Thursday's Taste Of Chaos Set Suffers

Kool Haus

Toronto, ON

on Apr 8 2009

Sheena Lyonnais (CHARTattack)

04/09/2009 3:31pm

This was the second last show on the two-month Taste Of Chaos tour, but you'd never know it by the calibre of energy and excitement that all five bands brought to the stage.

The tour focuses on hardcore/screamo music, but the crowd focused on fashion. I saw young girls restraightening their hair in the washroom between sets, which is apparently what it means to be "hardcore" these days.

Massachusetts' Four Year Strong were first to take the stage. They switched erratically between slightly heavy tracks and pop-punk songs. "Men Are From Mars, Women Are From Hell" and "Bada Bing Wit' A Pipe" have gimmicky titles but wicked catchy choruses and fun beats. They were great openers and succeeded in both pumping up the crowd and owning the stage.

Pierce The Veil, hometown heroes Cancer Bats and the U.K.'s Bring Me The Horizon all have sounds perfectly in line with the Taste Of Chaos brand. They were heavy, crunchy bands that the crowd loved, and they encouraged circle pits and singalongs. They shredded metal riffs while chaotically running around the stage headbanging and screaming with conviction. This tour obviously created a great camaraderie amongst the musicians, because they often joined each other to sing on stage.

Bring Me The Horizon were the clear crowd favourites. If you couldn't tell by the screaming, you could by the copious amounts of "I partied naked with BMTH" T-shirts in the audience. "Chelsea Smile" and "Sleep With One Eye Open" resulted in sweaty, rough mosh pits and total anarchy. These skinny Brits put the Chaos in this tour, that's for sure.

Thursday are one of my personal favourite bands, but unfortunately the majority of people at this show either didn't know or didn't care about these post-hardcore heroes. Instead, everyone left after BMTH. Literally. I've never seen anything like this, where almost the entire crowd leaves before the headlining band. I interviewed guitarist Tom Keeley a couple of weeks ago and he warned me this was happening, but I thought he was exaggerating. I was wrong.

All four prior bands were extremely fun, but when put next to Thursday, their poop jokes and party songs seem extremely amateur. It's a shame everyone left because Thursday still play with a lot of heart and passion. The 50 of us who stayed were extremely blessed because Thursday played with every ounce of energy in their bodies.

They opened with "At This Velocity" and tore through old favourites "Cross Out The Eyes," "Understanding In A Car Crash" and new track "Resuscitation Of A Dead Man" before ending with "War All The Time."

The set was only an hour and the crowd was small, but determined. The lights went on after the last guitar strum, but the cheering brought Thursday back once more for an encore of "Autobiography Of A Nation."

This tour must be very discouraging for Thursday and I wouldn't be surprised if this was their last show in Toronto. It's clear that singer Geoff Rickly is still an idol to some, but the sparse crowd at this point probably isn't worth the border hassles. That said, this was a great show to go out on. It's just a shame that all the kids decided to stick to their curfews.