Tuesday night I was treated to a free concert thanks to Molson Canadian & The Edge.
It was part of the Molson Canadian Revealed series and I won the text messaging contest tickets for knowing that Billy Talent is from Streetsville (Thank you dogpile.com).
So 2 free tix, a larger than small band and a small venue (Phoenix) sounded like a good time.
A pleasant surprise - when we arrived we discovered the drinks were free too!
So Canadian & Cold Shots on Molson! They also gave out Taxi vouchers after the show. Free booze, tickets and rides home ... I love it!
The opening act was Ill Scarlet, never has a band tried so hard to sound like another. They should be a Sublime cover band.
You might know their "hit" right now (starts with -> We're all ... living in a police state). Okay ... but I didn't get really into them.
Billy Talent took the stage after a half hour wait (10:15) and launched into a song I don't know.
In the interest of full disclosure I only knew their singles (about 6 or 7 off 2 albums) and thought they were too poppish.
The second one was Devil in a midnight mass and then a string of songs I didn't know.
2 things happened, I started liking the songs, these guys are much more talented and maybe they are the rare exception where commercial success is somewhat justified (STP comes to mind as a band that was underrated and successful).
The other thing that happened, and this made me respect them is when the shirtless Ben (lead singer) made the following announcement - directed mostly at the moshers and crowd surfers - "If someone falls, pick them up. Guys, be kind to the ladies. Because at a Billy Talent show it's not about the size of your dick, but the size of your heart. We're not fuckin' Limp Bizkit here." ... nice!
They eventually played all the singles (I think) and ended with Try Honesty & Red Flag for the encore.
A solid 75 minutes. Reminded me of Foo Fighters, just a ton of energy.
But the comparison I want to make from now on will be to Black Flag/Rollins Band & Iggy Pop (a clear influence as his Nude & Rude was playing between the acts). So they've got that going for them which is nice.
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