…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – The Garage, Glasgow

17 April, 2011

With new album Tao of The Dead, the Austin quartet could already very well have won the battle for best rock album of the year. I’ve personally not stopped playing it for the last two months and having previously never given them the time of day they’re surely doing something right to effect that change. Given the album’s impact then, this was a show I was, on the one hand, particularly eager to see but that was tempered with wondering about how the material would be performed – as a whole with older songs only making up the encore or, in a sense, out of sync as at a regular show? Would any of the new songs’ impact be lost on hearing them in an altered context?

Trail of Dead (Photo by Julia Stryj)

Satisfyingly I can report that anyone who has similar concerns has in fact nothing to worry about. Save for slightly muddy sound quality during the first third of the set which meant the virtual loss of some of the backing vocals and higher register guitar solos the band tore the place up with older songs sounding better than their studio versions and the new numbers fitting in like established parts of the repertoire.

Taking the bold step of opening with the sixteen and a half minute ‘Strange News From Another Planet’, the final song from Tao, the band got straight down to business and never looked back for the hour-long performance. Clearly having a ball and glad to be back in the first city they ever played outside of the 48 States, they followed this up with current single ‘Summer Of All Dead Souls’, one more track from the new collection and then left off to wow the appreciative crowd with a very well recieved selection from the earlier six albums. Personally I could have done with them playing ‘Pure Radio Cosplay’ but as quibbles go that’s a minor one. Rarely do you see bands genuinely enjoying themselves so much but these guys are clearly nowhere near jaded by life in the industry.

Rival Schools (Photo by Julia Stryj)

Support tonight was firstly from Asobi Seksu but unfortunately having not seen them advertised on the bill I missed them and therefore have nothing to report. Second up though were Rival Schools, enjoying a second lease of life in support of new album Pedals. Like the headliners this was an outfit previously known to me in name only but new offerings ’69 Guns’, ‘Shot After Shot’ and ‘Choose Your Adventure’ along with older material (and an impromptu rendition of the early part of Bon Jovi’s ‘Wanted Dead Or Alive’) and their post-Hardcore sound marked them out as a band to start discovering more about. Overall then a great show for the long-term fan and Johnny-come-latelys such as myself at a ticket price that, for acts of this long standing, can only be applauded.

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