Why put the body where the body don't want to go?
It's a heartwarming tale beloved by children and their elders: the story of how the inchoate Welsh rage that was McLusky magically transformed into the inchoate Welsh rage the world now knows as Future of the Left. I never saw the former onstage, to my eternal regret. I finally saw the latter on Monday night.Is Travels with Myself and Another better, or even much different, than the first Future of the Left album? I prepared for the show by listening to both, and they are equally filled with joy and wonder. Songs from both albums were performed at the show, minus a few of my favorites. I can't complain, but sometimes I just did.
The band is as entertaining between songs as during them. Andy Falkous furrows his brow and looks to me like Morrissey's bratty younger brother. During the final song, "Cloak the Dagger", Kelson Mathias entrusted his bass to a female audience member, and his body to the rest of the crowd, which hoisted him above their heads as Falkous methodically dismantled the drum kit (while Jack Egglestone was still playing it.)
Like a fat caterpillar into a graying butterfly, I too will soon transform: from tragic concert-going loner into tragic concert-going chaperone. My teenage son wants me to take him to his first metal shows. In the next month, we plan to see Converge, High on Fire, Mastodon, Dethklok, and iwrestledabearonce. I'm sure they will be loud and angry. Some of them are amusing, and some are humorless. But I doubt that any of them will match the intensity of rage and humor that Future of the Left brings to the live arena. It sounded something like this:
McLusky: Falco vs the Young Canoeist (live)
