Why did a band like Unwound book such a big venue? We wondered as we entered The Factory on an overcast night in late October. We got an answer of sorts when we saw that the crowd was much smaller than what the venue usually accommodated for—-that is— about the size that we would expect for an Unwound show. The question remains, why the venue?
Nevertheless, the show got off to a solid start when True Widow started playing. They were a fitting opener for Unwound, with a similar driving rhythm behind their music. There was some confusion about which guitar to use on one song, but frontman Dan Phillips handled the situation tactfully and the band went on jamming.
After True Widow left the stage and the instruments were all changed out, buckets of flowers were brought out and placed on the edge of the stage. A complicated graphic lit up the screen behind the stage and the members of Unwound took their places.
The lineup currently consists of Jared Warren (former Melvins collaborator) on bass, Scott Seckington on guitar and keyboards, and longtime members Sara Lund on Drums and Justin Trosper on guitar and vocals. Sadly, the band’s original bassist Vern Rumsey passed away in 2020 and couldn’t be with the band for their first reunion tour in 20 years.
The band got started with their seven-minute instrumental, “Abstraktions.” The instrumental performances were tight and sounded just like the record. Similarly, Justin Trosper gave a strong vocal performance, starting with the song “All Souls Day.”
A highlight of the show was when Lund introduced a song by saying, “this song was inspired by directions we got to a show one time;” the band proceeded to play “Go To Dallas and Take a Left,” and we all breathed a sigh of relief that they didn’t pass up this opportunity.
Shortly after this, the band left the stage and we readied ourselves for the encore. The band returned and finished off their set in the same confident, heavy rocking fashion. They played a three-song encore, put their instruments down, and then began to throw the flowers from the buckets into the crowd. I got a hold of one (thanks to a friend of mine who handed me one) and after the show a woman came up to me and my friends and asked us if we’d like our photos taken; we said yes and found ourselves on the official Unwound Instagram.
