“I thought that rock was extinct, but actually it was just frozen in an iceberg to be thawed by global warming and awesomeness,” said Laura Blythe-Goodman after attending the recent Saurus concert on Feb. 16 on S. Elam Street. Saurus is a new trio that has two motives when playing – to shake the walls with prehistoric rock and to educate the audience about dinosaurs.

Saurus told the story of the Avimimus and the Deinonychus, the last two dinosaurs on Earth, by hitting the audience with loud, carnivorous lyrics like an apocalyptic meteorite. The dinosaurs were frozen on both poles of the Earth until global warming thawed them out.

The Deinonychus, mistakenly known as the velociraptor, is a menacing, killing machine that wants to rule the world. The Avimimus, Evie, is a turkey-sized, quick-legged dinosaur with a heart of gold.

The concert was complemented by a PowerPoint presentation that illustrated the storyline.

At the end of the show, the two dinosaurs duke it out, and the outcome of the conflict is up to the audience.

If the crowd cheers for the Avimimus, then the world becomes a utopia, and every problem that ever was vanishes. If the Deinonychus claims victory in the applause, then he becomes a demonic force of darkness.

At the Feb. 16 show, the Avimimus stole the crowd’s heart and took the win. Members of the band had mixed feelings about the crowd’s decision.

“For the sake of humanity, I’d rather have the Avimimus win, but to be perfectly honest, I think that the Deinonychus’ ending song is a lot more rocking,” said lead singer and Guilford alumnus Daniel Bullard-Bates.

Aside from a story line, the band also offered the audience opportunities to answer trivia questions about dinosaurs. Blythe-Goodman was impressed by the creative fusion of turbulent music and informative dinosaur facts.

“People had to know about dinosaurs in order to answer the questions, and one person knew enough to win a book … the juxtaposition of education and rock made the rock even better.”

The unique sound of the band kept patrons guessing.

“I didn’t know whether to associate them with the ’80s or the cretaceous period,” said senior Lisa Jaeggi.

Despite the highly developed dinosaur theme, Saurus was formed randomly in January.

“We always wanted to be in a bad indie rock band, so one day we formed one, and it was originally called Whale,” said band member and senior Andy Savoy. “At our first jam, I pulled out the only lyrics I had ever written, ‘velirapiraprapiraptor shot my soul.’ Then we were like ‘why don’t we sing about dinosaurs?'”

Saurus currently plans to play more shows. More information can be found at myspace.com/saurusrock.