...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead have been doing this for 20 years. By now the fire and brimstone once so prevalent in guitar music has died down, alive only in rowdy niche circles. Their latest show felt less like a victory lap for a celebrated rock band than an exhausted 'one-more-time!' push, a show that had the band playing loose and off-kilter, the fury and power of their own music slowly wearing them down.
Joining them were a cadre of talented and interesting groups, starting with Melbourne's Heads Of Charm, a trashy hardcore act that utilised great riffing to deliver a crunchy and frothy set. They had a deceptively firm grip on their messy sound and it was a raucous delight.
Next up were local post-rock workhorses Solkyri, a quartet that live and thrive in the loud sections of Explosions In The Sky records. Their epic stretches of distortion and beautiful guitar ambience expressed feelings of vast space and captured the best of what post rock was (and is) capable of.
Geelong art rock legends The Red Paintings put on a reliably entertaining performance, involving volunteers painting and being painted. The band, clad in scarlet kimonos and a Cossack headdress pushed out an ok set of post-emo material. It's best to approach The Red Painters as a whole. As soon as you focus on one element it falls down, but as a whole package they shine.
...Trail Of Dead's new album, IX, got a nod only twice. A Million Random Digits and The Lie Without A Liar were fine, but they were just treading water between their older stuff. Mistakes & Regrets was injured by Conrad Keely's failing voice, as was Relative Ways. The high pressure atmosphere they're usually so good at generating felt absent, leaving only volume. Their potent songwriting still has an impact but there was also a palpable vacuum in the room.
