Entertainment feed
Local news e-mail
Mobile
Cedez Violin headlining vets concert Friday
Hot Topics
+is+back+together+for+the+first+time+since+the+early+1990s.&bigDeclCap=The+Springfield+band+Cedez+Violin+(from+left%2c+Doug+Brown%2c+Kenny+Wells+and+Troy+Cromwell)+is+back+together+for+the+first+time+since+the+early+1990s.&bigCred=&bigUrl=http%3a%2f%2fwww.ohio-share.coxnewsweb.com%2fmultimedia%2fdynamic%2f00523%2f55396337_-1_523483c.jpg&superSizeImage=y)
SPRINGFIELD — Peace in the Middle East, the cooling of our sun, a Bengals Super Bowl win, the second coming of Jesus, flying cars, a live show by Cedez Violin.
Stuff that probably wasn’t going to happen in your lifetime.
Now check one off.
On May 16 at Club Panama, Cedez Violin did something 16 years in the making.
“Our first show ever,” bragged bassist-vocalist Doug Brown.
And now they can’t stop — the local trio will headline the first night of the two-day Veterans Celebration on July 3 at the Clark County Fairgrounds.
“We owed it to ourselves to get this music live,” said guitarist-vocalist Troy Cromwell.
Back together for the first time since 1993 — the year they formed, recorded a nine-song demo, then broke up — the Cedez Violin brand name still has value.
The Panama show back in May is proof.
“They said it was the second-largest draw the club has ever seen,” Cromwell said.
Part of the reason perhaps is that a Cedez Violin reunion brings people that much closer to a reunion of Spike Opera, Springfield’s reigning thrash-metal band of the late ’80s.
Take Cromwell, Brown and drummer Kenny Wells, put Brown back on guitar and bring in Steve Truman on bass — there’s your Spike Opera.
At this point, a Spike Opera reunion seems inevitable, according to Cromwell.
The band’s two cassette-only albums are due to be released on CD by the Retrothrash imprint of Las Vegas-based Retrospect Records. (The same reissue label that released Scram’s one and only album on CD this past spring.) A release date hasn’t been set.
But Cedez Violin formed when three of the Spike Opera guys decided to stop banging their heads long enough to open their minds.
“Metal builds walls around you, creatively,” Cromwell explained. “If it wasn’t smashing my brain, I didn’t like it.”
Clearly a product of the early ’90s alternative phenomenon, Cedez Violin became as progressive as Spike Opera was aggressive.
“This is what happened to Spike Opera,” Cromwell said, “when Jane’s Addiction was born.”
Musically, Cedez Violin is still kinda metal, only with touches of Primus and maybe even Pink Floyd.
Go ahead and see if you can come up with anything better — if they were a library book, they would defy the Dewey decimal system.
“Bands like Jane’s Addiction, The Cure and R.E.M. came along and opened us up,” Cromwell said.
But what happened to Cedez Violin is anybody’s guess.
“We kind of self-destructed,” Cromwell said. “We were able to write, we recorded ... we don’t really know what happened.”
Brown can sum it up a little easier — “Life got crazy on everybody.”
Now in their early 40s, the trio is committed to giving Cedez Violin the attention it didn’t get last century.
“After getting back with these two guys,” Cromwell said, “I feel younger than I have in 15 years.”
Contact this reporter at (937) 328-0352 or amcginn@coxohio.com.
How to go
What: Veterans Celebration
When: 4 to 11 p.m. Friday (Cedez Violin plays at 9:30), 11 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday
Where: Clark County Fairgrounds
Admission: $8 (age 15 and younger free)
More info: (937) 360-4070
Breaking news by e-mail
Start your day with top headlines in your inbox and get breaking news e-mail alerts at any time by subscribing to our Headlines e-mail newsletter.
See Sample | Privacy Policy
Latest Entertainment Blog Posts
About our ads
About our adsCopyright © 2009 Springfield News-Sun, Springfield, Ohio, USA.All rights reserved.
By using this site, you accept the terms of our Visitors Agreement and Privacy Policy. About our ads. You may wish to note our other business policies.
