Walking into Place Bell tonight, it kind of looks like I’m attending a conference for upper management, shareholders, and guys who have owned a record store for three years (in the case of those dudes with the silver ponytails); more grey hair than my usual show, that’s for sure. I also stumble across the etiquette of concert attendance in your 60s. Apparently, when it’s a popular song, you know, you stand up. When it’s new, or you don’t know it, you sit down. It makes for quite the workout throughout the course of this evening, that’s for sure.
Sadly, bums remain firmly on seats for tonight’s opener, Cold War Kids. It still mystifies me why this band never got bigger than they did. When I last saw them back in 2015, I speculated as to how great their Greatest Hits record would sound if it ever came out. I quickly realize that a 50-minute support set is basically that; as Sum 41 once put it, “All Killer, No Filler.” “Love Is Mystical” cuts through the silence and the darkness like a hot knife through butter to kick off the set and merges seamlessly into “Complainer,” its rumbling bass echoing around the cavernous arena. Following the furious piano intro of “Miracle Mile,” frontman Nathan Willett tries (and fails) to elicit a clap-along from the crowd, who are still mostly filtering into the room and kind of oblivious to the band on the stage. My heart breaks a little.
A few cheers ring out when the deep churning bass intro of the classic “Hang Me Out To Dry” rings out; apparently, this one is a little more familiar! Still, bums on seats. Despite the general apathy, it still sounds amazing, as does “Restless,” their bona fide epic stadium rock moment. Evidently, they’ll never headline those kinds of venues themselves, so it’s fun to see them take advantage of the huge stage setup tonight to blaze out a huge light show. A nice sneak peek into what could have been…
“Hospital Beds” gave me goosebumps the first time I heard it, and it still does. The delicate piano, Nathan’s fragile vocals, then that grandiose breakdown… gets me every time. I gotta hand it to the crowd; even if they don’t know the band that well, at least they are quiet and respectful while they play, which is more than you can say for the younger morons who oftentimes yell to each other at the front of MTelus while the supports are playing (and sometimes during the headliners too… don’t get me started). “So Tied Up” picks up the pace immeasurably, the funk and dance getting a few out of their seats at long last, before another attempted clap-along finally takes off on set closer “First,” which is greeted with huge cheers from around the room. “Quebec, thank you for having us,” Nathan proclaims, smart enough to not say “Montreal” while in Laval. Epic set, as always, and it seems safe to say they won over a few new fans tonight!
Cold War Kids Set List:
Love Is Mystical
Complainer
What You Say
Can We Hang On?
Miracle Mile
Audience of One
Hang Me Up to Dry
Restless
Hospital Beds
You Already Know
So Tied Up
Double Life
All This Could Be Yours
First
The PA system weirdly plays various covers of Tears For Fears songs down through the years as if to remind us of why we’re here tonight. Bit of a mood-killer, really; all those potential “Oh yeah, I forgot about that song!” moments are decimated before the band even arrives on stage. When they finally do, to a recording of their new song “Stay,” a packed-out Place Bell gets to their feet to welcome the legendary duo of Roland Orzabal and Curt Smith to a Montreal stage for the first time in six years (yeah, I assumed it had been a lot longer than that too). It’s Roland who kicks off the set with “No Small Thing,” an acoustic mellow number from their recent record, “The Tipping Point.” Uh-oh, new song, we had better sit down, says Place Bell. The same goes for the synth electronica of the title track of that same record.
“Everybody Wants To Rule The World” arrives three songs in. Guess what? Yep, everyone gets up on their feet. The cheers are deafening, the singalong is massive, and Curt’s voice sounds absolutely immaculate, ageless. The cheers ring out for at least 30 seconds after the song ends, at which point Roland declares, “Nous sommes très contents d’être ici avec nos amis québécois!”
