It’s been a decade since the release of the Faint’s stand-out album, Danse Macabre. Nuts, right? With Saddle Creek Record‘s release this month of the deluxe edition of its landmark album, the somewhat dormant dark wave band is now touring and playing Danse Macabre in its entirety; that tour takes the Faint to the Regency Ballroom this weekend (Sat/17).
Originally released on Saddle Creek at the height of its buzz, the Faint’s crisp and flashy third studio full-length was a standout during the early electro-pop buzz of the Aughts, sounding like it was crafted by a dance-punk band with a heavy metal guitarist, which it pretty much was. Do you remember “Agenda Suicide” pumping out of boomboxes at every party in 2001, and swallowing up goth club and new wave dancefloors? I do.
On the eve of the Regency show, I shot synth-master Jacob Thiele a few rapid-fire questions about the band’s influences, Danse Macabre, and what the members have been up to the past few years (hint: some have been DJing under the name Depressed Buttons):
San Francisco Bay Guardian What’s it been like revisiting ‘Danse Macabre’?
Jacob Thiele Actually all the songs on the album that we’ve neglected in our live show over the years have so far been the most fun to play as a band. So I think we’re all looking forward to finally playing those for everyone, as well as showing off our new songs!
SFBG There’s been an increasingly trend of ‘whole album’ shows, what are the advantages to this? Why did you decide to do it for this deluxe version release?
JT With the re-issue coming out it seemed right. We are doing it a little differently than other bands, in terms of how we play the whole album.
SFBG What other songs will you be playing during this tour?
JT We’re also going to be selling a limited edition 12-inch of the current versions of our new songs, which we’re really excited about! We are playing some of our new songs from the 12-inch and songs from all of our albums.
SFBG Did you feel on the verge of something new when ‘Danse Macabre’ first dropped, or before it with ‘Blank-Wave Arcade’?
JT At that time all of our friends were also in bands and everyone was doing something, recording, touring, etc, so it did not feel like anything different was happening to us.
SFBG Were you influenced by any of the first wave of dance-punk, ESG and the like?
JT Yeah totally, all of that stuff was great and really important to us. Todd made a mix for an online magazine [that] sums up a lot of what we have been into over the years and it is a great listen.
SFBG What have you all been up to since 2008’s ‘Fasciination’?
JT We have been DJing a lot, some of us did some music under the name Depressed Buttons that our friends at Mad Decent released.
SFBG Are there any plans for a new record?
JT We have this 12-ich for now and we are working on more new music.
The Faint
With Trust, Casket Girls
Sat/17, 8pm, $25-$27
Regency Ballroom
1300 Van Ness, SF
www.theregencyballroom.com