This week I got to be in the room for the early 2000’s UK post hardcore band Million Dead’s first show in 20 years. The room in question being the same one where they played their ‘last’ show in September 2005; the legendary Joiners in Southampton.
I wasn’t there for the previous show, looking at my gigography, I was at The Joiners two days earlier for Motion City Soundtrack and I did see Million Dead play The Lock Up Stage at Reading Festival a month prior.
By all accounts the farewell date was a toasty affair. With highs of 30ºc in Southampton for the reunion on Thursday, we were anticipating another warm one. I’m not sure anything could have prepared us for what was to come. It was comically hot. This commemorative t-shirt design was both homage and foreshadow.
If I reached a delirious point, I think my oasis (no pun intended) in the desert may have been witnessing a band I last saw in a field two decades ago, fronted by a man from Winchester, who I put on in a Boscombe pub two years later with my two friends stood beside me (shout out to Ed and Adam) then followed his ‘solo’ career throughout the intervening years, tearing up The Joiners like no time at all had passed. Coincidentally, that is exactly what took place, with sweat, sweat and sweaty tears.
Now there are a lot of words in Million Dead songs, as Frank himself did attest, having had to relearn them all. Many of these words, given the style of delivery aren’t the most audible and I can’t claim to know many. There are two lyrically of note for me though. The first, After The Rush Hour, a comparatively quieter moment from second album Harmony No Harmony.
This song in particular was a standout soundtrack-track from the era in which I came to know of the band in their 11th hour. I know and love every single word (and note) of it. Perhaps impossible now for me to detach from the nostalgia imbued in it, but I think the song is sublime. It was a life affirming moment to finally hear it live after a whole chunk of my life itself has played out. I only have to wait another 5 months for the next opportunity on their December UK tour.
The other song, To Whom It May Concern contained something of a mantra for a time when my friends are I were working part time jobs between our further education years to fund our hobbies and extra curricular activities (a.k.a going to gigs and starting bands).
“My letter to the Human Resources department says ‘you started a war so you’ll get what you started’. I’m only working here cause I need the fucking money.”
For context, In late 2005 I worked in a branch of Argos.
Welcome back, Million Dead.
Liam Toms 