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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.]

By Omar Husain - Hooked On Sonics - 02/24/2007

Sooooooo today was the day. I had been excited about seeing Sparklehorse for a while now, having never had the opportunity before, and this whole week leading up to the show I'd been on a big-time Sparklehorse marathon. So did it live up to my expectations? Sorta. With five years between It's a Wonderful Life (2001) and his latest Dreamt for Light Years in the Belly of a Mountain (2006) and as many years between since Mark Linkous has toured and performed in public, I was hoping for a pleasant surprise, similar to how happy I was with how great Dreamt ended up being after such a long absence from putting anything out.

OK, I wasn't hoping for a "pleasant surprise", I was hoping for a phenomenal/life-changing experience. Yeah, I set the bar ridiculously high and kinda overhyped the show in my head a bit. I've been a big fan of Linkous' odd dream-inspired imagery and surreal lyrics and interesting mix-and-match of different genres and instruments in weird, idiosyncratic packages for quite some time, plus the man himself is pretty darn interesting, from stories of a year-long recovery after a freak accident involving OD'ing on a cocktail of prescription painkillers and alcohol, to my favourite story about how he shrouded the poppy hooks of Good Morning Spider's "Happy Man" with fuzz, radio static and other noises after hearing that Capitol was eyeing it as a possible radio single. Linkous is like an eccentric crazy musical genius, similar in ways to Tom Waits, but maybe more adventurous musically, but at the same time oddly more accessible.

With a fairly good turnout for the show, the first thing I noticed walking in was that this was one of the most age-diverse crowd I've ever witnessed at a show. From late-teens to twentysomething young hipsters, to older fortysomething music fans, it was nice to see how Mark Linkous' schizo folk-indie-whatchamacallit music has reached a varied set o' people. Well played, Mark, you're alright.

Taking the stage after numerous "crowd-starts-to-clap-yet-nobody-is-on-stage" moments, Linkous and company gently eased the audience into the evening, starting the show off with the nice version of the soft "Spirit Ditch" off their debut Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot. Throughout the show, the sound was phenomenal. Every instrument was perfectly mixed and the volume was just perfect, loud enough without being overpowering, and not too quiet either (I spent the bulk of the evening sans earplugs due to the comfortable volume). Linkous is generally not a loud rawker, but Sparklehorse does kick up some dust at times, and the transitions from slow brooders to rockers was seamless.

The show’s first big highlight came only two songs in, when the band started It's a Wonderful Life’s "Apple Bed", with bassist Polly Jean Brown doing a fine job of providing the backing vocals that the Cardigans’ Nina Persson does on the record. A nice calm, almost brooding tune, in the second verse Linkous and guitarist/keyboardist Chris Michaels changed it up from the recorded version and started laying down distortion-heavy guitars while drummer Johnny Hott powered up a churning beat. Then at the drop of a hat, both Linkous and Michaels dropped to their knees, almost synchronized, and completely went to town on their pedals, filling the hall with squalls of feedback and fuzzy white noise. It was utterly beautiful. From there on, it would be hard to top that song’s performance.

"Piano Fire" got a little re-working too, and while the reaction to the first couple bars of the song was enthusiastic (from yours truly too, that's my jam), the slightly sped-up version didn’t gel too well (and the crazy gal going full-out hippie dancing next to me wasn't helping either). Still, it was great to hear, and I wasn't expecting it either, not having seen it on the couple setlists I'd seen from the tour so far.

As enigmatic Linkous may appear to be, in all the interviews I've read with him he seems to come across as a polite gentleman, and it was nice to see him, while otherwise quiet with no in-between crowd banter, cracking a shy smile every time the crowd would react positively to a song, especially for new material like Dreamt’s single "Don’t Take My Sunshine Away". While Linkous, Michaels and Brown were pretty much stationary during the entire set, Hott was providing much entertainment with his frenetic drum fills and flamboyant drumming. Arms flailing around, he stuck out from the rest of the band more than just fashion-wise (Linkous and Michaels were dressed formally in blazers and Brown was wearing a dress, while Hott was all T-shirt and bandana). Initially it was kinda funny, but man, dude can play the drums and provided some nice energy to the show.

Closing out with Good Morning Spider's "Pig", Linkous and the gang proved just how loud they could get, and man, it was beautiful. Extending the bridge a few minutes more, Linkous and Michaels filled it with fuzz, again on their knees coaxing swirling sheets of white noise from their pedals while Hott improvised like a maniac on his kit. The whole scene had the venue filling with sound to the point that it felt like the hall was gonna explode. It was such an awe-inspiring moment, that all doubts that they wouldn't be able to top the "Apple Bed" performance were put to rest. Linkous then hopped back up, strummed out the last few crunchy barre chords of the song, and the set was finished.

