We opened up Rain Fest 2011 on Friday and it was terrifying. Huge stage, about 4 times more people than we've ever played in front of before and getting to play with Trial and Xibalba. But, we managed to not totally blow it and I thought we sounded pretty solid. The people who run sound at Neumos are really nice and are on top of their game.
Xibalba tore the roof off the place. Best set I've seen them play yet. Just pure mayhem. Black Breath also killed it and took advantage of Neumos smoke machine and seizure-inducing light show.
Then Trial took the stage for the first time since bass player Brian Redman died. His mom was there, Greg was amazingly well-spoken as usual and they played just a blistering set. Kids went apeshit, stage dives were had, people got knocked around, some dude nearly kicked my thumb off, etc. It was fantastic.
I realize now that I've seen Trial 4 times. That's pretty wild considering that when I first heard them, I was doing a crappy radio show in 2003 at Western and my friends Bo and Derek brought a copy of "Are These Our Lives?" in to blast on the radio. I was instantly hooked by the music and fascinated by tales of insane Trial shows in the late 90s. They quickly became one of my favorite bands, but of course I figured I'd never get to see them, let alone play a show with them. Over the years I got to know Timm and Greg as friends and helped Timm run Panic Records mail order a few summers ago.
Well, in 2005 I saw Trial for the first time and then Friday got to play a show with them. Dreams from 8 years ago came true and I couldn't be happier with that.
So, eternal thanks to Timm for asking us to play and to all of Trial for playing another show.
-Sanford
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