The Fall Of Troy / Tiny Moving Parts [Live Review – The Scala, London, 14/9/2016]
Outside the Scala, London is wilting under a mid-September heatwave. Passers-by and queuing punters fan themselves with gig flyers, eagerly awaiting the welcome cool of air-conditioned surroundings. Within the Scala’s walls, mere minutes away, awaits an equally overwhelming experience.
Tiny Moving Parts (85%) do math-rock right, blending old-school emo lyrics with frantically complex tapping runs and off-kilter rhythms. Thanks to plain-spoken, attractively clear vocals, the results are guaranteed to stick in your head even in a live environment – and with songs as great as Happy Birthday, Vacation Bible School, Common Cold, Birdhouse, Always Focused, Headache, Sundress, and Dakota on offer, only a dick would deny that Tiny Moving Parts got the job done here. Flamboyant and fun guitar work too, without a hint of arrogant wankiness.
Immense.
Although Tiny Moving Parts brought their fair share of fans to the party and totally nailed a sick set, it’s clear that tonight is all about one band and one band only. The Fall Of Troy (91%) have been through more than their fair share of trials and tribulations over the years, and from the moment the house lights go down and their epic-length moody intro music begins, you feel sure you could cut the anticipation in the air with a knife. This is without a doubt the welcome-back party to end all such parties.
For this evening’s show, The Fall Of Troy lean hard on the hardcore component of mathcore – the genre their work has defined over the course of several albums. On one hand, this means a showing that often teeters on the brink of sloppiness – on the other, the band-audience energy is nothing short of consistently explosive. The Scala is a pretty intimate room considering it fits about a thousand people, with every angle offering a clear view of Thomas Erak’s virtuosic finger gymnastics and a feverishly evangelical mosh pit.
As The Fall Of Troy punched and kicked their way through everything from newbie 401K to double-classic encore Caught Up and F.C.P.R.E.M.I.X., many hundreds of nights are immendiately made. When it’s all done, the message is clear: The Fall Of Troy are fucking back – and they don’t just mean business. To their die-hard faithful and new converts alike, they mean the world.
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