And You Will Know Us By TheTrail Of Dead @ Manning Bar,Sydney (10/09/2011)

Tue 13th Sep, 2011 in Gig Reviews

If you know anything about And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead, it’s likely you know they once scored a perfect 10/10 review from Pitchfork (for 2002’s Source Tags and Codes ). You might know they’re particularly adept at putting on raucous live shows. If you’ve ever seen them in the flesh, you might also know their audience consists of 84% males, of which 72% have beards. And if you forget your earplugs, you will leave with only 67% of your hearing.

Saturday night at the Manning Bar confirmed And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead’s demographic (and their amplitude) remains steady. Amongst a room of black jeans and loads of beards …Trail Of Dead took the stage and opened with an impressive Strange News, seamlessly blended into Spiral Jetty. The opening was epic and seemed to be endless, and just when I was thinking they weren’t going to draw breath between tracks, we got the go ahead from Jason Reece to download the next track, Weight of the Sun.

Trail of Dead don’t bother much for hype or gimmicks. They play for fun, they banter between tracks, they know their audience is loyal and appreciative. They comfortably tell us to download music, which is unusual, but is not too surprising given their disregard for tradition. Besides the drum kit craftily spelling out ToD with white electrical tape, and about forty different guitars, these guys don’t bother with fancy set pieces, visuals or lights & smoke. What they lack in chicanery and ego, they make up with talent and energy.

True to form, the band maintained energy levels close to a hyperactive six year old jacked up on red cordial. It was refreshing and somewhat exhausting to see four men bouncing around on stage, bending over backwards (quite literally) to crank out tunes. The set covered old favourites, new tracks and everything in between. A definite highlight was the combo of Another Morning Stoner following on from Fake Fake Eyes, with practically everyone in the room singing along.

These guys are adept musicians, for sure. But the sometimes subtle melodies and lyricism lost out to the overwhelming volume from the speakers. Not all notes were hit, and there were a couple of instances where the mic ended up on the stage floor (from Conrad Keely’s enthusiastic moves), however the dynamism and ferocity of the performance was something to behold. Listen to their records for the subtlety. See them live for an absolute sensory assault.

Trail of Dead’s beautifully chaotic finale, Totally Natural, saw the punters at the front of the mosh being helped on stage by Reece and his band mates so everyone could bounce around in close proximity. It was a perfect finish to the gig, and left ears ringing and smiles firmly planted behind all those beards.