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By Katie Seline - Wrong Side of the Bed - 04/17/2007

There was something special about what would probably be the last show that I would see at the Spectrum. With my favourite venue scheduled to close its doors to be turned into a Best Buy or something equally atrocious, I think I could have gone to see any band and loved it. The Annuals, Walkmen and Kaiser Chiefs show may not have been spectacular, but it felt good to be back in a place that, in a way, I grew up in and to be able to say goodbye to it for the last time.

I’m usually late for shows and generally miss the first band, especially if there are three in the line-up. This time, however, because of the late scheduling of my interview with Matt Barrick from The Walkmen, I was able to catch the opening act The Annuals. This band absolutely blew me away. I had never heard of them before and completely overlooked them in the line-up, but was pleasantly surprised when they took the stage. Armed with about six or seven band members and two full drum kits with various other drums scattered between members, The Annuals packed a big punch. Their sound reminded me a lot of The Doves but louder, mixed in with The Music but better. Each band member added their own powerful dynamic and it seemed as though none of them were older than nineteen. The only downside to this band was that when I scoped out their stuff on the net, nothing I found compared to what I saw at the show. This is definitely a band to see live. For a close approximation to how powerful their sound was, check out "Brother" from their album Be He Me.

In all honesty, I was weary about The Walkmen’s set. I saw them in the fall last year during the CMJ Music Marathon in New York when they played at New York University and was less than impressed. This was disappointing because I had heard how amazing they were live from many people. At first it seemed that this show would have the same fate as the sound in the beginning of the set was less than perfect; however as everyone seemed to get used to each other, the band completely redeemed themselves. Oddly enough -- and I am not saying this because I met the guy -- Barrick is one of the best performing drummers I think I have ever seen. It was impressive to see him do his thing and you could hear others in the crowd commenting on this as well. I get a huge kick out of the fact that this band still plays on incredibly beaten up equipment but still manages to sound amazing. I am thrilled that they sounded amazing in the first place considering my past experience with them. Word on the street is that they’ve sold one of their songs to the new Spider Man movie soundtrack, which is sort of sad despite the fact that this band is no stranger to licensing their stuff to commercial television and film, but other than maybe "The Rat" and one or two others, this song was by far one of the best ones they played. All of the new stuff sounded amazing, which hopefully will mean a fabulous new album on par with Everyone Who Pretended to Like Me Is Gone and Bows + Arrows.

Last but not least, the Kaiser Chiefs took the stage. If you like what the Kaiser Chiefs do, they do it really well. I unfortunately really am not into what they do so their set didn’t do much for me. I am a sucker for a base drum and a synthesizer or a good hook so I enjoyed such numbers as "Na Na Na Na Na" but that’s pretty much where it ended. The kids had a good time and the band put on a good set. Frontman Ricky Wilson reminded me a lot of Tim Harrington of Les Savy Fav in the way he interacted with the crowd and his general stage presence. That’s pretty much where the comparison ended. I didn’t stick around for the whole set but like I said, if you like them, they do their job well. Their fans seemed to eat it all up and love it.

P.S. You know you are getting old when you can’t remember the last time you went to a show where the kids are jumping up and down. I need to get out more.

[Wrong Side Of The Bed airs every Wednesday from 5 to 7 PM only on CJLO. Also be sure to tune in this week, April 25th to catch Katie’s interview with Matt Barrick of The Walkmen.]

By Johnny Suck - Turn Down the Suck - 03/20/2007

A sold-out Medley played host to Lamb of God, Trivium and Machine Head -- Gojira were there too, but nobody cares about them. It's a shame that it was at the Medley; actually it's a shame that all larger metal shows are at the Medley, as it's pretty much the worst venue in the city -- but that's a rant for another day...

Walking in during Machine Head's set, it was surprising to see how much the crowd was into them. It turns out that they haven't been completely forgotten and left behind, as maybe you would have thought. Good for them.

Trivium took the stage after some ridiculously long intro music. I guess no one bothered to tell them that they weren't headlining. Their first song was a straight-up Metallica rip-off, which I guess is better than if they played a straight-up Trivium song. Nastiness aside, I find this band to be completely directionless. They obviously want to be huge, but it seems that they just don't know how to do it. Still, the cheering fans and the horde of Trivium T-shirts indicated that they must be doing something right. One thing that I will give them credit for is their interaction with the audience. The last time I reviewed them, I criticized their Rock Star attitudes. I still stand by that but I will say that at least they are making an effort and they deserve some points for it. Despite my leanings towards the 'shut up and play' school of thought, I realize what they are trying to do and what they are accomplishing. There were certainly some kids who felt a real connection with their favourite band, and ended up having the night of their lives because of it.

