Music Vice: Cancer Bats at The Mod Club, Toronto

Cancer Bats at The Mod Club, Toronto
Review and photos by Music Vice editor Brian Banks - December 27, 2008

Four bands of similar rock/metal/hardcore styling’s promised to warm-up the bodies of all those who packed into The Mod Club in Toronto, escaping the winter chill outside. Opening was Polar Bear Club from Rochester, NY. These guys got a lukewarm reception - well, aside from some praise from the other three bands who each gave PBC props at some point during their sets. The mellow vibe for PBC made it easier to focus fully on the music, and ergo appreciate the band’s sound and lyrics which both seemed a little bit smarter and less one-dimensional than many of the other hardcore-tagged bands of the moment. The lyrics, sang with vigor by Jimmy Stadt, who did a good job at connecting with the crowd with songs that often followed a story-telling format.

The audience became livelier when Dead & Divine came on, and the moshing and ‘hardcore dancing’ began. Ok, first things first, that hardcore dancing stuff is l-a-m-e, LAME. What happened at this show was that five or six guys spazzed out by flailing their arms around, or revving up the engines of their imaginary motorbikes, while everyone around them looked on in varying degrees of amusement and annoyance. So yeah, moshing is fine, I’m down with that – been there, done that, got the ripped-up t-shirt. But hardcore dancing? Nah, that just seems too stupid to me.

More annoying though were the crowd-surfers who started leaping from the stage and into the crowd from the second band onwards. The lower stage and lack of a barrier made this easy. Crowd surfing at shows is usually a pretty cool thing to see, and usually a sign of a good show, but not on this night. Basically it was the same handful of guys doing all the stage-diving, and they were doing it non-stop. The worst culprit was a dude wearing a white sleeveless tee who was stage-diving repeatedly, often landing arse-first on a girls head or getting in the way of the band members. That guy was even stage-diving and crowd-surfing in-between songs when the band weren’t even playing – seriously, WTF man? Here’s a note on some concert etiquette for you:

• Good: Stage diving or crowd-surfing as a form of self-expression while you are lost in the moment at a totally rad show. Go for it buddy!
• Bad: Crowd-surfing non-stop just for the sake of it, without paying any attention to the band, the music or the girl that your landing on with a flying-elbow. Just don’t do it man, you’re a twat!!

Anyhow, back on topic; what about the music? I’ll be blunt, and say that I found it hard to really get into this show. Dead And Divine, like the other two support bands, were plenty lively but their set passed me by in a blur. The Holly Springs Disaster were a little harder to ignore, and very well received, peaking with Up In Smoke which inspired the crowd to pogo and mosh just that little bit harder.

What this show needed was something a bit heavier, a bit meatier, a bit more metal. Cancer Bats delivered all this and more, as they brought their metal to The Mod Club and owned their stage. The ‘Bats gave a performance that raised the bar compared to those who were on before them, and nothing less was expected from one of Canada’s finest bands of the moment. Songs like Hail Destroyer and Lucifer’s Rocking Chair were lapped up by a largely frenzied hometown support. By the end of the show the audience was left yearning for more from the 'Bats but there was no encore.

Even by the end I still wasn’t feeling this show, it just didn’t click for me. It was just one of those shows were everyone else seems to be having a good time but for most the night you just nod your head in polite-full indifference. At least some justice was served when ‘Bats bassist Jaye R. Schwarzer pushed that crowd-surfing kid in the white shirt into the crowd after he had knocked over his mic stand. I think that dude finally got the message that his repetitive stage-diving had gotten old and he didn’t attempt to get back up on stage again after that moment.

Photos of Polar Bear Club, Dead And Divine,The Holly Springs Disaster, and Cancer Bats