RSS

Montrealers came out to attend the 178th St, Patrick's Day parade on Sunday. The parade started of at Fort Street at noon and ended a little before three at Phillips Square.

The show went on this year with no incidents. Last year, a 20 year old man from laval suffered a tragic death during the parade. Measures of prevention were hicked up this year with an additional fifteen thousand dollars spent on security.

St. Patrick was an Irish blessing this year. It is reported that the parade was an upbeat one despite last year’s tragedy.

Photo by: Erica Fisher

Haitians went to the polls on Sunday to vote for a new president. Preliminary results will be announced March 31. 

The two candidates were a musician and a former first lady. Michel “Sweet Micky” Martelly is a recording artist with no public office experience. Mirlande Manigat is former Haitian President Leslie Manigat’s wife. He was in office for four months in 1988. Mirlande Manigat is also a former senator. She has been involved in Haitian politics for some time. 

Allegations of fraud and voter intimidation plagued the November preliminary elections. This round of voting ran much more smoothly. But whoever will be victorious will still face many challenges. Haiti is still recovering from last year’s earthquake. It has also been plagued by poverty and corruption for decades. Voters said they wanted moral, diligent and competent leadership.

TEENAGERS! The first thing I realized about Down With Webster was their uncanny teenage fan base. The show was a sea of hormone driven kids, none above the age of 17. Although scary and headache inducing, it wasn't a surprise. Number one: young teenagers are the only ones left who buy CDs off the shelves like candy. Number two: Down With Webster's sound is like a herding call for youngins. After watching the group of girls in front of me braid each others hair for thirty minutes, the lights finally turned off, the screams got to a glass shattering pitch and the show commenced.

The first band to hit the stage was 2AM Club. I had no idea who they were but that could have just been my ignorance (come on, there are so many bands out there!). The teens in the concert hall seemed to know who they were 'cause they erupted like it was the Easter bunny himself on stage. Not much can be said about this band, other than they had a sound that has been echoing through the pop music industry for a while. Although they have a bit of hip-hop flavor in their sound, they still came off a bit generic (man I hate that overused word). I found myself tossing and turning, but the rest of the audience was dancing like never before. Maybe I missed something?

Now for the second act: a group called The Envy hit the stage with a cool original introduction. The lights were going down, some voice echoed through the hall and two banners with the band's logo (crossed fingers) waved on stage. Well I had my fingers crossed too, hoping this band would keep me from diving face first into my palms. And they did just that. After seeing past the weird half t-shirt, half undershirt thing the lead singer was wearing, I realized his voice and their sound were, as teens would say, "epic." They looked kind of young too, which was cool because it meant they still had time to grow.

Finally they were done and it was time for Down With Webster – not. Another band came out who were not DWW (that's what the cool kids call Down with Webster). Take note promoters, or whoever this may concern: artists should never have more than two opening acts; after the second, people start to get restless and begin to care less, which makes for an annoyed crowd. Sweet Thing came on stage, and at this point even the hormone-injected kids had lost their energy, so the cheering and clapping had mellowed down a notch. Now this band I really liked; the lead singer had interesting, eccentric moves and their sound was much more grown-up and wise. Unfortunately, they seemed out of place. The crowd wasn't buying it as much as an older crowd (like me) would have. Maybe they should have opened for Metric? Although when they played their most popular song, "Change of Seasons" (which can be heard in the movie Easy A), the crowd did seem to have woken up a bit. They finished, and it was now time for what we all came here for.

Down With Webster came out with a bang. The way they tossed around their energy and made it bounce off the walls of the venue was like no other. There was a lot happening on stage, but it was just the right amount. What I appreciated most aside from the ridiculous amount of energy was the combination of hip-hop and rock. It felt like they were breaking barriers with every song they sang.

If you know down with Webster then you know that they aren't just a two-man act; in fact there are seven of them. That's right, 7 members, each equally important. They're full of different faces and identities, and it’s refreshing. It gets tiresome watching bands with members that all look and act the same. Just when I thought it couldn't get any better, the drummer, Marty, began to kick it with a drum solo. They covered songs like Drake's "Over,” Wiz Khalifa's "Black and Yellow” to a song by Pavarotti. And let me tell you, it was incredible and entertaining. In the end I found myself writing down songs so I'd remember to check them out when I got home. I soon realized that I had basically written down every song from their album.

-Brandon C co-hosts SoReal Radio on Sundays from 12-2pm

March 10th, 2011: The weather was terrible; it was raining and the snow was somewhere in limbo between cold slush and ice. My boots and feet were soaked through. The commute was terrible; It was a Thursday evening but all of Montreal seemed to have somewhere to go that night. The scalpers were everywhere; they were waiting for me at St. Laurent Metro and could be found every step of the way towards Metropolis. However, Apocalyptica were on the bill accompanied by Montreal's own The Catalyst, so the show was worth it!

