Live review: …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead, Future of the Left @ the Bluebird Theater
By Billy Thieme | October 22nd, 2009 | 3 comments
Trail of Dead’s live show is as messy and thrilling as any true rock fan could hope for. Photo from the band’s website.
You couldn’t ask for a more apt pairing of bands than Tuesday’s Bluebird Theater lineup of …And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead and Future of the Left — particularly in size. Both feature overwhelming avalanches of pure volume, corrupted beautifully by strong melodies and ferocious rock rhythms. And both have a stage sound that can never be replicated on record. (OK — most bands are much better live than in the studio, but in this case the severity is akin to acute schizophrenia.)
And yet, there are many ways these two bands couldn’t be more different.
Trail of Dead is a band that’s XXL in every sense of the word. The six member touring lineup included Conrad Keely (guitars, vocals), Jason Reece (drums, vocals), Kevin Allen (guitars), Aaron Ford (drums), Jay Philips (bass) and Clay Morris (keyboards), as well as enough equipment to make the setup look like an over-cluttered basement.
Close quarters did nothing to stop the group from wild, frenetic gesticulations as they channeled the Who, Jane’s Addiction and a little Editors into their sound through broad, anthemic arrangements lasting upwards of seven minutes at times. If anything, the tangles of equipment inspired some majestic chaos. At one point, taking cues from early Who shows, Reece demolished his trapset before coming back for a long, three-song encore.
Perplexingly, for as long as the band has been around (they formed in 1994, and have been active since), their popularity seems to fall just short of the promise they’ve always presented. Their onstage order-in-chaos is proof that they deserve to be at least as huge in stature as they are in sound.
Future of the Left, on the other hand, create their largesse out of pure, triple-distilled power punk fury — the kind that spouts from bands like Big Black, Fugazi and the Jesus Lizard. The Welsh trio, featuring Andy Falkous (guitar, screaming vocals), Kelson Mathias (bass, vocals and audience shenanigans) and Jack Egglestone (drums, the meekest of the group), produced a force that more than eclipsed their simplicity, and actually threatened to outshine the headliners.
Falkous’ scream alternated between the nihilist bark of Steve Albini and David Yow’s wild and forlorn scream, while Mathias pounded out fierce bass lines that recalled early Stranglers anthems, at louder than maximum volume. The mixture gave the band an overall sound that was reminiscent of Wire — after being forced through a grinder and spat vehemently into the 21st century.
A perfect example of their over-the-top antics came during their final song, when Mathias leaped off the stage, bass in hand, and began thrashing in the elated audience. After a few minutes, he handed the bass off to one of the crowd, and climbed onto the lower railing to do upside-down sit-ups to the raucous beat. It was a perfect epitome of their entire, frantically incendiary set, and it left the audience simultaneously breathless, clapping and laughing uncontrollably.
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Billy Thieme is a Denver-based writer, an old-school punk and a huge follower of Denver’s vibrant local music scene. Follow Billy’s explorations at DenverThread.com, and his giglist at Gigbot.
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