June 5th, 2022 – Club Soda, Montreal, Quebec
The pre-festival shows are done, and the festival itself is now over, but there’s still a few notes left to play before we close the book on the 2022 edition of the Red Bridge festival. Following two shows in Montreal, featuring the likes of the mighty Satanic Surfers on day one, and the always awesome Strung Out on day two, with a whole slew of bands also in the mix, before they all drove off into the quaint countryside of Pont-Rouge, Quebec for a rollicking good time at the Red Bridge festival, it was time for Less Than Jake to cap it all off with a shindig at the Club Soda.
And did the people want more? You bet your sweet sweaty ass they did! The people should get what the people want, and that means more punk rock, more skankin’ and definitely more beer. Much, much more beer. The capacity crowd was testimony to the fact that Quebecers can never ever get enough punk rock. Or poutine. Or beer. Never, ever enough beer. So the bands keep coming back, and the circle continues.
See Also: Hood Rats at Recyborg, Montreal
The lads in Less Than Jake, by now, know what to expect when they roll their tour bus down Montreal’s terribly disintegrated roads, bouncing around from pothole to pothole. A party. A big dirty ass party, and so they bring their friends along too. On this night, joining the festivities would be the Voodoo Glow Skulls, Hitch & Go and Much The Same. The first two nights at Club Soda had been a lot of fun, and if you’d have wagered on this one being a little toned-down due to everybody being burned out from four days and nights of intense partying – you’d have lost your beer money, because this final night was the most hyper and energetic of the bunch. No shit!
Hitch & Go
At the last minute, Quebec City’s Hitch & Go where called in to replaced Santa Cruz, California’s Craig’s Brother, who had issues due to Ted Bond, the bands guitarist and lead vocalist, testing positive for covid. As far removed as we are beginning to fell from this pandemic, it still finds ways to wreck our fun once in a while. Still, what was bad news for Craig’s Brother, was good news for Hitch & Go – funny how things work out sometimes. Someone has to lose for someone to win.
Hitch & Go are an up and coming young band that are full of potential and gusto. A highly energetic troupe that have been making a name for themselves locally, and are sure to continue doing so if their live performances remain anything like the one they played on this night.
Much The Same
If you’re like me, the first thing that came to mine when you saw the above photo was “oh fuck, Alexander Ovechkin is in a punk band?”. If he is, this isn’t it. Chicago’s Much The Same did have a special guest with them though. On bass guitar, was no other than Scott Hallquist from Ten Foot Pole. For whatever reason, Hallquist seemed to try and hide his presence altogether. It seemed like at most he didn’t want to take any limelight away from the rest of the guys in the band, and so he spent most of the set partially hidden behind the curtain. On occasion he would peep out for a view of the audience he was playing too, his baseball cap pulled down over his eyes in the worst disguise seen since The Tick. (Some of you will get it, the rest will have to hit up google).
Hallquist recorded Much The Same’s most recent record, Everything Is Fine, the bands first new recording in thirteen years. Much The Same tried to fool us by asking if we liked the legendary Steely Dan, then going into a great cover of Lagwagon’s Making Friends, which was a highlight of the night. One of the many.
Voodoo Glow Skulls
Formed in 1988 in Riverside California Spending their formative years literally homeschooled by top punk bands at backyard parties. The likes of the Angry Samoans, The Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Murphy’s Law and the Dickies. Encouraged the Voodoo Glow Skulls to develop their unique and very distinct sound along the way.
The energy that the Voodoo Glow Skulls bring to the stage each and every night has become symbiotic with their music. Heavy on the horns and wind instruments, and full of chaotic bursts of playful silliness, the Voodoo Glow Skulls should guarantee a good time with ticket sales. Because that is what you’re going to get.
The Voodoo Glow Skulls had flown into Dorval the day before, only to have their drummer, Steve Reese, turned away. You shall not create your good time vibrations here, they said. Your beats will not have the kids in uproar. Not this time. Thus, Justin Van Westbroek of Guttermouth stepped in and laid down the rhythms.
At one point, vocalist Efrem Schulz came out on stage with a massive flag that he frantically waved about the stage. At another moment, he jumped off the stage and danced about with the crowd before going off on a mission – exploration! Schulz ran all about the floor of the venue, eventually finding his way up the stairs onto the mezzanine and balcony where he ran about, still singing, high fiving everyone and making sure everybody in that building felt part of the gig. Schulz is one hell of a frontman.
Less Than Jake
As usual, the blend of ska and punk rock that Less Than Jake perform hit those on the dance floor right in the shoes, and had everybody moving to the immense groove. The lull of bass line, the upbeat hurrah of the wind instruments, and the ass-shaking guitar riffs. Playing a solid set that consisted of seventeen tracks, including Plastic Cup Politics, The Ghosts Of Me And You, Motown Never Sounded So Good and The High Cost Of Low Living. And of course a two-song encore that featured Nervous In The Alley and All My Best Friends Are Metalheads. Good times. Good tune
As crazy as all the bands have been during the local shows over the week, Less Than Jake are by far the loudest. In terms of the sheer wall of sound coming from the stage and the crowd singing every lyric right back at them. Including a fan named Bubbles, who brought a fun soapy atmosphere to the night. At some point her bottle of bubbles ended up onstage and so did she, invited up to continue to delight or annoy the crowd depending on where you were situated.
If you were ever a patron of the famous punk venue Foufounes Electriques, Canada’s answer to New York’s CBGB’s, then you were certainly familiar with the next anthemic tune. Johnny Quest Thinks We’re Sellouts. Off their first album from 1996, Losing Streak, it is the perfect crowd pleaser to play every single time. It reminded me of those cheap Tuesday’s spent at the Fouf, dollar-fifty a beer nights, where at some point we’d all end up in a mosh pit of our own creation, despite the lack of a band playing. Just kids, learning our place in the world while remaining true to our youth. With the solid build up of the trumpet and the walking bass, the growing circle pit forming could be equated to a beer being shaken up waiting for its moment to explode. Ejaculating it’s teen spirit all over the place.
To think, this whole night of fun almost didn’t take place thanks once more to the screwballs that’s work the Canadian / American border. Chris Demakes, one of the founding members of Less Than Jake, was stopped at the border and almost didn’t make it across, due to a charge against him that dates back to 2002, even though he’s been back many times since. Twenty years later. I guess eventually everything catches up, lucky for him, and for everyone else in attendance, he made it over.
I was honestly under the impression that there would be less people at this gig, given that it was on a Sunday night. On the fifth consecutive night of a festival. Nay nay. Not this time. I think the pandemic changed all dynamics of shows. The fear took over for too long, and now the only true remaining fear is the fear of missing out on any show. It shows the true power of music, especially in my case, that much time without concerts was extremely depressing. We are truly lucky to live in a city such as Montreal, that almost every band exclaims their love for, and it’s believable, too.
Read More: Chris Demakes of Less Than Jake
How anybody still has any energy left after such a crazy weekend, is astonishing. Bands, fans, everyone should be in bed already. But fuck that. Sleep will win, just not yet.
What I want to know though, is why nobody throws Pez dispensers at Less Than Jake anymore? I suppose fads and trends come and go, but why is it that nobody is thinking about sweet tooth’s and habits? Come on Montreal! We can do better!
Co-written by two very tired and hungover members of staff, Samantha Morris and Kieron Yates.
