It was a Friday afternoon at 4:58pm. The usual suspects that enjoy a cold beer, or sometimes the occasional “melted popsicle” malt beverage (as Aaron Kennedy calls it), gathered around The Island – our creative department social table. The laptop was tuned to LAZER 103.3FM and we all fell silent.

For the past two weeks, Jason Handy (Director of Graphic Services) and his band have been competing against the likes of Agony of Defeat and Smoking Blindfolded in a Battle of the Bands for the chance to open the radio station’s annual hard rock/heavy metal concert: Lazerfest. A total of 39 headbanging hopefuls were in the running but only two could win. So at 5:02pm, after teasing us with mindless chatter about the music fest, the radio station announced that with an unprecedented percentage of votes, Dead Horse Trauma would ignite the hearts of all hellraisers in attendance at the sold out show. (I nearly punched Jason out with my excitement.)

So on Sunday, May 16, 2010 at 12:30pm (while many of us were leaving church and heading to brunch) Jason and the band took to the stage and rocked it out playing to thousands more than they ever have before. Needless to say, they did not disappoint. And neither did the day. With all-access passes, Jason and his wife Melanie flashed some ‘peace and horns’ with the likes of Rob Zombie and were front-and-center for the infamous Alice Cooper. It was definitely one for the record books.