Trouble - Live @ Emos, Austin TX 7/15/08

"We had a choice of breaking up, or continuing with Kory" - Bruce Franklin

That was the main thing that stuck with me during my pre-show conversation with Bruce. We talked about the record label situation...evidently they are going to give Escapi "one more chance" to get Simple Mind Condition out in the states...however the label is so far in breach of contract that they could easily get out of it and re-release the album on another label. They have spoken with some other labels but by the sound of it they don't currently have a management company. Bruce said he'd like to reissue it in the states with a couple bonus tracks with Kory singing...and they'd like to get back into the studio to start cutting material with the new lineup.

I asked him which would be the main focus, to get SMC released or record a new album? He said recording a new album would be the top priority but they'd still like to get SMC officially released here. (The problem is budgetary, Escapi is broke and needs investors).

The other thing that struck me was he indicated that their best chance for getting a new deal is with European labels...he said "when we play in Europe the crowds are much larger than in the states, we'll play to between 500-1000 people a night...on this west coast tour we've been averaging 100 people a night except in the larger cities."

Onto the show:

Trouble ended up playing the middle slot of the bill, the ticket sales weren't as good as hoped so they decided to go on early and let Dixie Witch close the show. I'm guessing there was somewhere around 100-125 people at the club.

I'm not going to try and re-create the setlist, they opened with R.I.P. and then continued on mostly with songs from the 2 Def American records. The band itself sounds GREAT...that completely unique guitar sound is still there, Jeff Olson is still one of the most interesting metal drummers...they were tight. That is...the band was tight...Kory was drunk, I lost track of how many beers he drank during the set.

The Good: The highlight of the show was Endtime from Psalm 9 which sounded God-like, this was evidently the first time they've played this song all the way through in years...the reason it was the hightlight is that it's an instrumental. Other standout tracks included the song Simple Mind Condition which is much heavier live...same goes for the song Plastic Green Head...plus tunes like The Sleeper were good, At The End Of My Daze sounds like it's been the most practiced tune, it was flawless. They played Goin' Home from SMC with an extended beginning featuring guitar solos from both Bruce & Rick, very cool. The ending "suite" was Psychotic Reaction followed by the intro from Electric Funeral which morphed into The Tempter (the only vocal tune from the pre-Rick Rubin days) and the show ended with Memory's Garden.

The Bad: Kory Clarke. I'm sorry, but this guy just isn't the answer. As I mentioned earlier he was trashed (kept knocking the mic stand over, botching the lyrics, etc). He doesn't have any vocal range, he basically just yelled the entire show. Sometimes it worked, but mostly it was medicore to horrible. The band is up there jamming away and he's doing drunken Steven Tyler/Robert Plant imitations, shaking his hips and trying to look cool. He looks like he needs to be in rehab instead of on stage.

The Ugly: I've been a fan of this band for over 20 years, bought all their albums, seen them a couple times...but they need to re-evalaute the vocalist situation. It's just not working with Clarke up there. Eric Wagner is too smurfed up to tour...but his voice was just as important to this band as the guitar sound...he helped make them larger than life...now they just sound like another metal band with great musicians and a crappy singer.

I'm not going to go as far as saying they should break up...they still sound incredible...but at the very least they need to fire Kory at the end of this little tour and find someone better suited to the task. Right now he's the turd in the punch bowl.

All of this is of course my opinion....

Robert Lowe is already juggling two bands. i doubt he could handle another.

Great review and insight, loved your little chat with Bruce.

I guess the real test is the record they do with Kory, i think he's a fantastic passionate singer. And i look forward to the record.

Kory is a bit of a loose cannon (which is what attracts me to him) so the high's are gonna be dizzying with him and the lows are going to be terrible. But that's what rock n' roll's about imo.

Small caveat: It may sound like I'm being overly harsh on Kory, I'm sure he would be the perfect fit for another band...but Trouble needs a level of depth that he doesn't provide.

detuned wrote:

...but Trouble needs a level of depth that he doesn't provide.

Are you referring to his singing?

rattpoison wrote:

Are you referring to his singing?

Mainly yes...he doesn't have the range...but it's also attitude, he's more from the "angry young man" school....Trouble needs someone a little more contemplative to put it across.

hypothetical example:

Imagine David Lee Roth singing Children of The Sea...it wouldn't work...his style was fine for Van Halen, but would have stuck out like a sore thumb in Sabbath.

detuned wrote:

rattpoison wrote:

Are you referring to his singing?

Mainly yes...he doesn't have the range...but it's also attitude, he's more from the "angry young man" school....Trouble needs someone a little more contemplative to put it across.

hypothetical example:

Imagine David Lee Roth singing Children of The Sea...it wouldn't work...his style was fine for Van Halen, but would have stuck out like a sore thumb in Sabbath.

Kory's very versatile, you should probably hear him song on Warrior Soul's song "Blown" which is a heavy psychedelic Black Sabbath dirge.

I'll save final judgment until I hear some new material with Kory singing, if he's part of the writing process it could prove to be very interesting. But just hearing him do all the old tunes really made me miss Eric Wagner. The interesting thing is that he sounded best on the tunes from Plastic Green Head and Simple Mind Condition...which are more straight-ahead rockers and less dirge.

It could have been an off night for him too...

Bruce told me that Doug Pinnick came to the show in Houston the night before and was really impressed by the new lineup. But unfortunately that wasn't the show I saw.

Another tidbit of info from Bruce, they did a new recording of At The End Of My Daze with Kory, but didn't get a chance to mix it before they went on tour. They will finish it and post it on their website once they get back to Chicago.

I'll look forward to that rerecording, should be interesting.

detuned wrote:

"We had a choice of breaking up, or continuing with Kory" - Bruce Franklin

That was the main thing that stuck with me during my pre-show conversation with Bruce. We talked about the record label situation...evidently they are going to give Escapi "one more chance" to get Simple Mind Condition out in the states...however the label is so far in breach of contract that they could easily get out of it and re-release the album on another label. They have spoken with some other labels but by the sound of it they don't currently have a management company. Bruce said he'd like to reissue it in the states with a couple bonus tracks with Kory singing...and they'd like to get back into the studio to start cutting material with the new lineup.

I asked him which would be the main focus, to get SMC released or record a new album? He said recording a new album would be the top priority but they'd still like to get SMC officially released here. (The problem is budgetary, Escapi is broke and needs investors).

The other thing that struck me was he indicated that their best chance for getting a new deal is with European labels...he said "when we play in Europe the crowds are much larger than in the states, we'll play to between 500-1000 people a night...on this west coast tour we've been averaging 100 people a night except in the larger cities."

Onto the show:

Trouble ended up playing the middle slot of the bill, the ticket sales weren't as good as hoped so they decided to go on early and let Dixie Witch close the show. I'm guessing there was somewhere around 100-125 people at the club.

I'm not going to try and re-create the setlist, they opened with R.I.P. and then continued on mostly with songs from the 2 Def American records. The band itself sounds GREAT...that completely unique guitar sound is still there, Jeff Olson is still one of the most interesting metal drummers...they were tight. That is...the band was tight...Kory was drunk, I lost track of how many beers he drank during the set.

The Good: The highlight of the show was Endtime from Psalm 9 which sounded God-like, this was evidently the first time they've played this song all the way through in years...the reason it was the hightlight is that it's an instrumental. Other standout tracks included the song Simple Mind Condition which is much heavier live...same goes for the song Plastic Green Head...plus tunes like The Sleeper were good, At The End Of My Daze sounds like it's been the most practiced tune, it was flawless. They played Goin' Home from SMC with an extended beginning featuring guitar solos from both Bruce & Rick, very cool. The ending "suite" was Psychotic Reaction followed by the intro from Electric Funeral which morphed into The Tempter (the only vocal tune from the pre-Rick Rubin days) and the show ended with Memory's Garden.

The Bad: Kory Clarke. I'm sorry, but this guy just isn't the answer. As I mentioned earlier he was trashed (kept knocking the mic stand over, botching the lyrics, etc). He doesn't have any vocal range, he basically just yelled the entire show. Sometimes it worked, but mostly it was medicore to horrible. The band is up there jamming away and he's doing drunken Steven Tyler/Robert Plant imitations, shaking his hips and trying to look cool. He looks like he needs to be in rehab instead of on stage.

The Ugly: I've been a fan of this band for over 20 years, bought all their albums, seen them a couple times...but they need to re-evalaute the vocalist situation. It's just not working with Clarke up there. Eric Wagner is too smurfed up to tour...but his voice was just as important to this band as the guitar sound...he helped make them larger than life...now they just sound like another metal band with great musicians and a crappy singer.

I'm not going to go as far as saying they should break up...they still sound incredible...but at the very least they need to fire Kory at the end of this little tour and find someone better suited to the task. Right now he's the turd in the punch bowl.

All of this is of course my opinion....

Good review! I agree with you that they need a different singer that fits better. I'm sure there is plenty of unknown singers out there that would rule in Trouble.

Quote :

The Good: The highlight of the show was Endtime from Psalm 9 which sounded God-like, this was evidently the first time they've played this song all the way through in years

They do Endtime on their live DVD (which kicks major booty).

SpectreFate wrote:

Quote :

The Good: The highlight of the show was Endtime from Psalm 9 which sounded God-like, this was evidently the first time they've played this song all the way through in years

They do Endtime on their live DVD (which kicks major booty).

The version on the DVD is shorter (if I remember correctly). That "Live In Stockholm" DVD is how I'll choose to remember this band.