Three Imaginary Girls - Future of the Left

How post-punks like their post-punk: ... And You Will Know Us By the Trail Of Dead and Future of the Left

Graham Isaac — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 19:10:29 +0000

13 Oct 2009

You know a show’s crowd is divided when the headliners set is met with as many folded arms and quizzical looks as the openers. Or when aforementioned openers set boasts a more consistently full-up room, while the headliners suffered a fair amount of crowd attrition as the night went on. This last bit could easily be due to the fact that it was a work/school night and the morning is a cruel mistress, but either way, the . . . And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead/ Future of the Left show proved an interesting study in how post-punks like their post-punk.

Do you go for the wiry, brawny, start-and-stop (Gang of Four meets Jesus Lizard meets um, them) antics of Cardiff’s Future of the Left? Or do you like your vocals a bit more earnest, build-ups a bit more epic? If so, you were probably there for Austin’s . . . Trail of Dead.

Not that the two didn’t share any fans; there were more than a few people in the crowd who seemed well familiar with both outfits material and pumped their fists to both. FOTL were the designated openers of this tour, and their set was largely the same as their set at the Capitol Hill Block Party, focusing largely on their most aggressive material, even eschewing video-sporting sing-along “The Hope That House Built” in favor of songs singer Andy Falkous could chew the words and spit out in hoarse screams. “Manchasm” remained dancy even through its raw-throated delivery while set-opener “Arming Eritrea” was even more anthemic than on record. What crowd-members they couldn’t win over with their massive bass lines were converted by the bands’ banter (“We are allotted a certain amount of time in which to play and no amounts of irrelevant platitudes shouted from the crowd can change that. You’ve been a lovely audience, even though many of you are wearing hats indoors”) and by the time they closed with the 8 minute plus “Cloak the Dagger” they were covered in enough sweat to win a wet t-shirt contest.

After the Welsh trio’s display of poise and energy, the six-or-seven (depending on the song) . . . Trail of Dead’s material felt a bit staid and almost formal. Not for a lack of energy; the band opened with “Will You Smile Again” and immediately had a cadre of hardcore fans singing along. TOD varied between their new record and cuts from Source Tags and Codes, bringing the wash of sound with “It Was there that I Saw You” and during a raucous performance of “Caterwaul” (I swear I didn’t remember the song being that heavy on record) Jason Reece leapt into the audience while singing, made his way to the bar and did a shot of jager before finishing the song. Still, after a while of double-trap snare fills, piano breakdowns and clanging climaxes, the songs sounded strangely more samey than on record, not less. Which is a problem. It didn’t suck, by any stretch, but despite their evident passion, TOD are hardly the only band around going for Big, Sweeping Songs. But for the most part TOD were on their game. One only hopes that next time FOTL come to town they can play a longer set, and that maybe TOD can capitalize on their re-energized state with a few songs that strike closer to the bone. And that neither arrive on a work night.

Photo by Spratt504 from the TIG Flickr Pool.

Win a Future of the Left 7" and their new album

ChrisB — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 01:14:02 +0000

I've raved about the Wales punk band Future of the Left here before, so it should surprise exactly no one that I'm a fan of their angular rock. When I saw them about a year ago, I thought they were the best band on a sold out bill at the Showbox with Against Me! and Ted Leo + The Pharmacists. Naturally, I'm excited for their show on Tuesday night at Neumo's with ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead.

I had just found out that an in-store was added, as well. FotL will be playing a free, all-ages show at the Queen Anne Easy Street Records on Tuesday at 7pm.

Moreover, Matador Records offered us a limited edition 7" record of the FotL single "The Hope that House Built" as well as a copy of the new album Travels with Myself and Another. To enter, please send an e-mail to tig@threeimaginarygirls.com before 9am on Monday, October 12 with "FutureOfTheHopeOfTraveling" in the subject line. Please include your mailing address so we know where to send the goods to.

Capitol Hill Block Party 2009 {Saturday}

Chelsea Werner — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 14:39:53 +0000

25 Jul 2009

As I approached Block Party from Broadway on day two of Block Party, I heard the rising wave of Hey Marseilles on the main stage. Upon entering, my half hung over self was immediately swept up in their orchestral swell. Their performance only got better and better until the last song where their improvised musical meanderings became overwhelming.

By 3:30 the Saturday heat smothering the Vera Stage was intense and as Collin English, drummer of The Pica Beats expressed in their video interview, losing three pounds playing their set was the highlight of the show. It wasn’t their best set, but the use of a horn section in lieu of recently losing their keyboardist, worked extremely well, especially on the extended version of “Territoire” (watch the imaginary interview).

