Vancouver Gigs: Dear Landlord w/The Murderburgers and more

I can't keep up with the amount of gigs here. This was in a great little venue called The Media Club that was like an Irish sitting room with a small stage and dancefloor area attached.

After some initial concern that there was no sign of Dear Landlord merch/band members we shuffled up towards the stage to watch The Hextalls, a band from (according to their bookface) nearby Surrey Kamloops* (wherever the hell that is) who were playing their first gig in two years. The band were a curious affair, they had the look of a band that formed in school because it seemed like a fun idea. Friends who weren't punk enough for a punk band, metal enough for a metal band, or who just became a band because they knew each other and played the necessary instruments. Maybe I'm wrong, it just remind me of some early bands I was in.

Except unlike some of my bands, these guys had their shit together, with a (mostly) tight sound and nice vocals. Their lyrics were NOFX-esque, which sounds good except writing a song about how it's the opening song of your new album works better when you have a huge discography and thousands of fans but what harm. Having said that, if you measure how 'punk' a band is by how little fucks they give about what anyone thinks, then The Hextalls are punk as heck. They sweat, laugh, sing, and in some cases haphazardly tumble through their setlist and have some quality songs to back up their wise-cracking stage banter and unconventional looks. I mean they don't even have any mohawks..Still though, if you like fun, melodies and punk rock about drinking and regular dumb shit then these guys are right up your alley and I'm hoping to check them out again. Click their name up there ^^^ for their bookface where you can listen to songs and read more about the Surrey vs Kamloops debate.

Next up were The Murderburgers from Scotland. While it was nice to hear some Western European jokes, their set was kinda ruined for me by the Scottish Situation, some BEEFCAKE dude who looked like he was from joisey shoah but was loud and from Glasgow and had no idea of personal space or his own strength...They play fast fast fast punk rock that is angry and melodic and breakneck and breathless.All the songs kinda merged into each other though.

Dear Landlord took to the stage with very little fanfare and gave a lesson in getting the job done live. Nearly every song was played to precision and the three vocalists and instruments were barely distinguisable from how they sounded on CD. The most noteable thing besides the masterclass in having your shit down as a live band was the clusterfuck of a crowd. It was like the worst all ages battle of the bands crowd you've ever seen. About 5 people stood directly in front of the stage, maybe 12 young lads stank and push moshed all over the floor behind them and then everyone else stood towards the back and sides.

Was I uncomfortably close to them? Perhaps..

Most notable was the HARDCORE kid with the backwards baseball cap and wifebeater who kept trying to stage dive on top of about 3 people and the sweaty Rancid t-shirt guy who kept grabbing the mic and trying to stage dive on top of about 3 people... Then there was also the Asian kid who kept trying to stage dive..well you get where I'm going with this.

Dear Landlord, to their credit, battled on even as people trampled over their gear, grabbed their mics and generally sweated all over them. I think they were probably a bit disapointed that they came up to Canada to play to such a strange and small crowd. And they must be sick of playing their one album (and two or three other songs) at this stage. Maybe time to hit the studio again lads! Personally, I had a great night. The Hextalls were a fun new find, Dear Landlord were really good live and the crowd provided entertainment for all.

*Oh, and by the way, Kamloops looks amazing, hook me up with a tour if you guys are actually from there. Plus when I did a google image search this was on the first page of results -

Ain't no party like a Kamloops party!