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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.]

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.]