SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND 2006 Tour @ Metropolis

By Johnny Suck - Turn Down the Suck - 07/12/2006

In my review of last year’s Sounds of The Underground, I had three major complaints against the festival. It was at a terrible venue, it started three hours late -- resulting in ridiculously short sets -- and the line-up was a mess. Luckily, all three of these issues were fixed when SotU made its return to Montreal on July 12th.

It was held at Metropolis, this city’s best big venue, instead of the terrible Stade Uniprix. It was coming from Toronto, so there were none of last years border problems, and was scheduled to start at 5:00 – which it did. And the line-up consisted of only seven bands instead of last year’s 16. Interestingly enough, Montreal, along with Las Vegas, had the fewest bands of all the dates on the tour; most cities have at least 12 bands playing. Bands that were on this leg of the tour but that didn’t play Montreal were Converge, Behemoth, The Chariot, Horse The Band, and Through The Eyes of The Dead.

Here are the bands that played:

• The Black Dahlia Murder were up first. The stage was clearly too big for them, a common problem at any festival, but they managed all right. I think they could have been more fun, but they still got a surprisingly decent crowd reaction. Actually, every single band went over better than I was expecting.

• Out of the seven bands, I was looking forward to 2.5 of them. Terror were the .5. They had really good energy, a solid stage presence and were pretty darn enjoyable -- if you didn’t think about it too much. To their benefit, and the festival’s detriment, they were the only hardcore band on the bill.

• “We aren’t here to teach you right from wrong. We’re here to smash your face in”. Ahhh… Cannibal Corpse, don’t you love them? Because, I sure don’t. They periodically sound like they’re on the verge of being good, but never quite make it. I need more groove in my death metal, but that’s just me. Just about everyone else in the crowd seemed to love them. To their credit, they had the best stage banter of the afternoon with their dedication of “Fucked With A Knife” to all the tittays in audience. Classic.

• Whereas Cannibal Corpse merely sing about certain things, Gwar actually get up on stage and do them (like cumming blood, for instance). They were the only band to return from last year and with good reason. Gwar were definitely the most important band of the day, as they helped keep things interesting. Their onstage antics of decapitation and ejaculation break up the monotony of endless calls for circle pits.

• Trivium kicked off the second half of the day, and boy did I hate them. I have no problem with bands that aren’t that good, but bands that get on stage thinking that they’re Metallica or Iron Maiden really get to me. I’ll admit that they sounded alright at times, but generally they were a mess in terms of both songs and sound. This band needs less rock star posing and more focus and tightness.

• Second headliner In Flames earned their spot with a quality show. They did pretty much everything right and almost made a fan out of me. They had just the right mix of performance and natural rocking out, and they really delivered that concert feel. Admittedly, the best part of their set was just watching people in the audience sing and gesture along. I realize that I also look like an idiot when singing along to my favourite band, but these people were just great. I think it’s due to In Flames’ particular mix of serious heaviness and pansy-ass melodies.

• To end the show, As I Lay Dying came out and smoked all the other bands on the bill. With the exception of Gwar’s visual entertainment, As I Lay Dying beat each band on all counts. How good were they? Good enough that if I didn’t suck at knowing lyrics, I would have been singing along to “Darkest Nights”, “Confined” and “Forever”. Yeah, they were that good. Give them one more album, resulting in a few more killer songs, and they should be unstoppable live.

  An interesting thing about As I Lay Dying is that they revealed how weak Trivium really were. Their songs actually work, their screams are actually powerful, their melodies are actually clean and catchy, their performance is actually tight, they actually know how to work a crowd, and they don’t come across as a bunch of dicks. In particular, AILD definitely lacked attitude. They pointed out how lucky they were to be such a young band headlining over the likes of Gwar, Cannibal Corpse and In Flames. They acknowledged how much fans paid to see them, and they appreciated it. They were just totally a class act in every way. My only real complaint is that the singer talked over the intro to “94 Hours” -- he should know better.

Only having these seven bands was definitely an improvement over last year’s 16, and was preferable to the 12 or 14 that played most cities. It was not quite the perfect number though; nine is probably the sweet spot. Throw on one more hardcore band and one other miscellaneous band and everything would be balanced just right.

Of course, a good festival is more than just the bands that played. In this respect, I think Sounds of The Underground was lacking. There was really nothing to give it that festival atmosphere. A proper festival should somehow feel special and this one didn’t. It just felt like a regular show with a lot of bands. It’s possible that the confines of Metropolis held back that festival feeling. If that was the case then fine, it’s an acceptable trade-off. It seems though that the organizers could have stepped up and done something to make Sounds of The Underground more than just another metal tour.

Overall, the second installment of Sounds of The Underground was a definite improvement over last year’s. Being at a decent venue was the main reason, although that may have only been happenstance due to the World Beach Volleyball tour taking over Stade Uniprix that week. Regardless of whether the venue change was intentional or not, it was for the better, even if it meant that certain bands did not play or that some atmosphere was missing. In Flames, Gwar and As I Lay Dying all played excellent sets. The crowd was very enthusiastic and appreciative, if a little sparse at the beginning and end of the day. And all in all, Sounds of The Underground 2006 – The Montreal Edition was a success.

[Tune in to Turn Down The Suck Mondays from 6-8pm.]