My night at the Troubadour started with a band called Fake Problems.  They brought together the overlapping vocals and fantastic sound combination of old Modest Mouse, the twang of Lucero, and at times the intensity of Explosions in the Sky.  The Builders and the Butchers were up next, with a heavy acoustic southern sound and a plethora of interesting instrument additions, including a keyboard played with a straw sounding like a harmonica, a mandolin, a banjo, a trumpet, and a vocal enhancement that looked like an old fashioned hearing aid.  With a heavy rhythmic and sometimes ethnic sound of double drums, and influence of Dylan in the vocals, they fully enthralled the audience by eventually passing out percussion instruments to them to help finish off their last song.

After two great opening acts, it was time for Murder by Death, and they were absolutely phenomenal.  The band has never played two albums in order from front to back, but they did just that at the Troubadour.  Their choices were impeccable. With a projection of clips of old-fashioned dark films behind them, they opened with their most recent album, Red of Tooth and Claw, and closed with Who Will Survive and What Will Be Left of Them, easily one of my top favorite albums.

This show was definitely reminiscent of the In Bucca al Lupo show they did at the Troubadour a few years back, with projections of old horror movie clips, and the band in old-fashioned attire.  Having already been to over two dozen Murder By Death shows over the years, I have found that the use of a keyboard is what brings that band completely together again, and I haven’t seen them with one since 2004.  But it wasn’t just that mandatory addition that managed to drop the jaws of the audience. A few different participants came on stage throughout the show, adding a saw player and a trumpet.  As the intensity built, the energy of each member of the band permeated the audience, especially during the song “The Black Spot,” where the whole audience consisted of fists in the air pounding to the beats of the rhythm and lyrics.  By playing the predicted song, “Those Who Stayed,” off of  Like the Exorcist but More Breakdancing, Murder by Death concluded their most perfected performance as of yet.