by Brian Tucker
With a crowd waiting The Speed Kings took stage at the Soapbox on January 19th with a new singer, new songs and a determined attitude to play loud, fast rock and roll. From the moment the band hit the stage it was all business. The band wanted to deliver energy onto a crowd.
Briefly it seemed that it may never happen again. Last November the band began the search for a new lead singer when singer-guitarist Anthony Stroud left the band on good terms. After auditioning nearly a half dozen prospects, they selected friend Axl to front the band after bringing him back to audition three times before finally solidifying him as the new member. The transition was fairly easy and they quickly began writing new material and fine tuning some of the band’s existing catalog.
Success and acceptance came to the band quickly last summer so the search for a singer came as a surprise as well. But it all could have ended differently.
Even though the band posted a bulletin on MySpace looking for a new singer-guitarist they had someone already in mind. What the band needed was someone who shared similar musical influences and energy. Drummer Jeff Trotter had been getting tattoos from local artist Axl at Port City Tattoo in the last year or so. The two talked about music while Axl worked on Jeff’s tattoos.
“We were always talking about music,” Trotter said. “He was always aware of certain songs. I knew he played in a pretty popular band out of Miami called The Hangovers, a punk rock band.”
Jeff had heard some of their stuff and liked what Axl was doing as a musician. “He was one of the first people who came in mind when we decided to go in a different direction.”
The choice got off to a successful quick start with new material coming together fast. The band kept two songs from their previous catalog, both of which singer-guitarist Andrew Christian sang. Much of the new material is the same tempo and the successful start can be attributed to Axl being familiar with The Speed Kings sound and his own musical background.
“He has a punk background. He was able to add some of that energy,” Trotter said.
In just over a month the band had a new member and four new songs.
“When Axl writes songs he’s really thinking about the chorus, the hook and the melody. He has a really good ear for it.”
Trotter has been playing drums for fifteen years and brings his own energy to the stage, pounding away with the ferocity of Dave Grohl and Keith Moon. He packs a steady backbeat and driving rhythm sounding off like a thousand killer punches. He says that much of the new material is the familiar tempo of the original band but Axl brings more punk influence to it.
The Soapbox show was the first The Speed Kings performed with their new singer and the last performance since last fall. And with no criticism of their former singer, Trotter says that with Axl they couldn’t have chosen a better person.
“He brought a lot more energy. Not to criticize Anthony at all. He brought a different ear to the band,” Trotter says. “Axl is such a well known person around here. A lot were curious if he could pull this off, if he could actually play.” That question was easily answered a few minutes into the set.
But was there any concerns, any doubts that the band would continue on? Trotter says that even before Axl, the band made the decision to carry on as a three piece, that the band would continue to make music. And there’s also the decision to get in a studio and record soon. In addition to positive feedback from their first show with Axl a lot of people are asking if that’s him singing the songs on My Space.
“It’s not him so he wants to get in there and record,” Trotter says. The songs the new singer brought in include ‘The Cult,’ ‘Rock Bottom,’ ‘Hold Fast,’ and ‘Rock and Roll Problem.'
The show was a fast set of music, sandwiched between the country rock swagger of Hearts and Daggers and Revolution Summer. Once The Speed Kings took off the set seldom slowed down. The lights went down and the floor was crowded with bodies swaying and heads bobbing to the music. Axl was confident as he belted out lyrics on the face of grinding buzz saw guitar. He stood center stage hunched over his guitar, strumming down as his instrument pointed upwards as though he were protecting it from the world. His guitar strap read SELF ABUSE and his arms were colored with tattoos. With his hat checked to one side he looked down over the crowd and to his left to where bassist Will Lear sometimes stood.
Lear moved from the microphone back to the drum set feeding off Trotter as he pounded away like a truck plowing down a country back road. Trotter and Will play off each other successfully, having similar music influences – punk. Andrew Christian sang and played like a self contained powerhouse, muscling guitar and screeching vocals on his own ‘Radio Out.’ His guitar style is at the heart of the band, blistering and never ending in its own intensity.
It seems much longer since the band last played but all was restored last January when the band returned to a darkened stage and plugged in and let it out. Although it hasn’t been very long it’s been a long time coming.
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