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support 68
author PP date 10/08/23 venue Stengade, Copenhagen, DEN

It's a bit of a surprise to find a lineup as stacked as this one at the 230-capacity Stengade. The Fall Of Troy previously played at Lille Vega and owns one of the strongest back catalogues in post-hardcore in general. '68 is the brainchild of Josh Scogin (The Chariot, Norma Jean), and their performance at Roskilde Festival back in 2017 turned a lot of heads. Their albums are solid, too. Yet here we are towards the end of the summer vacation, and the venue is only half full from what I can tell. Yeah, I'm as surprised as you are.

'68

'68

"Y'all doing good? This is '68", Josh Scogin says in his casual, charming manner while wearing an immaculate suit on stage. He's facing his counterpart, drummer Nikko Yamada directly, which creates a peculiar setting on stage where you essentially get the feeling throughout the set that they're mostly playing for, and off, each other, rather than for the audience watching. This feeling is reinforced through how they toy with their soundscape, filtering southern groove through an experimental lens where plenty of stop/starts fool the audience to start cheering before the songs are actually over.

'68

"It's our first day on tour, so I'll forget a lot", Scogin says in an apparent remark towards a crowd member up front who is singing some of the lyrics he didn't do to one of the songs. But it is a telling sign of a set that feels, if not unrehearsed, then at least less tight and fluid than in the past. I remember all those random 'hey!'s and 'oh!'s popping off at Roskilde that felt like fun-driven randomness during their chaotically weird and unconventional set. Tonight, they merely feel like part of the songs as intended. Sure, there's a part where he plays the guitar by shredding it against the amp, and "What You Feed" is a highlight of the set with its "I said, "I wish you were a war" segments, but overall the '68 performance doesn't quite match the Roskilde buzz from a few years back. They finish off in a rather cool way by basically removing their kit one part by one while still playing until there's nothing left on stage other than the recorded guitar loop to finish it all off. Decent, but at least I was missing the energy that I've seen at previous shows.

The Fall Of Troy

It's been twenty years since The Fall Of Troy released their self-titled debut, which was one of the wildest and most erratic, spazzy brands of post-hardcore anyone had ever heard of. Its mathcore elements toyed with proggy vibes simultaneously, and its successor, "Doppelgänger", was at least as special if not even better thanks to an improved production value. The virtuoso-like guitars that swirled and scaled in all directions during chaotic, cacophonic screams and occasional cleans...yeah, those were the times. These are also the songs the band has been playing for the first half of this year overseas.

The Fall Of Troy

Unfortunately, sometime during the past two weeks, the band decided to drop all that and instead, "play a bunch of songs we never play" in the words of Thomas Erak. Double unfortunately, because the band hasn't been a particularly good live band ever since they radically altered their sound on "Manipulator". My first experience with them was back in 2005 during the Doppelgänger tour, where they were mind-blowing. Since then, their performances across the years have been disappointing to say the least. Erak isn't able to hit his clean notes in a live setting even if his life depended on it, and when the majority of the songs tonight feature their more experimental material that has plenty of these... well, you can imagine how it goes.

Sure, Erak trashes into the crowd early on during the set. He displays lots of energy and virtuoso-like ability with his instrument throughout. I'm even fine with them playing their progressive and unconventional material, however, when the whole set feels unrehearsed and lacks tightness? That's unforgivable. "Act One, Scene One" from Doppelgänger says it all: the cleans vocals sections are freaking dire. The connection with the crowd is lacking almost entirely, save for the first couple of rows.

The Fall Of Troy

At the same time, Erak seems to take offense at this, appearing borderline arrogant and hostile towards the crowd in between the songs. "I'm not making fun of you guys but I just want you to participate.", he says. I guess it says a lot when someone like me who has been a fan for eighteen years and has reviewed all of their albums, has difficulty in recognizing the songs they are playing. Later, he responds to another crowd member at the front: "Faster? Bigger pit, the song goes faster...", and even later "You gonna boss me around? I don't think so" once someone in the audience asked for "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X".

There are moments where the band gets it right, however. "You Got A Death Wish, Johnny Truant?" is one of them. "Semi-Fiction" is another, where the pit explodes into action. "Mouths Like Sidewinder Missiles" and "F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X" both confirm that yes, when the band is playing their best material, everything just clicks and the venue transcends into beautiful, lovable chaos. However, when the band plays shit like "Adam's Song" (Blink 182 cover) with an audience member on stage, it feels the opposite.

The Fall Of Troy

What could have been a great celebration of The Fall Of Troy's best material instead becomes what felt like a combo set of "Manipulator" and "In The Unlikely Event" with a few of the other songs scattered in between. "Ex-Creations", "The Dark Trail", and "The Battleship Graveyard" are all played, for example. The connection between the band and the crowd just isn't there for these songs, and when the clean vocals are as inexcusably bad as they are tonight, it's hard not to leave the venue disappointed as fuck.

Photos by: Stefan Thor Straten