On Tuesday night the 9:30 club came alive with the performances of two raucous powerhouses, And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and The Blood Brothers. The bands showed the audience what it means to be showmen in the world of loud, fast, rock music.
The opening act for the night was the Austin-based group Sisters and Daughters. The band looked as if it had just come out of a time machine as they were dressed in full '60s hippie attire, right down to the flower on the singer's shirt. The band, while smiley on stage, played a 30-minute set of unoriginal folk music. The band seemed like a second rate The Mamas and The Papas cover band complete with lyrics about flowers, San Francisco and California. Many kids in the crowd seemed distressed and anxious for them to get their set over with.
The next act was local band Celebration. While the name of the band conjures up terrible images of old people dancing to Kool and the Gang, the music they played seemed to be the opposite of such. The band played their dark brand of dance punk that featured everything from double drumming to the bassist/organ player/guitarist playing bass-synth with his feet. Their brooding dance beats, haunting melodies and soulful singer Katrina Ford were impressive but failed to catch the audience's attention.
The Blood Brothers came on stage to the delight of the many teenagers in the audience. From opening screams from the song, "Set Fire to the Face on Fire," the kids began moving around at a frantic pace to the band's tunes. The Blood Brothers followed the song up with fan favorites "Ambulance vs. Ambulance" and "Trash Flavored Trash," both of which sent the crowd into full-blown hysteria complete with mosh pits and stage diving.
A noticeably sparser and more adult crowd gathered around for headliners And You Will Know Us By The Trail of Dead. Rather than come on all at once, the band appeared at random times during the set up which threw the crowd off as they were unprepared for when they launched into their classic song, "Mistakes and Regrets." From there on out the set grew more abrasive and more rambunctious as the band continued their assault on the crowd with songs like "It Was There I Saw You" and "How Near, How Far."
Singer Conrad Keely grew more and more aggressive with the music, breaking strings, knocking guitars out of tune and generally creating havoc for the 9:30 stage crew. At one point he tried justifying his actions: "I'm just trying to follow the Blood Brothers." By the time drummer and frontman Jason Reece took the microphone for the punk-tinged songs "Aged Dolls," "Caterwaul" and "Homage," the crowd had been worked up into a full-blown riot as people moshed, head-banged and jumped up and down to the blistering beats.
The band finished up the set with punk-inspired "Perfect Teenhood" and the popular "Will You Smile Again For Me?" The band, in perfect Trail of Dead fashion, did not announce their encore and rather asked the crowd for which song they would play last. The crowd cheered for the song "Another Morning Stoner," and the band did not disappoint.
