Oleander/Track Fighter – Ace Of Spades, Sacramento, CA 5/13
By Jeffrey Easton
Finally, rock heroes in the form of Oleander were back and back with a vengeance. Their new record, Something Beautiful, is an amazing piece of work and they were debuting it here at Ace Of Spades in their hometown of Sacramento. Its always great when the hometown boys make good and one of the best examples of that is Oleander. Not only do they have an impressive body of work, their new album adds substantially to that and the title track is sure to be a rock staple for years to come.
Before Oleander hit the stage, their heir to the Sac throne took command of the festivities and that band is Track Fighter. Armed with a nasty EP in the form of Revenge they bludgeoned the fans until they could take no more. T.J. Chopelas is the ring leader with the microphone (and megaphone for that matter) and he owned the crowd, bringing the crowd into their world as he sang in desperation. Whipping out material like L.A., Revenge and Change The World they informed those who were present that they will not back down and will own the rock world. If these guys do not make it something is indeed wrong with rock’s ears.
Oleander, holy shit, they are really back. After dealing subsequent records that put the music world on their ear they took a break, clear their minds and get on with their lives. Now that they have put it back together they regrouped, wrote and recorded what is their best album to date with Something Beautiful. The title track alone was worth the admission on the record but it is solid from first note to last. The show broke open in a big way as their over sized “video producer” came out to introduce the band amongst laughs and screams and then we had them, Oleander, and they caused a frenzy. Fight, the heavy as nails track from Something Beautiful, was the first salvo offered from the band and the fans screamed bloody murder. Just as quickly as the fans get a taste of the new record they hit the past hard with stand out tracks Don’t Break My Fall and the personal Down When I’m Loaded. By now the band is firing hard and Thomas Flowers has complete control of the crowd and that’s when he said “we have a new single” and AOS erupted because they knew they were going to play the title track, Something Beautiful. This cut is receiving massive airplay and the fans knew every word as they screamed along to Thomas’s every word. One of the better moments was Hands Off The Wheel from Joyride. An amazing track from a straight forward rock album and what was supposed to be a final salute from the band. They went further back with the massive fan favorites Why I’m Here and I Walk Alone as well as Halo and Unwind. They burned through more cuts from the new record because you know they have to and want to so Daylight and Never Too late were offered up to massive fan reaction. This was an amazing night for hard rock with the kings of the Sac throne giving to the fans once more and with a successful album burning the charts, many more times to come.
Official Oleander Site
Official Track Fighter Site
By Jeffrey Easton
Finally, rock heroes in the form of Oleander were back and back with a vengeance. Their new record, Something Beautiful, is an amazing piece of work and they were debuting it here at Ace Of Spades in their hometown of Sacramento. Its always great when the hometown boys make good and one of the best examples of that is Oleander. Not only do they have an impressive body of work, their new album adds substantially to that and the title track is sure to be a rock staple for years to come.
Before Oleander hit the stage, their heir to the Sac throne took command of the festivities and that band is Track Fighter. Armed with a nasty EP in the form of Revenge they bludgeoned the fans until they could take no more. T.J. Chopelas is the ring leader with the microphone (and megaphone for that matter) and he owned the crowd, bringing the crowd into their world as he sang in desperation. Whipping out material like L.A., Revenge and Change The World they informed those who were present that they will not back down and will own the rock world. If these guys do not make it something is indeed wrong with rock’s ears.
Oleander, holy shit, they are really back. After dealing subsequent records that put the music world on their ear they took a break, clear their minds and get on with their lives. Now that they have put it back together they regrouped, wrote and recorded what is their best album to date with Something Beautiful. The title track alone was worth the admission on the record but it is solid from first note to last. The show broke open in a big way as their over sized “video producer” came out to introduce the band amongst laughs and screams and then we had them, Oleander, and they caused a frenzy. Fight, the heavy as nails track from Something Beautiful, was the first salvo offered from the band and the fans screamed bloody murder. Just as quickly as the fans get a taste of the new record they hit the past hard with stand out tracks Don’t Break My Fall and the personal Down When I’m Loaded. By now the band is firing hard and Thomas Flowers has complete control of the crowd and that’s when he said “we have a new single” and AOS erupted because they knew they were going to play the title track, Something Beautiful. This cut is receiving massive airplay and the fans knew every word as they screamed along to Thomas’s every word. One of the better moments was Hands Off The Wheel from Joyride. An amazing track from a straight forward rock album and what was supposed to be a final salute from the band. They went further back with the massive fan favorites Why I’m Here and I Walk Alone as well as Halo and Unwind. They burned through more cuts from the new record because you know they have to and want to so Daylight and Never Too late were offered up to massive fan reaction. This was an amazing night for hard rock with the kings of the Sac throne giving to the fans once more and with a successful album burning the charts, many more times to come.
Official Oleander Site
Official Track Fighter Site
