Future of the Left - 100 Club, London, 30/1/2006

  by Anthony Dhanendran

published: 12 / 2 / 2007

intro

Future of the Left is the new band of former Mclusky front man Andy Falkous. Anthony Dhanendran watches them play a refreshingly abrasive and angry set at the 100 Club in London

Andy Falkous is an angry man. He has been since his days in Mclusky, the Welsh band that, despite never quite making it to wide acclaim, released some of the best noisy music of the decade before splitting up not long ago. Falkous’s strong point then was his ability to turn his anger not just to thrashy, loud riffs, but also to humour and no small amount of intelligence in his lyrics, directed at all comers. In fact, reviewing a Future of the Left gig is a fraught experience, as Falkous is known to read and critique his reviews online. The only hope for reviewers scared about meeting him in a dark alley is to just hope that he doesn’t notice. Not that he has anything to worry about. He’s back with a new band, Future of the Left, also featuring members of also-rans Jarcrew. They’re good. But any mention of the M-word is to be avoided tonight, it seems. ‘Falco’ has been telling people he doesn’t want to be compared with "the old band". It’s unavoidable, though – that voice, whiny but witty, is the same, although it’s not as far to the front here as it was with Mclusky. The band appear in front of a packed sweaty, drunken 100 Club, playing all new, all heavy material (they’re only a year or so old, and there’s no Mclusky or Jarcrew on the menu tonight, so everything’s being served fresh). 'The Lord Hates a Coward' – nice to see the Falco sparkle still affecting the track names – the second song of the evening, is a thundering, juddering onslaught revolving around a chorus of "violence solves everything." 'Plague of Onces' continues in much the same vein, musically – the musicians seem to have regressed into an earlier kind of proto-punk-metal, or perhaps it’s just that these songs aren’t quite polished yet. As it is, it’s hard to make out the lyrics above the roar of the crowd and the unease of the PA at carrying such a mighty sound. But from what we can hear of the tracks that follow on the set list – 'March of the Coupon Saints' and 'I Need to Know How to Kill a Cat' – show that Falkous hasn’t lost any of his anger against, well, whatever targets he happens to come across. In that vein, '---- the Countryside Alliance' is dedicated to any Conservatives in the audience. The main set closes with 'Adeadenemyalwayssmellsgood,' followed in the encore by the pounding 'Cloak the Dagger', which ends, bizarrely and amusingly, with the drum kit being taken apart piece by piece while the drummer attempts to continue playing, a Beckett-evoking touch that tops things off nicely.

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