March 10, 2025
Canadian rockers Our Lady Peace return to Laval
It’s hard to believe that Our Lady Peace have been going for three decades already, alas that is the key to their current tour – thirty years of Our Lady Peace. Honestly, where does the time go? Am I right!
Laval’s Place Bell was jam-packed and ready to rock out despite it being a Monday night gig in a town with several other options for entertainment on offer – most notably the mighty Kraftwerk who were performing at Montreal’s Salle Wilfred-Pelltier at the exact same time. Such are the choices that need to be made when you live in and around an art city such as Montreal. C’est la vie and woe is me.
See Also: Kerry King at L’Olympia, Montreal
This was a show that I had circled on my calendar the moment it was announced. A band I had grown up with, back on stage to play the songs of my youth. While it was jam packed at the end of the evening, the same couldn’t be said for the early moments of the night. Allow me to explain why.
Wintersleep
Not everything was roses in the five-one-four, as people were dealt a raw deal when the main public transit option suffered a fire which caused three of its four metro lines to drop out of service for a little while. Luckily nobody was harmed and the trains began running again after about a short delay. Just enough to irk folks and risk them arriving late for Wintersleep’s set. Lets be honest, the stress of that probably drove up beer sales at the stadium, too.
Well dressed and eager to warm up the early birds that were still filtering into Place Bell during their set, Wintersleep carried on regardless. Montreal’s piss poor public transit system again having issues is perhaps something we have become desensitized to. Angry. Awaiting the service they pay for to resume, and missing out on a show they had paid to see. Such is the way things are in this part of the world.
Due to the large amount of gear already set up on stage, Wintersleep gingerly stood in place, limited in their space, and gave ‘er as best they could, for those that had found a way into the stadium.
It would be fair to say, that Wintersleep got a sort of raw deal thanks to the decrepit and under funded public transit system. Most of the audience arrived with just a song or two left in their set. I want the band to know that it was us, not them. Come back and try us again! Even driving in this city is near impossible, with our broken roads, pot holes, traffic cones and never ending construction obstructions. We just can’t win.
Then, for reasons unknown to me – maybe at the artists request, fans weren’t allowed to approach the barrier while Wintersleep played. Instead, sat firmly in their seats, those lucky enough to receive this early treat seemed to really enjoy what was on offer. Winterlseep feel like a group that was around and relevant around the time that Our Lady Peace and Collective Soul were cutting their teeth – only they weren’t.
Collective Soul
As much as I was eager to see Our Lady Peace tonight, it was Collective Soul that I was most interested to see – for the simple fact, and sin, that I had never actually seen them before. How that has happened, I don’t quite know. I love the band. I own most, if not all of their albums… but I have never until now had the chance to see them live.
I can’t quite put my finger on why, but there was something about their sound that just felt off. Maybe it was the balance on the soundboard or something else that would require technical jargon to explain – I don’t know. My forte is words; I am far from a sound engineer. Just a music nerd with keen hearing and passion, nay a lover of the sound. All sound. A music junkie, if you will. I suppose you might say the sound was muffled, almost like the bass was drowning out the vocals.
I knew the lyrics but I couldn’t sing along because I wasn’t hearing the music right. I was missing my queues. And looking around me, seeing the puzzled faces, I don’t think I was alone in experiencing this. I saw bewilderment. I thought, are people saving themselves for Our Lady Peace or are they just not into Collective Soul? This is a great band, and even if the sound wasn’t great, I can’t fathom folks not getting into these sounds.
It annoyed me, to be honest, and then I thought that maybe people were collectively pissed off at the journey they had taken to get here. On a metro system that is so old and barely able to get to its destination, or due to the stupid amount of traffic and detours driving here takes, while our tax money goes towards the mayors obsession with bike paths that nobody actually fucking uses.
Ed Roland is still a hell of a frontman; dancing away to the rhythm of his own beat, wearing a mix between a suit and a dress that looks like it was crafted from his old beloved couch that he just couldn’t bare to throw away. Surely – there isn’t a store anywhere on earth purposely making these garments. Artists are a different breed, I suppose.
Amusingly enough, despite twelve studio albums, Collective Soul still found room to play a few cover songs that tickled their fancy as well. Hit track Shine had a portion of Aerosmith’s Livin’ On The Edge woven into it, while the collective would jam out a cover of AC/DC’s Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap later in their terrific set.
Still – having finally had the chance to see Collective Soul play great songs like Mother’s Love, The World I know I Know, Gel, the amazing Shine and of course Where The River Flows was awesome beyond words. Despite the issues in sound, this was still a fantastic set that I’m glad to have seen live after all these years.
Our Lady Peace
The band of the hour took to the stage following a brief set of interview clips shot throughout the years, exploring the identity and ideology behind the band. Their raison d’etre, if you will, that showed the younger selves of those that were about to walk about and show that all these years later, Our Lady Peace were still as poignant as ever. And they did so but kicking off their set with perhaps their best known track to date – Superman’s Dead.
