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Date -
18/03/05 |
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| Readers' score - 10/10 |
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| Their recent album may be an overcooked stew of steaming pretension and honking ambition, but as a live act …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead offer everything their record lacks: sheer energy, great songs, and a frontal lobe-bruising amount of noise. |
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Forget studied slacker-cool, if you want proper, no-holds barred geek action then look no further than The Black (at least, we think that’s what they said they were called). What appears to be some kind of side project for Trail Of Dead’s Kevin Allen, and featuring a violin cameo from his bandmate Conrad Keely, their awkward mix of 60s pop, 90s indie and all kinds of things in-between is mainly watchable thanks to the peculiar mannerisms of their uber-geek frontman, and the sheer implausibility of their association with an act such as Trail Of Dead. Sound problems don’t help us to really get a grasp of what they’re trying to do though, and we conclude that perhaps recorded material would be a better way of assessing this band’s strange appeal.
I must be one of the few people in the crowd more excited about seeing Division Of Laura Lee than Trail Of Dead. There’s something about their fuzzy, driven garage-punk sound that has always touched a nerve with me. It may be a little disingenuous to make special note of just how ugly a frontman Per Stålberg really is, but seeing as he does himself (“I know I look scary, but I’m not really”), I’ll forgive myself.
Musically the band are on fine form, giving songs from recent, disappointingly mid-paced Das Not Compute a much-needed fuel injection – especially album highlight “Dirty Love”, sung by bassist Jonas Gustafsson, which gets an excellent thrashing through.
But what makes Division Of Laura Lee a truly engrossing spectacle is the tension between their brute of a frontman and their slender waif of a guitarist, David Fransson. About four songs in Stålberg takes a sudden step to his left, and with his sheer bulk sends Fransson hurtling into a rack of guitars. The guitarist regains his balance and smashes his guitar neck into his mic stand in a burst of fury. There is no eye contact between the two for the entire set, and the tension between the two is glaringly obvious. Never has a band looked more likely to split up – which is a shame, because with tracks like “Need To Get Some”, “Black City”, “Endless Factories” and "Does Not Compute”, Division Of Laura Lee are not to be taken for granted. Let’s just hope it looks worse than it is.
Trail Of Dead, on the other hand, are getting on just fine. Frontmen Conrad Keely and Jason Reece may rarely be up front at the same time, but that’s because they also alternate as drummers rather than due to any inter-band disharmony (we assume).
With their loyal legions of adoring fans packing the Rescue Rooms to the rafters, it’s so hot I worry my face is going to melt right off my head (as it happens, it doesn’t). And being two of the less fervent fans in the audience, it’s only so long between myself and comrade Will decide to make a break for some desperately-needed fresh air. Big mistake. Once we’ve pushed our way from out of the throng, there’s no getting back in, and that’s the end of our view of the stage.
But this much I can tell you: “Will You Smile Again For Me” is even more stunning live than on record, and that’s saying something. Ditto for Jason Reece’s brilliant “Heart in the Hand of the Matter” from Source Tags And Codes. “Mistakes and Regrets” gets an ecstatic reception despite being one of their most over-rated efforts, and “Another Morning Stoner” and “It Was There That I Saw You” are still monumentally great. But the most affecting thing about the gig is seeing just how much passion and love this band put in to what they do. It may have caused a mis-fire on Worlds Apart, but Trail Of Dead’s single-minded voyage of discovery in contemporary music is what keeps them so vital, and so adored, in this often stale rock climate. |
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| Tom Pegg |
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