The Birthday Massacre + William Control @ Katakombes

Oh Katakombes... how I love you. It's easily one of my favorite venues in this city, and perhaps one of the best that I've ever been to. So, I'm always super happy when I get to see shows there (most recently, Derelict). This time, the show was decisively not metal though, and featured William Control and Toronto's The Birthday Massacre.

Let me start out by saying that, full disclosure, I didn't want to see either of these bands perform. I was under the impression that Aesthetic Perfection, who I find much more interesting was going to be opening, but they got booked to do shows in Europe, so I went to see these two.

First up was William Control, a band consisting of a bassist and a singer... and I guess a computer too, because without that band member, there wouldn't be much going on. 

Now, let me be clear, that sounds like a complaint, but it isn't. My complaint is that aside from doing a bunch of microphone spinning, the lead singer did nothing but sing, which isn't a problem if there are other things going on on stage. Really, it was like performing at its absolute laziest. There were keyboard parts, there were vocals with effects, all of which came through ye ol' laptop. Honestly, it's not hard to play a keyboard for a few notes or to throw an effect pedal on your microphone. There was even a part that the lead singer was LIP SYNCING with. Lazy. Honestly, the bassist should go join a real band, which I think he desperately wants to do.

Next, and finally, was the Birthday Massacre. Truth be told, the music from this band has not been something I generally look forward to when I see that they have an album coming out. Most of their works have been kind of boring, but this last effort, Hide and Seek, was actually somewhat interesting, so I decided to go see what a live show from them would offer.

Honestly, it was kind of what I should have expected. All of their newer material caught my ear and made me pay attention, while their older stuff made my mind wander to basically anything else in the room. It wasn't that it was bad, just uninteresting. 

I kind of feel for The Birthday Massacre because they really are a band without a place. Not heavy enough to be Evanescence, not light enough to appeal to fans of Florence and the Machine, and not catchy enough to get the attention of anyone who likes Metric. They kind of exist as their own entity, which for music is kind of perfect if you're an entity that has something unique to bring to the table. I will say though, that their keyboardist should be raking in money since he's the only thing that gives this band somewhat of an identity, and for that I give him a lot of props.

Leaving the show, I guess I had fun, but I'm not sure if I'd care to do it again, and if I did, I'd only go to see the Birthday Massacre. If nothing else, I would get to go to Katakombes. Oh Katakombes... how I love you.

--Andrew Wixq hosts Grade A Explosives, Sundays 4-6pm