Three Imaginary Girls - The Future of the Left

Future of the Left at the Showbox

ChrisB — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 00:49:41 +0000

24 Oct 2008

Future of the Left was the opening band on the hyper-political punk tour featuring Ted Leo + the Pharmacists and Against Me!. Having covered Against Me! before and having seen Ted Leo a handful of times, FotL was the band I was most interested in seeing on this lineup – and they exceeded any expectations I had.

Featuring two members of the much-missed band McLusky, Future of the Left is an aggressive, noisy punk band in the best sense of the term. They call Wales home. Their debut album was Curses, and it was released about a year ago. The band also has a live record that is being released in January called Last Night I Saved Her from Vampires and is currently available at shows only (including this one, I presume, but can’t confirm because I didn’t stop by the merch table).

On Friday night, they took the stage at 9pm sharp and by that point the Showbox was probably 90% full. The show was sold out and the crowd was into it from the beginning. There was a definite energy in the room that grew from FotL’s first notes.

Live, they were as tight as you could expect from a punk band and it continued at an intense pace throughout the set with very few lulls. The guitar parts from Andy Falkous and basslines from Kelson Mathias weaved in and out of one another and filled the few openings each left for the other.

Mathias and Falkous had gotten and given quite a bit of shit to a few people in the crowd (there were a few “fuck you’s” exchanged from the crowd and band between songs but the Futures took it in stride and understood it comes with the territory. Mathias said in jest that if he wanted to watch “miserable people, he’d go back home”. They still genuinely seemed to enjoy playing in Seattle and for the most part, really enjoyed the crowd (and it felt mutual) even if this was Against Me! and Ted Leo’s crowd. That was my impression during the set (and my notes reflect it) but it was confirmed by the diary entry Falkous wrote on the band’s MySpace page. He wrote that the night was “fantastic fun” and added “I don’t love much, but ladies and gentlemen…I do love Seattle”. Mathias even went into the crowd and had them hold him up while he was playing bass from the middle of the floor.

Future of the Left, though, does not feel the same way about Des Moines. At one point between songs, Mathias listed things that they were not dedicating their songs to. On the list were “ice, snow, hazardous roads and Des Moines”. He added that “Des Moines can get a room.” Another diary entry says that they played to 30 apathetic audience members. In Seattle, their set was probably watched by close to a thousand.

The band opened their set with one of their most accessible songs, “Wrigley Scott” that has a familiar 3-chord, surf-guitar opening that reminded me of a much more advanced Offspring song (and I do mean that as a compliment). Only about 2/3 of the setlist were songs from their only album, Curses. The rest were unreleased and/or new songs, which made compiling the setlist difficult (but not impossible).

Their set was a very fast 35 minutes but it left a big challenge for Ted Leo and Against Me! to have to follow. One thing that I found surprising, was that the whole evening seemed apolitical (aside from the leftist song lyrics of all three bands). There were no people from the DNC trying to raise money, no overt speeches between songs or sets and I saw far more t-shirts of The Misfits and Dropkick Murphys than I did for a certain junior Senator from Illinois.

In the end, though, it was a kick-ass set from a great punk rock band. I can’t wait to see Future of the Left play a Seattle show for their own crowd (which will look quite a bit like the same people that were here for this show).

Setlist:

1. Wrigley Scott
2. Fingers Become Thumbs!
3. Small Bones Small Bodies
4. Manchasm
5. V.D.F.A.
6. The Hope that House Built
7. My Gymnastic Past
8. adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood
9. Cloak and Dagger

In the end, it was a kick-ass set from a great punk rock band.

Curses!

Erik Gonzalez — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 14:37:27 +0000

8.1

http://www.amazon.com/Curses-Future-Left/dp/B000T7QX8C/wwwthreeimagi-20/

futureoftheleft.jpg

I suppose any conversation about Future of the Left has to start with Mclusky, because if you don’t think of the late Welsh band when you here Curses!, then either you never heard Mclusky or someone switched the disc on you. Heck, Future of the Left is made of former members of Mclusky, so pretty much they’re the same band except for a name change, which is too bad because Mclusky is a good name. “Future of the Left” sounds like the name of an evening lecture by well-meaning upper middle class yuppies about whether people should like Hillary or Barack better and what we think of tax cuts. Instead, you get kicked in the face with rock, which, in general, is not likely to happen at your average Moveon gathering.

