FUTURE OF THE LEFT at the El Mocambo (464 Spadina), Tuesday (November 3). $10. rotate.com.
Andy Falkous, lead shouter, guitarist and hyper-articulate lyricist for Wales-based Future of the Left, is a tad tetchy when I reach him in a van hurtling toward Denver. A poorly attended show the previous night in Salt Lake City left a sour taste.
[rssbreak]
“It was a show. I’ll give it that,” says Falkous. “We rolled up at half four, loaded in while watching [tour mates] …Trail of Dead sound check, then were informed we couldn’t make any noise ourselves until 10 pm due to some crazy Mormon health and safety bylaw.
“In Europe – and I don’t include Britain in this – bands get fed and cared for, whereas here you get thrown in a cupboard with half a banana and two drink tickets and told to get your equipment out by midnight.”
This mix of surliness and wit is exactly what you’d expect from the songwriter behind the ferocious yet buoyant math-punk album Travels With Myself And Another (4AD).
In support of it, they’ve been touring Europe and North America for six weeks straight. Hardly the most comfortable lifestyle – “sandwiches sustain us,” says Falkous – it’s familiar to him and drummer Jack Egglestone, who spent nearly a decade together in revered alt-rock band Mclusky.
And they’ve gathered some pithy insights along the way.
“Dutch crowds are shit,” Falkous says. “Croatians are the best. The way Russian women swear is unbearably sexy. American shows are nearly always 21 and over, which makes for an appreciative but less mobile audience and, aside from Seattle, they seem less inclined to lose their shit than, say, Germans or Croatians.
“The heckling is pretty good here, mind you, although we still always win.”
music@nowtoronto.com
