All doubts smashed to smithereens

Fri Oct 14, 2010: Before last night's show, I was worried about what the crowd reaction would be like in Montreal. Mass of the Fermenting Dregs, uhnellys, susquatch and sgt set the bar damn high earning two nods for best show of 2010 in the Montreal Mirror. To recap last night's show at Divan Orange: Devil Eyes tore it up!!! They were so damn helpful in mitigating crises leading up to the show's start and they really got the crowd heated before passing the torch. Natsumen loved Matt's herbs and sp(liff)ices. Chiina won the award for best sound. Kudos to the PA man. They worked together like peanut butter and honey to create a sublime synergy of sonic bliss. I think chiina also sold the most CDs by a fair margin. Hyacca did not get a chance to rehearse or sound check at all. They were actually quite subpar compared to their usual badassery,... but not in the eyes of the Montreal crowd. They f*cking LOVED it!! Well maybe the portion of the crowd who aren't partisan to loud, unpasteurized, kick in the nuts music were too busy buying chiina CDs and all you could hear was a roar after each song by hyacca. However, the only "moshing" was courtesy of me, Matt & Emily and a couple bystanders and it was a "chuuta hanpa" effort at that. Both hyacca and I admit they were off their game. But even at 60% with lasers set to Indian rug burn, hyacca will face melt anything in it's path and leave the audience in a state of nirvana. Akai Ko-en. .. .. Holysh*tmotherofgod. That was one of the best performances i've ever seen in my life. These girls cannot possibly be just 19 years of age. Almost everyone agreed they were the highlight of last night's show. (edit: Akai Ko-en were the 1st band to play the following night. The crowd roared for an encore... for the 1st band!! People who showed up late were extremely choked when they found out they missed Akai Ko-en)

Natsumen had massive shoes to fill having to go on after Akai Ko-en. Did they bring it? Hell, they could mail in a performance from a toilet seat and still amaze the crowd with their effortless talent. But seeing how Akai Ko-en just absolutely KILLED it, they had to step up their game a bit. Natsumen kept the intnsity just as high as Akai Ko-en playing the 3 bonafide classics: "Newsummerboy" "Atami Free Zone" and "Natsu no Mujina" They also played "No Reason Up to the Death" which had the crowd in a state of bowel incompetence from the sickly awesome freak outs and tempo changes. To be honest, I'm not sure how much I like the new song "semi." It's definitely solid but seems to borrow melodies/elements from songs past. But yeah, as routine they ended their set with Natsu no Mujina and it never fails to "turn this mutha out!"

Akai Ko-en definitely continued their legend from Tokyo onto Montreal.