I had a chance to see Against Me! (AM!) play with Ted Leo & the Pharmacists (TL/Rx) and Future of the Left (a group featuring former members of mclusky and Jarcrew) at First Avenue in Minneapolis this past Thursday night.
Being an all ages show Future of the Left took the stage at about six-fifteen as people were still trickling in. I have to say, I was impressed by the show they put on, especially considering the early start time. Drummer Jack Egglestone attacked his drums with a look on his face that implied the drums had done him a deep, personal wrong. Bassist/vocalist Kelson Mathias and vocalist/guitarist/keyboardist Andy Falkous sweated enough to douse a fire. Their set ended with Mathias jumping from the four-foot high First Avenue stage onto the dance floor where he proceeded to do pushups over his bass.
What stood out to me the most was the heavy use of bass in their songs. Nearly every song used bass overdrive and Mathias played as if he were playing a guitar. Playing in this way gave a very melodic quality to the rhythm section and forces Falkous to use his typically melodic instruments to play basic rhythms.
Considering Ted Leo is nearly forty, he’s still rocking harder than a lot of people half his age. Still pissed off in his middle age, his songs speak of and with anger at the way things are while being surprisingly danceable. His set began with a short speech by two of the people preemptively arrested before the RNC (those arrestees have since been dubbed the RNC 8). TL/Rx recently released a fund-raiser EP called Rapid Response to raise money for the non-profit organization Democracy Now! that is helping with the legal fees of the RNC 8, and the Minneapolis chapter of Food Not Bombs.
If you don’t know TL/Rx I urge you to check them out. They draw from a variety of styles including folk and reggae but can most accurately be described as a gritty indie band. Their most recent record, Living with the Living (2007), is the strongest of their releases, though Shake the Sheets (2004) is also great.
Against Me! has been one of my favorite groups for awhile now and this was my second time seeing them live. It has been my experience, and the experience of those I’ve talked to, that AM! rarely disappoint. They took the stage with little fanfare, which is appropriate, and launched immediately into the set.
This is the final tour AM! Are doing in support of their 2007 album, New Wave but we were treated to a set of songs covering most of their career. In fact, we didn’t even hear half of the tracks off of New Wave. Crowd pleasers like “Walking is Still Honest” and “Pints of Guinness Make You Strong” (both of which were sung a capella by the more boisterous of those in the audience before AM! even took the stage) were in abundance and Tom Gabel and the rest of the AM! crew seemed to be enjoying the evening as much as the audience.
The most entertaining moment of the night came when Gabel – who rarely, if ever, says anything more than “thank you” and “good night” to audiences – mercilessly called out someone in the audience for flicking off the band during the entirety of “Borne on the FM Waves of the Heart.”
“I think my favorite part about playing that last song,” Gabel said, “was the guy in the pink scarf who flicked me off during the entire song.” Gabel went on to say, “God forbid the lead singer have the audacity to write a song about how he fell in love with his wife.”
I’ve heard that after more touring abroad the band will head back into the studio to work on a follow up to New Wave. However, if you ever have a chance, be sure to catch these guys live – you won’t regret it. Same goes for TL/Rx and Future of the Left.
Rhymesayers Entertainment New Year's Eve Party
Trama Presents: Glow in the Dinkytowner
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All Inclusive New Year's Eve
New Year's Wild Eve 