The emotions were high as it was my first time seeing them in over twenty years, and luckily got to witness it with my best friend. Back in 2001 on Montreal’s video music channel MusiquePlus sponsored a series of free outdoor events at McGill football stadium called Jam Des Neiges. Let’s just say, as popular as Our Lady Peace were back then, that somehow the security and show organizers were not prepared for over five thousand people showing up. I’d say the final count was closer to eight thousand, even. Let’s just say my bruised limbs and ribs will never forget.
As a teenager, I would have endless energy to wait in line all day. So my friend and I prepared for the long day ahead. Getting there at the crack of dawn before they were even set up, to scope it out. This was our second show as friends together and it’s what has bonded us over the years. The love for live shows. Our efforts payed off for sure, we found our way to the front row, dead center, for a huge moment in the history of the band’s long standing career. That experience is something that stayed with me and my bestie forever in my ever extensive show gazing lifestyle (not shoegazing, although… sometimes!)
Raine Maida’s attentiveness to his fans helped warn them that night, that the faulty barriers were on the verge of collapse. Looking back , it could have been a very dangerous situation if he hadn’t tried to warn everyone. Showing the true healing power of music, in the actual moment. Our endorphins protected us as we navigated the chaos as we now had the crushing weight of thousands squishing us. The show surprisingly wasn’t stopped . It continued on with the hits , literally and figuratively, as the barriers were reinforced, and fans contained. As insane as that sounded, and minor injuries aside I can still say miss those days. Though I wouldn’t survive a crowd like that today. And imagine, that was for a tame band . My ribs were almost broken but I didn’t care . I had witnessed the craziest shows they played. One of the reasons they hold a place in my heart still, even though I may not have followed them as much through the later years.
I was lucky enough to also see them at all the smaller venues as well, intimate and interactive performances at the MusiquePlus headquarters. So now, finally getting to see them after almost avoiding the newer stuff out of love for the nostalgia, was a big deal. To me anyway. I had heard Maida hadn’t been able to reach the high part of his vocals anymore. No doubt Montrealer’s took it upon their own vocal abilities to fill in those parts he couldn’t reach.
Fast-forward a couple of decades, and here we are tonight. Sharing a room once again. It’s always a bold move to start off with one of your greatest known tracks, but I suppose when you consider how many hits Our Lady Peace have penned over their three decades as a band, they can afford such luxuries. Hearing Superman’s Dead so early on sent me on a trip down memory lane.
Bassist Duncan Coutts seemingly took aim at the Canadian / American tariff debacle in his own very unique and subtle way, by rocking the hell out of his Canadian tuxedo. Some may need some clarification on what exactly that is, as it might have been so subtle as to have been missed by a few folks out there. A Canadian tuxedo, quite simply, is a pair of blue jeans paired with a blue denim jacket. And, of course, this is all pure fabrication on my part.
This was probably the best I’ll get, with it being the 30th anniversary tour and all. And best it was. Taking a peak at the setlist, I was elated at what was coming up next. Normally, I avoid doing such things, in order to keep a certain element of surprise – but tonight I was fat too excited to sit idle and await what fate bestowed upon me.
Amidst the classic Our Lady Peace tunes, was a new tune that sounded as if it could have been written during the bands heyday. That tune, of course, is I Wanna Be Your Drug (which by name alone, sounds like it could have been a Ramones song) which as I mentioned, blended in with the big Our Lady Peace hits perfectly.
Having Our Lady Peace, who are arguably one of the gems of Canadian rock music from the past half century, cover The Tragically Hip’s Locked In The Trunk Of A Car felt so supremely Canadian, at a time where Canadian pride is soaring. And without getting too political here, because I acknowledge as I hope everyone reading this does, that the current strife with the American’s is just our leader and their leader acting like cunts. I have no animosity towards the average American like I doubt the average American has any true hard feelings about us. Our leaders do dumb shit and we pay the price for it, the way it has always been. Still – being proud of your nation, its people and their achievements; there’s nothing wrong in that!
I think I sang every single word of every single song besides the newer tunes. The sing-a-longs were equally as powerful moments as they were at the first shows, all those years ago, now multiplied by a few thousand more voices. It felt truly wonderful to participate in such an event, let me tell you.
For the first part of the encore, the band navigated through the audience to a second stage in the back of the arena. Where a red piano sat waiting, set up for Maida to sit and play a rendition of Not Enough off of the Gravity album and a super emotional version of 4 am off of Clumsy.
Heading back to the main stage, they went straight into thanking us for all the love and support and offering one last chunk of hits. Stuff highly anticipated on my list, first Automatic Flowers, and finishing with Is Anybody Home and a thrilling guitar solo that bled into Starseed.
Read More:
>> C.I.D.B at Batiment 7, Montreal
>> Voivod and the OSM at Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, Montreal
>> Soul Asylum at Bronson Centre, Ottawa
What a night this turned out to be – one that people of my generation would surely find nostalgic, with many that sat in the audience with their children in tow, perhaps hoping for a glimpse of a time that for some reason, today’s youth seem to want so badly to emulate, which is honestly beyond me. Well, here it was, the 90s; back in the spotlight again.
Hopefully the STM had gotten things figured out for the long (and unreasonably more expensive) train ride back to the Montreal downtown core. I reserve the right to doubt that was the case.
