See, the thing is – and here comes my inner nerd spilling all over the place – I’m a bit starstruck over these guys. Their tunes are so powerful and mesmerizing, their performances so electric, I became an instant fan upon seeing them two years ago, at the SoCo Music Experience, downtown San Diego. I have seen them several times since and I just keep liking them better and better. The Burning of Rome is my NFB (New Favorite Band) and to be permitted to sit in their rehearsal studio for a semi-private jam session was, well, if I were a total, unabashed gushing rock-nerd, would say it was, “A dream come true.”

Instead I will maintain my journalistic composure and report that the  performance was a visually and aurally pleasing experience: aurally speaking, it was unlike most concerts, where the band faces the crowd and blasts their music at you. Instead, the performers were all around us, saturating us with music rather than bludgeoning.

And visually, well, to be so close – to be able to watch every nuance of every performer; to observe the muscles on their necks loosen and tighten, the beads of sweat form and drop, the complex relationship between finger and keyboard, finger and fret, and mostly, to watch the smiles that span their faces as they do the thing they love to do best, then watch those smiles turn to tight-lipped grimaces when the music became dark, and foreboding, as TBoR’s music often does – there is no substitute for this type of musical experience.

If the rehearsal room were a clock, then the small crowd of about 8 people in the room are sitting at the 6:00 mark, with the band in a 300 degree circle around us.

Starting with drummer Lee Williams, whose kit was at 12:00. A flash-banger to be certain, Williams hits hard when he’s supposed to hit hard and soft when the song needs soft. He’s a big time smiler, but when the tunes get intense he hunches down and leans forward as if to fix something on the other side of the drum he’s been hitting. When he dismounts from the lean, it usually means he’s back in the pocket, at which point the smile returns.

To the right of Williams, at about 2:00, is Adam Traub. Traub is the pianist, guitarist, songwriter and founder of TBoR. He is also an enigma. At times melodic and soft, at other times screeching like a demon with his hair on fire, Traub is a phenomenon to observe as he effortlessly slips between musical sanity and insanity.

At 3:00 was stationed guitarist, Joe Aguilar. He plays on the only non-carpeted part of the room which looks like a small, Pergo square cut out and duct-taped over the carpet to accommodate, I’m guessing, Aguilar’s peculiar brand of stage posturing.

Actually, I couldn’t have chosen a more wrong word than “posturing.”

Posturing implies insincerity, which it isn’t. Posture also implies that the posturer is holding a pose, which also does not apply.  The man cannot stand still. When he’s playing a normal show, he makes full use of the stage, running, jumping, crawling, writhing and even leaping off the stage and into the crowd where he continues to freak out – all while barefoot. Here at the Speakeasy studio, he makes full use of his small Pergo square, running and jumping and crawling - in place - as he bangs his brain so wildly that his long, thick black hair eventually consumes his head and all you see is a wad of black hair on top of a crazy man’s neck. The music is obviously electric to him and his writhing and freaking is his uncontrollable response to that.

Behind me and to the left, at 7:00, synth and xylophonist Aimee Jacobs is standing at her rig. I was surprised to learn that Aimee is a mere 20 years old, however, she is easily the oldest soul in the group. At least, from a visual perspective, as she stoically lords over her black and whites and plays her parts with minimal expression or animation, as though she already knows whence comes Armageddon, and it’s not that far away.

Also holding a stoic, foreboding posture is bass player Colin Kohl, except when it came time to sing a background harmony, at which point he becomes a beast. I’d say, of TBoR background vocalists, Kohl is the most notable of them. Largely because his voice, harmony-wise, is the most different of the harmony voices  – kind of a mix between circus hawker, authoritative parent, and barking demon.

They play about six or seven songs, most of which are from their most recent album, Death Pop, plus at least one new song, the name of which I don’t remember. Then the guys from Judgement Day started picking up instruments, and the performance gives way to an open jam. Williams steps off his kit and Nate Ball, the drummer  from A Scribe Amidst Lions sits in. Another friend of the band picks up a toy accordion, the barefooted Aguilar starts running around the room grabbing and playing various woodwinds, chimes, shakers – whatever he can find – Traub  picks up Aguilar’s guitar and off they go down FreeJam Highway.

I hang in there for about 20 more minutes but it is getting late. And I know, from past experiences, that once a jam opens up, and  the beer tap closes down, that things would start falling apart pretty soon. So I bid farewell, got out to my car, and drive home to OB still buzzing from, what turned out to be (for me) the best concert of the year.

Thank you O-Side Police, thank you very much.

Ed Decker
07.26.09

(More Speakeasy photos below)

MORE BAND SHOTS

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