I decided to drive down the road from Mississauga to Hamilton to check out the show yesterday evening. (All the cool kids were at the Stars show at The Mod Club yesterday, but never fear, I had my ticket for the all-ages version tonight. Review to follow.) It's funny that the only time I remember being in Hamilton was back in high school for a track meet at McMaster University. And I haven't gone back since. I pulled up the driving directions from mapblast.com yesterday then drove down to the show. Hamilton's got an interesting downtown, all dolled up for the Christmas season with the lights and all. All the oneway streets that the downtown had reminded me alot of Montreal. It's an interesting downtown that seemed much more wordly than the dirty old steel town that I usually think of Hamilton. It was kind of a pain in the butt navigating the streets but after a little while I got the hang of it. I found the venue in no time and parked my car in front of the police station down the road. The Underground is as it is named; you walk into the entrance of the venue and walk down a flight of stairs to the place. It's your typical dimly-lit place comparable to say the Horsehoe Tavern in Toronto, although with a smaller bar and without all the chairs and tables. There's a slightly elevated stage with a red curtain adorning the back of the stage.
I'd only walked in at the beginning of Read Yellow's set. As the lead singer had mentioned, they're from Massachusetts. There were echoes of Fugazi in their music, especially the vocals. That's not quite my thing these days although I appreciated them for the music they played. Subtle melodies had a way of creeping to the surface during their songs and I liked the call-and-response vocal arrangements between the lead singer and guitarist. The lead singer jumped out onto the floor singing with great vigor as he walked around the spectatators and back onto the stage.
I'll skip any formal reviews of Uncut's and controller.controller's sets. I've seen Uncut twice now and controller.controller... well I've lost count. They both put on great sets but I do got to mention that the Hamilton crowd was much more enthusiastic than any of the Toronto shows that I've seen those bands play for. What is it with Toronto music fans? Why is it that you almost have to light a fuckin' fire under their ass before you can get them to move their ass or even bob their head at a show? controller.controller's own enthusiasm, in particular, reflected that of the crowd. controller.controller are usually pretty energetic to begin with but that night, they were even moreso, as Scott the guitarist and Ronnie the bassist writhed on the floor playing their instruments with sheer abandonment. At the end of their set, Nirmala the vocalist, dropped to the floor in almost sheer exhaustion. The troopers that they are, they even came back to play an encore. Good to great set, and maybe the next time the band plays Toronto, the fans'll rise to the occasion.
On a sidenote, Scott of controller.controller mentioned during the show that their new album might be released this coming March 2005!
[photos of controller.controller from the show]
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