LAGWAGON + MxPx @ Metropolis

By Joshua Mocle - The Kids are So-So - 09/06/2008

I must admit that reviewing this show provided the kind of challenge I usually enjoy. While not being overly familiar with three out of the four bands on the bill (including both headliners), one would think it would provide me with a relatively unbiased outlook on the proceedings. However, I’ve unfortunately discovered that unless you really enjoy the bands on bills like this beforehand, you aren’t really going to enjoy yourself. 

For better or worse, as it has been for the last few decades, Montreal is very much a city where two-chord punk rock is incredibly trendy (which is worlds different from just being popular.) The upside to this is that a lot of punk tours generally make a point of stopping in our fair city; the bad news is a lot of people who enjoy these shows always show up for them. This of course gives every jock who believes NoFX (and bands who sound like them) are the end all and be all of punk rock ample opportunity to drag their girlfriend to the Metropolis and get wasted with their buddies, all the while being serenaded by the same bands they’ve listened to (exclusively) since they were twelve. Don’t get me wrong, I respect the history of all the bands that played this show (and others like them) and on record I generally enjoy them a lot, but live they failed to succeed in making me think I wasn’t wasting my time.

As is usually the case with these gigantic package tours, the first opening act was the one I enjoyed the most (since they’re usually the ones with the least to lose and thus the most outgoing.) For this show, that slot was filled by London, England’s TAT. After cutting their teeth in their native England and on the Warped Tour the last two summers, this is more or less their first full on North American tour. Many see this kind of youth and inexperience as an impediment; I choose to see it as a selling point. What this energetic threesome lack in experience, they make up for in showmanship. While admittedly they don’t reinvent the wheel musically (their own brand of two-chord punk is reminiscent of if Joan Jett had fronted The Sex Pistols….or MxPx for that matter), their energy was off the charts and their stage banter ranks among the best I’d ever heard. Granted, one has to wonder if they would have gotten a different reaction from the predominantly male audience if their singer/guitarist (and band namesake) wasn’t an incredibly attractive young woman, but I get the general feeling they (and she) use that fact to their advantage, so more power to them.

Following TAT’s set was a great lesson in what I (and other cynics like me) call Star Power. Star Power is what turns a normally mediocre band into a great band based on the musicians that make it up. This sad, borderline pathetic but undeniably true fact is what initially made Only Crime so appealing. Their initial lineup featured no less than two punk and hardcore giants: former Good Riddance voice machine Russ Rankin, Mr. Bill Stevenson, the drummer for bands no one has heard of called Black Flag, The Descendents and ALL along with slightly less legendary but still awesome guitarist Aaron Dalbec from Boston hardcore stalwarts Converge and Bane. The presence of these three made their stocky, borderline generic (and startlingly Good Riddance-esque) melodic hardcore listenable based on the fact that "if they stood by it then it must be good." However, upon taking the stage in Montreal this time around I was stunned to notice that the band that greeted me was Russ Rankin backed by four guys who appeared to be half his age. No Bill Stevenson and from what I could tell, no Aaron Dalbec. While the cause of this remains unknown, it had an undeniable effect on my enjoyment of their set. Due to the fact that Rankin has notoriously been a rather egotistical and high strung individual, I couldn’t help but get vibes of a punk rock Guns and Roses situation going on. While I may be blowing the situation completely out of proportion, the lack of any other of their signature members combined with the fact that sonically they sound almost identical to Rankin’s last project (which I admittedly was never that big a fan of) made their whole set relatively pointless and thus not enjoyable.

This leads us to the main drawing point of the evening for the majority of those in attendance: MxPx and Lagwagon. Despite both bands being around for over fifteen years, they’ve both thus far managed to avoid making a serious mark on the genre as a whole. They were both just a few hours late to the groundbreaking party and thus don’t really have the added draw of being the first of their kind, merely two of the ones that have lasted the longest. That having been said, their following (in this city at least) is large and dedicated and it is in my far from professional opinion that the vast majority of those in attendance would have enjoyed themselves no matter what. That having been said, the showmanship that accompanied both bands (who, while remaining very different, from an unfamiliar reviewer’s standpoint have many similarities) is top notch (especially on the part of MxPx bassist/vocalist Mike Herrera.) There’s definitely a reason that they’ve been around been around this long and have accumulated as many fans as they have. Ultimately however, they didn’t really offer anything of substance for those unfamiliar with their work.

As I mentioned before, this was the kind of show you really could enjoy only if you were expecting to enjoy it beforehand. Both of these bands, like many of their contemporaries, have made a career out of appealing to the same fanbase over and over and while there is no particular reason I never got into either band, I nonetheless had no preconceived connection to their music and thus could not enjoy myself. Some artists are universally entertaining; Lagwagon and MxPx aren’t two such artists. This is by no means a bad thing, but it makes it impossible for me to even impartially rate their performance in any way I can be proud of.

Ah well, can’t win em all.

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