| Reviews |
Review by: Keith Carman of Chart Attack
First and foremost, accolades must be presented to the Kool Haus audience for breaking two of three Toronto taboos. Not only did they show up for the opening act (yeah, they're the "next big thing," but that never stopped us New York wannabes from being "fashionably late"), they also, get this: cheered! Yes, the sounds of hands actually smacking together and people shouting out encores instead of heckles rang though the cavernous venue as up-and-coming garage rock outfit Burning Brides brought their power trio sound to town for the first time. Coming across like a bastardized MC5 doing naughty things to early Black Sabbath, they were more '70s fuzzy metal than the garage rock they?re touted to be. Either way, they were tight, energetic and obviously thrilled to perform for a crowd so big. Taking the challenge, it only served to better their compact, razor-sharp performance.
The prima donnas of the night, indie noise rockers "And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead" pranced out on stage waving their hands in proud acceptance of the crowd's approval, one that seemed to wear off with their overindulgent set. One song bleeding into another became rather tiresome. The audience wound up doing little more than staring after all of 20 minutes. This worsened when Trail Of Dead's performance seemed to degenerate into some primordial noisescape complete with frantic guitar slamming and shrieking, not quite the actions one would expect from a bunch of Texas indie rockers. Even though their songs were strung together with impressive free-form fretwork, the finale of kicking over the drums seemed more a desperate attempt to maintain the crowd?s attention than a sincere gesture of tormented musicianship.
The addition of former Danzig drummer Joey C. was the perfect choice for headliners Queens Of The Stone Age, especially considering any worthy candidate would have to match the power and vitality of master skin-pounder Dave Grohl (Nirvana, Foo Fighters) who briefly took over the drum stool for the band's most recent promo tour. Up for the challenge, Joey's enthusiasm and energy were clearly felt by the rest of the band, who countered with spot-on performances.
Not to leave the Kyuss fans adrift: The Queens provided a mass of swirling lights and projected images for a visual treat to draw attention away from the fact that the Queens are so involved in the music, they barely shift their feet. Performing a variety of songs from all three albums, the band rocked out on a dynamic rollercoaster that ranged from the softest melodies to pounding virtual thrash metal. Thankfully, the typically evil sounding Kool Haus was tamed, allowing the band to shake its foundation with crystal clear albeit ear-splitting, volume.
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Review by: Stuart Berman of Eye Magazine
***
Texan terrors ...And You Will Know Us By the Trail of Dead and Palm Desert postmodern metalists Queens of the Stone Age like their rock ugly and monstrous. Appropriately enough (or rather unfortunately), the two bands played the venue with the ugliest, most monstrous sound in Toronto.
For Trail of Dead, the effect was hardly flattering: with their hardcore hollers and Sonic Youthian squall pushed way up into the mix, the band's most powerful weapon -- their rhythmic intensity -- was silenced. But hey, it's not like the band was in the mood to make new friends anyway. Instead of trying to hype their recent, more melodious Interscope debut, Source Tags & Codes, Trail of Dead stretched out older cuts like "Richter Scale Madness" and "Gargoyle Waiting" to the 10-minute mark, lingering on each foreboding note while tag-team frontmen/drummers Conrad Keely and Jason Reece turned psycho preachers. It wasn't pretty, but it's nice to know that major-label contracts and Letterman appearances haven't made Trail of Dead any more palatable.
And considering they were opening for a band whose latest album is called Songs for the Deaf, Trail did a bang-up job in the eardrum-busting department. So with a tinnitus outbreak sweeping the Kool Haus, the Queens catered to the hearing-impaired with their low-end rumble, which you don't really feel so much in the ears as in the intestines.
Having escaped the spectre of their former band, molten-metal masters Kyuss (who, even in their heyday, couldn't attract the cross-section of goateed skinheads, skinny-tied fashionistas, fratboys and, yes, even hackysackers who packed the Kool Haus), Queens co-founders Josh Homme and Nick Oliveri faced a more immediate hurdle: how to top their already legendary Lee's Palace show this past June, when guest drummer Dave Grohl put on a display that made us all pray for a Foo Fighters break-up.
The Queens had no problem filling the Haus with their ominous din, but with the opening "Feel Good Hit of the Summer" failing to inspire the expected mass sing-along, the show proved to be more a workmanlike affair than a communal transcendental freakout.
The night's real revelation was that the Deaf material came off sounding as mighty as classics like "Regular John." If anything, the Queens may have erred in dropping the fearsome psych-thrash epic "Song for the Dead" (featuring guest growler Mark Lanegan) in the middle, delivering a moment of pure metallic immortality that the rest of the set couldn't hope to top. Best make that one the closer, dudes.
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Pictures by: Mark
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