The shade in Neumo’s during The Girls hardly offered respite from the heat, as the floor was packed for their set that started off with an Elvis Costello feeling of light-heartedness, but became more cut and dry rock as their songs employed Nirvana-esque feedback and shredding solos. Personally I’m of the opinion that the world does not need another guitar solo. So I left to join the smiles beaming up at the main stage as Brooklyn-based, The Pains of Being Pure at Heart began to play a set that was all crashing and soft, like a two ton truck full of angora bunnies had been dumped on the crowd.

Let’s say a crap-load of extremely furry bunnies had been hoping around during their set, we all could have started knitting scarves and gotten really down with the twee that The Pains of Being Pure at Heart were already draping over our shoulders. I had been looking forward to seeing TPOBPAH perhaps more than any other band at Block Party, considering this was their first show in Seattle. I wasn’t the only one; you’d think they had played many times and were beloved by all, based on the audience reaction. Their boy-girl harmonies were not perfect and that was fine with me, in fact I wish I could have heard the vocals better over the rolling fuzz of sound. I swear strangers were making friends as “Everything With You” began and by the end of their set, I felt kinder towards everyone around me and psyched for the upcoming release of their Higher Than The Stars EP, out September 22nd on Slumberland.

Next I caught New Faces playing the Vera stage and wondered when the post-punk revival of Interpol had been revitalized and if this wasn’t another post-post-poster band. However, the new material they played used a decent amount of keyboard that managed to uplift their sound and add an interesting dimension to the warbling vocals of Nico Janssen. The crowd had a conspicuous amount of parents in it, but everyone was clapping along to almost every song.

The Thermals took the main stage as the sun was setting but I could see enough to catch the fist-pumping on stage during “How We Know” before breaking into a cover of Nirvana’s “Sappy.” Despite our location making this cover a safe-bet crowd pleaser, somehow this seemed ballsy in The Thermals’ unabashed admittance of their influences. Not content with one cover, they also played The Breeders’ “Saints.” This brought me great joy as I feel like they probably play a tighter live version of this song than The Breeders themselves.

(Thermals photo by joshc as posted in the TIG flickr photo pool.)

Sauntering into The Lonely Forest’s set I was impressed by the way that this band didn’t limit itself to any one musical genre. Their sad slow songs became yelled laments, harnessing a slight amount of grungy introspection. They were consistently melodic, never plain old noisy, and during “Malconstitution” it began to rain with sincerity almost equal to that of the singers vocals. However, despite the yelling, the tight melodies and the sincere-soaked lyrics, The Lonely Forest never became emo, or even screamo. They managed to coat their songs in a softness that didn’t allow the emotions expressed to feel feigned.

While watching The Gossip cover Aaliyah’s “Are You That Somebody,” I was debating taking Thurston Moore’s advice during his live KEXP interview that we all go home and deactivate our Facebook accounts tonight. But how could I focus on that as Beth Ditto said “Cheers bitches,” and we all started to drink. The Gossip rocked out, Ditto’s breathy powerful vocals backed by the forceful and fun tunes being weaved together by Paine and Billie. They seemed to being having a blast, Ditto breaking into a rendition of Tina Turner’s “What’s Love Got To Do With It,” before they trailed into their own hits.

(Thermals photo by joshc as posted in the TIG flickr photo pool.)
Next was the set that I was perhaps most surprised by. Future of Left was inside Neumo’s, and even though it seemed like everyone was outside for the end of The Gossip and the beginning of Sonic Youth on the main stage, it was packed. As aggressive as their albums may be, The Future of The Left’s live show had the floorboards caving under the collective pounding of the band and the audience. Someone had their crutches in the air, clapping along to Andy Flakous’ synthesizer playing. Mclusky fans may feel that FotL’s use of a synthesizer is too divergent from the guitar driven rock they loved, but don’t be fooled, this element is what made these songs more than just testosterone packed pounding.

Thurston Moore told us that Sonic Youth’s set would be mostly tracks off The Eternal, and I knew it would be widely covered, so while I stayed to absorb some of their set, since I adore them, I quickly headed to Vera Stage to end my night with Vancouver band, The Japandroids. I’m pretty sure guitarist Brian King brings his own fan with him on tour so that he can stand in front of it and blow back his glorious curls. If this was just a fluke, he should consider making it a staple of their live show.

For two people they packed a lot of f-ing energy into their songs and were still asking the sound people to make them two times louder. The drum kit was facing the side of the stage rather than the front and while drummer David Prowse sang on “Rockers East Vancouver,” a slightly emo jam, King stood with one foot on Prowse’s bass drum, strumming away. You could tell that these two boys have a lot of love for each other and were having a seriously good time defying the festival, saying, “We’re just gonna keep playing till they pull the plug. Heck, we’re in Seattle, not Vancouver.”

And so day two ended, leaving me with the knowledge of just how loved Seattle is, with almost every band citing Seattle as one of their favorite places to play. Maybe they say that everywhere they go, but I for one felt it.

All of the photos without photo credit noted above are by Trickshot Photography... see them all!