AGAINST ME! + Saint Alvia @ Club Soda

By Joshua Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 09/04/2008

It’s always a great feeling when you attend a performance by a band you know will revolutionize popular music as we know it and will leave an indelible mark on music history. When something is just THAT good, it tends to transcend a normal concert. I would imagine that over the last year or two, a lot of the world’s music fans have been discovering this zen feeling about Gainesville, Florida’s Against Me! However, this reporter has felt it for close to six years now, and their latest performance in Montreal does nothing to dampen my resolve that these quickly rising folk punk maestros will, in the near future, become recognized as one of the most relevant musical acts of the last thirty years.

All of that having been said, there were a few outstanding things wrong with the other acts who performed at Club Soda on the evening of September 4th.  The most notable thing wrong with Brooklyn, New York’s Japanther was their complete absence from the proceedings. Evidently this dynamic and beloved (at least by me) indie pop duo have become the latest victims of the US/Canada Border Authority. For years, bands wishing to cross the international boundary between the United States and Canada have run into problems meeting the often strict and somewhat arbitrary requirements necessary to do so and, as if often the case, have been forced to cancel appearances when denied entry into the country. I believe I speak for most music fans (and certainly most Japanther fans in this city) when I say that whenever this happens it “sucks giant donkey balls.” C’est la vie I suppose.

As a result of Japanther’s absence, Burlington, Ontario’s Saint Alvia (formerly known as The Saint Alvia Cartel) were given an extended opening slot. I must admit that it’s unfortunate that the band decided to change its name AFTER all the promotional materials for this tour were printed and distributed, but that’s pretty much the only non-negative feeling I have towards the band. Prior to their appearance this time around, I was under the impression that Saint Alvia was a ska band (given their presence on Montreal’s own Stomp Records that’s a pretty reasonable mistake to make.) However, I was unfortunately surprised to observe a band very uncertain of their own modus operandi and their performance suffered severely as a result. The term “Jack of All Trades, Master of None” could very easily be applied to the band and their own mish-mosh of punk/ska/reggae/emo. The unfortunate part is that they do appear to have their hearts firmly inside of what they’re doing and they have the intensity required of any band that desires to play venues other than their parent’s basement. However, they really just need to pick one genre and work on refining that before they attempt any kind of genre melding (don’t get me wrong, I’m a strong advocate of musicians not sticking to established genres for the entirety of their career, but a basis does need to be made that can then be branched out from first.)

Which leads me to Against Me! Since I listen to an ungodly amount of music during my day to day life, I don’t usually feel comfortable declaring a “favourite band.” However, when sufficiently pushed, 9 times out of 10 the band I will award that “illustrious” position is none other than Gainesville’s favourite folk punk ruffians. However, given that this was my fifth time seeing the band play live, I was admittedly not expecting much from the performance. Don’t get me wrong, I was certainly expecting to be entertained, but after the band’s lackluster performance at the Warped Tour this past summer, I was beginning to think that perhaps my teenage idols had begun to settle just a little too comfortably into the stable mainstream existence granted to them by the popularity of their first major label release, 2007’s New Wave. Needless to say, I was horribly incorrect in this assumption (or, even if I wasn’t, their performance wasn’t affected by it.) Playing for a little over an hour, the band hit tracks from their last four records with the heart, personality and intensity that I’ve become accustomed to from the band with their no nonsense attitude shining about as brightly as the youthful grins plastered on their faces. Most importantly, when a band’s catalogue expands to a certain point, their desire to perform their older material tends to wane. This is usually a problem given that die-hard fans generally always want to “hear the old stuff” and are not averse to making their desires known in a public setting. The most common solution to this conundrum usually results in a band playing their old stuff, but doing so void of any real heart or good intention other than shutting up a few naysayers. However, despite the fact that some of the songs they performed are at least eight years old (“I Still Love You Julie” and “Walking Is Still Honest”), the band clearly still holds true to the sentiments expressed in their older material and is just as comfortable playing them now as they were eight years ago, which I personally think is a great (and incredibly rare) thing to see.

The impression I’ve always gotten from the band was that it was never their intention to “change the world” or “revitalize punk rock in the mainstream” or any of the other various hyperbolic intentions that wordy reporters (myself absolutely included) have pasted onto them. However, where Against Me! truly shine is in the fact that their ego-free attitude and overall good intentions are hardwired into not only their music and their live performance as well, and that alone sets them well above their peers. I’ve enjoyed watching them grow and progress as a band for years and I can honestly say I’m still excited to see where they go from here. Many people view the place that the band is at now, at least commercially, as the height of a band’s career. However, rest assured, if any band can prove that notion embarrassingly incorrect, it’s Against Me!  

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