Bums briefly return to seats for “Secret World,” before rising again for 1989’s “Sowing The Seeds Of Love.” Another huge clap-along is rapturously embraced by the crowd, but even in the live arena, I still think that song is lame; always have, always will, I guess. The new song “Break The Man” is probably the weakest moment of the set, though, with its obvious cheesy lyrics made even more tacky by cheap animation of little men falling from towers (or something) on the back screen and pockets of moms dancing in the aisles like it’s the greatest song they’ve ever heard. Speaking of the backscreen projections, the guy doing the interpretive dance on “My Demons” is a dead ringer for Eminem, I’m not even kidding – YouTube it! Joking aside, it’s actually a pretty ferocious strobe-spotlight show, verging on Rammstein in places!
“Rivers Of Mercy,” a song almost as cheesily named as “Sowing The Seeds Of Love,” stirs up a sea of cellphone lights reaching to the sky to illuminate the room, though again, it’s from a seated position; we don’t know this song very well, remember. Still, we don’t have to wait long – “Mad World” comes next, and it’s a set highlight. The original video with young Curt singing from a window projects on the back screen while older Curt patrols the stage singing in real-time. It’s fantastic and probably would have been the song that caught me by surprise if it wasn’t for that buzzkill PA that played a cover of it beforehand (not the Gary Jules “Donnie Darko” version, weirdly).
Apparently, Roland can’t be bothered singing 1981’s “Suffer The Children” anymore; backing singer Lauren Evans takes over vocal duties for that, as well as Oleta Adam’s part on “Badman’s Song,” and she is a welcome addition to the set. The huge jazz breakdown at the end of the latter would be extremely well-suited to a certain Jazz Festival on the island just below Laval, and it gets me wondering that with this many people showing up willing to pay $150+ to see Tears For Fears, how many thousands of people would have shown up to see them for free if they were part of the Jazz Fest? Street-cloggingly popular they would have been, I’m sure.
Alas, I digress again. “Woman In Chains” splits the crowd as to whether it’s popular enough to warrant a stand-up; some rows look at each other for the go-ahead, and gingerly, everyone elevates once more. Honestly, it’s starting to crack me up at this point. The song itself kinda straddles the cheese line once more, but honestly, I recorded this from the UK Top 40 on the radio direct to a mixtape as an 8-year-old kid in 1989, so personally, I love it. “Head Over Heels” is a unanimous stand-up song, as hundreds of cellphones hit record to make three-minute videos they’ll probably never watch again. A huge singalong ensues, and it even ends merging into that song “Broken,” that outro that sounds SO MUCH like “Schism” by Tool. It’s an epic conclusion to the main set, for sure.
Despite being Friday night, a chunk of people heads for the exits, determined to beat that notorious late-night Laval traffic (joke: there isn’t any). Nevertheless, plenty remain as the band returns to the stage and begins the encore with a cover of “Creep” by Radiohead. Incredibly, it seems to go over many of the grey heads, but does kick a few of the younger +1’s into vocal action! The techno glockenspiel of “Change” gives way to the timeless tinkling cowbell intro of “Shout,” although weirdly, the band dives right into the first verse, bypassing the chorus intro that everyone is waiting for. Still, the delay only serves to build anticipation and make the chorus even more rousing by the time it does come around, the song wrapping up with an absolutely note-perfect solo from Roland. It’s a pretty great two hours overall and brings the first half of the 2023 gig schedule to a close with a bang!
Tears For Fears Set List:
Stay (from “The Tipping Point”) (played from tape)
No Small Thing
The Tipping Point
Everybody Wants To Rule The World
Secret World
Sowing The Seeds Of Love
Long, Long, Long Time
Break The Man
My Demons
Rivers Of Mercy
Mad World
Suffer The Children (Sung By Lauren Evans)
Woman In Chains
Badman’s Song
Pale Shelter
Break It Down Again
Head Over Heels / Broken
Encore:
Creep (Radiohead cover)
Change
Shout
Review (and Cold War Kids photo) – Simon Williams
Photos – Ryan Rumpel
