The Faint play the Trocadero in Philly on May 13th, the Music Hall of Williamsburg in Brooklyn on May 14th and Royale in Boston on May 16th. Then they’re back in New York for a show at Webster Hall on May 17th and one at the Bowery Ballroom on May 19th.
Credit: Bill Sitzmann
When the members of The Faint entered the studio again for the first time in almost seven years, they had no plan whatsoever for what they were going to record. The results were different from anything they had ever recorded before.
“It was kind of a surprising choice even from our perspective,” says singer Todd Fink of the rock energy that pulsates through “Doom Abuse.”
TThe Faint were instrumental in transitioning youth culture from the cynicism of grunge in the mid ’90s to the exuberance of dance rock in the late ’90s, so it wouldn’t be obvious that a reunion effort would be so aggressive.
“The energy that was behind us getting back together was a more cathartic and chaotic expression,” says Fink, “something that we could get up onstage and play as a band and really be a band, not just playing over some tracks, which is probably what we’ll do next. But we had to get this out of our system.”
Though the members of the band remained in touch during their hiatus (Fink’s brother Clark plays drums), they never actually addressed the hiatus.
“We didn’t really think about it or talk about it, whether we were going to get back together or if anyone was interested,” says Fink. “There was no big announcement. We just didn’t meet anymore. And then we left town.”
The town in question is Omaha, Nebraska and Fink says one of the reason they split up and skipped town had to do with the economy.
“The real estate crash had something to do with it, because [my wife and I] were in a house that I loved. It was a power station that had been converted to this big room house,” he says. “We saw on the news that economy was going to s— and real estate was in big trouble and it wasn’t going to get better, so we thought, ‘Let’s pack our s— and put our house on the market’ and we were out in California in just a couple weeks.”
Before entering the studio again, the band reconvened to tour and play their seminal 2001 album, “Danse Macabre,” in its entirety, which makes it more surprising that what they came up with for “Doom Abuse” was so different from their definitive dance album.
“It seems like the world has too much dance music and pop music right now,” says Fink. “I wanted to feel like we had done something different.”
Q&A
Have you ever gotten to hear The Faint in a dance club?
Yeah, actually.
Did you dance?
Yeah! I think it was in Omaha, in one of the dance clubs that wouldn’t normally play that kind of stuff, but I think it was when The Rapture were in town and we went out. It sounded really amazing.
Do you lip-synch to your own songs when that happens?
No, I believe we were doing some dancing where we each take a turn, a little breakdancing war. We ended up getting kicked out. The Rapture brought in a boom box also, which was loud and obnoxious, so I think it, was kind of like an aftershow thing.
