Trail of Death forging a legend
Seventeen years, eight albums and countless trashed instruments later, an American indie rock institution are ready to take on Asia, writes David Frazier
The Austin, Texas, band …And You Shall Know Us by the Trail of Dead can drop guitar distortion on an audience as if they are carpet-bombing. They also have a weirdly literary edge, a way of carving real songs out of all their noisiness, and a reputation for trashing instruments at the end of their shows.
A decade ago, all of this helped push Trail of Dead into the clubhouse of America's best indie rock bands, an informal pantheon defined by college radio playlists, festival lore and a few well-placed thumbs-ups from magazines such as . In August, they released a new album, .
These are certainly good reasons to see the group on their first appearance in Hong Kong, when they play Grappa's Cellar on October 28. Another reason is that the band see their debut Southeast Asia tour - which also includes Cambodia, Bangkok and Taiwan - as both a part of their continuing evolution and a chance to recapture the energy of first contact.
"This is being done in the hopes of making Asia just as regular a stop as Europe. And hopefully more regular than America, because I'm f****** sick of touring America," says Conrad Keely, Trail of Dead's vocalist and guitarist. "As we get older, I feel we become more rebellious and edgier, but what the young kids are doing seems to be more complacent and safe, which is counterintuitive to what I would have expected." He is referring to crowds in the US.
