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The Juliana Theory
Brett Detar of The Juliana Theory
at the Trocadero.
Performers: The Juliana
Theory, The Starting Line, Showoff, and The Benjamins
Where: The Trocadero
When: Wednesday, October 10th, 2001
8:00 PM
Is Emotion Dead? Even a school night
couldn't keep the sold out crowd from rocking at The Trocadero, at 10th and Arch Streets in Philadelphia. This punk rock fest turned into a
night of fun and excellent music. As we lined up to enter the theatre, members of the opening bands could be seen scouting out the
line in the parking lot and talking amongst friends. This was the night for fans of
The
Juliana Theory
to come together and for
The Starting Line to play the Troc to their
hometown crowd. Although the historic Victorian theatre was filled on the main
level, the layout made it spacious enough to actually move. The upper
balcony with the 21 and older bar was sparsely filled, indicating that the fan
base consisted of teenagers. The starters, The Benjamins and Showoff,
who performed all too short and uninspiring sets were not able to engage the
audience. The Starting Line did get the house moving before the musical
madness of The Juliana Theory. Amid the crowd this
evening were Richard and Stefanie Reines, co-owners of the Drive-Thru Records
franchise.
Off of Drive-Thru Records, The Benjamins,
a four-piece from Milwaukee, did manage to rattle the place with their hit
"Sophia On the Stereo." On the vocals, Jay Stys, seemed to be in
a world of his own with his powerful voice and emotionally charged stage show, but the majority of the energy
coming from the crowd had to
be the head banging of Stefanie from Drive-Thru. They rocked, but the most
memorable part of their performance had to be when drummer Jon Phillip poured
lighter fluid on his cymbals and lit them ablaze. Dreams did come true for
The Starting Line, according to Ken Vasoli (vocals, bass), who said he has been
going to the Troc since he was 14, and it was his dream to play there.
Getting started with The Starting Line, Vasoli and Mike Golla (guitar) jammed
acoustic. The kids, Vasoli, Golla, Matt Watts (guitar), and Tom
Gryskiewicz (drums) from the Philadelphia area created the most mosh pits and
crowd surfing seen all night probably due to their hometown appeal and killer
sound. Their set consisted of songs off their amazing 5 song EP, With
hopes of starting over..., such as "Leaving," "Nothing's
Gonna Stop Us Now," and "Greg's Last Day," in addition to some
new songs. The crowd support and the movements of Vasoli on stage definitely made it a memorable show.
The
Starting Line has only began their race so make sure to look out for their full-length
due in the spring.
Greensburg, PA-based The Juliana Theory started
off their set with backs to the crowd and then went right into "To the Tune of 5,000 Screaming Children," with
the audience in sync. The band,
consisting of Brett Detar, Josh Fiedler, Chad Alan, Neil Hebrank, and Josh
Kosker, recently signed with Epic Records. Their name stems from a research group aptly
titled "The Juliana Group" who tapped the then unnamed group to validate a theory that they had discovered. It makes you
wonder what exactly this hypothesis is all about, because the members of the band are restricted from ever actually
explaining the theory itself. Although if the theory has anything to do
with their music making the audience ecstatic then the testing seems to have been a success.
The tracks played were mainly from
their 2000 release, Emotion Is Dead, such as the hit "Understand the
Dream Is Over," "Into the Dark," and "If I Told You This Was
Killing Me, Would You Stop?". An experiment gone good, you never knew what to expect from them
as they
tantalized the audience with their sounds ranging from the hard rock sound of Live to
instrumental trance invoked by Pink Floyd. The show flowed between long
and short songs featuring thrashing punk rock to piano and techno
break-beats. The audience followed by either screaming along and dancing
to relaxing in awe at the combinations of sound in the room. The Juliana
Theory demonstrated a musical talent and precision similar to experienced veterans like Metallica and Van Halen. Ending with an encore performance, this show
proved to be an eclectic presentation of quality live music. Be sure to
check out their newly released 6-song EP, Music From Another Room, off of
Tooth & Nail Records, featuring songs written on the road and left-overs
from the Emotion sessions. Who knows if we are destined to know what lies
behind this theory. But one thing that doesn't need any more proof is that The
Juliana Theory is producing music destined to become classic. -Todd
Wojtowicz
Click on the artist to see photos from this
concert:
The
Juliana Theory The
Starting Line
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