LIVE: Klaxons Round Up The Godless
Wednesday April 11, 2007 @ 04:00 PM
By: ChartAttack.com Staff

April 8, 2007
Lee's Palace
Toronto, ON
by John Papamarko

It's no shock that Klaxons managed to pack Lee's Palace on Easter Sunday. What better time to commence their first Canadian tour than hot off the heels of being named NME's best new band of 2007? So, when most were napping off a meat hangover or stuck with family, a club full of appreciative fans caught a milestone performance in a young band's career.

Openers Bonde Do Role are a high-energy Brazilian laptop dance-hop trio who kept the crowd entertained, more with their interesting choice of samples and onstage antics than their lyrics, which were screamed almost exclusively in Portuguese. Language barrier aside, the band did their part to convince the swelling crowd that they were probably singing about sex. Lead singer Marina Ribatski treated the audience to an anatomy lesson while doing a cartwheel and used her microphone as a phallus and dry-humped her fellow bandmates, all set to deep breakbeats and samples ranging from Daft Punk to Gob Bluth's theme, "The Final Countdown."

The U.K. press has been quick to label Klaxons "new rave," which is a gimmicky and lazy interpretation of their music. The occasional use of a rave siren, bowel-churning bass and drums, and the fact that Paul Oakenfold was credited with writing "It's Not Over Yet" hardly constitutes the label. During the progression of the show, it became clear that the Klaxons probably owe more to Paul McCartney than Paul Oakenfold.

Still, the group didn't disappoint the glow stick set. "Atlantis To Interzone" whipped the room into a frenzy. The aforementioned rave siren and strong beat shook free a grungy piece of black ceiling tile that fell into the crowd just in front of the stage. Everyone was too busy getting down to give a shit. Bass player Jamie Reynolds, who towered a full foot over his next tallest bandmate, commanded the audience like a seasoned veteran with his unicorn white Rickenbacker and falsetto voice.

The Klaxons blistered through every song from the recently released Myths Of The Near Future with the pace and humility of a touring band with 100,000 miles under their belts. This Easter, in the ongoing battle of Jesus vs. rock 'n' roll, rock 'n' roll won hands down.