Fall of Troy, Protest the Hero, & Schoolyard Heroes - In Concert
The Anchor - Nashville, TN
Fall Of Troy in action
October 26, 2007
In between fixing my perpetually broken car, arguing Maiden-vs-Priest, and constantly finding more ways to justify spending money on new records instead of less important things like rent and food, your illustrious SoR reviewer occasionally finds the time to make it out to a show here in Nashville. It’s not often, however, in the city of honky-tonk and twangy guitars that a tour rolls through that I am genuinely excited about for weeks before, and having been hopelessly enamored with Protest the Hero’s stunning debut “Kezia”, I made it a point to clear the calendar and head out with the boys to The Anchor to see if this young band could replicate their undisputedly unique sound onstage, without the help of Pro Tools or Autotune. Having never heard the other two bands on the bill, I decided it might be a chance to catch a bit of cool new music as well.
The Anchor is an old church converted into a concert venue, and it’s maybe a 300-person joint that I swear was mostly occupied by one of yours truly’s most despised set of concert-goers; the high school pit ninja. Kids between 5’2’’ and 5’8’’ dressed in their finest girl’s pants and Victory-Records-latest-who-gives-a-crap band t-shirts were everywhere, but regardless, the boys and I grabbed a spot maybe 15 feet from the stage and got ready for the openers.
Schoolyard Heroes, a 4-piece horror-rock band I had never even heard of before this show opened up, and the sound blasting from the Anchor’s massive PA was one that took goth’d-out, campy, almost-punk sounds (think The Deadlines or a more pop-friendly MurderDolls) with a shrieking female vocal packing a seriously operatic vibrato. While the sound was one you don’t hear often, the novelty wore off fast, and we quickly found ourselves counting songs till their set ended, which thankfully was only about half an hour. Not bad, I guess, but certainly not my cup of tea.
Schoolyard
Protest the Hero occupied the direct support slot, and regrettably guitarist Luke Hoskin was unable to get back into the U.S. for this tour; filling in, however, was another guitarist that effortlessly fired off PTH’s off-kilter, tap-laden riffs like he’s been in the band since the beginning. As I said before, I absolutely loved their debut “Kezia” and was quite happy they pulled out most of the better numbers from that album, including the bombastic single “Heretics and Killers”, “Blindfolds Aside”, and one of my personal favorites, “The Divine Suicide of K”. Aside from being great songwriters, these guys are nothing short of astonishing musicians, especially for a bunch of 20-22 year-olds; bassist Arif Mirabdolbaghi is an absolute terror on his Spector 5-string, brandishing a sickeningly versatile arsenal of slap, tap, pop, slide, double-thump, and about a billion other crazy tricks I’d never even seen/heard on the record, and guitarists Tim Millar and Marcos spent the whole night trading straight-up shred for two-handed tapping for odd-timed instrumental breaks and even a pit-inducing breakdown or two. Not to be outdone, vocalist Rody Walker handled both clean and screamed vocals with ease, with a range reminiscent of a bizarre combination of Bruce Dickinson and Claudio Sanchez of
Suicide of K - Live on MTV
Coheed & Cambria, and Moe Carlson held an incredibly tight groove even in the midst of breakdowns and riffs that had to be written in 17/8 or some ridiculous crap. Great performance with tons of energy, stunning virtuosity, and of course, the obligatory Canada/STD jokes.
After sets changed, that brought us to The Fall of Troy, a band I will confess I am entirely unfamiliar with, although that arguably gives me a chance to write an entirely objective review of their performance. The music itself is something almost entirely unique – imagine a combination of Pelican, Converge, and U2 with some pretty serious guitar work, and you’ve got a basic idea of the sound Fall of Troy is pumping out.
In the words of Yoda, however, uniqueness alone does not a good band make. Although there’s no denying that the three dudes in FoT are all seriously talented musicians, the songs themselves got old quite quickly, as most of them seemed to follow a pretty predictable pattern of crazy-Converge-style intro, really quiet & moody melodic part, another out-of-nowhere crazy part, then 10 minutes of open-ended guitar wankery. This kind of crap only works when your band name begins with “P” and ends with “hish”, and it seriously got pretty old after a few times through 8-minute songs with little to no discernable form and the same ripping scales over and over again. Now, to be fair, if I was more familiar with their music, I might’ve enjoyed it far more, but as a casual spectator, I lost interest pretty quickly, as did most of my friends.
Overall, Protest the Hero stole the evening and, as far as I’m concerned, blew everyone else out of the water with their hugely entertaining live show and sheerly amazing technical skills. If you haven’t heard their “Kezia” album yet, their live show only confirms that these young Canucks are no joke and well worth my $10 at the door anytime.
