Looking out the quarantine windows in the direction of a pub that Pilot Round The Sun supposedly once played a road date at, my eyes drifted to the time and date at the bottom of my computer screen. A vanilla Thursday to most, but these eyes at once identified a crystal anniversary. On April 9, 2005, after building up one of the strongest followings of any rock band in West Chester, Pilot Round The Sun wrapped up their career a mere five years in. Fitting their "bigger than any Texas of the mind" approach, the final show at Rex's Bar featured three sets, including one by the original lineup (Sean Hoots, Rob Berliner, Tim Celfo, Mike "Nice" Lynch), one by the late-period lineup (Hoots, Berliner, Mike Satzinger, Sam Richardson), and a combined six-piece finale. From what I heard, this show was one to write home about, but being a high school freshman at the time it was basically non-negotiable that I wasn't going. This disappointment soon met relief, however, when an all ages Fennario matinee was added at the 11th hour. Promotion for this one was effectively limited to bulletins on this fledgling website called Myspace. I don't think it was specified that this bonus show would feature both lineups, but upon arrival it was no challenge to pick Celfo out of the crowd. Finally, the chance to see some of that earlier material they had phased out of the set by the time I belatedly caught onto them! Considering the short notice and there being a show later that day where alcohol would also be sold, the sparse matinee attendance doesn't seem so surprising in hindsight. No one seemed to be recording anything, but video may exist of the Rex's nighttime show. If so, it unfortunately hasn't surfaced yet, so enjoy this March 2004 video Berliner posted of "Diction" (the last song from their last EP "Metrosessions") instead. Less than a full year after the finale, Pilot Round The Sun reconvened over a chilly weekend for a pair of reunion shows. "The shows in question were intended to be reunions of both line-ups of PRTS for our friend's big local punk art show," explained Hoots in 2018. As luck would have it, this reunion weekend coincided with the North American Blizzard of 2006! This in turn meant that the most they could play was one show. Isn't that a twisted basket of hamburgers at a lemonade stand? A friend phoned me up the day after the show that actually did happen to well-meaningly rub in my face that they played rarity "Bangs Like Bettie" and that's about as new as news got.
Pilot Round The Sun hasn't been active since then, though Berliner has been a longstanding member of Hoots and Hellmouth, and Celfo too has occasionally appeared with them. One such appearance was the June 2011 memorial show for songwriter, poet, and Pilot supporter Dan Pevar at The Note. I recognized Lynch in the audience at this show and a vain hope set on of a surprise reunion. Not stopping short of asking him about this, I got the impression that if it were to happen, they would ideally want it to be with other bands of their era. Perhaps this is still a possibility, as Hoots and Celfo's pre-Pilot band The Gilroys returned Thanksgiving 2017 to a sold out Sprout Music Collective and have continued on a limited basis. For now it looks like the pandemic has scuttled whatever ship an End Transmission 20 show was sailing on, but there's gotta be a wealth of arbitrary future occasions to decide this should happen, right? Last Day Dying & Dare I Say's previously unreleased 2004 tour documentary posted on YouTube4/6/2020
Livestreams and archival performances have effectively replaced live shows for the time being. Fortunately, now among the newly uncovered gems is the 2004 Dare I Day Dying tour documentary, posted April 1 to YouTube courtesy of LDD frontman Mark DelGuzzo. This previously unreleased documentary covers Last Day Dying and Dare I Say at the top of their game, and on upward momentum after the launches of their "Nite" and "This Is Where The Hero Falls On His Blade" EPs. |