Ultrasonic boom

>> The flap around Toronto
sludge-punks Cancer Bats

SONAR, SO GOOD: Cancer Bats

By JOHNSON CUMMINS

The first time I ran into Toronto’s Cancer Bats, they were so bright-eyed and bushy-tailed, they might have just fallen off the punk rock turnip truck. It was 2005 and the band were doing one of their first shows outside of their hometown, at an unassuming, DIY venue on Bleury called Fort Moshington. After being asked to take off your shoes at the front door, you made it up three steps to a living room, where the band were squeezed into a corner freed up by moving the Fort’s couch. Even a jaded hack like me was blown away by these apple-cheeked teens combining doomy sludge and blistering punk.

Over the phone while en route to San Francisco almost three years later, singer Liam Cormier seems just as excited as he was when selling CDRs next to the collection of boots by the front door of Fort Moshington. “Oh yeah, I totally remember that show,” he says. “That was really fun. Things have definitely changed a bit since then. We got a new drummer and a new bass player, but we’ve pretty much been cranking it since then.”

Since blowing away the capacity crowd of 20 people that night, Cancer Bats have been keeping busy, releasing their debut Birthing the Giant in 2006, which led to them touring all over the world, supporting NOFX and youngbloods like Alexisonfire, Every Time I Die, Buried Inside and more. Cancer Bats have already been singled out by aggressive rock media as the band to watch out for in ’08, with their new record Hail Destroyer set for release in April.

“Since our first record came out, I started to keep track, and we’ve done over 250 shows touring for that record,” says Cormier. “Touring can be really hard, for sure, especially when we were starting out, because we were always incredibly broke and we still had to learn about things like how hard it is having girlfriends and stuff like that when you’re never home. At the same time, though, we really have a lot of fun with what we’re doing and we still have a lot of fun with each other. We’ll come back from a tour and I’ll unpack my bags, and then call up my drummer and ask him if he wants to hang out.”

Cormier even called Montreal home briefly, from 2001 to 2004, having moved here for largely romantic reasons. “I started the band in Montreal, which she hated, but after we broke up, I decided I would do the band full-time and really felt I would need to do it in Toronto. Montreal is such an amazing city and is still one of my favourite cities in the world. There are always good shows going on, great bars and great places to eat, and it’s just so laid back. It’s just the perfect place to be if you want to move some place and do nothing. I guess Toronto is the place you go if you want to get busy.”

With guests at Foufounes
Électriques on Wednesday,
Feb. 6, 8 p.m., $12