Trail of Dead to play Orlando, still owes us one.
January 15th, 2009 by Joel Weiss in News, Reviews
Once upon a time, I thought …And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead was an amazing metal band name wasted on some Austin indie rockers. Then I heard Worlds Apart, the band’s ambitious, anthemic, self-indulgent yet criminally underrated 2005 album, and I realized these guys rule. I finally caught them live in November of 2006. To say they left me wanting more would be too kind.
Disappointment set in when I happened upon their upcoming tour dates. February 23 at The Social over in Orlando. Nothing in our vicinity.
Why am I so disappointed? Well, I’m of the opinion that …Trail of Dead owes us a decent concert.
What happened on-stage at Jannus Landing on November 18, 2006?
Accounts vary.
PodBop provides a lot of details:
Roadies with mullets set up Trail of Dead’s equipment and Jason Reece approached the mic, joking that his bandmates were off doing crack. They found their way to the stage and blasted through “It Was There That I Saw You,” the opening track off 2002’s career-defining Source Tags & Codes.
Then I noticed Kevin Allen’s empty eyes and slow hands. He struggled to strum his guitar. He wobbled in place before stumbling into the drum kit, making his way across the stage and falling flat on his face. This was no act. Obviously useless, he was helped backstage and Conrad Keely couldn’t help asking Jason, tongue-in-cheek, “You weren’t kidding about that crack?”
The four remaining members carried on without their lead guitarist. Jason and Conrad took turns on drums, lead vocals and guitar, as they always do. But something was clearly missing. At the end of the sloppy set, Kevin tried to reclaim his spot. Too late. Conrad lost his composure and smashed his guitar. Nothing new there. But then he shouted, “We’re done!” and stormed offstage after pushing Kevin, who collapsed with ease and took his amp down with him.
Some other attendees’ recaps were posted by Pitchfork, and here’s my brief morning-after synopsis.
Needless to say, A Century of Self, which drops on February 17 - six days before their Orlando gig – is still worth getting excited about. But not so excited that this grumpy old man will risk a good weeknight’s sleep.
Come back to Tampa, guys. You owe us one.
“Another Morning Stoner” off their 2001 breakthrough, Source Tags & Codes.
January 15th, 2009 at 8:08 am
i was at that jannus show! allow me to set the scene: after kevin tried to get back onstage like nothing happened (but still obviously visably wasted), conrad yelled into the microphone, “this is our last song!” played one chord, smashed his guitar, briskly walked over to kevin and SHOVED him into his amplifier.
the scene was much more vicious than the above description lets on.
January 15th, 2009 at 10:24 am
I was there as well, but towards the back near the soundboard. I missed the lead-up to the confrontation. I didn’t hear Jason’s mention of pre-show drug use, and I only vaguely remembered Conrad’s remark about the crack; so without the context I didn’t understand exactly what was going on. And I’m pretty sure I just didn’t see Kevin being helped off-stage. Though I definitely remember Conrad shoving the crap out of Kevin before the band left the stage for good.
Missing a guitarist or not, I was still having a good time at the show until it ended prematurely.
January 15th, 2009 at 12:54 pm
I didn’t go to the show as I heard about it too late, BUT from what I heard afterward, I’m glad I missed it. And am really hoping that they would come back, in better form to play something better.
I won’t be killing myself to go to Orlando either to see them. Especially if there’s a chance of this crap happening again.
January 16th, 2009 at 7:50 pm
i was at that show, too. with cnadeau. in fact, my account of the evening is in the linked pitchfork article. that show was something i hope to never have to see again. to watch a band self destruct on stage is not fun, and trail of dead went out with a fucking bang.
do trail of dead owe is a good show, sure. but they also owe those who were at the last show an apology. we, the fans, were treated like crap at that show. we paid good money to get in and the band put it up their nose or smoked it or whatever. i haven’t paid to much attention to trail of dead since that show and i used to really really like them. i had seen them before and they were effing great.
i hope they’ve got their shit together and can tour without things like that happening. i also hope they return to the bay area and thank those who actually bother to show up. maybe they should do a free show as an apology. i typically don’t think bands owe me anything, but i feel like trail of dead owes me more than a good show.
January 20th, 2009 at 5:32 pm
I’ve seen TOD a couple times before and was blown away so I enthusiastically dragged my “but I have to be up early for WORK tomorrow” sister to this show thinking “she’ll thank me for this later”. We stomached the Blood Bro’s in order to be close enough to the stage to duck flying shards of Conrad’s guitar. They’ve promised a better show in Orlando and taking their word on it, I’ve put in a vacation request at work to attend. C’mon Joel, let’s roadtrip!