My concert-going buddy, a big LoG fan, suggested that Lamb of God is a band that only really needs to be seen once. After you've seen them for the first time, they don't really bring anything new to the table and they don't really do anything that needs to be seen over and over again. Personally, I was looking forward to seeing them more this time than the first time I had seen them, partly because I ended up liking them quite a bit that time and partly because they now have "Redneck" as part of their repertoire, a song that is far better than anything else that they have ever written. Well, "Redneck" ended up being completely butchered and my prior "hey, that was better than I was expecting!" reaction was replaced by "hmmm, yeah, I guess that was on par with last time". So while Lamb of God was solid, they were nothing special. They didn't step up and unlike, say, Trivium, they didn’t even try to step up. Besides Lamb of God's redundancy, some notable tidbits: the way Randy Blythe stalks the stage is very effective, the let's - use - so - much - smoke - that - nobody - will - be - able - to - see - anything technique isn't effective at all, and Randy mistakenly/jokingly calling the crowd Toronto and being met by a sea of boos was hilarious.

Highlight: Sorry, but I'm not going to say. I like to pretend that I have some class. Not much, but some, so I'm going to keep this one to myself

Highlight #2: Nope, I can't tell you this one either, it's not something that can be officially endorsed in a CJLO review.

Highlight #3: Post-show, when people were milling around the coat check area, some kid's mom walks in and tells a security guard that she's here to pick up her son. The guard shouts out over the din, "Billy! Your mom's here!!" Everyone around laughed. Good times.

[This is a motherfuckin' invitation to tune into Turn Down The Suck.]

By Katie Seline - Wrong Side of the Bed - 03/30/2007

It seems lately like every time I go to see a show at Metropolis, something ridiculous happens. I am going to make no effort to hide the fact that I hate this venue, namely because it allows for a much higher population of concert goers who couldn’t give a hoot about the band or the people around them per capita compared to some of the smaller, more pleasant venues around Montreal. But I digress.

After getting cigarettes flicked on me from the upper balcony at Interpol, almost getting in a fight with a Toronto Maple Leafs jersey-wearing guy at the last Tragically Hip and constantly trying to push my way away from loud, screaming, obnoxious fourteen-year-old girls at every show I’ve ever been to at Metropolis -- namely in order to avoid getting their beer spilled all over me as they jump around taking photos of each other -- I finally encountered the ultimate stupidity: couple who stand in front of a girl in a wheelchair and refuse to move. To top this, the bouncer didn’t even bother to make them move, just shrugged his shoulders and walked away. I miss the Spectrum already.

Anyway, on to talking about the music. I reviewed Snow Patrol not too long ago so you can check out my love for them (no I’m not joking) here. Their headlining set was basically the same, but this time a little louder, a little stronger and with probably the best light show I’ve seen in a long time. I was standing just above the lighting guys and I think I was more fascinated by them than I was by the band. Also cool: for their performance of "Set Fire To The Third Bar", a song performed with Montreal native Martha Wainwright, the band decided to pull up a fan from the audience to sing the song with them. I would have preferred Martha Wainwright but alas for the second time, she was absent. The first girl frontman Gary Lightbody pulled up onto the stage was all mic'ed up and ready to go before she bothered to tell anyone that she not only didn’t know the words, but also didn’t know the song at all. Round Two saw the presence of a girl who was a huge fan and a great singer to boot. Great success.

All around, Snow Patrol’s set was solid and powerful and worth it just to see all the silly little girls whip out their cell phones and digital cameras for the performance of "Chasing Cars", creating a sea of lights throughout the packed venue. I also managed to meet Lightbody after the show and turns out he’s a pretty righteous guy. He took the times to sign autographs and talk to the fans, which was cool for a band that’s made it so big and constantly has to fend off cougars -- I wish I was joking but there were about seven hanging around waiting for him -- and fourteen-year-old girls and their obedient boyfriends.

OK Go were the second opener to perform and this was also the second time that I had seen them. The band seems much better suited for bigger shows with their energy level shifting upward exponentially, considering the number of people in the crowd. They’re a fun band to watch even if their music bores me just a little bit. I was disappointed however at the lack of treadmills or choreographed dance routines.

The band I was really there to see were openers Silversun Pickups. Their last album Carnivas was my favourite of 2006 and they blew me away when I saw them at CMJ Music Marathon in New York. Unfortunately, it would seem that they are a band that fits better with smaller venues in contrast to OK Go. It almost felt as if Metropolis completely ate up their sound and their energy. Something was missing from their set and I know now that it is the intimacy of a smaller venue and the feeling that this band is just yours. It was kind of cool to see all the little girls shouting for Nikki Monninger every time she came back on stage to clean up her gear after her set. It was nice to know that the band is making it big even if it meant that I was sharing them with a bunch of kids who only knew about them from their stint on The O.C. Watching all the girls scream for Monninger sort of made me smile a bit knowing that maybe a few of these girls would discover more non-commercial music and maybe even take up guitar and join a band.

[Tune in to Wrong Side Of The Bed every Wednesday from 5pm to 7pm.]