When I got in, the first thing I noticed was that the setup was beautiful. The lights were colourful and the opening band's gear was set up hours in advance and ready. Unfortunately, the drink service was awful; it hasn't improved since the Blind Guardian concert. Drinks were over priced and the servers would refuse to serve you again if you gave them any less than a 25% tip . So I found myself biding my time and conversing with the few people I knew before the show began, which was signaled by a rising cheer from the crowd.

Matt Bailie was on top of his game; it was good to see him back on the stage as he knows how to work the crowd. He's had surgery and, in consequence, it looked as if he was taking it, but he had a lot of energy to give. He told me, following the show, that he missed it a lot and that it feels good to be back doing what he loves: playing on a live stage with his brothers. He was a bit nervous at first, but after seeing the fans he got excited. It was sensational. In his words, it was the loudest crowd he'd ever seen with The Catalyst. He felt very privileged to open for Apocalyptica and expects that he won't feel a rush quite like that until their album launch. Mike Marino and Graham McDonagh both did a great job and they had great synergy; their presence was also excellent. Mike's mobility on the stage was only topped by G's, but barely; G had the presence of any famous lead guitarist. Both were having fun on stage and looked as if they belonged there and that they have been doing this for years. Teo Zamfir's drumming was fantastic and his sound was extremely clear without overwhelming the other band members. Unfortunately, there was no light on him, which made it very difficult to see just how much fun he was having.

Everyone in the audience was happy to see The Catalyst. Their set, which consisted of 7 songs and lasted for 45 minutes, included: "When the Sun Shall Rise," "The Day After," "Provocation" (a personal favourite of mine), "The Devil in Disguise," "Collapse of Reason," "These Last Days" (which had a vicious circle pit that reminded me of a previous experience in which I had to go get stitches after a brief run inside) and "Call From Within," which was their last song of the night and the band's last attempt to work the crowd for all the energy they had been saving. The mosh pit had become very active by the second song. There were no sound problems throughout their set and the lighting effects were great, but never on Teo (as I've mentioned before). Despite them being the only opening act, the crowd turnout for The Catalyst was fantastic and extremely receptive, which is uncommon for most metal shows; the audience usually only shows up for the headlining act.

After a little wait and a few false starts, Apocalyptica began at 21h24 sharp. They opened with Jimi Hendrix's "All Along the Watch Tower." The lights were fantastic, although a bit overbearing at times. The sound quality was great but the only problem I saw was that it was inconsistent; it would sometimes jump up and down in volume. My nitpicking aside, they had a grand, musical opening and the crowd reception was excellent! Their music is fantastic and their performance matched it. Every break or intermission was alive with cheering, whistling, fist pumping and clapping. The drummer was fortunate enough to be placed on an elevated platform, which allowed each member to be seen equally. Don't let this stringed quartet fool you, because these guys know how to bring the metal! They are metal; they keep it alive and you can see when they put on their show that these guys are all about the music. The only problem I had was that their music is hard to sing along to.

Throughout their set they played a few Metallica and Sepultura covers. Their third song, "Master of Puppets," was received by an overwhelming cheer from everybody in the audience. At one point, the drummer got off and joined the rest of the band on the cello for a slower song. During that song their backdrop seemed to come alive with colour and seemingly changed throughout the song; at points it was similar to the liquid display at Frank Marino's show a few months back. I felt that, at first, there wasn't very much talking or working the crowd, but as the show progressed the band got more interactive and the crowd grew more responsive. As the night progressed they had a guest appearance from Gavin Rossdale to sing "End of Me," which was followed up by another Metallica cover, "Seek and Destroy." They finished up their set, and the crowd came more alive than ever while waiting for the encore. Anywhere you turned all you could see or hear was a flood of stomping, cheering and whistling which didn't stop even when they came back. I was a little annoyed that the overhead TV screens, which many people rely on to see, were blurred out during the encore until someone remembered to turn them on half way through their first song. Their encore lasted for four songs and ended with "I Don't Care" and "Hall of the Mountain King."

All in all, the concert experience was fantastic and the show had something for everybody, from old school metalheads, to younger metal fans and to those who wanted to hear an orchestral masterpiece. When I made it outside at the end of the show nobody, including myself, seemed to notice or care that the weather was still terrible and that the sidewalk was crowded with tired, sweaty fans falling over each other. At least not until it was time to get to their respective cars or metro stations!

-Cecil D hosts Burnt Offerings every Sunday from 4-6pm