You Can Trample The Willing | Trampled By Turtles Live Review | House Of Blues Orlando | December 14 2014

by Dainon Moody • December 16, 2014

Last Sunday saw Nikki Lane and Trampled By Turtles taking House of Blues Orlando by the reins and turning it in a country hoedown wonderland for a few hours. For what it’s worth (and it’s worth a lot over this way) Nikki was so good, I’ll go ahead and cross my fingers that she returns all by herself one day. When a newcomer of an opener sounds as confident as she and her band did, to the point you actually want them to eke out a few more heartbreaking (and sometimes just flat out funny) songs before disappearing, they’ve won the very game they’re playing.

Trampled By Turtles came, saw, and dominated the stage, song after countless song. It’s not often you see a band that counts a fiddle and a banjo as two of its key instruments actually bring the rawk—and, okay, they didn’t, not entirely—but maybe these sorts are actually the Metallica of bluegrass? Would anyone dispute that, I wonder?

They easily slipped from the beautiful songs (emulating Crosby, Stills, Nash with their impossibly tight harmonies) to the out-and-out hard instrumentals and back again. Florida showed up for Trampled By Turtles, even on a Sunday night, and chances are that crowd will just continue to grow as they return and return again.

So, yes, I’ll cheer for that. I’ll cheer and ask for seconds, even. Come back soon and let’s do it right—let’s all get barefoot in a cornfield someplace, okay?

Trampled By Turtles Live Review by Dainon Moody.