Last night, it was the eagerly awaited Montreal stop of the Combichrist Today We Are All Demons Tour. First off, what the fuck was with the ridiculous line up to for coat check? The line up almost seemed longer than the line up for Black Mondays… fortunately my car was just outside, but still…
Opening this tour for Combichrist has been the band Black Light Burns, and fuck, my impression last night was that they should have been burnt at the stake. Then this morning, I was doing a little research, and I may/might have to extinguish my match. Black Light Burns is fronted by former Limp Bizkit member Wes Borland, along with bandmates with equally impressive backgrounds. So I checked out their myspace page, and the songs all sound much better. So in all fairness, I think I was turned off by the way the sound guy set the room up. Foufounes Electriques usually has fantastic sound, or at least has had for all the concerts I have seen there. But last night Black Light Burns sounded like a Pantera playing in a shitty radio with the volume cranked. Just grinding guitars, grinding bass, grinding drums and vocals grinding it all together. Well… it was too ground up for me.
After the disappointment of Black Light Burns, we had nowhere to go but up. And Combichrist took us there. Thumping drums, keyboards and vocals made this awesome. The energy on Fouf’s small stage made for a really great show. And man, it was crazy energy. Andy LaPlegua leads the march! Older favorites like “This Shit Will Fuck You Up” and “Without Emotions” were cranked out with rhythmic precision along with some new dance floor hits like “Get Your Body Beat” and my favorite from last night “Today We Are All Demons.” It was an amazing show.
The only downside was the lousy sound… not one bass thump in my stomach. At least I have Icon of Coil to look forward to in 3 months, and hopefully with a new soundman…