Stereophonics + Witches Exist @ Beanfield Theatre▪

At this point in my live music life, it’s rare to be as excited for any show as much as I am excited for tonight. I have been listening to Stereophonics since I was in High School, before even their 1997 Word Gets Around debut, was obsessed with their sophomore record Performance and Cocktails in my sophomore year at university… they are one of those bands that have different records for different chapters of my life.

And yet, I have never been able to see them live… until tonight. They have certainly never played a show in Montreal in the 17 years I have lived here; the closest I came was a 2013 show at this same venue cancelled at the very last minute with a notice on the door. Devastated doesn’t come close. And finally, 12 years later, amends are made. And it’s worth the wait.

It’s the first night of their world tour in support of their upcoming 13th studio album Make ’em Laugh, Make ’em Cry, Make ’em Wait, and indeed their first show of any kind since 2022. The usual Setlist.fm sneak peeks are therefore fruitless, and the anticipated set is a total mystery. Which makes the drive downtown even more thrilling, praying for no cancellation notices to be stuck to the venue doors upon arrival this time around.

There aren’t any.

I waltz right in, and after a dreamy 30-minute set from Austin’s Witches Exist (imagine Been Stellar experimenting with shoegaze and electronica, good stuff!), it’s time to finally see my heroes after almost 30 years of waiting. The band arrive to mellow Blade Runner-esque futuristic synth sounds, but any worries of a drastic sound departure are quickly blown away with the guitars of “C’est la vie.” Frontman Kelly Jones looks and sounds absolutely ageless, as does original bassist Richard Jones, who looks exactly like Daniel Craig’s James Bond nowadays (but with skinny jeans instead of a black tux). Are these guys vampires?!

The first half of the set favours the newer material of the discography, and there’s definitely a feeling that the band are saving the bangers for later. That’s not to disrespect this portion of the set; it still goes down a storm. Brand new song “There’s Always Gonna Be Something” gets a huge clapalong (though Kelly certainly plays a huge part in inciting it!), while “Superman” is a blazing rock-out of epic proportions, Kelly demolishing a solo front of stage before cupping his ear to the crowd and soaking up the roars.

By complete contrast, “Boy on a Bike” consists of just Kelly at the piano under the glare of a single spotlight, the twinkling ballad shushing the room all the way to the back. When the soft trumpet joins the song midway through, Theatre Beanfield is instantly transformed into a small smoky jazz club. A baritone sax joins the party on “Geronimo,” which sounds immaculate too – quite the array of instrumentation on show tonight!

Of course, it’s no surprise that the older songs of the catalog are the best received. The iconic “Have a Nice Day” is the only offering from the first 4 records amongst the first 9 songs of the set, and when Kelly asks “do you feel like singing Montreal?!” prior to it, it’s clear that they absolutely do! There are chills when the lo-fi strum intro of “Hurry Up and Wait” arrives 10 songs in, and they don’t subside for a while, with the mammoth “Just Looking” up next, drawing the biggest singalong thus far, though this is quickly topped by “Maybe Tomorrow,” which follows immediately after that; what a sequence! Kelly drops off the mic entirely to let the crowd sing the last 3 choruses, and it’s absolutely deafening; “Beautiful!!” is Kelly’s verdict.

The classic “I Wouldn’t Believe Your Radio” is stripped down to Kelly on a ukulele, and sounds gloriously lo-fi, before the rest of the band join to complete the song as a 6-piece (with more trumpet included). An impressive cover of “Long Time Running” by The Tragically Hip follows an impressive story about how the bands became friends all those years ago (“and it’s good practice for tomorrow night, they’re coming to the show [in Toronto]!” says Kelly!), while “Fly Like An Eagle,” from 2019’s Kind, is easily my favourite of the newer offerings, a perfect melody to rival anything they ever wrote.

But it’s the last 5 songs of the show where I really lose my mind. The sinister “Mr Writer” from the 2001 Just Enough Education to Perform record sounds just as massive today, with its souped-up outro shaking the walls of the room, while my teenage self takes over my senses and I erupt into a pogo with the arrival of main set closer “The Bartender and the Thief.” It still sounds incredible.

Incredibly, both offerings from the beloved 1997 debut record then arrive back-to-back in the encore. I pogo once more on the wonderful “Local Boy in the Photograph,” some of the greyer heads around looking at me like I am on something, while what’s left of my vocal cords is duly destroyed on the timeless “Traffic”; more specifically, the point where Kelly steps back to let us roar the last verse: “Waits tables for a crook? / Wrote a hardback book? / You teach kids how to read? / Or sell your body on the street?” never sounded so powerful. A raucous “Dakota” closes out the show for good after 125 wonderful minutes.

Prior to leaving, Kelly declares “Thanks, Montreal, it was our first gig back for a while!” 20 years, to be precise, since a show at the long-defunct Cabaret Juste Pour Rire in 2005. Unquestionably worth the wait, but don’t leave it so long next time guys, OK?!