Doors were said to open at 8:00, which was exactly when we arrived, though we weren't actually allowed inside for around ten minutes. Standing in line, the shirts were as friendly as those who wore them, The World Is A Beautiful Place And I Am No Longer Afraid To Die and Title Fight among them, a couple who I engaged in brief My Little Pony Friendship Is Magic banter with. We agreed that nobody partied harder than Pinkie Pie. By the end of the night, we all knew that to be false; no pony party could ever have anything on that night. We rocked the fuck out of everything.
We were just at this little Toronto venue, the Hard Luck Bar. The place consisted of a small stage up front and then a bar and a few tables at the back, tables which we would visit in between sets, and where my associates, who brought hats, sat their hats as not to lose them in the mosh.
The first band to play was Dead Broke, a band from Guelph (a city outside of Toronto). The room was nowhere near full, and I would be surprised if there were more than 100 people in there at the time. That being said, it likely wouldn't have made much of a difference had there been a thousand; corpses are just as dead in large numbers. A few people near the stage, myself included, were sort of moving a bit to the music, gentle head-banging and all, and one guy tried to start a mosh, with no success. Dead Broke played some good music, but the highlight of their set was their guitarist/vocalist changing guitars mid-song. "Here, hold this for a second" he said as he handed his guitar to someone in the crowd. After getting out his other guitar, he said "Just throw that over there. Well don't actually throw it, that would suck!" Like I said, they played some good music, and I hope that they can survive the usual crap the plagues young bands, preventing them from becoming veterans.
(I wanted to put a Dead Broke song here, but I can't find any on youtube. I might edit one in later)
It was a 15 minute wait until Stuck Out Here, the next band, started playing. The room was a bit more full than it was before, I'm not sure if this was a result of the time or of the band playing. I really liked Stuck Out Here's music, but I can't really remember much of their set. The reason for that is because, in the middle of the set, a girl I went to middle school with appeared at my side. I didn't notice her, even though she noticed me, until my brother, seconds later, pointed her out to me. Like I said, I can't remember much from the set, but I can vividly remember the conversations I had following the set (with her and her friends), so clearly my brain decided that those were more important. Probably a good call.
Stuck Out Here -- Sober Up Tomorrow
Well I'll skip the conversation and just mention that the dude at the bar refused to give us any free water, or even a cup we could fill from the sink, so we had to buy a bottle of water and just keep refilling it from the washroom for the rest of the show.
Next up was Algernon Cadwallader who, for whatever reason, decided that their drum kit needed to be placed at an angle. Their first some was Some Kind Of Cadwallader, and the crowd went completely fucking crazy. The place must have reached it's peak capacity, 200 people, by this point; 200 people screaming "OHHH MANNNN IT'S TAKING ME OVERR!" while crashing into each other. Their set never calmed down, with more stage divers each song. For those of you who aren't familiar with Algernon Cadwallader's music, you should be. 'Is This Thing On?' placed the song Some Kind Of Cadwallader as the 19th best emo track ever (in his opinion) which has gotta say something about how awesome this band is. They played great and their set was just fantastic.
Algernon Cadwallader -- Some Kind Of Cadwallader
Nothing much happened in between sets. Some guy asked us to watch his beer while he went to make a phone call (you're welcome, by the way), but that was about it.
Then Joyce Manor came on. All I can say is that they completely killed it. I thought the crowd had energy during the Algernon Cadwallader set. To compare the energy during the two sets is like comparing a campfire to an atomic explosion, the latter being Joyce Manor's set. One of the most memorable parts of the set, one which illustrates the force of the crowd, was near the end of the set when the entire right side of the crowd got knocked over by the left! Joyce Manor was just as great as the crowd, no strangers to this environment. It was a real battle to get on stage (for the purpose of jumping off, naturally) because of how insane the crowd was, which just made it even more rewarding once you got up there. I was happy that I was able to be right at the front when the microphone was placed over the audience as we shouted "I still wish I could have seen you having sex in the morning, your love was foreign to me, it made me thing maybe human's not such a bad thing to be, but I just laid there in protest, entirely fucked, it's such a stubborn reminded one perfect night's not enough".
Joyce Manor -- Constant Headache
They say a picture is worth a thousand words (which is probably close to what I've written above), so this picture should probably sum up the show pretty well. It was fucking awesome.
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