The evening started off with Fire Walk With Us, an instrumental post-rock band from Amsterdam who can be best described as Explosions In The Sky with Meshuggah riffs and with elements from ambient, metal and hardcore music. Even though they had a fill-in guitarist they gave away a very nice show for the next half an hour. I had never checked out this band before the show so I was kind of surprised when this show actually turned out to be pretty good. There were only about 70 people in the room (maybe due to the fact that it was a Friday night show), but the band gave everything they had. A good warm up for Trail of Dead!

 

For those who don’t know what the hell I’m talking about, Trail of Dead can best be described as an experimental indie band with its roots in the punk rock scene. The band consists of six members, with the main members Conrad Keely and Jason Reece switching between guitar, vocals and drums all the time. That’s besides the permanent drummer they have, so it was a surprise to see two drum sets on stage, which I never noticed before on CD. The set kicked off with the intro epic ‘The Giants Causeway’ from the brand new album The Century of Self, not surprisingly followed by the second track ‘Far Pavillions’. The vocals sounded a little out of tone on the first few tracks, but as soon as the band started the fourth track of the set, my personal favorite ‘Isis Unveiled’, it sounded just as it should be. For the next hour and a half they played a varied set of tracks from the new album, alongside with older (and faster) tracks, even from their first album Madonna such as ‘Aged Dolls’ and ´Clair de Lune’ and on tracks like these even a small childish moshpit emerged out of the blue. After an hour and 15 minutes or so the band left the stage to have a drink and come back for an encore, convincing the crowd with the very epic ‘Totally Natural’ as last track. I had never seen this band before but the show was very enjoyable, especially because of the fact that the band members constantly switched between instruments which also made it interesting to watch. The sound was crystal clear, even though the keyboards didn’t have enough volume in the middle of the set, which made the show even better. On to the second show for me at Dour Festival!

 

…And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead setlist:

 

01.   The Giants Causeway

02.   Far Pavillions

03.   It Was There

04.   Isis Unveiled

05.   Homage

06.   Bells of Creation

07.   Smile Again

08.   Caterwaul

09.   Clair de Lune

10.   Aged Dolls

Encore:

12.   Gargoyle

13.   Totally Natural