playing in the wrong key or Reece missing cadenced beats on drums. They played it off by jokingly stating, “That sucked.” But no one seemed to really mind. At the end of their set, total bedlam broke out as drums and guitars began to fly. People began to stage dive, while others started to crowd surf. It was nice to see the old days play out in this contemporary generation. A bit of nostalgia for a pretty good night.

-doog