Hard milk and bad beer

by JOHNSON CUMMINS

For any self-respecting rocker, this past Friday, July 24, was chock full of decibels of delights. My first stop was at la Sala Rossa and for once, a publicized start time of 9:30 p.m. was actually true to its word, so I made it just in time to catch the pride of Athens, Georgia launch into the catchy-as-fuck “Motown” off of their incredible 2008 record, Life… The Best Game in Town. In case

Harvey Milk (the band) doesn’t register on your radar, they are underground rock legends that’ve been giving up the Melvins pounding and misanthropic riffs since you were still crowd-surfing to “Jeremy” at Lollapalooza. With a set that stuck close to the Life album, Harvey Milk pretty much blew away the unsuspecting crowd, reducing us to pools of mush with this debut Montreal performance. Sneaking in songs from The Preacher and reaching all the way back to 1994 with the pulverizing “Merlin Is Magic,” the highlight for me was the mesmerizing “A Maelstrom of Bad Decisions.”

Now here’s where things get sticky. Without a doubt, Harvey Milk considerably raised the bar for headliner Torche and you won’t find a bigger Torche fan than I, and I’m well aware that I will be in the minority here, but Torche’s punch with pop-infused sludge seemed to hit like a mere nudge compared to the punishing blows delivered by their choice of opener. Their more melodic songs, like “Grenades,” “Healer” and “Across the Shields,” were as heavy as they were upbeat, but it’s when the band really dropped the hammer on the blaster “Pirana,” the Sabbath sludge of “Sandstorm” and the easy highlights of the set, the crushing “Tarpit Carnivore” and downtrodden “Meandrathal,” that I really felt them sluggin’. Although Torche didn’t live up to their last time in town, when they opened for Boris, even on their worst day, they could kill most of the bands that are currently dipping their toes in post-metal waters. On this night, though, they just couldn’t hold a candle to Harvey Milk.

With an early end to that show, I was able to make it down to Underworld to catch one of the best hardcore bands in Canada, Toronto’s Brutal Knights. With Fucked Up/Career Suicide’s Jonah Falco temporarily filling in on drums, Brutal Knights’ thrash guitar attack was as pulverizing as ever—maybe even more so with Falco’s breakneck beats. Although Brutal Knights are easily one of the greatest hardcore bands currently falling over the monitors, and definitely proved it once again Friday night, the scene at Underworld was not punk rock in the slightest. This cash-grab gig for the Knights was part of some sort of heavily sponsored skate competition, so the “rad dudes”-to-punk rocker ratio was definitely off kilter. “Dudes” from energy drink companies were jumping onstage with cameras while the band grinned and bore it under neon advertisements for the aforementioned energy drinks and a back banner for a watch company. On more of a review tip, the beer brand that was one of several sponsors of the event, and was sold exclusively at the venue, made Brutal Knights guitarist Jon Sharron projectile vomit after only three cans. Totally not rad, brah—seriously!

SILVER BULLET-PROOF…JONATHAN.CUMMINS@GMAIL.COM