From time to time, one will attend a show simply for the sake of seeing the headlining act, and thus go in with no prior experience of what the opening acts sound like. In a situation like this, it is usually safe to say that one really enjoys the headlining act, since they attended the show just because of them. Thus, because of this bias, even if the opening bands are decent, one is inclined to enjoy the band they came for first and foremost. But to refrain from all this conditional bullshit for a moment – the average opening band, at the average show, will be decent at most, anyway. So unless one is dealing with some special, secret co-headlining tour, they will stand and clap lightly until the headliner comes on, and then promptly lose their shit.
This did not happen to me at Crime and Stereo. I really didn’t get why at the time, because they played some of my favourite songs – including a bunch of The Troubled Stateside favourites, such as “Bicycles for Afghanistan”, “Gravity/Grace”, “I, Stateside”, and surprisingly, “For Exes”. They also played with extraordinary energy, accuracy, and vocalist Kristian Hallbert even took the time to share a few kind words with the crowd; I don’t know if it’s no longer cool to do that, but not many bands seem to nowadays. But it hit me later, that it wasn’t just Crime In Stereo who put on a good performance, as Wayfarer, Lifestory Monologue, and Mockingbird, Wish Me Luck, were all equally exceptional. Particularly, Lifestory Monologue impressed me, as they were one of the more musically-minded bands, and played a very complex and drawn-out brand of atmospheric post-hardcore. They reminded me of The Dear Hunter, as partially, the whole point behind their band seemed to be with the intention of supporting an ongoing theme – an aspect of their sound that they fleshed out very well in a live setting.
With all the strong performances delivered by the openers, Crime In Stereo really had to bring it with their performance, and while it was as tight as a set of music can be, it wasn’t tight in the hardcore sense of the term. Kristian stuck to the stage for the entirety of their set, rather than ravaging the audience on the floors, so the crowd’s involvement was minimal. A bunch of die-hards moshed it out, but compared to any other hardcore show I have I attended this year, it was like a ghost town at El Mocambo. Of course, it isn’t completely the band’s fault that the attendance was poor, as half the venue seemed to vanish into thin air once their set began. It was a Wednesday night and El Mocambo isn’t the most popular venue for hardcore in Toronto. But, as countless hardcore greats have shown, one can always force the crowd into action, with a little motivational aggression. It was still a very solid set, but hopefully Crime In Stereo will think less about sounding good next time, and more about having fun.
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