In all of my years of writing for Montreal Rocks, I have never been as grateful for this privilege as I am tonight. When tonight’s show was announced, I couldn’t believe it; one of my all-time favourite records being played in its entirety on its 20th anniversary by its creators, in the cosy confines of Theatre Corona (sorry, not ready to call it Beanfield just yet). I made my requests for media coverage through our usual means but was thoroughly prepared to buy a ticket anyway, as there was no way I could miss this show. Imagine my dismay, then, when the show sells out in a matter of hours! Most of us on the Montreal Rocks team assume it will be upgraded to a bigger venue like MTelus, but as the weeks roll by, it becomes evident that won’t happen. I find myself scouring the Ticketmaster Resale pages in the days leading up to it… $180 each! Still, I am seriously considering that prospect when the Media confirmation comes through the day before the show. “Elation” doesn’t even begin to cover it. From the bottom of my heart, thank you thank you thank you to whoever approved our request at the Evenko/Greenland/’77 end; you guys made my day. Nay, year!
First up tonight, though, is the first show in Montreal for Phoenix’s Holy Fawn, reason alone to be excited for this evening! Wikipedia describes them as “shoegaze post-rock,” but that doesn’t really come close; there’s a much darker sludge metal vibe thrown into the mix as well. It’s a thunderous 40 minutes.
Frontman Ryan Osterman’s vocals frequently fluctuate between a ghostly Stone Roses whisper and a Deafheaven scream, which, combined with the harmonies from drummer Austin Reinholz on the new song “Death Is a Relief,” hits hard. Indeed, “Yawning” might be one of the most ironically titled songs in any band’s repertoire; you find yourself doing anything but that! The last song, “Seer,” straddles a peculiar line between mellow and brutal, culminating in an immense outro as hair flails across the stage as the spotlights cut through the smoke. Holy Fawn’s first time here is certainly a memorable one.
Holy Fawn Setlist:
Candy
Dark Stone
Death Is a Relief
Void of Light
Yawning
Glóandi
Seer
And so, to tonight’s main event. Thrice has released many fine records throughout the course of their career, but “The Artist in the Ambulance” (TAITA) is arguably their best, or at least their best received. At this point, I’ve seen a number of “Anniversary” shows in which entire records are played from front to back, but never one of a record I hold in such high regard. Sitting in my all-time Top 5 (don’t ask me where exactly, I never figured out an actual order), it was the record that built a bridge from punk rock to screamo and metal. At the time, I never thought I could love a record that was so heavy, had so much screaming, but TAITA changed all that. And I have listened to it constantly over the last 20 years; when I moved to Canada and needed some music to reside in my car (who can handle all the commercials on the radio here?!), TAITA was the first one I burned onto a CD-R. It’s still in my glovebox to this day.
As frontman Dustin Kensrue and co arrive on stage, I resolve to keep my phone in my pocket the whole time; partly to make sure I don’t miss a moment and lose myself in the experience and partly because I am at the front of the pit and I may never see that phone again!
“Cold Cash and Colder Hearts” is surely one of the greatest album openers of all time, truly 0-60 in a nanosecond. As Dustin roars, “They are sick, they are poor, and they die by the thousands, and we look away,” the pit explodes into life and doesn’t let up for the remainder of the record. Teppei Teranishi tears into the intro riff of “Under A Killing Moon” amid a room full of applause, and it sounds absolutely phenomenal and gets even better when Riley Breckenridge brings that thunderstorm of drums on top. Honestly, you know every song that is coming, and it still sounds better than you can imagine.
“All That’s Left” and “Silhouette” perfectly epitomize the bridge between punk and metal that Thrice created in my brain, as one moves seamlessly into the next in a flurry of distorted riffs and screams. At this point, I’m singing so loud and hard, I feel something pop in my throat! Ah, so I need to drop down to more of a baritone sing-along then. No matter! “Stare At The Sun” and then “Paper Tigers” follow a similar pattern and punk-to-metal trajectory, and I am in heaven.
It’s almost tongue-in-cheek when Dustin says, prior to the title track, “The Artist in the Ambulance,” “Sing along if you know this one.” Of course, absolutely everybody does, and as Dustin rips into the opening verse, the accompaniment from the crowd is deafening as a few hundred of us roar, “Late night, brakes lock, hear the tires squeal, red light, can’t stop, so I spin the wheel” in unison. Dustin steps back from his mic entirely at the breakdown to let the crowd sing that verse alone; we duly oblige. After a seismic “The Abolition of Man,” “Don’t Tell,” and “We Won’t Ask” close out the record, with Teppei wandering up and down his fretboard for those spooky resonating notes as the record fades out.
One of the biggest surprises of the night immediately follows. My CD version of TAITA was a Japanese import version with a bonus track at the end called “Motion Isn’t Meaning.” It’s fantastic and fits so perfectly at the end of that record that for a while, I didn’t even realize it wasn’t technically part of it. Imagine my surprise when Dustin announces, “We’re gonna play a few more songs; here’s a B-side from that era,”… and it’s that song! It really is like listening to my Japanese import CD live in the flesh! Amazing times.
The rest of the set is a whistle-stop tour through the rest of the band’s catalog and is full of “Oh yeah, I forgot about this one!” moments. “Black Honey” (from 2016’s “To Be Everywhere Is to Be Nowhere”) and “The Weight” (from 2009’s “Beggars”) are personal highlights, but honestly, every song just sounds so good. The blues-metal of “The Earth Will Shake,” from 2005’s “Vheissu” (the massively underrated follow-up to TAITA), ends the main set in thunderous fashion and elicits another huge sing-along at the breakdown.
The encore begins with a cover of The Beatles’ “I Want You (She’s So Heavy),” which seems a curious choice in the context of all that went before but works surprisingly well, with Eddie Breckenridge absolutely nailing those noodly bass parts. “The Long Defeat” ends the show in a relatively mellow fashion, with Dustin stepping to the front of the stage one last time to sing the outro unaccompanied with us. It’s a glorious 90 minutes that flies by and somehow manages to exceed my sky-high expectations.
Ladies and gentlemen, we have our gig of the year winner already: Thrice, take a bow!
Thrice Setlist:
Cold Cash and Colder Hearts
Under a Killing Moon
All That’s Left
Silhouette
Stare at the Sun
Paper Tigers
Hoods on Peregrine
The Melting Point of Wax
Blood Clots and Black Holes
The Artist in the Ambulance
The Abolition of Man
Don’t Tell and We Won’t Ask
Motion Isn’t Meaning
Summer Set Fire to the Rain
Black Honey
Where Idols Once Stood
The Red Death
The Weight
Yellow Belly
The Earth Will Shake
Encore:
I Want You (She’s So Heavy) (The Beatles cover)
The Long Defeat
Review – Simon Williams
Photos – Kieron Yates
