You will know them by the trail of meh!
Its been a good ten years since...And You Know Us By The Trail of Dead were bothering the ears of anything other than the most devout of fans and you have to think about why this is the case. There is no doubt that their 1999 release ushered them onto a very willing audience but looking back, this is much more to do with the music scene at the time as opposed to anything genius emanating from the band. Quite frankly, 1999 was a horrendous year for music and the fact that it was the only time that this band did enough to make itself heard in any meaningful way says a lot about the time and …Trail of Dead.
This fear that the band were in the right place at the right time was exacerbated throughout the first two thirds of the set which plodded along without ever picking up any great pace or momentum. Surely a band with two drummers on stage should be performing with a greater energy and emotion than what was happening here? The Oran Mor in Glasgow has never been the best venue for acoustics but for once, the sound levels weren’t causing any problems, there just seemed to be a lack of vibrancy and power from the band. The crowd, which was nowhere near a sell-out despite the proclamations beforehand, were as flat as the band with only the hardcore down the front becoming reasonably vexed at any point in the first half an hour.
The really annoying thing is that took a whole 40 minutes for the set to come to life and when the band were only playing for an hour, it all seemed to be short changing the customer. There is no doubt that things from here on were exciting, with every track having the potential to be viewed as a set closer but therein came another problem, with the band milking every song, which by the time the end came could have left it flat and lifeless. The fact that it didn’t owed much to the wandering style of the lead drummer who ended the track by singing at the steps leading up to the bar and causing every set of eyes in the venue to deviate from the stage and look towards the back of the venue. It was a great ending to a show that never really got going until it was too late and you can’t help but thinking that …Trail of Dead are never going to be a major player again.