It’s always a fun feeling when you discover a solid, newly released album, only to find out the band is hitting your city in a couple of weeks. That’s exactly how I found my way to the Fairmount Theatre on a Tuesday evening to catch a stacked lineup, with ANGEL DU$T as the headliner.
In standard Fairmount fashion, the weekday show started early. Shortly after 7 pm, as the majority of the crowd was yet to shuffle in, Faze took the stage. They were chaotic beyond even the typical scope of hardcore. Erratic movements from their frontman, and even a random trombone solo during the intro of one of their songs for good measure. It felt off-kilter, but never completely out of place. It’ll be interesting seeing them open for Billy Talent and Alexisonfire on the much bigger Bell Centre stage later this summer. Faze made the space they were given their own, and with the crowd already moving, it served as a strong kickoff for the night.
Combust acted as an even stronger follow-up. The five-piece bled NYHC from their core, and made a statement through menacing guitar tones, bombastic drums, and commanding vocals. Their early thrash-inspired music packed an absolute gut punch, with frontman Andrew Vacante serving as the confidence-oozing cherry on top. Though I don’t feel the most at home at hardcore shows compared to other types of punk shows, Vacante’s speeches about identity, community, and what hardcore stands for was a genuine highlight, and a very profound moment for anybody who’s part of a music subculture. They joked about holding the record for the most times a band has played this venue in the last two years, but let’s hope Montreal gave them a reason to keep hopping the border to play here.
The next act was one I was stoked to finally be able to catch live. Béton Armé’s name has come up a lot since I moved to Montreal, and the hype is completely warranted. Old school melodic hardcore for the new generation, with a high-energy vocalist that held his own against the incredible performers that hit the stage just moments before. The French lyricism and crowd interactions were a refreshing change of pace, and appreciated by the Quebecois audience, no doubt. Yet, even for the Anglophones among us that night, nothing transcended language barriers quite like Béton’s woah-oh-oh gang vocal chants. They were good, classic punk rock fun, with a good head on their shoulders about current societal issues as well.
For a band with hardcore roots that has dipped their toes in other genres over the last decade, I wasn’t sure what ANGEL DU$T was about to give us in a live show. But with a great new album that feels like a return to form, and crowd surfers immediately running on stage and flying off into the wings, there was little doubt this would be anything other than a slamming hardcore set. Truthfully, their performance wasn’t as strong as some of the other bands that night, especially vocally. But when your new material is so well received, and performed with such ferocity, a weak vocal harmony here or there didn’t matter much to the audience members that were most into it. The setlist was made up of banger after banger, and even the band’s ventures into more experimental sounds did so without losing the pulse of the evening.
In true hardcore fashion, the band gave security a scare by inviting a bunch of younger fans on stage to dance and sing along, and they totally understood the assignment. The kids are alright.
It was really heartwarming to see folks younger than me go wild for songs that were released just a couple of months ago, and the band happily fed off that energy. It was a stellar night, and with the news the following day that ANGEL DU$T are playing Montreal’s Warped Tour stop this summer, it won’t be long before I throw myself into the pit this time around.
Review – Mathieu Perrier
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