Live Review: ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

It's been quite some time since Coniston Lane (aka the defunct Woodland) saw loud angular rock music take to the stage, so it feels strange to be standing in this space waiting for an internationally-renowned act to arrive. The very early start time must have thrown a lot of people off too, as Adelaide trio Sincerely Grizzly ply their trade to a disappointingly sparse crowd. Nevertheless the band is tight and incredibly loud, the set a stop-start melange of math rock intricacies, and the perfect harbinger of what's to come.

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead played The Hi-Fi when they were last here in 2011, and it's hard to fathom why this isn't happening there, or at the very least The Zoo where they smashed it before that in 2009. It feels like something of an oversight at first, watching the seminal four-piece crowd onto the tiny stage. But as soon as the instrumental Invocation hits the speakers, intoning the beginning of their 2002 album Source Tags & Codes, the room suddenly fills with rabid fans waiting to hear the record played live in full. It is a special occasion, and the band goes for it full tilt. Conrad Keely is a charismatic frontman, dressed in requisite black and at times crooning and screaming his way through classics such as It Was There That I Saw You, Another Morning Stoner and How Near How Far like the clock had been turned back a decade. Jason Reece starts out on drums, before coming out from behind the skins to tear a hole in Baudelaire (originally sung by Neil Busch) and the excellent, bristling Days Of Being Wild. Jamie Miller and Autry Fulbright II weren't in the band when these songs were written, yet totally inhabit the space – Miller is an energising presence, surpassing Reece when he takes to the drums, while Fulbright is electrifying as he flails and contorts.

The set is a little rusty – some of these songs haven't been played in nine years – but brilliant nonetheless – until they come back to play a second set interspersed with tracks both new (kicking off with a couple from last year's Lost Songs) and old (A Perfect Teenhood, Will You Smile Again?). It's a mind-blowing set. While the dizzying heights Source Tags & Codes brought upon the band set them up for an unfair, tumultuous fall, placing this set alongside their biggest album serves to prove that they have remained as prevalent, if not moreso, as ever.