...And You Will Know Us By The Self-Destruction...And You Will Know Us By The Self-Destruction
St. Petersburg, FL - ...And You Will Know Us by the Trail of Dead have a reputation for destroying their equipment by the end of each performance. It's gotten them banned from most venues in Austin. They're also notorious liars, propagating their own mythology. But their stage show at Jannus Landing on Saturday night seemed unrehearsed.
After The Blood Brothers' incendiary set, half the crowd cleared. 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.
As sensational as it all was, I still wish I went to the Orlando show the day before. Or maybe I'd rather go back to 2002. In the past four years, Trail of Dead have released two subpar albums overflowing with grandoise ideas but never capturing the delicate danger of their early work. It must be frustrating to be So Divided between success and defeat. Their unpredictable antics have come to be expected. But sometimes the apocalyptic spectacle upstages the actual songs. I wouldn't be surprised if the band's end is near.