Future of the Left is actually a fusion of the aforementioned Mclusky and fellow Welsh post-punk band Jawcrew — Andrew Falkous and Jack Egglestone (from Mclusky) joined with Jawcrew’s Kelson Mathias. What we get is pretty much the same angular, aggressive punk descended from Fugazi that Mclusky offered, right down to Falkous’s frenetic vocals dominating the songs. Curses! almost feels like the progression from Mclusky’s underappreciated The Difference Between Me and You is That I’m Not on Fire. Things are still caustic, antagonistic and amusing; heck, how else can you describe a band that writes songs with choruses like ”Colin is a pussy / a very pretty pussy” (“Manchasm”) and has the spine to name a song “Real Men Hunt in Packs”?

The album starts itself off like a car wreck, grinding and gnashing its way down the road in slow motion, without any real melody as such, but more of a sonic statement that noise is good. “The Lord Hates a Coward” is your bread-and-butter Future of the Left, with howling vocals, screeching guitars and slogans like ”Violence … solves … everything.” It never takes off like insta-classics such as “Alan Was a Cowboy Killer,” but still it rocks. “Plague of Onces” keeps on in that direction, coming across like a plague of bees forming a band (or possibly the music for a pilot episode of Rage Against the Machine Babies). You can get your post-punk crush going with “Wrigley Scott,” a song that tells us about sausage on a stick and generally thrashing around in delight.

As with Mclusky, the quality of songs by Future of the Left is highly variable. Sometimes, the band hits it on all cylinders, while other songs just sort of limp along like a wounded wolf (“Fingers Become Thumbs!” and “Fuck the Countryside Alliance” come to mind). This is counterbalanced by gems like “Suddenly, It’s a Folk Song,” a downright catchy pop song (minus the snarling guitars) or “Small Bones, Small Bodies,” a track that might feel at home snuggled up with Mike Patton. “Real Men Hunt in Packs” is as badass as the track name implies, featuring growling guitars and piano (?), like the punk rock cousin of George Thorogood, and “Team:Seed” is one of those perfect ~1-minute-long gems that Mclusky had mastered. Of course, I have no idea what to do with the closing ballad (yes, ballad), “The Contrarian,” but a better title for it could not exist.

As was with Mclusky, Future of the Left’s Curses! takes a few listens to really grow on you, which isn't surprising considering the visceral nature of the band. However, they disguise their musical acumen in the noise that wraps up their songs. There are some departures from the original Mclusky gameplan, but if you were sad that Mclusky went the way of the dinosaur, then stroll down to your local record shop and pick up Mclusky 2.0 in the form of Future of the Left.

If you were sad that Mclusky went the way of the dinosaur, then stroll down to your local record shop and pick up Mclusky 2.0 in the form of Future of the Left.

Another Best of '07 list: Chop Suey booker Pete Greenberg's favorite albums

ChrisB — Tue, 08 Jan 2008 16:46:06 +0000

I'm a huge nerd when it comes to pouring over annual, best of lists (I'm still biting my nails in anticipation of the Idolator critic's poll that should be out soon), and I'm always intrigued by what the favorites of people who work in the business of music but aren't (necessarily) critics or reviewers. So, I asked Chop Suey's brand new booker Pete Greenberg to submit his list of favorite albums with the promise of posting them here - to which he happily complied.

Here's what made his list:

1. Spoon – Ga Ga Ga Ga Ga (Merge)

2. Future of The Left – Curses (Too Pure)

3. Handsome Furs – Plague Park (Sub Pop)

4. Sharon Jones & The Dap Kings – 100 Days, 100 Nights (Daptone Records)

5. The Arcade Fire – Neon Bible (Merge)

6. Big Business – Here Come The Waterworks (Hydra Head Records)

7. Beach House – Beach House (Carpark Records)

8. Blonde Redhead – 23 (4AD)

9. Band of Horses – Cease to Begin (Sub Pop)

10. Siberian – With Me (Sonic Boom Recordings)

11. Matthew Dear – Asa Breed (Ghostly International)

12. Lavender Diamond – Imagine Our Love (Matador Records)

13. Peter Bjorn & John – Writer’s Block (Almost Gold)