Crowd Surfing Jesters and Mystical Music Wizards: The Garden plays Club Soda

On Tuesday night, I was cured from my fourth year art school malaise by a pair of talented twins -- I got the chance to see Orange County California punk rock legends, the Garden, at Montreal's Club Soda. These twin brothers, Wyatt (bass and vox) and Fletcher Shears (drums and vox), have been making experimental punk rock and electronic music since 2011 (and they’ve been playing in my ears since high school, circa 2020). This show was for their current tour promoting their newest album Bootleg released July of this year, with their first Canadian show being in Vancouver, opening for The Strokes at Roger’s arena (my friend said it was a great show, but I’m very grateful I got to see them as headliners and a smaller venue). 

Opening for their Montreal date was rapper Ghost Mountain (aka Wren Elliot Kosinski), who’s set of classic melodic trap beats and super crunchy live electric guitar brought me back to that 2018ish era of alternative rock influenced trap -- check him out if you like Lil Peep, Juice WRLD, $uicideboy$ and Drain Gang.

The set opened with single "Filthy Rabbit Hole" and "AMPM Truck" from their 2020 album, Kiss My Super Bowl Ring, before jumping into their songs from Bootleg. I was very surprised and pleased at how well the more electronic elements -- which are the main experimental focus on the album -- translated into a live setting. 

The crowd, full of a mix of jester makeup-sporting youths, the gothically inclined, and people dressed like they’re from the Outsiders, immediately matched the twins high energy on the dancefloor; there wasn’t a single moment that people weren’t either moshing or dancing with their hands in the air. This audience's energy, the space management and the sound has redeemed Club Soda for me after a disappointing experience at the Wednesday show last November. 

Some standout moments were crowd singalongs like "Freight Yard," "Chainsaw the Door" and "Man of The People," as well as the more electro songs, like "Ballet" and "The Meds" that saw both Wyatt and Fletcher on the mics alone, and the floor was transmuted from a push pit into a club dancefloor. "Horsehsit on Route 66" and "Thy Mission" also had the crowd in a frenzy, leading up to the explosive and chaos filled "What Else Could I Be But A Jester," who’s over blown-out bass-heavy production we could feel in the bottom our ribcages (lyrical reference to the song teehee). 

The Garden is an incredible and contradictory duo -- their music oozes Californian slackerism and punk rock abrasiveness, yet their musicianship is incredibly technical.  Fletcher's drumming is on the same level as a crazy McGill jazz program drummer, and both Wyatt's bass tone and lyricism hit like a finely tuned brick. 

This duo consistently produces some of the catchiest, most danceable tunes in the current landscape. Not only that, but the structure of their show was incredible -- there wasn’t a single lull or dip in energy, their performance stamina would be notable even to a casual fan.

Overall, it’s apparent that underneath the very intentionally curated level of grime, dishevelment, sweat and horror humour, there is a motivated artistic precision on every level of this project that is hard to find in any place. The Garden presents an authentic and high effort caustic, punk rock aggression that we can all appreciate in the lazy, disingenuous, corporate slop state of mainstream alternative music.  

Sonam is the host of Brave Little Emo Girl, playing all Spheres and Waves of emo (plus a little of everything else that's whiny and melancholic) every Sunday from 12-1 pm