Pace Paw Print

Media Credit: Myspace.com The Locomotive Espada performing at Knitting Factory. To the right is Pace student, Craig Gallo.

In 1999, a group of four best friends formed a band as a joke. It's now the year 2007, and The Locomotive Espada has had two album's and no fame.

So who are The Locomotive Espada? The lucky band members are, Ross Anderson on the drums. Adam Antezzo on the bass, Dave Fleming on the vocals and piano, Matthew Giordano on the guitar, and finally Craig Gallo, a student at Pace University, who plays the guitar.

Two members of the band study music production and composition. The lead singer, Fleming, works for a sub-company of VH1 while the drummer, Anderson, interns at Atlantic Records. With jobs like that, it must have been simple to create the second album, Heroes and Villains of San Antonio., in which they created the art work themselves.

The bands influences are bands like Muse and Coheed & Cambria. At the same time, the writer's a big Bruce Springsteen fan. Gallo explained that the album is a mix of pop and rock.

"We like being able to play with different bands." Gallo stated. The Locomotive Espada plays a lot in the New York area. They usually perform around Poughkeepsie, and Peekskill. They've performed at the Knitting Factory, which is a stepping stole for underground bands.

They have a wide range of fans, from high school students to college students. Usually their shows have from around 50 to 70 fans supporting them. When they are at their hometown they have 100+ fans. They do play with other bands at show and venues.

The band name comes from a ghost story in San Antonio, Texas.

Also, Fleming, the vocalist/keyboardist, started a comic story a few years ago and made the stories into songs.

Therefore they created an album that is a story, a compilation album. We follow the life of a young kid who grows up in San Antonio in the ghetto. He lives with his older brother because his fathers in jail. The young boy believes that his brother is the greatest. The young boy begins to think differently after following his brother one night and discovering he is actually a drug dealer.

The album, Heroes and Villains of San Antonio, consists of seven songs, equaling 30 minutes of listening.

First of July, was explained by Gallo as not being a song, but an introduction to the story. It starts of smooth, very calm. When Fleming begins to sing, you listen to the words.

This isn't one of those songs you just hear and jam out to. You actually hear the words perfectly and see how the story plans out. "A letter from a cell. My fathers still inside. Took 17 years to write, what could the bastard have to say to me tonight." That is the only line and in two minutes, it introduced the story better than an hour long movie.

The second song starts off very differently than the previous. It sounds a little like heavy metal in the beginning, but becomes a very angry story of telling a boy not to look back. Having the same name as the album title, this song does it's job. There is even a point where the music sounds like the music in a silent movie, when something bad is happening. "Where are our heroes?"

The longest song, The Heaters, finally tells you the tale of when the young boy finds his brother selling drugs. The best part of that song, and probably the whole album is when there is one minute and about 30 seconds left, all that you hear is music and that music says a lot.

Finally, the last song, Second of July, starts of the same as the first song, it's the same sound and mentions the letter. What makes this song different is that it concludes the story instead of starting it and brings back story lines from the other songs.

On iTunes The Locomotive Espada is stated as being a rock band, but on the bands site they state to be pop, rock and progressive. To me, The Locomotive Espada reminded me of The Used. Their sound, their story telling and their passion in each song makes you feel sorry for the boy.

You can't shuffle the album the first time you listen to it. It's better hearing them in order and hearing the story unfold slowly. If you do shuffle the music, you won't miss the enjoyment of the guitar rifts, special sounds and great lyrics.

Right now they are working on their press kit to get themselves out there. In the mean time, buy their tracks on iTunes or check them out at myspace.com/thelocomotiveespada.

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