Future of the Left at Heaven

It’s Wednesday night and I am at Heaven to see angry Welsh noise-rockers Future of the Left. Formed from the ashes of mclusky and Jarcrew, and now featuring Julia Ruzicka from Million Dead on bass, they are known for their heavy stop-start guitar riffs and front man Falco’s viciously delivered satirical lyrics.

I arrive as the first support finishes but catch The Wytches - a fuzzed out surf rock trio from Brighton with lots of hair. Catchy, if a bit buzz-bandy. By the time FOTL make it to the stage, the venue is packed. They open with older track ‘Arming Eritrea’, followed by ‘Small Bones Small Bodies’ from their first album. Both feature those powerful guitar riffs and fist-in-the-air shout-along refrains that FOTL do so well. They have successfully woken up the sleepy midweek crowd. On tour to promote their new crowd-funded album they play a decent balance of new material to older favourites with the topical ‘How to Spot a Record Company’ off the new record going down particularly well with the crowd. Falco’s scathing wit – an integral part of any FOTL show, seems to be slightly subdued tonight. I can forgive him for the recycled “having to explain what a keyboard is to a Metallica fan” joke since the reason for said keyboard is to play ‘Manchasm’ – one of my favourite tracks from the first record. It finishes with a wonderful shout-along ‘round’ about Colin – a very pretty pussycat. And that is what makes FOTL so immensely enjoyable live: they may, at heart, be an angry noise-rock vehicle for Falco to spew his darkly amusing bile into the world, but they combine it with catchy keyboards, great guitar riffs, and yes, even vocal harmonies and rounds! They treat us to some old mclusky tracks. No surprises there. ‘To Hell with Good Intentions’ seems to be their go-to fan-pleaser, but it hardly seems necessary since they are doing a great job of it so far (I confess, I still sang along to every word). FOTL have managed that rare thing: they have successfully stepped out of the shadow of their former beloved cult band. Rarer still, four albums in and they show no signs of losing their edge. They have more than proved it tonight – filling Heaven to capacity on a Wednesday. Every track they play is a winner. They build to a spectacularly scathing and surreal finish. Out comes new track ‘Singing of the Bonesaws’. Falco preaches to the crowd in Recieved Pronunciation English over this bare-bones track about how we may be confusing our feelings of excitement with the fear of missing out. They blend this into an intense mash-up of ‘Lapsed Catholics’ and mclusky’s raw and dirty ‘Lightsabre Cocksucking Blues’, speeding up on each successive verse until Falco is just screaming nonsense and sending the crowd into a frenzy. As Falco begins dismantling Jack Egglestone’s drum kit while he and Ruzicka are still playing, guitarist Watkins climbs the scaffolding above the crowd to feed them with chorizo tied to a stick. All very exciting for a Wednesday night; I certainly didn’t miss out.