And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead

Edinburgh Liquid Room

The Austin now-quartet has come back to the UK to promote their upcoming album ‘Lost Songs’. That said, Trail of Dead are known for their habit to never play too many new songs and rather stick to their old and generally popular material.

Trail of Dead

The setlist included two songs from the not-yet released record, two of the previous ‘Tao of the Dead’, skipping the Century of Self the fairly unpopular So Divided completely, and dedicating the rest of the set to Source Tags & Codes, Madonna and Worlds Apart.

Trail of Dead

They might not be as wild as they used to – no instruments were smashed at the end of the show, none of the members left the stage to walk around the audience during a song – but they still threw a great show. Those guys have energy.

Created with Admarket’s flickrSLiDR.

A Place To Bury Strangers

Glasgow Nice'n'Sleazy

A Place To Bury Strangers drew in a much larger crowd for this show, compared to the last time at Tut’s. It was nicely crowded at Sleazy’s.

A Place To Bury Strangers

But to be honest, I didn’t really enjoy the show and I can’t really put my finger on what was wrong. It didn’t seem that different from the last time (apart from the turn-out) but I wasn’t having that much fun.

The first two tracks the band played sounded a little quiet but Oliver then turned his amp a bit – at least I think that’s what he did – and things got a little better. But still, the show was missing something, something I saw in them the first time I took in one of their gigs (that was two years ago though).
The loudness didn’t seem to be good enough, though it’s hard to explain. Who knows.

A Place To Bury Strangers

Still, people seemed to be enjoying it a lot, so it was just me and my little party who thought it was a little bit disappointing.

I however loved their lights as always, they’ve bought new projectors, so while the last time there were two on the stage, this time I counted at least six, if not more. So at lest it looked awesome.


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Fearless Vampire Killers

Glasgow King Tut's

King Tuts hosted another fantastic Rock n’ Roll Damnation listing this year with London death-pop rockers Fearless Vampire Killers taking to the stage for an intimate headline show in Glasgow as part of the festival,Fearless Vampire Killers before they return to England for an extensive tour in October with The Dead Lay Waiting.

By the time I had arrived at King Tuts, the tiny venue was packed out to the door as the crowd were intensely watching the third act of the night, Madison. Unfortunately due to extremely late timing from travelling through to Glasgow, I only managed to catch a couple of the group’s songs. However, judging by the crowd’s reaction during the remainder of the set, Madison had enough to prove that their performance was in fact a massive success.

Once Madison had left the stage, Fearless Vampire Killers audience proceeded to move forward for the best spot in the venue whilst many of the group’s teenage fanbase were already waiting patiently in the front row as they grasped their compact cameras for any possible sighting of the band.

Immediately as the lights went down, the group entered the room adorned in their reputable theatre infused make-up, as well as bearing their accustomed unique attire which combines elements from the steampunk genre. With the group having two frontmen Laurence Beveridge and Kier Kemp, both switch between vocals and guitar throughout the night, with Kemp initially taking the lead for the first half of the group’s performance with Beveridge on guitar.
Fearless Vampire Killers
Providing an exhilarating introduction to their set with ‘Bow Ties On Dead Guys’, Kemp consistently demonstrated his perfected showmanship with an onstage presence full of energy and initiative. This persistent high stamina became an infectious pattern with the entire band during the show as the group followed on their performance with tracks such as ‘Concede. Repent. Destroy’ and ‘Could We Burn, Darling’.

Conversation in between songs became more frequent when Beveridge took over for his section of the show as lead vocalist with humourous debates about fetishes and random in the moment ‘contests’ which resulted in bassist Drew Woolnough endeavouring to perform the rest of the set with a roll of tape on top of his head. However, aside from the conversational pieces and alike, Beveridge equally brought an intense disposition to the band’s performance as he regularly engaged with his audience and spent a majority of his time offstage, singing directly to his fans from the photo pit.
Fearless Vampire Killers

Highlights of the group’s show also included their small but significant encore where they performed ‘At War With The Thirst’, which ultimately created for the perfect finale as drummer Luke Illingworth and lead guitarist Cyrus Barrone notably showcased their skills with shattering drumbeats and a hell of an impressive guitar solo.

It’s needless to say that Fearless Vampire Killers have been turning heads in many directions within the past few months, and if the five-piece maintain the pace and progression of their band, it will certainly only be a matter of time before they manage to fulfill their desired aspirations.

(Photos by Nicola Sharkey – www.nicolasharkeyphotography.com)

Grimes

Edinburgh Liquid Room

The Liquid Room was packed with people eager to see Canadian electronic artist Claire Boucher, aka Grimes more… “Grimes”