...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead

‘A Perfect Teenhood’ seems to have lasted forever. Up here in the heavens we don’t mind, but the pit-goers down the front must be tiring by now, surely. The sweat on their brows sends beams of light racing across Koko’s insides with greater speed and franticness than the epic-proportioned disco ball that spins above everyone’s head. One day it’ll fall and kill thousands; ...And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead are doing their absolute utmost to bring the fucker crashing to earth.

“How much did those seats cost?” asks a smiling Conrad Keely, directing his eyes the way of the few hundred wise enough – or stupid enough depending on your point of view – to leave the floor free of the aching and elderly, allowing the youths in attendance to writhe and jive to a selection of songs that play out suspiciously like a Greatest Hits-style set. We’re treated to a Source Codes & Tags double-header to open proceedings, ‘It Was There That I Saw You There’ and ‘Another Morning Stoner’; actually, it may have been another pair from the band’s most-acclaimed LP to date. I forget – my head was flung backwards and I was making like this was the first time I’d seen Trail Of Dead, rather than the fifteenth or something. Probably more. You’d think I’d be bored. Not a chance.

Keely has previously said, on record, that he doesn’t gain much pleasure from performing live anymore – “I'm awkward and self-conscious in front of a crowd,” he told DiS here – but this evening you wouldn’t know it. Both he and co-founder Jason Reece bounce about the stage like teenagers – the latter tears into the crowd during a frenzied rendition of ‘Homage’, threatening to pull the throats clean from the necks of the front few rows. Next he’s climbing a stack of speakers – we’re egging him to jump, but maturity gets the better of him as he drops, gently, back onto the stage. The duo appear to be in good spirits as they swap instruments with their bandmates, and although banter is minimal – the crowd isn’t even addressed until roughly halfway through the band’s tenure – the smiles that crack their faces in twain during the frankly huge sounding ‘How Near, How Far’ and the equally amazingly bombastic ‘Will You Smile Again For Me’ are clear for even the furthest-away of punter to pick out under the rapidly-flashing spotlights that illuminate each members’ every move.

But, there is a worrying feeling of finality to events: Keely’s comments in the press of late – that he’s happier in the studio than on tour – and the quality of previous LP So Divided, which seemed to very much be Keely’s baby alone, point to a conclusion to Trail Of Dead’s existence arriving sooner rather than later. Tonight they enthral in a manner they’ve not achieved for some years, but still something nags away in a darkened corner of the observer’s mind – this could well be it. Really. Everything’s in place – a disappointing album made up for by a stunning series of blow-out live shows.

Could be, could be. Should be? Certainly not, but in the case of Trail Of Dead, whose incendiary qualities had always carried them through periods of songwriting ups and downs prior to So Divided, it may be prudent to bow out after a succession of blasts than to fade away with a depressing whimper. If this proves to be their swansong tour, then London leaves the blood-red belly of Koko with their eyeballs shot and their ears pissing pints of claret. The perfect end to a perfect teenhood that, just maybe, has crept too close to middle age for comfort.