Training Montage

Training Montage
Album	Bleed Out
Released	August 19, 2022
Length	4:28
Next Track	"Mark On You"

Training Montage is the first song on Bleed Out. It was released as a single, along with an official music video, on June 2, 2022. It appears as the fifteenth song on the 2022 live album The Jordan Lake Sessions: Volume 5.

Lyrics

Water dripping from the pipes down in the basement
Bare feet on a concrete floor
Notches on the wall of my solitary cell
Sweat dripping out of every pore
It feels like it takes forever
It's maybe five minutes on screen
But the horns will swell and the strings will sound
When that flipped quarter hits the ground

I'm doing this for revenge
I'm doing this to try and stay true
I'm doing this for the ones they had to leave behind
I'm doing this for you

Keep cool down in the quiet of the morning
Sweat blood when the sun comes through
Thick mist on the pond before the temple
Headed down for the final rendezvous
Everybody ready for justice
Just another mile to go
But the strings will keen and the horns will cry
When it's just me against the sky

I'm doing this for revenge
I'm doing this to try and stay true
I'm doing this for the ones they left to twist in the wind
I'm doing this for you
I'm doing this for you

I'm doing this for revenge
I am doing this to try and stay true
I'm doing this for the ones we had to leave behind
I'm doing this for you
I'm doing this for you
I'm doing this for you

Comments by John Darnielle About this Song

• “The Van Damme movies, all the kung fu movies have a training montage, most of the Rocky movies have a training montage. It's a myth about subjecting yourself to a period of austerity and discipline for some reawakening. I think it predates the action movie, this idea that you're going to retreat for a winter of hard times and emerge in spring as a beautiful, powerful flower, a season in isolation to refocus oneself on some goal—maybe a noble goal, maybe not. And also, to start it with just acoustic guitar and voice, it sounds like a very early Mountain Goats record until the drum hits.” via https://music.apple.com/us/album/bleed-out/1622211546
• "There weren't any vaccines in and I was sittin' around and everybody I knew was like 'oh, I binge-watched this' and I was like 'I have a child who doesn't sleep at night, I don't binge-watch anything, I go to bed at nine.' But at some point, I got bitter and resentful about this. 'I'm gonna watch some goddamn TV,' right? So I, y'know, I did what I want[ed] to do, I started watching, like, Japanese silent movies, y'know? If you have a child who is gonna wake you up at 2 AM, maybe the Japanese silent movie is not your speed –– you will not make it to the end of that one, if he goes to bed at 9, then at 9:30, however good that movie is, that's not the time for it. You need your three hours of sleep. On the other hand, if you got movies where a guy gets out a gun and wastes everybody in the first five minutes, that gives you a shot of adrenaline, that'd keep you awake. That is the genesis–– and all these movies, whether they're from Indonesia or the U.S. or France or Belgium or wherever, they all have the same thing. There's a point where the hero, y'know, something bad has happened to him. He goes through a hero's journey kind of thing but it's a more degrading type of hero's journey because always there's, like, very degrading stuff he has to suffer and, uh, yeah, he like goes to battle at some point and just gets ... just humiliated. And you think, man, you set him up to say he was good, but all those guys just beat the crap out of him, right? But then he has to go away to an island or something and practice, right? That's what he has to do, he has to, he has to, he has to, he has to like, look at his hand, y'know, he always has about a thirty-second shot where he's, like, lookin' at his hand and tryin' to understand the power of it or somethin' like that, it's deeply inspiring. And then, y'know, at the end of all this inspiration [?], he just goes back and kicks a bunch of guys' asses. This is called 'Training Montage.'" –– 2022-11-16 - Roundhouse - London, England

Things Referenced in this Song

• A training montage is a cinematic technique that shows, in many brief shots, the hero preparing for an important confrontation.

Live Shows this Song Was Played at

• 2022-08-19 - Brooklyn Arts Center - Wilmington, NC
• 2022-08-25 - The Jordan Lake Sessions - Pittsboro, NC
• 2022-08-28 - The Broadberry - Richmond, VA
• 2022-08-29 - Anchor Rock Club - Atlantic City, NJ
• 2022-08-31 - Webster Hall - New York, NY
• 2022-09-02 - Wilbur Theatre - Boston, MA
• 2022-09-04 - Baltimore Soundstage - Baltimore, MD
• 2022-09-10 - Bluebird Nightclub - Bloomington, IN
• 2022-09-11 - The Hall - Little Rock, AR
• 2022-09-17 - Tulips - Fort Worth, TX
• 2022-09-18 - Tipitina's - New Orleans, LA
• 2022-09-20 - Saturn - Birmingham, AL
• 2022-11-14 - De Roma - Antwerp, Belgium
• 2022-11-16 - Roundhouse - London, England
• 2023-04-01 - Mars Music Hall - Huntsville, AL
• 2023-04-02 - Soul Kitchen - Mobile, AL
• 2023-04-04 - Chelsea's Live - Baton Rouge, LA
• 2023-04-11 - The Slowdown - Omaha, NE
• 2023-04-12 - The District - Sioux Falls, SD
• 2023-04-14 - Badger State - Green Bay, WI
• 2023-04-15 - Majestic Theatre - Detroit, MI
• 2023-04-17 - Phoenix Concert Theatre - Toronto, ON
• 2023-04-18 - Empire Live - Albany, NY
• 2023-04-20 - Union Transfer - Philadelphia, PA
• 2023-04-22 - Cat's Cradle - Carrboro, NC
• 2023-07-11 - Ryman Auditorium - Nashville, TN
• 2023-10-03 - The Belasco - Los Angeles, CA
• 2023-10-06 - August Hall - San Francisco, CA
• 2023-10-07 - Ace Of Spades - Sacramento, CA