...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead in Brighton

[Guest Low Roller]

I was itching to see a live band for the last little while, so I went to see ...And You Will Know By The Trail of Dead at the Concorde 2 by the seafront in Brighton.

I didn't know their music all that well, but Pitchfork absolutely loves Trail of Dead (one of their albums got the rare 10.0/10 score!), so I figured I would give it a shot to see what these guys are all about, and if the hype they are given is justified.

When I got the venue the place was jam packed. I didn't even know this band was known in England. There was more people at the venue than for any other show I've seen at the Concorde making it diffcult to get around.

I was sorta expecting something emo/indie style, so I brought a buddy along who digs his Taking Back Sunday, My Chemical Romance, and Incubus. The band came on at 10pm which is real late by british standards. They like their bands early so that they still have time to focus on their drinking before the pubs close down.

On the pro side I can say that the band was EXTREMELY tight. I didn't hear a single mistake all night, and everyone was dead-on with their delivery. The band would switch instruments between almost every song, and there was no weakness in any combination. The songs themselves were structured uniquely as they shied away from the verse-chorus-verse-chorus-bridge-chorus structure that is typical. Instead they went with something like intro-verse-build-chorus-verse-build-spacey jam-verse-chorus-freak out.

I would say they get negative points for transitions in their songs from soft to hard. Given their great build-ups during their songs, I was annoyed that when they shifted from soft to hard that they would just stop, and start the hard bit. They could build hard to harder, but they didn't really build soft to hard. I don't know if that makes any sense.

They weren't emo, which was a major positive. Some of their stuff made them hard rock to be perfectly honest and the energy they played with was brilliant. I actually enjoyed the show enough to write up this review. If you are capable of exploring music out of your comfort zone, then give this band a chance and they may surprise you.

[bradm]

Did you see any tapers?

http://www.archive.org/details/AndYouWillKnowUsBytheTrailofDead

Aloha,

Brad

[Guest Low Roller]

No obvious mic stands if that's what you're asking, but I know that they have an open tape policy. I wouldn't be surprised if something showed up on Archive or YouTube.

Some of those Archive shows are pretty good.

[ollie]

Great band!

[AD]

Their sparsely-attended show in Ottawa 2 years ago to support Worlds Apart was amazing. Glad to see they are still going relatively song, their newest album got a lot of flak for some auto-pitch and other things, but they're still pretty kick ass in my book.

thanks for posting about the show!

[Freak By Night]

I caught them in Montreal in November, and the show was awesome.

[Jaimoe]

I'm glad you checked them out Andrew. They are revered in their genre. I like them and want to hear more.