Arm’s Length + The Callous Daoboys + Harrison Gordon + Super Sometimes @ Le Studio TD▪

It’s a bona fide emo throwback tonight at Studio TD, with a mammoth 4-band lineup to test the resilience of anyone working a 9 to 5!

After SoCal pop-punkers Super Sometimes open the show at bang-on 7pm, it’s Illinois 4-piece Harrison Gordon who get the place really bouncing. And how better to introduce a song than with “this is a song about the cost of living crisis / free Palestine! / F*** Trump!” That’s more rage bait than this emo crowd needs, so it’s no surprise that the floor explodes! Kirby Down B is immense, that crushing riff from the guitarist in the Vans sneakers (of course, Vans!) in parallel with a pummelling drum outro creating a dynamite pit that continues heaving through last song Drivers Side. A great 30 minutes.

I really wanted to like The Callous Daoboys; that’s a band tee I would rock, no question. What a name! But I just don’t get them. The music sounds like fragments of real songs being tossed out in an improv jam session. Sometimes it’s Dillinger Escape Plan hardcore, sometimes it’s Saosin emo, and there’s a random violin player in the centre of the stage who may well not even be plugged in; you can only ever hear her during the occasional slower segments. One song, Lemon, is really good, 4 minutes of an actual coherent song that sounds like a healthy mix of NIN and Glassjaw, with a tasteful ripoff of the chorus of Sweetness by Jimmy Eat World at the outro. Last song Star Baby was pretty good too, kinda Head Automatica vibes.

But the rest of the set just sounds like a mish-mash of distorted metalcore soundbites. This is “mathcore,” according to their Wikipedia page. Not into it. Apparently I’m the only one thinking this, though. Frontman Carson Pace instructs the floor to “move like a bowl of poutine,” and they oblige from start to finish. But yeah, their 35 minutes is more than enough for me.

And then it’s on to the main event, Belleville’s Arm’s Length. They’ve picked up a huge following since their last show 2 years ago to the day at Bar Le Ritz, necessitating the sizeable venue upgrade, and it’s not an overstep; the floor is packed. It detonates as soon as Funny Face opens the set (a perfect set opener, by the way, wow…), and as it merges into Object Permanence, the waves of crowdsurfers and stage divers begin.

Frontman Allen Steinberg is quick to add fuel to the fire, declaring, “I love no barricades, you know what to do: jump off the stage!” The security guy beside me makes a vain attempt to quell the riot, but gives up pretty quickly, shrugging the most obvious “meh, whatever” you could envisage.

The singalongs are deafening throughout the set too, and every time there is a breakdown, such as on Palinopsia and Tough Love, it becomes all the more pronounced. Allen jokes before the acoustic intro of Early Onset: “this one is acoustic style, sing louder than me please!” The crowd is more than happy to oblige!

The crowd fervour is never more exemplified than on encore song Overture, the “Arm’s Length National Anthem,” according to Allen. As he sings the opening verse over those chill acoustic guitar strums, a stage invader creeps around the stage before delicately lowering himself onto the sea of hands. Not your usual crowdsurfing soundtrack, but as Allen says, “why not?!” A ton more get airborne once the song ignites to close out the show. An epic 80 minutes; expect an even bigger room next time!