Teaching an old ...Dead new tricks*

When a band like ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead start saying things like 'I used to think that [playing live] was an end in and of itself, that it had its own rewards. I don't feel that way these days', you know all is not well. As one of the most ferocious live acts in existence, the band's reputation has been built upon their utterly committed bloodstrewn performances which, at their peak, leave the band, audience and equipment in a similar state of glorious destruction.



True, their last two records have been received with more of a shrug of the shoulders than the rapturous acclaim afforded the albums generally considered to be their masterpieces, Madonna and Source Tags & Codes. And true, for a band such as ...Trail of Dead, whose success has always stemmed from critical plaudits rather than sales, this brutal dismissal from the canon of cool must have hit harder than for most. But not so hard as to destroy the group's belief that a live show is more than a vehicle to sell records, that it is an art form 'in and of itself', surely? There are few enough bands who make that crucial distinction as it is, and to lose one of the best thanks to the lukewarm response of a handful of writers would be as near a tragedy as indie rock gets.

Thankfully, within seconds of their arrival on the Koko stage, all fears of an insipid Dead-by-numbers sham of a gig are assuaged. Either Conrad has cheered up a hell of a lot since that Pitchfork interview or he is a far more accomplished actor than I give him credit for. Entering to the faint strains of Worlds Apart's 'Ode To Isis', the band tear into brutal versions of 'It Was There That I Saw You' and 'Relative Ways', flinging themselves about the stage and pummelling the audience into rapt submission. It is a incredible start to a gig, and feels like a direct challenge to the doubters, of which I, and I suspect the Conrad quoted above, was one.

The set list reads like a greatest hits collection, with tracks from Madonna and Source Tags making up the bulk. They toy with the crowd by stretching and reshaping the introduction of 'Totally Natural', building it to a tulmutuous crescendo before breaking it down to nothing and then slamming into the opening verse, leaving a trail of open mouths and racing hearts in their wake. 'A Perfect Teenhood' is possibly even better, Jason climbing high onto the speakers to scream the final 'fuck you' refrain as Conrad rocks back and forth like the emotionally scarred teenager the song describes. The overall effect - the noise, the energy, the sheer belief in what they are doing - is mesmerising.

It must be noted that they play only one track from their last album, So Divided. Every band, and perhaps every artist of whatever persuasion, no matter how great, will eventually reach the tipping point in their 'career', the point where, in all likelihood, their best work is behind them. Only the blindest of fans would seriously argue that So Divided is comparable with Madonna or Source Tags. It isn't. And the band themselves would seem to testify to that by their choice of set list.

The key now is how to react to that recognition. Some bands split up. Some carry on but, in reality, give up, like the Conrad Keeley of the Pitchfork interview, becoming performing puppets, shadows of their former selves, robotically running through the motions. And some, like the Trail of Dead tonight, take the triumphs of their past and reinvent them, unafraid to take on their history and win, using the immediacy of the live experience to create new art from old forms. It was, truly, a joy to watch.

*sorry!