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Did I hear someone say Trail of Dead?

Posted: February 17th, 2002, by Marceline Smith

Ah, I had a great time on my little mini TOD tour of London and Nottingham. I ended up seeing Trail of Dead twice, WolvesofGreece twice and The Faint twice which is always good for forming opinions. I’m not saying any more about pie on this weblog so I’ll skim over the meeting up with Greg and Kat. We soon ditched them to hang out in our VIP balcony anyway where half the population of Scotland was situated. The Faint were pretty enjoyable with really loud bouncy pop songs but it all got a bit 80s sub-goth after a while. I bet they sound weedy as hell on record. Clinic were BORING and I don’t get them at all. I watched Trail of Dead‘s first song from the balcony and it all looked wonderful but the incessant chatter pissed me off so I once again took up residence on the stage where I had a nice sit down view of the band and the audience. It still all looked amazing and the songs were sounding clear and good but it was all a bit too clean with little in the way of riot antics and noise. I wanted to cheer when Jason gave that awful guitar of his away. Always good when Jason kicks the drums across the stage though and Neil throwing his bass at David’s head was pretty funny as well. Afterwards we had fun with fruit, wee stuart Mogwai and lots of fans before leaving to get stuck behind a burning truck on the M1 for hours.

The next day I bought lots of records in Nottingham and then went to see WolvesofGreece play at a basement party. They were insanely good that night, Simon knocking everything over and Neil having to be forcibly coerced back onstage. The songs [and they sound so much more like songs now] are just expertly structured yet chaotic power noise and it’s exhilarating as anything you want to mention.

Thus I was very much looking forward to seeing what the Nottingham TOD kids would make of the Wolves experience. Much fun was had watching their little faces change from initial support band boredom through wide-eyed confusion to eventual enjoyment. It was ace. The Faint were again enjoyable but unsatisfying. Trail of Dead however played a complete stormer of a set, possibly the best I’ve seen them do. Obviously hyped up by the tiny venue and enthusiastic audience, TOD brought out everything we love about them and had me laughing out loud in glee. Teenage girls desperately fondling Conrad’s knee; Jason clambering on top of a free standing tower of speakers, Neil hanging off the ceiling, Jason trading his disgustingly sweat-sodden shirt with a fan’s; Conrad shaking that hair; someone pulling the plug out of the stage lights. It was all just hilarious fun. Songs were sounding fantastic too with loads from the first two albums and a few choice moments from the new one. Sadly no breaking of stuff but I think someone would have definitely got hurt if they’d tried since it was so mobbed. I was not happy to see the stagediving/crowdsurfing revival is upon us. Seriously, GROW UP and let everyone enjoy themselves at a gig, not just you kicking small people in the face.

Afterwards was the usual CRAZY Trail of Dead backstage rock activities we’ve come to expect. Chocolate Hobnobs, New Tropical Fruit flavour Fanta [containing Brilliant Blue colouring but actually orange], lessons on How To Eat A Cadbury’s Flake Seductively, Neil wearing pyjamas, Jason teaching me and Matt Gringo how to start conversations with Drunken Ladies and Tycoons. Then they tried to convince me to come to Paris with them on their enormous sleeperbus complete with white leather seats but I thought that might be too much Fanta-filled rock for the likes of me. Back around May. I can’t wait. New album is really damn good too. I advise you to purchase it.



Marceline Smith

Marceline is the fierce, terrifying force behind diskant.net, laughing with disdain as she fires sharpened blades of sarcasm in all directions. Based in Scotland, her lexicon consists of words such as 'jings', 'aboot' and 'aye': our trained voice analysts are yet to decipher some of the relentless stream of genius uttered on a twenty-four hour basis. Marceline's hobbies include working too much and going out in bad weather.

http://www.marcelinesmith.com

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