Doldrums at the Orange & Brew, circa 1987 -- A few months ago Scene Magazine at the Gainesville Sun ran a feature where they had readers send in memories of favorite concerts. Unfortunately, I didn't know about the project until the article appeared, otherwise I would have submitted the following:

In the fall of 1986 (I think) the Orange & Brew (ie. student beer hall in the Reitz Union on the UF campus) featured a number of local bands over several weekends, including the Yardapes, i.e., and some others. One of them was the Doldrums. Doldrums had just formed from the ashes of Scared Of Stares. I had never seen SOS and the only thing I knew about the Doldrums was that they were a hard-hitting band (back in those days the G'ville "punk" scene was sort of roughly divided into "jangly" bands like Satellite's Gone, Yardapes, Naiomi's Hair, Die Trying, etc. and "punk" bands like Mutley Chix, Scared Of Stares, Psychic Violents, Young Pioneers, White Lunch, etc. These are oversimplifications, but there was somewhat of a demarcation line between them.

Anyway, the Doldrums go on and within about 30 seconds I am absolutely blown away. They were so tight, so loud, so hard-hitting, and so genuine it was downright frightening. The two main thoughts in my head were: 1. I can't believe this is a local band; 2. I want to crawl into my guitar case and give up playing, I will never reach this level of rockness. And believe me, folks, I had listened to a lot of hard rock music, seen a lot of big-name metal bands, etc. The Doldrums were once compared (by a Maximum Rock'N'Roll reviewer) to the Bad Brains with the singer from Blue Oyster Cult (Eric Bloom), and I guess that's not too far off the mark. Looking back on it, I think they sounded a lot like Motorhead without the British accent. Pete Brightman was a compelling frontman, wild-eyed and blessed with a powerful set of lungs and a straightforward half-euphonious, half-rough voice, plus a knack for well-crafted lyrics. Russ Johnson was (and still is) a remarkably solid guitarist -- not real flashy but with a razor-sharp sense of rhythm and dynamics and a great talent for powerful but melodic chord progressions. Greg Pierce and Vic Wilkinson were locked together in one big blocky locomotive rhythmic drive.

I can't recall a lot of specifics about the songs at that show, just the overall impact of the band. I do recall that they didn't have a lot of "change-up" material, ie. the songs were a bit samey, but as the band developed in later months they started doing some bluesy stuff and covers. Sadly, Doldrums broke up in mid-1988, just when they were really refining their approach. PopCanon bassist Michael Murphy has a number of live Doldrums shows on tape, and maybe one day (hint-hint) he'll release some cassettes. Any of you reading this would be well advised to seek out the Doldrums studio cassette and the 7" EP Var Thelin included in No Idea magazine issue 4. Despite their short career (about 18 months) and the acrimonious break-up of the band, Doldrums still enjoy a heavy rep with Gainesville old-time scenesters. And if any of you youngsters hear their name spoken with reverence and wonder if they were really any good, believe me, they were the real freakin' thing. Even today, 11 years after their demise, I am still amazed by how powerful and engaging this band was.

Worshipfully Yours, Tom Nordlie 9/25/99

No doubt, the Doldrums were one of the best damn bands that ever had anything to do with Gainesville, FL. If any single band from those bygone punk days could have made it... SHOULD have made it... it's the Doldrums. Their songs were hard and tight and loud as hell. No doubt there is an alternate reality where the Doldrums reign supreme on the charts.

Echo the sentiment. One of the few tapes I have left from that era was their demo. I still listen to it.

Seann

Pete was one of the sweetest, most sincere human beings I knew....which made it all the more terrifying when he would unleash his thousand-yard feral stare from the stage... kinda' like looking into the eyes of a roiling grizzly right before it mauls the shit out of you. Pete was easily one of the most charismatic and talented frontmen I've witnessed in any band, anywhere. And not a bad drummer either! A Psychic Violents gig at MotoDADA Art Gallery in 1987 featured the band in a rare improv psychedelic mode, experimenting with free-form sonics (I recall thoroughly art-damaged covers of "Johnny B. Goode", "Communication Breakdown" & the Twilight Zone theme-none of which we actually knew) while Pete gamely bashed away like John Bonham on crack. It was great. And there was the numerous warehouse jams too, like the one evening Sam Gough, Pete and I spent playing Hendrix's "Machine Gun" for about 5 hours non-stop.... It seemed like the right thing to do at the time. And let's not forget his role in Pinion's Twisted Issue film as the drug-crazed, lilly-smellin', homoerotic street-dancing bible-thumper which pretty much makes the movie for me.

Easily the best band Gainesville has ever produced.

I just found my old Doldrums tape, and immediately dumped it to CD. I want to hold on to this for a long time. For the 10 years I was in Gainesville, no one ever knocked off the Doldrum's thorny crown of best band of Gainesville.

Awesome! Still have a Mutley Chix / Doldrums flyer around someplace. What a great band.

Fucking powerhouses Riveting shows for a local group Does anyone know what happened to Pete He was destined for something weird