QOSTA, Trail Of Dead And Burning Brides Rock Heavily

Kool Haus

Toronto, ON

on Sep 7 2002

Keith Carman (CHARTattack)

09/09/2002 4:00pm

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.