Sanford, Florida has 13 music venues within this relatively small community of just over 60,000 people in the 2020 census. These are bars, small venues with capacity under 150 people for the most part. About half of these bars host national touring acts in a cozy intimate setting for great concert viewing. Saturday evening September 24, 2022 was a bustling evening in downtown Sanford, with shows booked in most venues and a pirate pub crawl underway in the city’s streets. The town was buzzing with fun and excitement.
The West End Trading Co. had a solo acoustic artist in the front bar where patrons gathered enjoying the music and casually watching college football on the multitude of televisions located on the walls. But the real show was in the rear of the bar in the establishments concert hall. My first guess, the room could hold 100 to maybe 150 music fans in a dark room without windows.
The Fozzy tour has been suspended because of the injury to Chris Jericho‘s throat. And as bad as that is, The West End Trading Co. and Sanford, Florida benefited while the tour takes hiatus. The two bands supporting Fozzy on tour, No Resolve and Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh continued out on their own booking smaller gigs as the Fozzy tour is on hold. Added to the bill as the opening band was local artists
Beyond Silence started the party out at 7:00pm to a half filled concert hall as the crowd was still coming in. The show was advertised as all ages and the crowd ranged in age. There was a young man of seven years old just loving the music and video taping on his phone. His parents thought All Music Magazine needs to give him a job! Beyond Silence delivered an energetic but short eight song set. Steve Damron charismatically engaged the crowd between songs and his vocals were also spectacular. The band of Chris Braun on bass, Jeff Young on guitar, and drummer Alan Lapp were tight and well rehearsed. This local band is growing in popularity and they will be making some noise around Central Florida for sometime to come.
Beyond Silence:
Steve Damron – Vocals
Chris Braun – Bass
Jeff Young – Guitar
Setlist:
1.) Voices
2.) Pyroclastic
3.) From Within
4.) Crumble
5.) Pearl Moon
6.) Death Grind
7.) Angry
8.) Transcend
Next up on stage were the three darling sisters from Jacksonville Florida, Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh, or GFM as they are fondly called. Unfortunately, this show would only include two of the sisters, vocalist and bass player Maggie English, and LuLu English the drummer. CJ English, the lead guitarist took the night off and was replaced by Danyal Suchta who filled in on guitar. Another issue and I’m not sure why, “Give Me A sign” was left off the setlist. It’s the bands most popular song receiving over a half a million Spotify plays?
Even with the exclusion of these issues, the show was wonderful and extremely entertaining as Maggie fiercely commanded the stage with her vocals and bass lines. LuLu is so adorable with her many her facial expressions, in spite of being a beast on the drum kit. It was evident that the big time touring on the Fozzy tour this year has given this band experience and seasoning to bring them to the next level. Despite their ages, this is a fully professional rock-n-roll band that has earned ever part of their success as they have performed before tens of thousands of fans.
Gold, Frankincense, & Myrrh:
CJ English – Guitar/Vox
Maggie English – Vocals/Bass
LuLu English – Drums
Danyal Suchta – Guitar/Touring
Setlist:
1.) Honest Abe
2.) Taking Over
3.) Smile
4.) Never Again
5.) The Enemy
6.) Bones
7.) Fantasy
8.) Why So Toxic
By the time No Resolve took the stage at 9:00pm, the concert hall had changed drastically as there were twice as many bodies pressed to the stage. The band started the show with “Stay” a The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber cover. By the time they started the next song “Never Back Down” the crowd was energized and in a frenzy. “Never Back Down” was the single that got a 2020 multi-album deal with Noise Machine and is quite popular!
The bands stage presence was as monstrous as a grunge show and the crowd was loving it! Front man Oscar James Pegorraro, was engaging and kept every and all eyes glued to his performance. It would be interesting to see No Resolve on a big stage with plenty of room to roam, but on this night the five band members were restricted to a narrow stage not giving them room to roam. With over a million monthly Spotify steams, this band is currently red hot and are a must see.
No Resolve:
Oscar James Pegorraro – Vocals
Jason Hatmaker – Guitars
Matty Shea – Guitars/Keys
Dennis Patterson – Bass
Setlist:
1.) Stay (The Kid LAROI & Justin Bieber cover)
2.) Never Back Down
3.) Bad Habits (Ed Sheeran cover)
4.) Surface Pressure
5.) Danger Zone
6.) Hostage
7.) If Love Was a Gun
8.) Easy on Me (Adele cover)
9.) The Thunder Rolls (Garth Brooks cover)
10.) Worth the Fight
11.) Crossed the Line
12.) Ruth
13.) Set Fire to the Rain (Adele cover)
14.) Moana
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Photographer and Editor/Founder of AllMusicMagazine.com. My love of live music has taken me to incredible experiences with the top bands of all time in stadium shows to the smallest venues with equally inspiring musicians. Using the medium of photography and my publication, these memories will last forever.
