My official Trial show anticipation post
The Trial show is coming up really fast. I've been excited for it for so long and i can't even comprehend that it's happening in less than 2 weeks. Holy shit.
Ever since Bo and Derek insisted that i play the Intro and Reflections from "Are These Our Lives?" on my old radio show on KUGS back in 2003, I have been listening to Trial on a regular basis. I was instantly blown away. I was also bummed that Trial had already broken up and I would never get to see them live. Well, I was wrong. The reunion show is Oct. 9th and I could not be more excited. The other day I realized how soon the show was coming up and I instantly got really, really stoked and somewhat anxious. Very few bands have meant more to me than Trial.
Here's an article I wrote about the show in my zine for those who haven't read it yet.
You can’t kill an idea
Celebrated Seattle hardcore band Trial set to reunite in October
By Eric Sanford
It’s like a dream come true. Trial, the Northwest’s most legendary band, is playing a reunion show on October 9, 2005, at Neumo’s in Seattle.
After breaking up in 2000, the members of Trial went their separate ways and got involved in various activities. Vocalist Greg Bennick made a film titled “Flight From Death” and recently started a new band called Between Earth and Sky. Guitarist Timm MacIntosh also started a new band called Wait In Vain. And the various other guitar players, bass players and drummers that played in Trial at one time or another have gone on to play in bands such as Himsa, Three Inches of Blood, Hell Promise and Glimpse.
The idea for the reunion came about at the final Abraham Lincoln Killing Machine show, Bennick Said.
“Timm and I played a surprise Trial song at the Abraham Lincoln Killing Machine show a few months back,” Bennick said. “We had both talked about a Trial reunion from time to time over the years, but to be honest, I was always a bit resistant for one main reason. After Trial broke up, I got involved with making my film Flight From Death. It took four years to make. Four years that saw me out of Seattle almost as much as in Seattle, and as a result, I couldn’t get to any shows or really be much of a part of the scene.”
Bennick said he would have felt awful about suddenly reappearing with a Trial reunion show out of nowhere, but with the development of Between Earth and Sky and the surprise song at the ALKM show, he said he felt like he was contributing again.
“So when Timm and I next talked about the possibility of a Trial show, I was fully into it,” Bennick said.
The band’s lineup for the show has been solidified, MacIntosh said.
“Greg will be screaming the anthems and I will be too, but I'll do them without a microphone,” MacIntosh said. “I'll be playing guitar. Brian Redman will be playing bass. Alexei Rodriguez will be on drums and EJ Bastian will be on guitar. I'm pretty sure all those guys will be singing along too.”
Bennick said to expect lots of songs and hundreds of stage dives.
“We are going to play almost everything, I think, with a few exceptions,” Bennick said.
Rounding out the lineup for the show are The Warriors, The Dead Unknown and This Time Tomorrow.
“There were a lot of bands that we wanted to have on the show,” MacIntosh said. “The list was about 15 to 20 bands long. Greg and I narrowed it down to 3. We thought about who were most meaningful bands, had a message that we could stand behind, were new bands that could use the exposure, and every single member of the band was into Trial. There were a lot more than 3 of course but we couldn't have a 20 band show. I know some people will say ‘The Warriors? They're not new and don't need the exposure.’ My reply is they're fucking awesome, Greg and I love them, and we're going to jump on your head.”
It is obvious that band member’s hearts are in the right place for this reunion show.
“Trial meant the world to me,” Bennick said. “It still does. I put heart and soul and mind and life into the lyrics to all of those songs and singing them was like sharing who we were, not just as musicians, but as loving people as well. That is the one thing that was always true in Trial. Playing shows was like love and rage blended as one, with love directed at every single person in the crowds amid the intensity. There is nothing like that feeling of total connectedness that we’d get all the time at our shows. It was like life was happening all around us and within us at the same time.”