Talent show lacks talent
Opening acts outshine boring headliners
KYLE PHILLIPS VOLUNTEER STAFF
On Jan. 29, the MTS Centre loading zones were crowded with minivans and station wagons, evidently the vehicles of choice for Billy Talent fans, and the building quickly filled up with screaming teenagers waiting to see their chart-topping idols. As proclaimed by Kenny Bridges, vocalist of opening act Moneen, this arena tour was going to be the best of the year. With other bands including Rise Against, Anti-Flag and Moneen, there was some potential to live up to that hype — but if this was the tour of the year, then I don’t recommend going to any other shows.
Canadian act Moneen opened the show promptly at 7 p.m. to a scattered crowd for a short 20-minute set. Moneen who have been to Winnipeg several times never seem to disappoint our local crowds, and this night was no different. Despite the short set, they dipped into each record, playing an old favourite, “Passing of America,” and tracks from their new album The Red Tree including the melodic “This is All Bigger than Me.” The only downside to the set was that for such a short set Bridges did way too much talking. As the old maxim goes: less talk, more rock. Next time they come through on their own they’re definitely worth checking out.
Political punk rockers Anti-Flag took the stage next to spread their word against the Bush administration. The American band must have read a newspaper before entering Canada: they even name-dropped Prime Minister Stephen Harper in their antiwar protests. It still surprises me that bands such as Anti-Flag spout so many anti-corporate sentiments while still playing large arena tours and signing cushy contracts with major labels. Also playing a short set, Anti-Flag’s songs all sounded rather similar, though a couple stood out: “Turncoat,” from an older release, and “This is the End (For You My Friend),” off of their new album For Blood and Empire were both great live; the rest was bland.
The most promising act of the evening was Chicago’s Rise Against. They were given a longer set than the other openers and made use of every last minute of it. Lead vocalist/guitarist Tim McIllrath was full of energy and led the band through an energetic set. They dipped into all of their albums, including early works Revolutions Per Minute and The Unraveling, and also played singles “Ready to Fall,” and “State of The Union” off their two major-label records. Rather unusually, their set was occasionally too loud, which hurt some of the songs.
Billy Talentless. Billy No Talent. Pick your Billy Talent-slandering pun of choice and I just might agree. I’ve never been a fan, but seeing them play live made me dislike them even more. After a long delay so they could set up their fancy light show and expand the stage to twice the size (very unnecessarily, I might add), they started at 9:30 p.m.. Not owning either of their two albums, I didn’t expect to be very familiar with the material, but was sadly able to sing along to almost every song, or would have if I had had any desire to do so. The vocalist (whose name I haven’t bothered to learn) sounded as if he sucked back a canister of helium before going on stage and, combined with his disturbing Backstreet Boys arm-reach and stripper dance-moves, the whole thing left me extremely turned off.
I’m sure Billy Talent was amazing in the eyes of their legions of teenage fans; they all got exactly what they wanted, including chart-toppers “Try Honesty,” “Red Flag,” and “Devil in a Midnight Mass,” just to name a few. I’m also sure the group’s obnoxious sound and high energy sold a lot of Tshirts: the merchandise was flying off the shelves and virtually every kid there was wearing his or her fresh purchase. I was always under the assumption that it wasn’t cool to have a band’s logo emblazoned on your shirt while you’re at their show, but maybe I’ve lost touch with what, exactly, “cool” is.
All in all, Billy Talent wasted a lot of my time that could easily have been reserved for the better opening acts, but those who came to see the headliner got a great arena show that I’m sure made thousands of parentchaperones cringe.
