Blog Live transmission: The United Sons Of Toil preview Joy Division covers for Halloween

I can't pretend to review The United Sons Of Toil's Saturday-night show at Mickey's Tavern in any sort of unbiased fashion. The Toil is one of my favorite local bands, and one of my favorite bands period to see in a live setting, where the trio's math-rock takes on a punishing, austere force that's brutal enough to hold up against most metal acts. You don't need to hear me go on about how they melted my fucking face as usual. One thing was different Saturday, though: The band opened its set with three Joy Division covers, offering a taste of the full-fledged JD set they're preparing, under the one-off name Leaders Of Men, for The Frequency's tribute-heavy Halloween party on Oct. 31.

The influence of Joy Division—the Manchester band that pushed beyond punk-rock into a more bleak, diverse territory that would soon be labeled "post-punk," and broke up after singer Ian Curtis' 1980 suicide—comes to most people my age through slicked-up mood-setters like Interpol and Editors. But the Toil clearly wants to preserve JD's raw side, by way of barren dynamics and scraggly stabs of guitar. In a forthcoming article about Halloween tribute-band action, Toil guitarist-vocalist Russel Hall even tells us: "No, we're not doing 'Love Will Tear Us Apart.'" (That is, Joy Division's least characteristic, most palatable song--their "How Soon Is Now," if you will.)

Hall's voice is more of a MacKaye shout than a Curtis moan, though, so the band's recruited friend Chris Vance to bring the right kind of Ian to the covers. This little preview of the "Leaders" was promising: Vance appropriately shouted and rambled his way through "No Love Lost," then settled into an even more convincing, android-in-mourning vocal on "Shadow Play" and "Transmission." Getting the vocals right is pretty crucial here, but it only helped that Vance and the band were all in the same groove, rocking out instead of moping. Ian Curtis and his bandmates might be the kings of sad-bastard music, but it looks like Vance and The Toil's Halloween show will also remind folks how exciting Joy Division's music was and still is.