Coming back for the encore, the band instead picked a couple smooth numbers to bring the night to a close. It's a Wonderful Life's "Days Be Gold" received a warm welcome from the crowd, and then they ended the night similar to how they started it, with something from Vivadixiesubmarinetransmissionplot with a fantastic choice and performance of "Homecoming Queen". With that, Linkous waved to the crowd, offered a sincere "Thank you so very much" and disappeared off the stage with the rest of his band. While it was a pretty solid set list, some notable omissions like "Shade and Honey", "Ghost in the Sky" or "Happy Man" would have made it my dream setlist, but still, ridiculously high expectations aside, it may not have been a life-changing experience, but it still was a great show.

[Tune in to HOOKED ON SONiCS every Tuesday from 6pm to 8pm.]

By Simon Howell - The Listening Ear - 01/22/2008

After losing singer-songwriter Jason Isbell as a contributing member, many would reasonably have expected Alabama's venerable Drive-By Truckers to take a break, especially given the somewhat muted reception to 2006's A Blessing And A Curse. Instead, the band hunkered down to craft their strongest set of songs since their 2003 high-water mark, Decoration Day. The keys to their success here are a renewed focus on their strengths as storytellers, as well as bassist (and Isbell's ex-wife) Shonna Tucker's emergence as a strong songwriter in her own right.

One would scarcely have expected that the Truckers could pull off a nineteen-track, seventy-five-minute album after their last album began to strain before its scant eleven tracks were up. Nevertheless, Brighter manages to impress throughout much of its running length -- even if it probably should end with track fifteen, "Check-Out Time In Vegas." The four songs that follow sound like bonus tracks in comparison. Before the album hits that dry spell, however, many of their best cuts to date crop up -- Tucker's gorgeous weepers "I'm Sorry Huston" and "The Purgatory Line," as well as Patterson Hood's "The Righteous Path" and the quietly expansive "Opening Act." Mike Cooley's contributions lean strongly on the folk-country axis of their sound, especially on "Bob," "Perfect Timing," "Check-Out Time in Vegas," and "Lisa's Birthday" (although he still remembers to bring a kick-ass rocker in the form of "3 Dimes Down").

Besides the sharply written tunes, their lyrics remain as socially incisive as ever. On "Bob," Cooley laments the type of independent, idiosyncratic Southern men he fears are dying out with cultural hegemony: "He likes to drink a beer or two every now and again / he always had more dogs than he ever had friends / Bob ain't light in the loafers / he might kneel but he never bends over." Hood's "The Man I Shot" examines guilt and mortality in the age of Iraq ("that man I shot, he was trying to kill me / sometimes I wonder if I should be there / I hold my little ones until he disappears") while "The Home Front" makes Hood's views on the matter even clearer through its lament of a soldier's doting wife ("there ain't no end to it / no 9/11 or uranium to pin the bullshit on"). Southern America may continue to see its constituents internationally ridiculed, but the Truckers' efforts to portray their everyday struggles continue unabated.

Tune in to A Listening Ear with Simon every Tuesday from 1pm - 2pm

By Fraser McCallum - F-Train 120 - 01/27/2007

On one of the coldest nights in the history of Montreal, I found myself taking in Murder Records’ flagship success story, Canadian rock icons Sloan. Riding the success of their recent mammoth of a double album Never Heard The End Of It, Sloan hit the boards at Sala Rossa supported by Hexes and Ohs and Percy Farm. The show was a good one but not the kind of show you think about for days and days afterwards. Although packed and rocking, the show went long in the tooth and needed a trim or two. That being said, Sloan definitely imported the goods on each and every track, and rocked out a passionate and wide-ranging set of tunes.

Pop-rock disco beaters Hexes and Ohs opened the night and although I had never heard of the Montreal-based two-piece, they did have some interesting melodies and instrumentation. Their basic premise was a jangly Fender Strat sound loaded with Death Cab-ish emo crooning, Mac laptop drums and some Korg keyboard thrown in for good measure. It was a shame that the lead singer had such a nasal and nauseating drone of a voice, as the guitar work and keyboard vibes were fairly strong. Unfortunately the crowd wanted none of it, chanting ‘Slo-ooooan’ throughout Hexes and Ohs’ set and shouting obscenities. Suffice to say, maybe the pop-friendly two-piece were not the best choice for a good ol’ Canadian rockfest.

