It’s been a long five years since I last caught the Austin, Texas based alternative rock quartet …And They Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, in which context they were supported by Blood Brothers at a truly memorable performance in Vancouver. Since then, the iconic group have released two albums: The Century of Self and Tao of the Dead – the latter of which was much of the focus of their energetic set in Sydney tonight.
The set opened with Conrad Keely walking on stage with an iPhone and portable speakers playing the eponymous opener of their 2005 album Worlds Apart, “Ode to Isis”. Kindly greeting the crowd, the following eighty minute set was a virtual non-stop jam-a-thon, with many tracks blending beautifully into the next. It helped, too, that they launched with the epic 16 minute, five part track “Strange News from Another Planet” off the new album, leaving not event a pause for applause over the first 20 minutes.
Though the crowd were slow to please, things up front kicked up a notch for “Weight of the Sun” – this was very much the band we had all come to see. “Ebb Away” followed closely behind, off of Tao of the Dead, to which Jason Reece recommended we listen to: “you should download it for free off your pirate websites or something. I’m just being real!”. The track sees Conrad, Jason and Autry experiment with a three piece harmony of sorts.
“Will You Smile Again?” off Worlds Apart was my highlight of the night, a truly energetic take of one of their best tracks. Much the same could be said for “Caterwaul”, which followed, while “It Was There (That I Saw You)” and “How Near How Far” both worked wonders on the live stage.
Trail of Dead are a band who have evolved a remarkable amount over the years. As such, a gig like this comes so much down to personal taste… The songs you like the songs you don’t, and they certainly wouldn’t all fit into one category or another. Some would say they have evolved for worse, with nothing ever topping Source, Tags & Codes. Others, such as myself, think the direction since Worlds Apart was not only brave but of great success! Indeed, there are more than a few who would deplore me for saying so. But such opinion is healthy, as is change.
Much like the divided opinion of their fans, some songs work live better than others, though one thing that is impressively unshifted is the consistency of their enthusiasm. Crowd pleasers? Certainly. Tonight ToD proved they could still exist in their past worlds while continuing to move forward, showcasing tracks from just about every one of their albums: even “Fake Fake Eyes” off their debut self-titled release (put out by King Coffey of The Butthole Surfers), which saw Conrad hit up the drum kit.
The night ended with a brief encore and their super early track, inspired by Natural Born Killers, “A Perfect Teenhood”. This culminated in a mass stage rush, with the audience partying on the stage with the band. But this was a brief turn for the crowd, who for the most part were rather lacklustre in energy and enthusiasm. But that did little to take away from my private little universe of headbanging, and took nothing away from what was a wonderfully enjoyable performance from a solid live band.
Photo by Andrew Wade
