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The Punk Rock Show - January 12th 2008 - The Elmocambo, Toronto
Bands: The Class Riot, West End Riot & Black Heart Emma
The Elmocambo (amiably called the Elmo by the not-so-underground punk scene of downtown Toronto) presents an image of black on black and is littered with semi-ripped promotional posters, all printed on cheap, copy-center paper. All this is accented nicely by Sharpie scribbles on the walls – some declaring sexual deviations, while others scream ecstasy over some band or another. When walking past the shoddily-lit palm tree that is the Elmo’s “signature landmark,” it’s almost entirely obvious that its walls contain the angry sounds and screams and sweat that punk-rock is made of.
The show, hosted by Inzpire Entertainment, was rather unoriginally titled “the Punk Rock sow” and provided the opportunity for five bands to borrow each other’s fans for the night. Although, at the Elmo, more often-than-not, the fans are just as amusing and energetic as the bands themselves. Now, since a full five-band review would be rather tediously long, and maybe even a little cruel to those bands that did not reach the standards set by the audience, we’ll narrow it down to the top three in musicality, performance and overall quality.
The Class Riot
This is not the first time that I have gone out of my way to see The Class Riot perform, and it will most certainly not be the last. The Class Riot is a band that has always managed to throw together a great performance, even when faced with empty bar-rooms and sound techs that haven’t quite learned their way around a sound-board.
Now, it must be stated here and now that singer Andrew Dunlop has one hell of a powerful voice, and even though the microphones were turned so low (regardless of the demands/requests of the band at various intervals) – a fact that daunted some of the other bands performing – he could be well-heard throughout the entire club. Andy is also the one whose energy charges the set and encourages the spectators to chant along with whatever rebellion he decides to slur.
Admittedly, the beginning of the band’s set lacked that spark of energy that is so common among the vast majority of their shows, and while both Andy and bassist Justin Greig put up a rather valiant attempt at getting that good sort of magic energy flowing, they couldn’t quite pick it up until about halfway through. By the end of their set, however, not only was the band ripping around the stage hell-bent on releasing some of their pent-up energy, but the small and decidedly eager crowd had picked up on the chant of Rebellion! Resistance! and Revolution! and were finally giving Andy back all the energy that he was force-feeding them.
West End Riot
Happily enough for the West End Riot, the act they followed was dismally boring and the audience was thirsty enough for energy to jump on anything with a remotely aggressive beat.
Dressed in tight T-shirts and even tighter jeans, the provided a rather clear difference in appearance – veering away from the torn jeans and graphic tees of punk-rock and crossing almost entirely over to the tight-fitting girl-jeans and smeared eyeliner side of “emo.” Their music however, was aggressive enough to pick up the angry, aggressive flow up punk that the band before them had managed to drop.
However, regardless of how energetic the band was, or how rhythmically well put together their songs were, the bands performance was almost entirely inaudible (thanks again to some very inept, and most likely very drunk sound techs). Those whose curiosities were piqued by the driving rhythms and rather awesome bass lines could always check out the band’s MySpace page for a clearer image of what they could sound like given microphones that actually work.
The music that West End Riot produces is music that fits rather comfortably in the independent punk scene. They don’t take many risks and their lyrics don’t hold any outstanding sparks of originality, but put them on a stage and give them an audience and their heart-felt (and sometimes very awkward) attempts at driving energy though their songs and into the crowd is what makes them genuinely likeable.
Black Heart Emma
Black Heart Emma was the band that stood out the most in this show, if only due to the fact that they could, in no conceivable way, be considered a punk-rock band. Where the other bands presented by “the Punk Rock Show” were all dirty and aggressive and charged with anthems that screamed anti-politics and revolution, Black Heart Emma presented music of a very different genre.
Best described as a band that is reminiscent of Tool, the Neverending White Lights and Escape the Fate all mashed into one and mixed with some added angst and musicality, Black Heart Emma was the one band that the audience didn’t quite know what to do with. This band’s most redeeming quality, and the one thing that managed to support them throughout their odd-man-out set, was the sheer flexibility and musicality found in the voice of singer Gabriel Cristian. His is a voice that can deliver both power and emotion without seeming to over-do or over-look anything. However, if this band expects to win any fans over to their side, they not only need to present a more definite image of what genre they wish to fit into, they should probably also branch away from the dark and almost self-hating and clichéd lyrics.
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