For those of you who go to gigs and can’t help but cringe a little at the things people shout out through adulation and inebriation, FUTURE OF THE LEFT are out providing wish fulfilment every night.
This tour comes ahead of the official release of FOTL’s second album ‘Travels With Myself and Others,’ which is available in MP3 form immediately to anyone who wants to pre-order the CD version, which will be issued in June. It’s a good way of dealing with those out there who simply can’t wait, and will hopefully encourage people towards lining the pockets of the band, who continue to be brilliant both on record and live.
The new songs slide neatly in with the others, sounding different to the first album, but complementing the set perfectly. ‘You Need Satan More Than He Needs You’ is instantly memorable, angry and intimidating, an industrial march that produces clouds of spittle with every syllable. This may be the song that everyone is looking forward to come the September tour. ‘Arming Eritrea’ is another immediate track, the album opener, and a fine example of the fuller sound. ‘Stand By Your Manatee’ is reminiscent of bands gone before, shouty, a little bit silly and ready to send a moshpit retarded. No fears of second album syndrome for this lot
The band are in acerbic form, snarling throughout the new stuff and showing no fatigue with the ‘Curses’ songs. All of the first album tracks are treated like anthems by the crowd, encouragingly larger than their last visit to Manchester at The Roadhouse last year. Most highly revered, of course, is ‘Manchasm,’ where the audience singalong threatens to drown out the band. ‘Small Bones, Small Bodies’ sounds livelier than ever and ‘Fuck The Countryside Alliance’ is thoroughly vindictive, especially in times of moat cleaning on expenses.
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People love Future of the Left a lot, and live it’s not just about the music. Each show is different in the between song banter, with both guitarist Falko and bassist Kelson taking every opportunity to put down a heckler or two. Tonight, several over-enthusiastic types are spectacularly belittled, including someone who threw their beer onto the stage before the band even came on, another who attempted a stage dive just as a song was ending, instead kind of falling to the floor instead, and someone else who took up the habit of shouting place names. Most nights, you just think ‘twat’ to yourself, but here is a band who will say it for you.
The comedy extends to rants about the many low-points of Hereford, and the prospect of a stage covered in whale cum. In most cases, prolonged exchanges onstage become tiresome quickly, but this is where Future of the Left are unique. It feels as much a part of the show as anything they play tonight.
The set ends with a seismic ‘Cloak the Dagger’ which sees Kelson hanging by his feet from the ceiling, before plummeting to the floor, placing far too much faith in an audience who had dropped many over the course of the evening. Its ten minutes of complete chaos, the spectacle to remind you that you’ve seen something very special. Future of the Left continue to deliver, and they deserve to succeed more than most. Absolutely one of the best live bands in Britain.
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