Monday 09/03/09 The Soundtrack Of Our Lives, Township @ The Paradise, Boston

As far as band names go, The Soundtrack Of Our Lives is pretty spot-on for quickly identifying what sorts of sonic treats the band can expect to yield, easily on par with other illustrative examples like Shellac or Black Flag. Scan the average music fan's collection and you'll certainly find multiple titles from the foundations of rock music played by white men, icons such as The Beatles, The Rolling Stones, The Who and The Kinks. TSOOL takes a liberal pinch from all of those songbooks but somehow manage to create a pastiche which is not totally derivative of its inspirations, but is able to build solid rock songs that create their own wake.

Led by the kaftan-draped would-be prophet Ebbot Lundberg who towers above the proceedings, the band is built for a single purpose - meld two exceedingly facile lead guitars with a head-bobbing bass player, a highly competent but not flashy drummer and some keyboard fill to create a rock and roll riff machine. They've succeeded on all fronts. Touring in support of their just-released double CD _Communion_ (featuring fairly freakily subversive cover art), this brief US tour of a scant six cities was their first foray back on American soil since they opened for Robert Plant four years ago. Like most TSOOL records, it's got its share of bona fide fist pumpers and bit of 'let's find the fast forward button, shall we' moments. Wisely, they decided on the fist pumpers and 'Babel On' led the way, with Ebbot taking on the role of a bemused pied piper leading his following into the mythical place of riff land, more than ably propelled by Mattias Bärjed and Ian Person manning their Les Pauls. Since the band came from the ashes of the Stooge-influenced Union Carbide Productions, it's hardly surprising that raw power is an essential part of their delivery, but they also take deep draughts from the tap of Love, Zombies, and other psych bands of the sixties. Among their contemporaries I could place The Church in about the same waters, albeit without the hazy-eyed mysticism that Steve Kilbey likes to indugle in.

"Second Life Replay" is an apt microcosm of their world...gently sung/played melody, gradually building into a white hot storm of Fender Twin Reverb blastings as Mattias and Ian take the song into an entirely different plane of existence under the direction of the increasingly hoarsening vocals of Ebbot. How can Oasis sell out Madison Square Garden while TSOOL struggle for an audience? I guess the answer could be found in a mix of bad luck/timing and songs like the sub-Stones plodding of "Thrill Me." Which leads me to discuss the turnout...though they didn't play it, the song "The Fan Who Wasn't There" must have been rattling around their collective heads as they scanned the half-filled room. I've seen the band twice before in packed venues (Cambridge MA and Helsinki Finland) and they really fed off the crowd's energy; tonight just didn't have that spark. Not sure if it was the cold, snowy Monday night, or that people gave up fist-pumping Swedish rock for Lent, or the tanking economy, but it was a far less robust audience than I'd have guessed. In spite of this, "Nevermind," "Sister Surround" and the beatific closer of "Jehovah Sunrise" on the second encore underscored what a vital band TSOOL is. No bullshit, just rock. Tough to argue against.

Openers Township were a nice pairing; they obviously share the love of over-amped Gibsons, and their boogie-fueled six string overdose was a welcome addition to the night. If they lived in '73 and put out a single private-press LP, labels like Shadoks or Sundazed would tripping over themselves to reissue it. Get it while it's still fresh.

The Soundtrack Of Our Lives and Township in photos: