Present-Tense here contributing another article so Daver will stop attributing his love for Lana Del Rey to me. I think he’s got some weird projection issues or something. I mean, I did check out some of Lana’s new stuff on Spotify and it wasn’t too bad, but that was just because Daver wouldn’t lay off. “Ultraviolence” helped me get to sleep in under 10 minutes, so it has that going for it.
Anyways…the band Failure wrapped up their successful ‘Tree of Stars’ Tour in Hollywood, California on June 18th. I had the privilege of catching two of their shows on this tour and I have to say the 17 year wait was worth it.
I got into Failure just as they were in the process of breaking up. I actually caught of snippet of their tune ‘Stuck On You’ during a segment for the movie “Independence Day” on the 1997 MTV Movie awards. Yeah, that was pretty random. From that point on, I’ve been a little obsessed over them. Not to the level I am with Pearl Jam, but pretty damn close.
The first of the two Failure shows I attended were part of the Maynard James Keenan 50th Birthday party celebration called Cinquantra. My buddy and I (Sean) were lucky to get tickets to the May 11th show (Mothers Day). Failure played 9 songs, but the uniqueness of the event led many people to experience their music more than they would have if it they were a traditional opening band. Failure was dispersed throughout the evening and it was to hear them perform ‘The Nurse Who Loved Me’ with Maynard. So even though they played 9 songs, it left me wanting more.
My luck continued to run as they announced a show at the Marquee Theater in Tempe Arizona on June 13th. I knew that as soon as this show was announced I would get to see this band for the first time up close. I dragged the wife to this concert as she’s been hearing me go on and on about this band for the last 12 years to her. I mean she went to see Year of the Rabbit with me when they opened for Pete Yorn (Ken Andrews side project), so she had to go with me to this show right?
Failure opened up their Marquee show with a 20 minute vide
o of film clips that inspired them over the years. Clips included some scenes from “2001: A Space Odyssey”, “The Spy Who Loved Me” (which inspired their music video for ‘Stuck on You’ and “Solaris”.
When they took the stage they launched into ‘Another Space Song’ one of my favorites from “Fantastic Planet”. Throughout the evening “Fantastic Planet” featured heavily into their set. A few “Magnified” tracks appeared (‘Undone’, ‘Frogs’, ‘Small Crimes’ and ‘Wet Gravity’) as well as a few from “Comfort” (‘Macaque’ and ‘Screen Man’). The band played for around 2 hours which was great, and throughout the evening they looked like they were having fun. Ken Andrews and Greg Edwards could be seen switching instruments (Bass/Lead Guitar) and drummer Kelli Scott seemed to have four feet. The bass drum and bass guitar were turned way up leading me to almost have an irregular heartbeat.
At the merch table they were selling E.Ps which included 4 live tracks (2 of which were recorded at the Tool show back in March) and a new song called ‘Come Crashing’. I happened to secure one of these EPs so if people are interested I can perhaps give you a listen. As of this post, Failure has released another new track titled ‘The Focus’.
Here’s to more Failure and for more people hearing about this amazing band.
Recommended Listening