Sloan took to the stage to huge applause and seemed to have a touch of grey and age to their step. The fivesome recently did a North American tour with the Rolling Stones, so perhaps some of the magic age dust rubbed off. Regardless, the Halifax rockers jumped into "Who Taught You To Live Like That?", a stomping Beatles-style gang vocals hit. The harmonizing was excellent and drummer Andrew Scott brought a wonderful wallop to the tom-toms. Bassist Chris Murphy took charge of the stage right away, making contact with several in the front rows and throwing out some pretty stand-up banter. The band features Murphy, Scott, Patrick Pentland and Jay Ferguson. All four members seemed fairly charged up for the show as apparently when Sloan was last in Montreal in 2004, Murphy did not sing at all as he had lost his voice. The band seemed very comfortable with Murphy heading the act this time though, as they played three new tracks from the new album, a bloated, 30-track disc. These tracks saw lead guitarist Petland and rhythm guitarist Ferguson taking turns at lead vocals, with Ferguson’s "Can’t You Figure Out", an upbeat and smooth number, really hitting home with the crowd.

From there, the show turned back to Murphy, who brought out one of the band’s biggest hits ‘The Other Man" from their sixth album Pretty Together. This song really grabbed me as it was craftily layered with a fat fat bass sound, charging rhythm, and Murphy at his best of the night, digging deep at hitting an impassioned croon. Given that I have not followed Sloan’s career terribly religiously, this was certainly a highlight for me, the song I knew the best going in, one that Sloan themselves are surely tired of playing by now, yet delivered with huge energy and fervor.

From there Sloan touched on a few other old hits before launching into a few more newbies, including the foot-stomping ‘Ill-Placed Trust’, complete with a wailing Hendrix-esque breakdown solo from Petland. Other notable new songs was the dark and sinister "Golden-Eyes" and a thumping Offspring-recalling punk rocker "HFXNSND" that featured a full band instrument rotation and Murphy more than holding his own on the drum skins. The same praise cannot be given to drummer Scott’s attempts at lead singing. His three songs bled together into a flat, unimaginative and yawn-inducing detour in an otherwise flawless first half. Note to Sloan: band-fronting democracy’s great and all, but let drummers drum -- especially this guy. On the other hand, I was quite impressed with the versatility of the band; all three main members seemed quite confident on vocals and on lead guitar and Murphy’s drumming was far beyond sufficient, often laced with lightning-fills and splashes.

Other nice show touches were keys player Dave Michaels, Murphy’s audience banter and new track "I Understand". This Petland-sung track sounded like something from the There’s Something About Mary soundtrack, a very happy and toe-tapping jingle. Petland has some talent, but at times wanders into a congested, nasal drone that can tarnish some otherwise great songs. The addition of soft organ and keys on many of the songs was a nice touch though, one that added a shimmering depth to some of the otherwise repetitive rock numbers. It seems that every road warrior Canadian rock band has added a bearded background keys player recently. Sloan has followed the likes of Matt Mays, Sam Roberts and even the poignant rock quartet and CJLO favorites Wintersleep in adding a mysterious keys player. Although surprisingly trendy, the added harmonies and depth of the organ sound bring many Sloan tracks to the next level.

Next on the menu was the old Big Shiny Tunes favourite "Money City Maniacs", another audience and personal favourite that although, modified this time around, was a great jangly rocker that had everyone singing along to the chorus. Murphy brought out one of his favourite stage tricks, the ol' fashioned jump kick -- never too late and always appropriate. Murphy seemed very relaxed and comfortable, cracking jokes and connecting with the audience throughout the show, an attitude quite contrary to the rumors of Murphy’s aloofness or arrogance. Murphy was very easy-going, excited but not scary excited.

The show did grow unfortunately lengthy after this and with a few more uncomfortable drummer-led tracks and rambling solos, the show went past its peak and then some. This repetitive overplaying seemed to pull the crowd out of their dedicated listening, as some even took off entirely. It’s always a delight when a visiting band treats audiences to a few extra unforeseen numbers, but for this show, the crowd, like the album, never heard the end of it.

All in all, it was worth it however. Murphy and company have made a stalwart career out of their passionate, energetic, harmonious and downright loveable rock sound. The band played a great cross-section of hits and no-name tracks, always maintaining their own interest first, and most often, the audiences’ too. One great thing about their act is there maneuverability between instruments. With the exception of the unfortunate drummer-led tracks, the variety of sights and sounds -- and maybe Murphy’s thrash rock drumming alone -- made for great eye and ear candy. The Ferguson-led songs were also of note, touching close to early Beatles territory but reinvigorated with good East Coast rock sensibility and acoustic cowboy chords. Sloan could do to edit their tracklist down a bit, but if it keeps Murphy in a fun-loving mood and keeps the depth charts flowing, then by all means, I’ll stay on board. Good times.

3.5/5 Sloan members

[Tune in to F-Train 120 every Monday from Noon to 2:00pm.]