By Josh Mocle - The Kids Are So-So - 03/08/2007

Everyone knows Flogging Molly, yet no one can really remember exactly when these Irish scoundrels and their mix of Irish Folk and American Punk came onto the scene; they’ve kind of always just been there. I would reckon that it’s because of this feeling of familiarity that people don’t even realize they’ve been around for ten years as of 2007. For ten years they’ve made their own way and won the hearts of many in the spiky, leather-bound punk community, but also in the old salty university professor generation as well. In addition to rocking like the best of them, Flogging Molly have apparently discovered the secret to bending time as on March 8th, they brought St. Patrick’s Day to Montreal a week early.

All hyperbole aside, Day 11 of the Guinness-sponsored Green 17 Tour ("Seventeen Cities Celebrating Revelry of St. Patrick’s Day" or something like that) certainly was a sight to see -- what I did manage to see of it anyway. I arrived at the sold-out Metropolis at approximately 8:10, only to find that I not only had missed the first act (a one-man guitar act going by the name of The Mighty Steph) but I had ten minutes to orient myself before Boston’s truly mighty Street Dogs took the stage.

During a conversation with my spiritual advisor/attorney prior to the show, we determined that the Street Dogs would surely out-Irish Flogging Molly this evening. In actuality, we were half-right. Taking the stage with their newest fan favorite track "Not Without A Purpose", the boys ripped and roared through forty-five minutes of some of the best Boston working class punk you or your mother will ever hear. Running through tracks taken primarily from their last two releases (2006’s Fading American Dream and 2005’s Back To The World), they surprised the crowd with a rousing rendition of "Road of the Righteous", a track from singer (and all-around good dude) Mike McColgan’s old band, a little-known group called The Dropkick Murphys. Having spent two hours talking to the band earlier in the day, I had been told more than once that one of the only reasons they do what they do is because they love doing it. A noble stance to take (and terribly cliché answer to give) but from the moment they took the stage it was clear that their statement was completely accurate. I’ve seen many punk bands perform in my scant twenty years, but few seemed to genuinely enjoy it as much as the boys of the Street Dogs did, and that joy was infectious.

Once the Street Dogs finished their set and exited the stage was around the time I noticed just how many people surrounded me. The Metropolis, one of downtown Montreal’s bigger rock venues, was literally packed. This surprised me as I had seen bands with significantly more commercial notoriety (Bad Religion, The Dropkick Murphys twice, Rancid and even -- as much as it pains me to admit -- current flavour of the week emo group Underoath) play this venue to noticeably smaller crowds than the one that had gathered to see Flogging Molly. Which I suppose just goes to show the impact that the band has had. While not enjoying even close to half of the commercial exposure given to many of the bands they’ve played with on their multiple stints on the Warped Tour, they’ve managed to amass a monumental following through good old fashioned hard work and word of mouth, and as they took the stage it was not hard to see why.

In my time I’ve used many different adjectives to describe many different shows, but one I don’t use half as often as I’d like is the word fun, and I can without a shadow of a doubt say that this Flogging Molly performance was FUN. After hearing the first few notes out of Dave King’s acoustic guitar and Bridget Regan’s fiddle play, in the darkness one couldn’t help but smile and dance along to the hour plus long Irish jig. All the favorites were covered: "Swagger", "Selfish Man", "Screaming at the Wailing Wall" and my personal favorite, "Laura". You name it, they played it, occasionally taking time out to spout some assumedly cliché Irish idioms and dispel hatred in the general direction of Mr. George W. Bush (and all with a drunken smile on their faces). Everything one could expect out of a Flogging Molly show was present in full force and the eager (and more likely than not, very drunk) crowd ate it up. I must admit, watching from my perch on the balcony as a drunken mosh pit tried in vain to form on the overpacked floor was entirely entertaining, with most resorting to jumping up and down after realizing movement from left to right was quite impossible.

The question remains however: DID the Street Dogs out-Irish Flogging Molly that night? If you ask this Boston-bred reporter, the answer is both yes and no and such is the beauty of this year’s Green 17 tour. I am quite obviously neither Irish nor Catholic, but I do love St. Patty’s day and I do know the difference between Boston and Ireland and the people who live there. But, if I do say so myself, this tour provided a taste of both worlds in three short hours, giving us an all-encompassing St. Patty’s Day experience that few, if any, could top. Basically if The Pogues went out on tour with Flogging Molly and the Dropkick Murphys, with Street Dogs, The Real McKenzies and The Tossers on direct support, brought a twenty-piece pipe and drum band with them and gave out free Guinness, then MAYBE it could top this. As for what both of those worlds tasted like: why, the freshest pint you’ve ever had topped with a hint of clover of course. Man, I am ALL about the clichés today. Oh well, sorry Eitan.

Cheers!

[Tune in to The Kids Are So-So every Tuesday from 2pm to 4pm.]