MAD CADDIES + Real McKenzies + Saint Catherines @ Le Tulipe

By Lindsay Wood - 07/29/2007

Last night’s show was a trip down memory lane, an eye opening reminder that there is still some very good punk rock coming out of the Canadian scene and a relaxing reconnection with the California ska scene.

The Real McKenzies, The Sainte Catherines and The Mad Caddies put on a show that oozed a smorgasbord of emotions into the audience all night long.

The Real McKenzies are a band I have seen as a handful of time and one that always does their job as an opening act. They came out with an overwhelming amount of energy although the crowd wasn’t as on board. I think the people in the audience realized after the first song that if they didn’t move around too much they could inhale and get drunk off the booze on the bands breath.

While I don’t expect any less from a Scottish-Punk band that wear’s kilts from B.C., it got to the point where I was getting motion sick from watching the bagpiper stumbling around the stage in a drunken stupor. I was waiting for him to knock something or someone over, which was making me a little uncomfortable. Combined with lead singer, Paul McKenzie’s stage persona (which slightly resembled Avril Lavigne’s sad attempt at choreographed dance moves), it dawned upon me that this band hasn’t really changed their performance. The most punk thing about this band was not how many beers they chugged while onstage. It was the fact that their bagpiper wandered into the middle of Ste-Catherine Street in the gay village and played before the show for change (see photos below). They’ve added a few more songs and drank a few more beers, but that’s about it.

The Sainte Catherines were definitely a home grown favorite. I had a chance to chat with lead singer Hugo before the show, where he told me that the last few shows they played had very little energy and were not so great. Montreal had to have changed that because the crowd welcomed them home with open arms. Everyone at Le National was singing along to every word. It was refreshing to hear so many people listening to such a fantastic band. Their show was energetic and despite the fact that I have never quite understood the need for three guitarists in a punk rock band, these guys seemed to make use of all of them. The show was rad, the vocals were sounding sharp and had great volume on them. I don’t have a single complaint about this bands live performance.

The Mad Caddies tend to blow me away every time I see them. I always forget how great they are live. This is a band that is best enjoyed when you are either under the age of 17 and dancing like a maniac or over the age of 21 and sitting down, remembering what fun it was to skank away when you were 17.

I say this because when you get to be over 17 you start drinking at shows. Then you do dumb things like jump onto the stage while you are loaded (and obviously so, because you aren’t wearing any shoes). Then you start trying to dry hump/dance with the lead singer of the band that is performing in front of 600 or 800 people. When he won’t pay any attention to you, you move your way over to the good natured trumpet player who thinks its funny until you kick the mic chord out of the amp so that no one can hear the trumpet anymore. This happens five or more times till someone from one of the other bands watching comes and takes you off the stage. You resist and then they get so fed up that they chuck you back in the mosh pit and everyone cheers.
OR you are an 18-year-old male that dances around and around on stage and causes the nice, gentle lead singer from the California ska band (probably the most docile form of musician after the late Mr. Marley) to kick you in the face, stop playing in the middle of a slow, pretty part in a song and say, “If you want to be onstage, start your own fucking band.”

I can’t really tell you much about how the band actually sounded until the second half of their set, due to the antics from the audience, but that part was amazing. Keith, the agile little Mexican trombone player weaved his way around the stage so well it made me want to put him in my pocket and carry him around and take him out to play for me whenever I want. The difference in every member of the Caddies stage presence was so much more relaxed once the security from Le National stepped in to deal with the crowd surfing issue. They chilled out and even played a wonderful three-song encore. All in all, I'm glad I went to this show and got to sit for the Caddies performance.