Last night I attended the release show for Titan’s new album Burn at Sneaky Dee’s here in Toronto with locals Vilipend, Greys, and Rising Crust. It was quite a fun show I can tell you.
The guys in Titan just got off their European tour and returned to showcase the new album performing five tracks from the album, while Vilipend were also showing off their soon to be released album Inamorata (which was being sold as well), while local crusty hardcore outfit Rising Crust opened the show with torrents of energy. I managed to film both Vilipend’s and Titan’s entire sets which you can watch below. Local punk rockers Greys were great as well, cracking wise on stage and performing a few rarer tracks too.
Rising Crust (who’s record you can stream on their bandcamp page) opened with some high-energy, fast and shirtless hardcore which surprised me. The guitarist and vocalist were having loads of fun with each other, at various points sharing the mic and messing with each other — knocking each other down, the guitarist losing his guitar as his strap came loose, crawling on top and shoving playfully. It didn’t mess up the music either which was caustic and blazing, a thick film of bass running through every song and at points angular.
I took breaks between each sets, and so did a lot of people; I saw a lot of local band members coming in and out. I went back up and was watching the next band Greys set up, who pretended to be Young Widows (which I admittedly fell for because I’m a sucker like that) and billed it as their “secret show”. They started their set and at this point the crowd was a little bigger. A few songs in they made some jokes about AIDS, partly at the expense of their drummer who had the flu; it had me laughing as I’m all about the cringey, darker humor and the rest of the crowd enjoyed it as well.
Vilipend’s set-list was as follows: “Fool’s Gold”, “Cutting Heartstrings [Erosion]”, “The Last Stand of the Hopeless Romantic”, “Great White Nothing”, “The Thin Red Line Between Salvation and Damnation”, and “Farewell, Cruel Girl”. I’ve seen them a few times before this and they’ve played a few of these at those shows but it’s always awesome to here them live. Bassist Mike Crossley was recently caught up in a controversy here in Toronto where a renter wouldn’t allow him to take an appartment because of the music he plays, specifically because they were “uncomfortable with the energy that this music manifests.” If it wasn’t for it being a hurdle to getting a place to live I would take that as a glowing recommendation for their music. However, being the professional gentleman he is it was not mentioned, and they immediately stormed into their set with great aggression. Vocalist Chris occasionally rushed into the crowd and pulled the monitors on stage on top of himself. The new songs sounded excellent live, a few of which I was hearing for the first time. Check out the full set below:
And finally the headliners. Titan’s set-list was: “Feast”, “Myopic”, “Warmer Months”, “Little Seeds” and “The Fire Sculptures”. I saw them before they took of for Europe and they played most of these, but they never lose their impact regardless of how many times I hear them; they’re my favorites from the new record. By the time they went on stage it was one of their guitarist’s (Chris) birthday so I imagine it made the show a little more special for him. Between songs James made some friendly banter with the crowd, some regarding his mustache (which he will be keeping), being anarchists for putting their record out for free (or was it nihilists?) and others about the recent tour and friends at the show. The set was sick (as you can see below in full), the sound was great; especially Jame’s vocals which were monstrous:
You can grab a vinyl copy of Titan’s new record from either Hypaethral Records or React With Protest if you’re in Europe (or via bandcamp, pay-what-you-want), and Vilipend’s new record is up for pre-order A389 Records; both of which I recommend picking up.
EDIT: I’m a mark. Article edited for accurate information regarding Greys. Young Widows were not there, Grey’s were fuckin’ around and I irresponsibly posted inaccurate information. Apologies to all.
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