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This Is A Stand Off, Broadway Calls, Artist Life, Little Millionaires @ The Horseshoe, Toronto

Tags: Bands, Broadway Calling, The Artist Life, The Little Millionaires, This is a Standoff
October 21, 2007 at 5:07 pm

On a “shitty Wednesday night” I left to go to the Horseshoe, a traditional long standing pub / bar that specializes in great promoters and great bands. Amelia from Smallman hooked me up with another pass to go and cover one of their newest additions; Broadway Calls. It wasn’t until weeks later that I realized that I would also get to see This is a Standoff which comes from the ruins of Belvedere, Deville and Forty Cent Fix. All of the sudden I had a real ragger on my hands. When I arrived to pick up my pass I was happy to see that Ben Pearlman previously of Guerilla concerts Halifax and the 902 Pavilion fame was holding the show. It’s always good to know the promoter is damn good at what he does. That in Mind, the anticipation increased as I realized I will surely get two great openers as well.

The first band I encountered were The Little Millionaires who put on a really energetic gutter punk style set. They got the crowd fairly pumped and rocked out pretty consistently throughout the entire set. They made a few mentions of not having merch for reasons of anti-corporate whatever, but I think they probably just spilled beer on their last 10 shirts and gave them away to friends. I mean c’mon now, who needs to have merch when you are a Little Millionaire? Keep an eye out for these guys, I think they are going places if they keep with this progression.

The Artist Life were up next and they turned up the energy immediately. They bring a main stream punk rock influenced sing along feel that punches you in the face with melody and structure. Their song writting is incredibly well done and most of their songs are positioned in a category that will have very broad appeal. From the expressions on their faces and the things they said between sets about supporting the touring bands to the gratitude they displayed at each interval, you could tell that they are really passionate about their own Artist Life. I think that this band is going to blow up very soon. They could be the next Ataris easily.

Broadway Calls… Yes, finally. I received their promo album like 3 months ago, right after I had surgery. I have listened the shit out of this album and finally I saw them live. I was not disappointed. Broadway Calls write anthems for a better day. They leave no casualties on their quest to pass the torch of meaning on. Lyrically there are not many bands that can fill a listener with this sort of purpose for the daily grind, but somehow they manage to sweat the devotion that makes a band great. There is clearly no under estimating their touring ability after long hauling it from Oregon directly to Toronto. This is a huge addition to the Smallman roster. Watch out for them. You will really enjoy seeing them.

This is a Standoff is a prayer answered to all those who couldn’t bare to see Belvdere, Forty Cent Fix, or Deville disband. With that said, my anticipation for this band was huge. After the last belvedere tour I realized that there was a pretty intense synergy forming between Gram Churchill and Steve Rawles. It was a monster that showed aspects from both The Hollywood Ending and Belvedere and promised to be one of the most intense punk rock collaborations of all time. Knowing that, Steve and Graham teamed up with John and Corey and formed a technical punk rock outfit for the masses. They just did a load of over seas touring and now they are back in NA. Their performance was pretty good with the exception of all the waiting around for broken strings. I wasn’t crazy impressed this time, but I hope to see them again when they’ve tightened up their stage show a bit. For now, I’ll enjoy the EP!