Future of the Left

ROCK

Heckling can make or break a gig. In this case, it’s all fuel to an explosion-in-waiting – this Welsh trio’s almost fanatical following know exactly which buttons to push, and Future of the Left are a band that operate best under pressure.

One thing that Andy Falkous in particular hates is mention of his previous act. Thus, a call of simple ‘Mclusky’ is enough to elicit a terse ‘wrong band, mate’ from the legendarily tetchy singer.

Blue touchpaper lit, heckler retired to the burgeoning mosh-pit, Falkous and pals are wound up and ready to go – and go they do, with a display of barely-controlled aggression, the trio screaming, shouting, and slashing and hammering at their instruments as if they’d been wronged by them in a previous existence. But each explosion of noise contains a malevolent riff, an intensely rhythmic splatter of drums. Even when they swap keyboard for guitar it’s synthpop via dentist’s drill – jabbing, jerky rhythms that insinuate themselves in the brain. When they finally tear apart the drum kit during their encore, it’s cheers, not jeers that are ringing in their ears. Something no one would dare heckle.