Against Me! at the Guvernment, Toronto
October 1, 2007
Support: The Cancer Bats, The Dirty Tricks
I’d been listening to Against Me! since 2002 and went to see them every time they came to Toronto, but was terribly turned off of them after their 2005 release
Searching for a Former Clarity, as well as their Opera House performance, which I believe was in early 2006. I swore off ever going to one of their shows again and didn’t plan on keeping an eye out for any news from the band in years to come (which at the time I didn’t think was even going to happen), but when I saw
New Wave hit the shelves earlier this year, I couldn’t help but buy a copy.
Fortunately my AM! disdain was only temporary, and
New Wave really grew on me after a few listens. Front man Tom Gabel still had that deep, forced sounding growl on some songs that only came about on
Former Clarity but it worked a little better on this album, with a much more upbeat sound shadowing melancholy lyrics about junkies and war.
This album made a lot of older fans permanently disregard the band as “sellouts� which had been the ridiculous phrase being tossed at these guys for the last couple years. To me, AM! putting out a record like New Wave was them flipping off all those pretentious wannabe music connoisseurs, and letting them know (as they had been in interview after interview) that they don’t give a fuck what those kids think. It may seem ostentatious and slightly unintelligent to blatantly tell your fans you really don’t care what they think, but maybe it was just to show everyone they weren’t trying to fit into a niche to be the next NOFX. It’s not cool to be into a band that’s anti-establishment when they are on MTV. To a degree, this does make sense, but there’s a point where you need to look at music for what it is and not how the band is dressing and what venues their shows are at.
We got to the show a little late and just caught the tail-end of the set by Cancer Bats, who I’ve never been a big fan of, although I can’t deny they are great performers. There wasn’t too bad of a wait in between sets, and the crowd launched into some of the usual AM! singalongs while we waited, like “Sink Florida Sink.� When Warren, Tom, Andrew and James busted onto the stage looking stoked and in all black head-to-toe as usual, the crowd blew up! We decided to live it up that night, pushing our way to the front to get crushed and pump our fists in the air with the best of them.
They appropriately started the set with the opener on New Wave, which I’m not too fond of but definitely worked well to kick off the show, which was killer. The energy from the boys filled the room, and as far as I could see the whole crowd was throwing hands in the air and screaming along with every word, I think seeing Against Me! live is just as exhilarating for the audience as it is the guys themselves. They stuck to mostly new tunes, we heard “Stop,� “Up the Cuts,� and the album’s single, “Thrash Unreal,� all delivered hard and fast, which is all anyone really wants.
As much as everyone in the crowd was all trying to get on top of each other to get closer, everyone seemed pretty chilled simply happy to be there, which was quite refreshing. Instead of the slew of dirty looks you would normally get every time you push someone because somebody came flying into you, everyone was all smiles and apologies for inevitably hitting each other (well, except for the number of people who kicked me in the head while crowd surfing by, but I’m sure they felt bad). I found myself and others throwing arms around each other and swaying (as much as possible, anyway) to the songs and screaming lyrics together with people I’d never met before, exchanging excited grins when a great song would kick in. It was definitely one of the better experiences I’ve had at a punk show in Toronto, especially for an all ages show!
A highlight for me was AM! playing “Borne on the FM Waves,� which I didn’t expect since Tegan Quinn (of Tegan & Sara fame) guest vocals on the album for that song. But with James filling in for Tegan, they played one of Against Me!’s only love songs, and I think I screamed like a little girl when I heard the first few chords. The guys didn’t talk much, just a few jokes about the irony of them playing at a venue called the “Guvernment,� and other than that it was mostly a “thank you� here and there. In typical AM! fashion they blasted through the set and wrapped up quickly, but they made sure to throw in their classic “Reinventing Axl Rose� and almost shocked us by doing an encore.
They have always been fairly vocal about their disdain for encores (which I wholeheartedly love them for) but at this show they definitely all disappeared off stage for about a minute before coming back when the real shock came. They played “Baby, I’m An Anarchist!� which is a rarity to hear live, and really got us all going with our last ounces of energy to finish the night off. I left with a huge silly grin, a body covered in bruises and soaked in sweat, and this time I would say I’d definitely go back to the next Against Me! show.
