The biggest giveaway that tonight is a punk show is the size of the bill; FOUR bands! I’m not sure I still have the patience for that many bands, but regardless, I’ll give it a go; the World Cup Final just finished, Argentina didn’t win, and I’m in a great mood.
First up is local trio General Chaos, signed to iconic label Stomp Records, and incredibly, all just 16 years old. Theatre Beanfield is already packed by the time they hit the stage at 8 p.m., and the floor goes so nuts for their grungy punk, you’d think they were the headliners. Their second full-length is on its way soon, so expect to see more of them over the coming months.
Sullvn are a lot more ska, bringing indoors the warm summer vibes that fill Rue Notre-Dame outside, which is a street party in full swing right now. The floor has already been bouncing along quite nicely when frontman Robert “Sully” Sullivan introduces a cover of the iconic The Impression That I Get by The Mighty Mighty Bosstones. The floor goes nuts, and then a figure appears from the back of the stage for the vocal; man, he sounds so much like actual Bosstones frontman Dicky Barrett. HOLY CRAP IT IS DICKY BARRETT! The energy level subsequently goes up a few notches as we soak up this absolute classic, and Dicky sticks around to sing on set closer Raise a Glass too. What a 30 minutes!
It seems like it would be a hard act to follow for Albany’s Millington, especially as this is their first time ever playing in Montreal. Alas, no; besides the Bosstones cover, they get the biggest singalong of all the supports tonight. If you could 3-D print an emo frontman, he would sound exactly like frontman Cody Okonski; for the first couple of songs all I can really hear is “cuz tonight will be the night that I fall for youuuuuu” that plays on those internet memes of animals with emo fringes. But with a sax, trombone, and trumpet roaming the stage in a whirlwind of energy, it’s the kinda thing I woulda eaten up in my younger emo years, so it’s no surprise that the modern emos are loving it too. There are huge singalongs at every breakdown, suggesting they have a massive following here already, and nothing in tonight’s set suggests that will diminish anytime soon.
And then finally, it’s on to the mighty Goldfinger, now in their 33rd year as a band; insane! In the next instalment of legendary guest appearances, I notice that MXPX’s Mike Herrera is now the bass player. What is happening?! Will we get an MXPX cover thrown in? Alas, no, but we do get FOUR other covers in there. Of course, we expect their iconic cover of Nena’s 99 Red Balloons, but we also get some by The Cure, NOFX, and Blur. In a set of only 1 hour and 17 songs, do we really need almost a quarter of the set to be covers? This is a band with 9 studio albums after all; hardly short on material. And we don’t even get San Simeon!
Still, the Goldfinger songs they do play go down an absolute storm; the pit is one of the craziest I’ve seen in a while, crowdsurfers from start to finish. The set opens with the thunderous punk of Spokesman, then flips to ska on Get Up. Counting the Days is still an absolute anthem, frontman John Feldmann orchestrating a huge singalong with the “1, 2, 3, 4!” of the chorus. Here in Your Bedroom is total bedlam. The monstrous Open Your Eyes is annoyingly truncated, merging into that NOFX cover all too soon. Mable is a cool moment though, the band bringing a ton of kids onto the stage to jump around for the duration of the song, and Superman will always be one of my favourite punk rock songs ever; I will always see that escape scene from the movie Kingpin every time I hear it!
Alas, it’s all over in an hour… but what a great hour it was.
Goldfinger Setlist
Spokesman
Get Up
Counting the Days
FREAKING OUT A BIT
Here in Your Bedroom
Get What I Need
Just Like Heaven (The Cure cover)
Tijuana Sunrise
Chasing Amy
Open Your Eyes
Linoleum (NOFX cover)
Mable
Superman
Encore
Question
Song 2 (Blur cover)
Miles Away
99 Red Balloons (Nena cover)
Review & photos – Simon Williams
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