What a F'ing excellent concert. No better way to describe it.. F'ing incredible. Somehow an expletive is needed to emphasize just how blown away I was by this show.. To begin, on Friday, August 31, 2002, I went to see Trail of Dead at the 930 club (a local, somewhat large, general admission concert venue). They were set to open for the Queens of the Stoneage, a band I am not that enthused about. Qotsa postponed the show as a result of losing Dave Grohl on the drums and not being able to get the new drummer up to speed in enough time. What may have been a disapointment to some folk turned into one of the best concert-going experiences I have had this year.

Trail of Dead rocked. Simply said, they rocked. Old school style. Their guitars buzzed, they had energy, they had showmanship. You could tell that they were happy to be there and they tried to win the crowd over with their enthusiasm and proficient playing. That said, these boys know how to put on a show. Their lead singer, Kevin Allen, jumped on top of the speaker at one point and sang to the crowd. At several points, in his enthusiasm, he knocked over his mic stand and proceeded to play his guitar with the mic itself. The bass player played laying on the ground. Reading this you may be thinking "how cheesy" but.. it worked. They really gave their roadies and the 930 staff a workout. My friend and I left thinking, screw all this hype about the Hives and the Vines, and the Strokes. These boys just may save rock and roll.

The music can best be described as math rock. Fuzzy white-noise guitars colliding with offbeat drumming and driving bass. Lots of distortion. Loud music. Driving music. Complex music. Check out their newest release, Source Tags and Codes. Highlights include Another Morning Stoner, Relative Ways and How Near How Far.

To top it off, these guys are nice. Neil Busch and Kevin Allen made rounds after the performance to thank the crowd and to solicit feedback. Really friendly folk. It is refreshing to see artists that care to engage the crowd. It is equally refreshing to go to a concert where people are not just standing there and listening in that mock-cool barely head-bobbing hipster glaze. People were dancing. People were throwing things (and each other). For the first time in a while (and I see about 2-3 concerts a month at the 930 club) I can say the crowd was really involved in the show.

I left on a music high. I also bought a t-shirt and their backlist of cds. Check them out, and if they play live in your hood go see them, you won't be disappointed.