It was great to see MTelus at full capacity again last night for Glorious Sons. I haven’t been there in over 2 years and was happy to be back at one of my favourite venues. I was surprised to see so many new and unfamiliar faces. Then I found out that there was a large group from Ontario because Ottawa was not one of the stops on this tour.
I was looking forward to catching the supporting band, JJ Wilde and I’m so glad that I did. From the moment she sprung onto the stage until she abruptly left, way too soon, she did not disappoint.
Stomping her feet so hard, I almost expected her to fall right through…but she didn’t. The stage was her bitch and she made sure that we knew it.
Commanding the crowd with atomic energy and boldly stating that she would not leave until she saw all of our hands up, clapping along, we all gladly complied.
With a voice that was made for rock, raspy and oozing with attitude JJ performed pitch-perfect versions of “Best Boy” and “The Rush”. With the unforgettable lyrics that everyone sang out loud.
“It’s times like these that I swear to God
I’m glad my mother can’t see me and if she did
I don’t know how I would keep it together”
(I’m sure if her mother saw her performance, she would be proud.)
It was her intense performance of “Mercy”, where she fell to her knees and pushed her vocals to the limit that sealed the deal.
(JJ’s debut album “Ruthless” won Rock Album of the Year at the 2021 Junos. The last time a woman won was in 1996 and that was Alanis Morissette).
The Glorious Sons casually appeared around 9 and played for almost 2 hours. They played hard like they had something to prove. Taking the name of their tour, “Unfinished Business” very seriously.
Which raised the question “what the hell has been going on in Ontario lately”? ( JJ Wild is from Kitchener and The Glorious Sons are from Kingston).
They opened their set with the passionate “I Want Ya”, with frontman Brett Emmons almost pleading “I need you, give me something to be…” as though we needed any persuading. And he kept building the excitement, causing the crowd to get louder and louder as the night went on.
I can’t remember how many times he mentioned how happy he was to be playing in Montreal and that this was the largest crowd that they’ve ever played for here. I was close enough to the band to see their expressions of genuine gratitude and sheer joy to be playing live gigs, especially at @mtelus.
By the time they got to the end, Brett’s voice was hoarse but his energy level kept getting higher.
Especially during “White Noise” and “Shotgun” which I thought would close the show…but I was wrong.
Just when I thought that The Glorious Sons gave us all that they had, they did an encore that lasted almost 30 minutes.
Feeding off the love from the crowd in a Bono-like moment, Brett jumped off the stage, grabbed a beer from a waiter’s tray and sang from the pit. The band played like they didn’t want to leave and we all felt it until the last song. “My Poor Heart.”
“I think it’s time to go home”
And he was right.
Review & photos – Annette Aghazarian
