August 30, 2025
Punk rock stalwarts Descendents and Buzzcocks show out at Montreal’s Mtelus
After a slow month for live music, by Montreal’s lofty standards anyway, many of the metropolis’ punk aficionados had this Descendents gigs circled on their calendars (or, like, noted in their phones… its a figure of speech!) and rightfully so.
This was always going to be a wild and fun night where people got together to unwind, release and just let loose. That’s the entire purpose of going to punk rock gigs anyway. Well, that, and spreading political messages and drinking beer and stuff. Hanging out with friends and things like that.
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Along for the ride this time around, were one of the greatest punk bands to ever come from the UK – the home of punk, the Buzzcocks. And young bloods Mattstagraham who came to prove that the new generations of punk rock is indeed in good hands, and while the kids and charging things up a little, its still punk rock at its heart. Evolution, something like that.
Mattstagraham
Stylistically, Mattstagraham are all over the map. A little taste of this, a splash of that. I call this phenomenon the spotify effect, where younger people are growing up listening to playlists rather than full albums. Meaning that they’re essentially wandering about their lives listening to what my generation would have called mixed tapes. There’s both good and bad that comes from this, depending on how you see it. On one hand, it is great that kids are hearing multiple genres of music and finding inspiration for their own art from a wide spectrum of sound. On the other, that wide of a blend sometimes makes it hard to nail down a certain group as it is so varied. Maybe too much so.
This is my first time hearing the band, so the sample size is too small for me to decide which side of the fence I sit on.
Some of what they do sounds akin to Andrew WK, some of it is very pop influenced, while yeah, some of it is certainly rooted in the punk rock bands like these two they’re currently touring with. I’m at a loss as to how to classify what Mattstagraham do, and I suspect that’s the way they want it. Good on ’em.
As an opening band, they sure got the job done.
Buzzcocks
Following the death of Pete Shelley, I thought that the Buzzcocks would fade away into the sands of time, that the band wouldn’t be able to continue going or wouldn’t want to. Sometimes, just sometimes, it is glorious to be wrong. Needless to say, that back in 2018, I thought I had seen the Buzzcocks for the final time.
Fast forward seven years, and what do I get? (See what I did there? Brilliant eh!) I get the Buzzcocks back on stage here in Montreal and I couldn’t be more pleased. Not only that, but the band showed up in tip top shape and played a blistering set despite Shelley’s absence. It’s so hard to know what to expect when a vital member of a band is missing, for whatever reason, and while the band did release an album three years ago, called Sonics In The Soul, with Steve Diggle tackling the vocals on his onesome, I somehow failed to hear it.
All this is leading up to me saying that I was pleasantly surprised by how well Diggle, who is now the sole original member of the Buzzcocks still in the fold, sounded.
As if there was ever in doubt, the Buzzcocks played all of the numbers I, and everyone around me, seemingly wanted to hear. It was a pleasure to share a room with them once again and hopefully there will be many more nights that we, as in Montreal, get to do this over again.
Flawlessly, the Buzzcocks dragged out the cream of their discography. From Orgasm Addict, Love You More, What Do I Get? through to a number that everyone can relate to in Ever Fallen in Love (With Someone You Shouldn’t’ve). I bloody well have, silly sod that I am. Honestly, the Buzzcocks in 2025 are as great as can possible be expected, and any thoughts I might have had leading up to the gig where quickly quenched and squashed. The Buzzcocks were bloody brilliant.
The older I get, the more I appreciate all the things I used to take for granted. Seeing the Buzzcocks again, after all this time, is among the things I appreciate these days.
Descendents
I don’t want to alarm anyone, but we’re rapidly approaching the fiftieth anniversary of the Descendents. Yeah. I know right? Think about it for a second! Descendents started in 1977, and are still going as strong as ever, and back in town for the first time since kicking bottom as part of NOFX’s final shows in Montreal at the Punk In Drublic festival last summer. Remember that? That was rad, man.
This is a band that has influenced so many of their peers over the years, and can maybe be blamed for the entire American pop punk scene. Is blamed the right word to use here? Whatever. Point is that anything cool in pop punk was already done by the Descendents a bunch of years ago. And all these years later, they’re still just as relevant as they ever were.
Walking out onto the stage, under bright stage lighting that I expected to dim down and never did, was a nice surprise. Imagine, being able to see the people playing for you! Such a novel concept. Opening up with Everything Sux, too, was a great idea. Because its true, man.
Tonight, a raucous crowd made up of teenagers through to legitimate senior citizens and everything in between gathered to scream along and dance the night away to the simplistic but highly melodic tunes that the Descendents are so damned good at producing.
It always tickles me how a man with a PHD can write lyrics like “I like food, food is good”. Singer Milo Aukerman holds a PhD in molecular genetics. No, seriously. But as Milo himself said, he has degrees. Useless degrees. All that schooling and what does he do with it? Plays in a punk rock band. Ah, yes, trust the science!
With nine studio albums and a fistful of EPs to pull material from, the gigantic playlist taped to the stage consisted on thirty-four tunes, including some of their better known and most cherish tracks such as Clean Sheets, Everything Sucks, I’m The One, ‘Merican, Coffee Mug, Thank You and the aforementioned I Like Food.
Suddenly, it occurred to me that so many of Milo’s lyrics, minus the ones about coffee and fast food, are sad yarns about failed relationships – and I won’t lie, that bummed me out somewhat. (At least they didn’t play Here With Me, ya know?) Only because its a tad too relatable for my fragile mindset of late – which nobody wants to hear about and I don’t want to talk about anyway, but yeah, I’d never noticed that in the decades that I’ve been listening to the Descendents. How did I miss that? Beer. Probably the beer.
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As folks spilled out into the streets, straight into police harassment like they had been waiting all day to honk and yell at people, it occurred to me how lucky we are to still have bands like the Descendents and Buzzcocks coming to town, to perform for us.
I dread the day that goes away. Because it will. So, I am now more motivated to live in the here and now. Days are dark and the forecast is for heavier rain and more political bullshit. Fuck sakes.
