Constellations, Prophecies, Chaos in the Shadows, Amongst the Deceased, Transcend the Skies, The Intake of Glass
The Garage Concert Hall, Toronto
$9.50 (adv)
Amongst the Deceased
I would always rather be at a concert, no matter how good or bad, than sitting at home listening to music. I have to say though, this almost didn’t hold true at the concert on January 14th. And for once, this actually had nothing to do with the bands, which, for the most part, were quite impressive. The crowd at this concert, however, was so off-putting I nearly walked out.
A small crowd of 40 or 50 hardcore kids, mostly around 15 years of age, the audience seemed to spend the entire show alternating between bored out of their minds and psychopathically violent, with a girl having to leave early with a fractured leg after being kicked.
This poor crowd etiquette was unfortunate not only because of the injuries caused to many, but the audience ruined what would have otherwise been a perfectly good show.
-read about each band under the cut!-
Constellations
The first band to play was a four-piece band by the name of Constellations. In fact, not only were they the first band of the evening, but this was also the band’s first show. The set was short but sweet, well done for a first performance, especially as their bass player had never before played in front of a crowd. Despite only having three songs, the band was still able to rally up a surprisingly high level of energy for an opener at a small show, and even managed to get a number of the hardcore kids in attendance throwing down throughout their set.
Musically, Prophecies’ set was a good one. Aside from their drummer looking a bit confused during their first set, the band’s music was well played, and they even had a friend or two in the crowd singing along to their songs. However, their musical skills were offset by a dull crowd and their poor audience interaction. While their friends were enthusiastically joining in, the rest of the audience members spent Prophecies’ set standing, watching, and generally looking bored. In fact, if the crowd had built up any energy during Constellations, it was gone now. This was not helped by the band’s general awkwardness while attempting to interact with those in front of them. While I had no problem with them thanking God and Jesus while onstage, it was when they paused between songs to thank their drummer Pawl’s dad for driving them to the show, and their parents for feeding them that night that I had to roll my eyes. While it’s sweet, yes, to be thankful to your parents, it immediately made the band seem juvenile and it was difficult to take them seriously.
The good news about Chaos in the Shadows’ set was that the audience’s energy picked back up considerably when they began to play. Unfortunately, this meant the return of the hardcore throwdowns. Although there was much more energy, Chaos in the Shadows was arguably the weakest band of the evening. Admittedly, part of this was personal preference. I’ve never been the biggest fan of crabcore, and their guitarist looked as if he’d bypassed the traditional crabcore stance completely and was practically doing the splits onstage. As well as this, though, the band was also not as strong as those before and after them performance-wise. The higher-pitched screaming style that the band used didn’t mix well with the feedback that cut through their entire set. However, while this did thin the crowd out considerably, those who remained seemed pleased, and as though they were thoroughly enjoying the performance.
Not long after they played, I overheard one concertgoer telling their friend that Amongst the Deceased was the best band of the night so far, and I have to say I agreed. Like Constellations, Amongst the Deceased is a relatively new band (though unlike the opener, this band has played shows before). Also like Constellations, Amongst the Deceased only had a few songs. The similarities, though, start to fall apart there. While the band played a good set, musically, their most noticeable strength- and their greatest weakness- was not their music but their audience interaction skills. Polar opposites to Prophecies in this sense, Amongst the Deceased spent much of their set interacting with those watching them, telling jokes, making people laugh, and keeping the attention of the crowd. This worked against them as well though: being so good at it led to the band spending too much of their set talking, getting quite cocky at some points in the jokes that they told, and calling girls to dance onstage with them. The latter backfired, when they were joined not only by a female friend of theirs but also a topless male member of the audience. This excessive talking pulled them down though, and while the band has lots of potential, they would do better if they were to spend more of their set playing music.
If Amongst the Deceased were the best band of the night so far, that title was immediately re-awarded the minute Transcend the Skies took the stage. While the bands that played before them were enjoyable, Transcend the Skies raised the evening’s bar in terms of musical talent. In addition to their music skills, the band also had the biggest pull in terms of supporters of the evening. Despite not being the headliner of the evening, it was clear that the majority of the people were there for them- and you could see why.
Unfortunately, the turnout for this awesome Cambridge-based headliner (and technically the only band that qualifies for this 519 area music blog) was minimal. The small crowd was a shame, as the band played an impressive set. While some may merely trace the lack of audience back to it being Intake’s first show in Toronto, and a smaller following there, another contributor had to be the number of injuries at the concert. In a crowd of only around fifty, there were five people holding ice to their faces, a dislocated finger, and even a potentially fractured leg. So between the number of those leaving for injuries, and the fact that all of the house lights went on while The Intake of Glass was setting up, it was easy to see why many people would assume that the concert was being shut down, and take off for home early. Despite the lack of people, the band was great, and definitely worth going to see.
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