By Gilbert Potts
After years of hoping and the persistence of Bird's Robe Records and the band themselves, Australian fans finally got their first chance to see instrumental rockers This Will Destroy You on Australian soil, on a school night in Brisbane. The floods stayed away as the Texan quartet brought a mix of old and not-so-old favourites to a smallish but dedicated and attentive crowd.
Arrows
Opening the night was Brisbane indie band Arrows with their brand of jangly shoegaze guitar, meandering melodies and unobtrusive vocals. The songs were solid, well played, and different enough from the headliners to whet the appetite for a night of quality guitar rock while keeping the sounds fresh.
Tangled Thoughts of Leaving are soon to set off on a tour of Europe, and deservedly snagged the support slot for the TWDY tour in the run-up. Their piano-led rock goes off like a powderkeg on stage and fans are always kept satisfied with some new angles in these complex and intense compositions. The familiar opening keys of 'Throw Us to the Wind' marked the start of a five-song set that showed why you don't forget a TToL performance, with exactly the opposite amount of energy and animation as a J Mascis gig. As the opener wound up with a few screams into the crowd from pianist Ron Pollard, they rolled straight into the beautiful and solemn '...And Sever Us From the Present', bringing the temperature down a notch.
Tangled Thoughts of Leaving
A change of style saw the mathy new 'Dance Before You Die' from their new EP which was of course impossible to keep beat to despite the effort of many brave souls, followed by '(quakes)', also off the EP and as the name suggests full of reverb and general noise. The set was rounded out with the dynamic and moody masterpiece 'They Found My Skull in the Nest of a Bird' from their debut album. If they play like this in Europe they're going to create a storm as intense as their crescendos.
Despite no evidence the edge of the stage was electrified the crowd gingerly approached in preparation for the main act but mostly kept a safe distance, some ironically taking up a spot in front of the speakers. For the band it was clearly all about the music as without ceremony the slow drone and opening guitar notes of ‘A Three Legged Workhorse’ signaled their recognition that there was some catching up to do here in the land of the Sydney funnelweb spider. As the first crescendo pumped masses of air into the crowd there was a sense of relief – the relief you get when you know that the anticipation you built up inside over the last few weeks will actually be met.
This Will Destroy You
'There Are Some Remedies Worse Than the Disease’ was up next and formed the perfect bridge to the more recent intense and emotional drone of ‘Black Dunes’, while ‘Burial on the Presidio Banks’ treated us to some more of that wonderful tone of a Rhodes Eighty-Eight piano. In the days of monster pedal boards and regular guitar changes TWDY continued their lesson in keeping it simple in their extraction of sonic bliss.
‘Glass Realms’ and ‘Communal Blood’ took the crowd back into the long, dark tunnel, dripping with tension and despair. Although a little shy the crowd was here to listen and gave in to the hypnotic trance, but before everyone got too far down, the brilliant ‘Quiet’ and “They Move on Tracks of Never-ending Light” released them from the spiral.
Drummer Alex Bhore had seemed preoccupied with some equipment on the ground next to him but guitarist Jeremy Galindo now explained that it was a tech fault they had just managed to fix. It meant they could give us those glitchy sounds needed for ‘Grandfather Clock’, which was not on the set list and created a glimpse of lightness. Not many bands will keep plugging away to get gear working for just one short song when no one would be any the wiser, but the sweet morsel was a precious gift.
This Will Destroy You
The brilliance and emotion of final song ‘Little Smoke’ concluded with the band sneaking off stage to loops of reverb and feedback, as is the trademark of their ilk. At this point the crowd got a little confused. As is always the case, applause through the set had been sparse and confined to clear breaks– after all no one wants to be the fool who claps during the quiet bit of a post-rock tune (been there)- and the instruments were still making some noise.
Luckily the guys took pity on us and after a couple of minutes of awkward silence from the crowd, This Will Destroy You came back on and took the night home with ‘Threads’, thereby covering all the favourites except perhaps for ‘The Mighty Rio Grande’. But let’s not split hairs - on Tuesday night the glass was not just half full but overflowing.
So I guess you could say there was a flood after all.
