Streetlight Manifesto graces Montreal with their presence once again since their last appearance at Olympia back in 2019 for their The Calm Before The Chaos Tour, and what an honour it was to see them again with just as much energy, charisma and once again, ENERGY!
This lively ska-punk band from New- Jersey is formed by seven members who play trumpet, alto and baritone sax, trombone, drummer, bassist and lead singer/guitarist Tomas Kalnoky. His undeniably unique voice started the night off with hit ‘Watch It Crash’ from their ‘Somewhere in Between’ album, which had the crowd thrashing around and chanting “mercy, mercy, mercy, me!”.
The brass section started up the second song, “The Receiving End of It All,” which had the crowd throwing up people to crowd surf. The perfect timing and coordination of this brass section just show how much they practise and love what they do, and from a former trumpeter, I can tell you it’s no easy task!
The tenaciously vibrant crowd didn’t stop for a second no matter which song was played. It was always met with the same ecstatic joy and lyric singing as the last.
The first surprise to the night was a revival of two songs from their project band “Bandits of the Acoustic Revolution” which was formed back in 2001. They played ‘This is a Call to Arms’ and ‘Here’s to Life’. To my pleasant surprise, so many in the crowd knew the lyrics and were so ecstatic to hear them play these gems once again. It made my elder-punk self proud to be surrounded by so many others who have been following their journey since the beginning.
Streetlight Manifesto also played songs from their album “Everything Goes Numb” which included ‘A Better Place a Better Time’, ‘A Moment of Silence’ and ‘A Moment of Vengeance’ followed by their last song of their set ‘The Big Sleep’ which had all of us swaying in enjoyment knowing this was most likely the last song.
As they left the stage for the first time the crowd instantly started screaming “Streetlight! Streetlight! Streetlight!”, to which the band came back out not even 2 minutes later to finish the show with my favourite surprise of the whole night.
They started up their encore with Point/Counterpoint (my favourite song from SM. I spent hours memorizing this song’s fast-paced lyrics as MANY other Streetlight fans have) and then mixed in “Keasbey Nights” PERFECTLY in between P/C, which had their many fans losing their minds!!
Finishing off the encore was “Somewhere in the Between,” which was the perfectly happy-vibe song to end the night.
As the crowd flooded into the exits and made their way to the merch tables or to air out their sweaty t-shirts, their expressions were all one and the same; pure satisfaction.
Streetlight Manifesto heads out back to the states for the rest of their 2022 tour. Don’t miss out if they’re coming to an area near you!
Support came from The Anti-Queens
Review – Brittany Salmaso
Photos – Mell Martella
