I owe a lot to that random family I met in Cancun in 2003. I lived in England, they lived in Canada, and during a routine what-are-you-listening-to-right-now conversation, the first name they threw at me was Sam Roberts. Shortly thereafter in 2004, he played a couple of tiny shows in Liverpool (in the not-so-sunny North of England) to a handful of people, in support of epic debut record We Were Born In A Flame, and despite the small crowds, the shows were great. Added to that, Sam even bought me a drink at the bar afterwards! What a guy.
Fast forward 16 years, I’ve lived in Montreal for almost 9 of them, and here, Sam Roberts is a local legend, an Institution. So much so, he can easily fill out two shows at Théatre Corona on a freezing cold weekend where it’d be much easier to have stayed at home.
On this, the second of those two nights, Corona gets busy early. Ottawa’s Hollerado are charged with warming up the crowd (as if that was really necessary for a Sam Roberts homecoming show!), and they really do make the perfect support band. Their brand of indie pop-rock is incredibly catchy, and they themselves are full of energy and anecdotes, the highlight of these being an amusing recounting of a show in Trois Rivieres a few days prior attended by 6 people! Their 50-minute set encompasses a number of new songs as well as some from their great 2010 debut Record In A Bag, and is a great start to the evening.
Sam enters the stage with a simple “Salut Montreal!”, and he and band launch into “FIEND.” Fluorescent tubes around the stage explode into life, as Sam and guitarist Dave Nugget (aka “The Nuge”) riff at the front of the stage in front of their adoring crowd. The stage goes red for We’re All In This Together, the crowd vociferously sings along, and a 1-man brass section joins in the extended outro. The reggae-funk grooves of Shapeshifters soon follows, before the rumbling riff of Fixed To Ruin takes the show in a moody direction.
A furious run-though of Human Heat is a set highlight, sounding even more raw and ferocious in the live setting, before the ska-esque vibe returns on Metal Skin, and it’s intro that lends a little from Blondie’s Heart Of Glass. The Feedback-heavy outro doesn’t, mind you!
The biggest roar of the night so far arrives with the familiar rumbling strum intro of Hard Road, from the previously-mentioned debut record, and as the crowd roars back the chorus of “THERE MUST BE SOMETHING IN THE AIRRR, IN THE AIRRR!!!!”, the volume levels go up a little more. TerraForm, from the new record of the same name, slows things down again to a more mellow moody level, and stays that way through the acoustic Bridge To Nowhere and Uprising. Rock is restored with Them Kids, and then finally on the classic Brother Down, with the standout chorus of “I think my life is passing me by” still striking a chord all these years later, perhaps even more so as we all get older! During the extended outro, Sam shakes hands with as many of the front row as he can, before crowd-surfing out to the rest of the floor section. A great end to the main set.
Following a typically Montreal “olé olé olé” chant, the band returns for a 4-song encore, culminating with Don’t Walk Away Eileen and a 10-15 minute rendition of Mind Flood, created in a wave of feedback and distortion, building and building until suddenly slowing down to a crawl. The song then lurches back into life amidst an explosion of strobe lights and flickering fluorescent tubes into a spectacular bluesy finale. Sam dishes out one final round of handshakes to the front row, before he and band leave the stage for good after 2 hours. It’s a great homecoming for Sam, and a fitting finale to an awesome year of live music in our wonderful city.
Roll on 2017!
Setlist
FIEND
Tourist Trap
We’re All In This Together
Angola
Shapeshifters
Fixed To Ruin
Roll With The Spirits
Human Heat
Metal Skin
Ritual Dance
Hard Road
TerraForm
Bridge To Nowhere
Uprising
Them Kids
Brother Down
If You Want It
Lake Effect
Don’t Walk Away Eileen
Mind Flood
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – capturacamera.com
