Fucked Up/The Sadies/Burning Love/Catl at the Garrison on Halloween
(Not footage from the show. More like, Google Images)
Fucked Up played another Halloween show in Toronto this year. Last year they did 3 shows in a row, ya?
Kudos on the venue choice: The Garrison.
The opening line-up consisted of Burning Love (members of Our Father and ex- Cursed), Fun as Fuck (two members from Holy Fuck, too busy being cool to think of a name that doesn’t remind me of keg stands), the Sadies, and Catl- who played in between sets, ripping it on that tiny front stage.
The best part was that the show started promptly at 9 and didn’t stop until 12:3O (I can be home in time to put on my bed time socks AND watch the re-run of TMZ).
Messy at times, screechy in others, and a dash of pretention took away from Catl’s otherwise fun-as-hell set(s). Rocked it. A Toronto country-blues inspired band (bluesabilly?) with enough gritty thrash to be lumped in with punk scenes, they consist of only 3 members. Think Justin Townes Earle but with grime and less lame. Think, also, Jerry Lee Lewis jamming a bit with Mr. John Lee Hooker and a screechy owl. Twangy guitar with quick-as-lightning picking accompanied heavy bass drum topped off by percussion and keyboard.
Burning Love graced us with their presence before their upcoming Europe tour. You can still pick out reminiscent sounds of Cursed, mostly through vocalist Chris Colohan’s distinctive voice. Also, close in style to The Bronx in that they are more riff-heavy with less distortion and more rhythmic variation. Also because they just kinda sound a bit like The Bronx.
Fun as Fuck were not fun as fuck. But the two boys were pretty to look at. Still, something worth checking out. Their big mistake was that their sound just didn’t fit the bill. Holy Fuck meets some Fuck Buttons and a bit of Pelican.
The Sadies, in matching mummy costumes, were amazing. I could be biased – the stand-up bass always makes me swoon. Good mix of old and new songs; suits me just fine considering their latest album was great. They’re also featured in the show, 12 Oz. Mouse. Do yourself a favour (If you like Tim and Eric’s Awesome Show, Good Job or Xavier). It IS cool they were shortlisted for the 2010 Polaris.
And then Fucked Up got up there. Singer Damian Abraham got down to his underwear as quick as possible and got down to business. Two guitarists were dressed as Kurt Cobain. Why? 90’s grunge covers. We had the Pearl Jam and the Alice in Chains, some Hole , and 2 Nirvana songs. Follow that up with songs like ‘Crusade’ and other FU favourites. Ignore the annoying Cobain’s on stage and focus on Abraham. I dare you not to focus on him since he mostly likely would have been right next to you at some point. The show was all over the place as Abraham spent it mostly on the floor, on amps, and everywhere but stage. This is not unusual. The set of original songs was great, consisting of material mostly from Hidden World and beyond that. F
I found out I have either telepathic or psychic skills because I was dressed as ‘1992’ for my costume.
