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Transcribed by Alan Shaw (Published on the Page of Progression with the permission of the author)
The
Toll
The
100 Club, London
13
March 1989
Verdict:
Remarkable...frustrating
'Good
Morning, the circus is coming to town today/Line the streets and don't be late'
I
was looking at Brad Circone's eyes. You can tell a lot from people's eyes.
Some look depressed, dull, enveloped in mediocrity. In Circone's case, they're
not so much windows into his soul as opaque enigmas. They only allow you to
glimpse patches of the rage, unpredictability and sheer frustration the man
must be feeling. The Toll, you see, are victims of their own circumstances.
Whenever you try and interpret your own thoughts and ideas into something
tangible others can relate to (be it on paper, on canvas or onstage) then
inadequacies will always arise. The more depth and electricity there is to the
idea, the greater that feeling of frustration.
Circone
(vocalist/guitarist/pianist with The Toll) is a remarkable man. Someone for
whom the art of communication is perhaps the most frustrating thing of all. He
wants people to listen to his tales of pain, dishonour and betrayal through the
likes of 'Jonathan Toledo', 'Word of Honor', 'Living In The Valley Of Pain' and
'Anna-41-Box'. But they only stand and stare, waiting for him to do something
manic, something outrageous, something off-the-wall. Einstein came to lecture,
but all they wanted were the jugglers!
Maybe
I'm being rather too cynical. However, when I see a performer as unique and
magnetic as Circone reduced to climbing on tables and amps simply to get
attention, then I feel saddened. To me, it was the look in his eye, the threat
in his voice and the imposition of his personality that mattered tonight. That
made me feel at the end of the evening that The Toll are remarkable and
special, not the circus clowning.
Some
might wish to compare The Toll to Jane's Addiction. I'd say that Circone has
the genius, but JA have the talent. Some might want to suggest The Doors or U2
and I wouldn't dispute these frames of reference. But tonight, I saw The Toll.
But I've a feeling most of the others here weren't watching... and that
disappoints me. This band will be huge... but on whose terms?
Brad
Circone and his troops (guitarist/vocalist Rick Silk, drummer/vocalist Brett
Mayo and bassist/vocalist Greg Bartram) are out on their own. They have to
weigh integrity against commercial pressures. I hope the compromise isn't too
damaging.
Malcolm
Dome
'RAW'
Magazine issue 16 (April 5-18 1989)
The
Toll
'The
Price of Progression'
This
is an important album. Not in the sense of filling coffers through
multi-million sales (although if there's any justice...), but because of its
intense artistic sensitivity, uniqueness and articulacy. The Toll stand
alongside Jane's Addiction as the most primal form of rock band to emerge in
recent years. No thrash act comes even close to matching the sheer undulating
terror, mental violence and emotional extreme of these two bands. They stand
as vociferous challenges to the listener, inmates of the darker regressions of
the mind.
'The
Price of Progression' offers a musical breadth and depth redolent in places of
U2; Rick Silk's guitar shards occasionally splay and splatter in a manner
rather akin to The Edge, yet also pinpoint and wrap themselves in warmth in the
manner of a true blues fanfare. There is also a sense of rhythm and pulse that
brings to mind the Velvet Underground, or the Doors or the Mission. The
musical backcloth is woven, mingled, maimed and sparkling in the manner of so
many, yet also holds the attention for its own cause and effect, its own
deliberations in the vortex of Damnation Valley.
But...
what truly sets The Toll aside and places them downstream of all comparisons is
lead vocalist Brad Circone. Live he is reputed to be a manic rage. On record
his every utterance and nuance holds court with the crimson charisma and
shadowy pleasures only few are blessed with. There is the essence of the
macabre, and of pain, of sadistic sensuality, of libido, of compassion, of...
so many strange courtesans jostling and heckling for position 'neath the throne
of intelligence.
It
is he who turns this record into a carnival after sunset - full of freaks and
fears, of beliefs and mirrors into the soul. He lashes out on occasions with
such ferocity that the sheer force sends tremors gushing through your every
fibre. This is not an easy record.
His
finest performance is surely during 'Living In The Valley Of Pain', wherein he
intones the despair of the individual being increasingly suffocated by the
constraints of superstition and hatred. Jameson Rain is the tormented
creature, whose creative instincts are drowned in a swirling viscera of
recanted guilt and fear of 'The Church'. 'Catholicism pushes guilt, imposes
guilt and leaves me with insanity and rage' screams the protagonist at one
point. It's so personal, so racked with purged angst that one could be
forgiven the thought that Circone was reliving a dreadful nightmare from his
own past. I can't answer that, but this surely represents the power of his own
storytelling. Circone draws you in, holds you spellbound at the epicentre of
his persona.
'Jonathan
Toledo' tells of the agony, dignity and poverty of the American Indian, raped,
pillaged and smeared with stigma by the White Man. 'Anna-41-Box' extols the
darkness of a woman driven to the edge of an uncaring husband. Abused,
defiled, desecrated. 'I don't wanna go through the crucifixion of womanhood'
pleads Anna as she sinks further into the mire of morbidity, an infested
soliloquy of blood-stained pariahs and prayers, dreams thrown as carcasses into
the slaughterhouse of indifference.
And
so it goes on. Each track is a gem, every utterance an enclave of cultural
shockwaves. I cannot even begin to do this record justice. So let me simply
state that The Toll are special. 'The Price...' is worth paying.
9
(out of 10)
Malcolm
Dome
'RAW'
Magazine issue 5 (October 26 - November 8 1989)
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