On Sunday, April 4th, The Fall of Troy played their last ever show in Colorado at the Marquis Theater. After announcing their break-up in February, they chose to finish off their North American tour. Although their performance was in many ways similar to their previous shows in Denver, a few events marked the concert to be ultimately different from any of their prior shows. Rather than focusing on the communication of their music, The Fall of Troy’s rhetoric encouraged the audience to be engaged in the performance and urged them to feel a connection to the music and the performance.
The people present at the show consisted of both fans and staff, although the true audience was the people paying to see The Fall of Troy, not those getting paid to. Although the audience was mainly there to see them play, they were also able to become involved through the dancing and pushing in front of the stage. As is usual at most concerts, the audience was constantly screaming out names of songs they wanted to hear whenever the band took a break between songs. In most instances bands tend to not directly respond to these demands, however as the show progressed it became more and more clear that they were playing songs that were being widely requested. Along with this came the realization that there were no set-lists on stage for the musicians to follow. Allowing fans to choose which songs were being played could have been purely an act, but more likely The Fall of Troy was doing this to create an aura that turned a standard performance into an involved event, where everyone was sharing the music rather than the performers solely performing an act and the audience only viewing it.
Perhaps the most remarkable part of their show was the “non-encore” which ended the set. Prior to their last song, singer and guitarist Thomas Erak announced, “We’re not playing an encore…”. Compared to most contemporary musical performances, not playing an encore is a rare occurrence, along with announcing it. Maybe The Fall of Troy wanted the audience to wear out all the energy they had without a break at the end of the set, but from the general feel of the show and everything leading up to the last song it seems that they were once again straying away from the performance aspect of a concert, and toward the attempt of truly sharing the moment with their fans. Traditionally the audience demands an encore following a worthy performance, as a show of appreciation to the performers and a search for more content within the performance. By directly denying any such thing, the band deviates from their concert being purely entertainment based. They connect with the audience on an emotional level, by treating the performance as a combined effort from everyone present, including the musicians and the audience.
Following the announcement of no encore, Erak ends his monologue by passionately screaming, “It’s been a wonderful nine years”, and as cheers attempt to drown him out, “…one last thing, thank you Fear Before the March of Flames!” As the finale then begins, the lead singer of the Denver based, Post-Hardcore band comes out on stage and sings with Erak. Two things appear to be odd about this set of events. First, The Fall of Troy decided to share the stage with a member of another band while playing their last ever song in front of this particular set of admirers. Second, it’s well known within in this scene of music that Fear Before the March of Flames had changed their name to simply “Fear Before” over a year ago. Bringing the FBTMOF frontman out certainly drew immense cheers from the audience, but the remarks made by Thomas indicate that it was a band that had a lot of influence on The Fall of Troy’s style of music. Although the move will have made the concert more memorable for the majority of people in attendance, both bands often encourage friendship within the music community and therefore it seems that having the additional singer was in respect for his band’s influence on The Fall of Troy, as well as his respect for them. As for referring to the band using their old name, Thomas probably felt that it was the old era of Fear Before the March of Flames which had the largest impact on The Fall of Troy, as well as that era of the band which he was most familiar with. These occurrences further add to the sense of the concert being staged to be an involved celebration, rather than an act.
By resorting to some unusual concert practices, The Fall of Troy was able to turn a mere performance into a memorable celebration of their music and those who have supported them. Their rhetoric was strongly directed towards creating an experience that would keep their music in the minds of all their current fans once they have stopped producing music. The Fall of Troy captured their fans and ensured their music to live on posthumously, through an original and emotional performance.
"Caught Up in Rhetorical Analysis" is a cover of The Fall of Troy's "Caught Up" with replaced lyrics highlighting the The rhetorical arguments and Analysis of the beforementioned event.
Listen at Last.fm: http://www.last.fm/music/DenveRhetor/Untitled+Album
lyrics:
the audience for the fall of troy
were die hard fans and staff
exigence for no encore
one last hurrah in denver
performing nostalgically
perhaps to persuade
thanking fear before the march of flames
ensuring all their fans will remain
usually bands just head off
and wait for cheers of one more
but instead of only pleasing themselves
they conclude at the end
they didn't use a setlist
all songs were improvised
to play what the audience wanted to hear
creates a lasting impression
but it's still odd that they would bring
another bands' member out
for their last ever song
they play for this audience
so maybe it's just to show
that music is really about
friends emotion influence
not just a performance
