I was going to write something about this show, but my friend Luke wrote this up last night and posted it on his blog. I have already sent an email of disgust to Soundwave Touring and an email of thanks to Title Fight. I have mixed feelings, I love that I got to see Title Fight and Touche Amore, I hate the circumstance. Anyway, you can check out Luke's blog at: http://waitingandwasting.tumblr.com
(It’s 2am and I just got home. I had to write this down before I slept. Apologies if it’s messy.)
I need to write about this show.
If you check my tumblr you will see two photos I posted below this. One of the anti-moshing posters that lined the entrance to the venue and one of the size of the venue itself. These two things combined with the security (seemingly led by everyone’s favourite Kelso) created a strange atmosphere throughout the show.
To put it simply, there was no atmosphere to begin with. This had nothing to do with the bands. Headaches played first and did well, despite a lot of the crowd not knowing them, and a lot of people not arriving yet. The latter caused the sound to echo a bit more than it would have had the room been full and that was a bit of a bummer.
Then Break Even played and put on the energetic show that they always do. But, there was just no atmosphere. There was a large crowd watching them, but nobody was moving. Not up and down, not even side to side. Just still. Why? Because they knew that if they did move Captain Kelso would be right there to haul them out. And that’s exactly what he did to the couple of people who dared to allow their feet to leave the ground during the band’s set. Tensions started to grow.
Touche Amore were up next and brought an energy to the stage that managed to transcend to the crowd. People moved. No one moshed or stage dived, but people started to move around and enjoy themselves. And no one was kicked out. Until the last song. A guy (a member of Open Sea I think) crowd surfed and Captain Kelso grabbed him. If you look at the photo of the stage I posted below you will see a stack of speakers to the right. That’s where Kelso stood throughout most of the band’s sets. He just stood there, practically on stage with the band, and folded his arms and cemented his position as a member of the fun police.
Anyway, when the guy crowd surfed, Captain Kelso pushed past the Touche Amore guitarist and stood in the middle of the stage and dragged him out by his feet. He then proceeded to kick him from the venue. Jeremy Bolm from Touche Amore did not like this. Imagine the deepest, darkest death stare you have ever seen and that was the look coming from Bolm for the rest of the song. He stared at Captain Kelso as he kicked the guy out, and as soon as their set finished he went outside and brought the guy back in.
People were angry by this stage. Angry and frustrated. I know, every bigger show has security, but Captain Kelso was something else. His presence ON STAGE WHILE THE BANDS WERE TRYING TO DO WHAT THEY DO FOR A LIVING was downright rude disrespectful to the band and to everyone who had paid $50 for a ticket. He single handedly created a vibe that everyone in the venue could feel. Frustration was rising and everyone was talking about it. People spoke of everyone stage diving during the last Title Fight song. People are usually all talk.
Not this time.
Title Fight began and the crowd were well and truly ready to enjoy themselves. A circle pit broke out for a little bit and people jumped on each other. It built to the point that the Title Fight bassist and vocalist, Ned Russin, took to the microphone between songs to talk about it. I can’t remember his speech verbatim, but this is pretty close:
“We’re playing here in a museum, and that’s really cool. A lot of paintings and art have been displayed here, but this is a form of art too. Just because we choose to express it by jumping off stages doesn’t mean we are animals.”
Then Title Fight played their last song, and things went crazy. Kids climbed on stage and jumped everywhere. Captain Kelso did not approve and attempted to stop anyone he could reach. He grabbed a kid and physically threw him to the side of the stage. This was the last straw.
A member of the touring party (I won’t say who cause the cops are actually involved apparently. What a joke) upon seeing Captain Kelso’s complete disregard for the safety of those in crowd while “protecting those in the crowd” hit him, picked him up and threw him off stage. He was then chased from the room.
This was all the crowd needed to see. Stage dives broke out every where. Almost instantly the sound was cut off by security. The rest of the song was finished with drums only and the voices of the fans. It was actually crazy. A kid flipped off a speaker stack.
The scene after was not pretty. Captain Kelso had returned (after calling the police apparently) and ordered everyone out. This included anyone trying to buy merch and the band members selling the merch themselves. These two hardcore influenced bands had flown halfway around the world to play shows and were not being allowed to sell their merch because their fans had the audacity to enjoy their music.
The police had arrived by the time everyone had gotten outside. Looked like three squad cars. I’m not sure what happened after that because I left, but I know that two of the cars left straight away. As I was leaving I did get to hear Captain Kelso have one last hurrah. “I’m pressing charges, you’ll never play in this country again!” he yelled.
Oh yeah? Show me your witnesses and I’ll show you the bands. All 300 or so of them.
