March 26, 2025
The Damn Truth and Mountain Dust rock the Mtelus!
How great it is to see local bands playing capacity shows in one of the greatest venues in the city – which is exactly what took place tonight as Montreal’s The Damn Truth and Mountain Dust filled up and rocked out the Mtelus tonight.
The air was electric from the moment people began to shuffle in to the moment that they shuffled out, elated and tired. Thoroughly rocked. Back out into the cool spring air and probably, as I was too, as if walking on clouds and contemplating how awesome of a night this had been.
See Also: Delain at Fairmount, Montreal
Tonight was the album launch party for The Damn Truth’s brand new self-titled record, their fourth full-length studio album to date. In case you’re wondering, this new record was again engineered by the iconic Bob Rock and does manage to surpass The Damn Truth’s 2021 record, Now Or Never. That’s saying something, let me tell you.
Mountain Dust
Opening the night was one the best local bands this art city has to offer – the incredible Mountain Dust. An interesting choice to open, and one that I feel makes a lot of sense despite maybe not being stylistically similar to the nights headliner.
For those who hadn’t seen them at our sorely missed and dearly beloved Heavy Montreal festival, (…are you listening out there? We want out festival back! ’77 too!) were about to blast off into the mountains and beyond, on a fantastic journey, full of dust, and captained by Queens Of The Stone Age.
While I suppose both bands do have styles that echo genres that came to be in the 70s, Mountain Dust lean way more towards the stoner rock or doom disciplines, whereas The Damn Truth have that whole Led Zeppelin if they had Janis Joplin singing for them motif. Personally, I adore both, so for me this was a perfect blend.
Instantly, I noticed that Mountain Dust were loud! Sonically set to rumble the brickwork and test the buildings foundations loud. And with their solid, slow and very heavy riff work, I thought maybe some of the older people in the room might be overwhelmed. It seems though, that either I was well wrong about that – or that a lot of the younger types where big on the stoner rock vibe. What I mean by that is that the audience seemed to be very into what Mountain Dust were bringing – and their applause between songs was as loud as the band was.
A lot of what Mountain Dust played tonight, came from their new record that was released in late January of this year – and weirdly enough, like the New The Damn Truth album, it is also a self-titled album. (It’s available on their bandcamp on a pay what you want model – don’t be cheap! Flip the lads a few bucks!)
Just as I was really starting to get into their set – it ended. By my calculations, Mountain Dust had only played for twenty-eight minutes and I could have easily, willingly and happily sat through double that.
One thing for certain is that Mountain Dust don’t play enough live shows. When they do, however, it is a time rejoice.
The Damn Truth
While for us that had come out to witness this event, it felt as if The Damn Truth were soon up on stage – but as the group eluded to more than a few times, they had waited for more than two years to be here, playing tonight. Something guitarist Tom Shemer spoke about late into their set.
Shemer mentioned having played the opening slot on this stage, while it was called the Metropolis and now that it is called the Mtelus (I still call it the Metropolis) – warming up the crowd for the likes of The Sheep Dogs and Three Days Grace, while dreaming of the day where The Damn Truth would be the headlining band with their name up on the marquee outside. About how it had taken two years for this show to come to friuition – and now here we all were. Them, up on the stage playing headliner, and us, below the, cheering them on.
Having spent a while listening to an advanced copy of the The Damn Truth’s new self-titled record, which I now own on vinyl, it was nice to hear the new records first track performed as the opening number for tonight’s set. Be Somebody sounds absolutely fabulous live, as it does on the album too – but live, there’s another dimension to it that just hits so right.
The wiser folk in attendance tonight, were the ones that left with a copy of the new album tucked under their arm. Believe that.
The amount of emotion Lee-la Baum puts into her vocal parts is as impressive as her vocal range. If you pay attention, you can visibly see her charging up to unleash her next verse, as if drawing energy up from the earth, through her feet, into her body and out through her lungs as it reverbs through her incredible vocal chords. It is a pleasure to watch and even better to hear. Baum can sing!
There were a few touching moments during the night, one where Baum mentioned two people in attendance tonight had recently lost their Mums (both of us involved in creating this review can sadly relate to this part) and had sent emails to Baum about it, and how both Mums loved the song I Just Gotta Let You Know, which was dedicated to them. I felt that.
Scheer also mentioned that his brother and childhood best friend had come from far to be here tonight. We didn’t learn how far or from where so I suppose we’ll just have to take his word on that. For them, the band played If I Don’t Make It Home, which one of the better songs on the new album, and only one of a handful of songs from that record that they played tonight.
Shemer also took time to wish Big Bob, a local legend that has protected the staff and artists at the Metropolis (See! It’ll always be the Metropolis to me) for decades a happy sixty-fifth birthday.
At several points, I was left wondering why the bass players legs were so long. Was PY Letellier really that tall? I decided that it must be the stripped bellbottoms playing tricks on me. His pants had skewed my periphery and I felt like I had eaten mushrooms and fallen into a Salvador Dali painting. But I hadn’t. I was sober. It was the damn pants!
Read More:
>> The Damn Truth announce slew of Quebec shows
>> Rock legends Foreigner embark on a Canadian tour this fall
>> The Haunted announce new studio album, drop first single
It would seem, based on the large number of video cameras roaming around the room and on stage that the entire show was recorded and I really, really hope that means that a blu ray version of the show is in the groups plans. I’d snap up a copy in a heartbeat so that I could witness this incredible night again and again as my heart so desires. Such is the glory of physical media.
In case you missed the news last week, The Damn Truth announced a slew of Quebec shows that will take place throughout the year. If you did, no stress, we’ve got you! Click here to find out all the juicy details.
