I read an interview with Frank Iero the other day in which he talked about his musical career, and in the process of doing so he mentioned – and I’m paraphrasing here because I can’t find the original quote – that he enjoys the honeymoon period of a new project where you don’t really know what it’s going to turn out like and you’re nervous but excited because you get to figure that out together. When Iero brought his newest project, Frank Iero and the Future Violents, through Boston this past Sunday, barely 48 hours after the release of their debut album Barriers, the excitement was palpable and contagious for an obvious reason: Frank Iero and the Future Violents are a goddamn live freight train.
If you haven’t been keeping score at home, The Future Violents feature Iero and his frequent collaborator/guitarist/brother-in-law Evan Nestor joined by a few longtime scene heavyweights: Tucker Rule of Thursday and a bunch of other bands on drums, Murder By Death’s Matt Armstrong on bass and Kayleigh Goldsworthy of Dave Hause’s band The Mermaid and most importantly her own solo career on…well…just about every other instrument you can think of. Formed after the Iero and Nestor’s ill-fated and nearly fatal trip to Australia with their last project, Frank Iero and the Patience, a couple years ago, The Future Violents are rooted in Iero’s power punk songwriting core with some new sonic textures in the mix. In spite of having a comparatively few shows together under their collective belts, the Future Violents rhythm section of Rule and Armstrong is lock-tight and thunderous already. Rule hits hard and heavy, and is comparable maybe only to the great Atom Willard in terms of sheer live force, while Armstrong’s low end rattled SO low that I could quite literally feel my sinuses shaking. Iero and Nestor are simpatico from having played and performed so long together; they seem to have a knack for playing in support of one another without crowding each other’s sonic space. Goldsworthy’s parts, particularly the violin, seemed a little buried in the mix, though that might be just me projecting what I was seeing (with the stage set up, she was kinda buried behind the PA suspended from the ceiling in front of stage right) onto what I was hearing. That said, The Future Violents are hands-down Iero’s best project to date, and the near-capacity crowd seemed to cathartically, energetically eat up every word (well…except the poor kid who lost a tooth).
Support on this leg of Frank Iero and the Future Violents’ run comes from none other than James Dewees playing songs from his brainchild project, Reggie And The Full Effect. Dewees and Iero have been long time buds and collaborators – Iero did a stint in Reggie that coinicided with Dewees’ own stint alongside Iero in My Chemical Romance – and it makes an old emo kid like myself happy to see such longtime vets still supporting and playing with each other. Dewees’ set was essentially “Story Time with James,” as he told tangential tales of creating characters and his history with Iero and the early days of the Emo Night In Brooklyn movement, though he did manage to get to a few full or at least partial songs, accompanied by either a laptop or what I’m 95% sure was a pretty awesome British racing green version of Iero’s custom Epiphone Phant-O-Matic double cutaway guitars. While maybe not the most astute Reggie and the Full Effect fans, the bulk of the crowd was more than good-naturedly engaged with Dewees’ set, breaking out into full supportive chants on more than one occasion.
Head below for a bunch more pictures from the evening!