SOUNDS OF THE UNDERGROUND Tour 2005 @ Stade Uniprix

By Johnny Suck - Turn Down the Suck - 07/03/2005

Sounds of the Underground was supposed to be THE summer festival for those of us who aren’t into Warped Tour and who aren’t visited by Ozzfest. It had loads of potential but, unfortunately, it failed. The festival would have been able to overcome any single problem, however there were several issues that teamed up to bring it down. First of all, Stade Uniprix is an awful venue. The show was indoors, in what felt like an airplane hangar. There was almost zero atmosphere and the sound was atrocious. Even the best bands were difficult to enjoy due to the sound and the worst bands were rendered unlistenable. Having a concert at Uniprix is as ridiculous an idea as playing tennis at Metropolis.

That the show started three hours late did not help matters. The show was supposed to begin at 1:00 and run until 11:00. Having 16 bands in 10 hours is pretty tight, squeezing them all into 7 hours was a mess. The first bunch of bands were playing 15-20 minute sets and headliners were on for no more than 45 minutes. When a band that you don’t care for is playing, a 15-minute set is a good thing. When High on Fire plays for only 15 minutes, it is a disaster. The reason why it started so late was not clear -- rumour was that several bands and the sound guys were held up at the border. Whatever the reason, standing around in a giant hangar without even any background music for a couple of hours before the show is pretty anti-climatic. Any enthusiasm that I was feeling before the show -- and, yes, I actually was pretty excited when I got there -- was replaced by my usual apathy during the three-hour delay.

The third and most important problem was the group of bands that were playing. The individual bands themselves weren’t really the problem, it was more the sum of the bands that didn’t work. The roster was too far skewed towards hardcore/metalcore to be interesting. Or, maybe, you could say that there were too many non-hardcore/metalcore bands who were out of place at what was essentially a hardcore festival. Here’s a run through of the bands:

• The Red Chord was the first band of the afternoon, taking the stage a little before 4:00. They had the difficult task of warming up a crowd that had long gone cold. I liked them simply because they were something. After three hours of an empty stage, any band is welcome.

• Devil Driver was lucky to be on second. Had they played later in the day, they would have easily been lost in the pack.

• I think I enjoyed A Life Once Lost’s performance, but unfortunately I can’t remember a single thing about it. I guess I couldn’t have enjoyed it that much.

• The biggest disappointment of the afternoon was High On Fire’s set. Not because it wasn’t good, but because it was only three-songs long. They played “Cometh Down Hessian”, “Nemesis”, “Devilution”, and then it was over. It ended when it should have just been getting started.

• Madball was a pretty good band to be part of the tour. They didn’t seem out of place (like Clutch) but they managed to sound unique among so many bands (unlike Chimaira). Sounds would have been a stronger festival with more bands like them.

• Strapping Young Lad dished out the heaviest set of the day. Also notable was that they were the only band besides Gwar to have anything to say besides “how you doing Montreal?”, “let’s get this pit going”, and “go buy our merch”. Entertaining and original banter does count for something.

• Of all the bands, Throwdown had the biggest and most enthusiastic crowd. It was odd that they were on so early when they should have been one of the headliners. The crowd started to thin after they had played.

• Norma Jean’s set was pretty intense, but was difficult to enjoy. I didn’t buy their performance as being entirely natural, and if a band doesn’t seem genuine they lose considerable appeal.

• Every Time I Die, Chimaira, Poison The Well and Unearth all did a good job of blending in with each other.

• Despite being the first band to have decent sound, Clutch were poorly received. This wasn’t surprising given how much they differ from the dominant style of the tour. A quick look around the room told you that 90% of the people there weren’t Clutch fans. Still, they played the second-best set of the day.

• Wondering whose set was the best? Here are some hints: two large blood cannons, a Nazi-Pope, the beheading of George W. Bush, and an alien bathing in the blood shooting out from his gigantic, horned penis. Gwar provided some much-needed entertainment for what would otherwise have been a pretty dry affair, and their music wasn’t bad either.

• I’m not fan of Lamb of God (gasp!) and wasn’t expecting much from them, but surprisingly I enjoyed their set quite a bit. Maybe they are worthy of some of the hype after all.

• For whatever reason, Montreal was the only city where Lamb of God wasn’t headlining. Instead it was Opeth who had that honour. They also had the honour of playing to the smallest crowd of the day because by that time, most people -- including myself -- had left.

• Full Blown Chaos, All That Remains, and From Autumn To Ashes were on the bill but did not play.

The Sounds of the Underground lineup looked promising on paper, but didn’t work in the end. There simply wasn’t enough variety among the bands. When there are only three or four bands on a bill, it is perfectly fine if they all play the same or similar styles of music. When there are 16 bands and 10-12 of them sound similar, it can get a little tiring. The other major problems (Stade Uniprix, starting late) were unique to this particular date, but the band roster is a problem of the entire tour. Hopefully, it is a problem that will be fixed for future editions of Sounds of the Underground , assuming it is successful enough to continue, which I hope it is.

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