I Already Took That...

I have an excuse this time! I was actually out, watching real, live music. The Pack A.D. were playing Gus' Pub (as I mentioned earlier on here) last night - which I forgot was even going on until I got to work Monday morning. Could I scramble to find enough friends to go? Could I find out what time the show was? Could I figure out if there was cover? Could I survive going to what's sometimes one of the most hardcore punk venues in all of Halifax (not to mention already being in the deja sketchy North End of the city) dressed in my work-best tucked-in polo, casual dress pants, glasses and black dress shoes? Well, read on!

The quick answers though? Two. 10pm. $5. Wear layers and always have a pair of adidas in the car.

I had read earlier in the day Gus' is pretty cramped on the inside, and that may have been an understatement. There were, I dunno, eight or ten tables in the place, and half the bar was glassed off for people playing VLT's. For a mental picture, think of your favorite small bar...then slice it down the middle lengthwise. For an actual picture, well, this is pretty much what it woulda looked like from where we were sitting.

My friend and I got there early and waited for our third to show up. We flipped open an issue of The Coast to see it touting that night's particular show. While doing that, a girl came over and grabbed what we thought was an abandoned pitcher and more-empty-than-full glass, with my friend quipping that "I guess the table wasn't free," like we thought it was. It was only afterwards I looked over to where the girl settled back to her seat to across the bar, checked back in The Coast, and realized we had, in fact, stolen the headliner's table. Only on a Canadian indie-band bar tour everyone, thank you!

All that aside, The Superfantastics were the first openers that night. I've seen them once opening for The Constantines and The Weakerthans, and for a two-piece boy-girl band, they...well, they sound pretty much like what a two-piece boy-girl band would sound like if the girl was on the drums instead of lead vocals. She's a ferocious and precise drummer, cute in an alternative kinda way, and she seemed to be staring around for much of the set. Don't get me wrong, she still delivered a great performance, but it was almost like she wasn't even there during the actual songs. The between song banter between the two themselves, the crowd, and even with The Pack A.D. was good for a few laughs, and the music was happy indie pop-rock.

The duo really hit their stride at the midpoint of their set, then lulled a bit after vocalist and guitarist Matthew MacDonald switched his regular guitar over for something more surf-rock-y. They happened to kill the last song and left us admittedly hoping for more tunes in that vein, but it was solid either way. The acoustics and equipment are nowhere near extraordinary at Gus' Pub (could you guess? just by looking at the name?) so The Superfantastics definitely sounded better when I saw them at the bigger and better-equipped Palace, but nice opener nonetheless.

The Stance were up next, but I'll save you and I alot of time and suffice it to say neither my friends nor I were anywhere near impressed with them. Overall, they just sounded empty. I was gonna write the drums sounded empty...then I realized: so did the guitars...and so did the lead singer's voice. I dunno. It was like everything was just...there. I commented afterwards that they had a few good pieces, a few good parts here and there, but it never really meshed at all. They were just loud and basically "played their instruments," right down to the lead singer. I mean, here, check 'em out, maybe it was just us or the acoustics - and that's quite possible given that the crowd possibly maxed out during The Stance's show, then started to peel off one-by-one before and during The Pack's set. Personally though, I think that said more about The Stance having a lot more friends in Halifax turn out for their show than the Vancouver headliners did.

Speaking of them: they rocked it. I cannot stress that enough. I had been saying to everyone who was wondering what kind of show it was that they had a White Stripes-ish sound to them, given their blues-rock lilt. Little did I know that when we walked away that night, we'd be saying they were like a straight up cross between Janis Joplin and Stripes. If The Superfantastic's drummer was ferocious, then Maya on The Pack's drums was just hellacious. She was attacking those poor skins, looking out of control, but delivering pin-point hits every song.

The lead singer Becky had the aforementioned likeness to Janis Joplin, with a dark growl and gravelly texture to her voice, perfect for swamp- and blues-rock. The first few times I heard her, I was still debating whether or not it was a guy singing lead. During the show though, we didn't care that you could barely understand what she was saying for the first few songs; lyrics weren't the point here; jamming out most certainly was.

They had everything. Cavernous guitar solos, slides, stop-and-starts, false-endings galore. These girls obviously know what they're doing and have every trick down to a science. Not an off note, not an off beat, nothing. Just plain old in-your-face rock and roll. I kept looking back to see if my friends were enjoying it, because I'd shuffled up a bit to get closer to the action, so I was never really sure if the other two were into it quite as much as I was. The girls in front of me however I had no doubt about. I've frankly never seen such manic or enthusiastic dancing to rock, and believe me, if I was a little less self-conscious and a little more alchohol-enabled, I may have been right there with them.

The Pack's sound was infectious and I - along with most others when they announced they'd only be doing two more songs - didn't want it to end. Also, suprisingly, they didn't play "Making Gestures," the song that turned me onto them and fostered my White Stripes comparisons. If you read my Virgin Festival recap, then you'd know how egregious that kind of concert slight is to me, but this time...I frankly didn't care. They rocked my socks off with or without that one, and given the rest of their catalogue on display that night, I really didn't miss it. And neither did my friends, who actually thanked me for clueing them into the show that night. That's a great feeling as a music fan, sharing something you really like and finding someone else who appreciates it. The fact it was a live show and not a simple swap of mp3's just added to that.

The Pack A.D. plays New Minas tonight, if there's anybody willing to make the trek or who's already there. Otherwise, they're still on the rise on the national indie scene, and hopefully they'll be back here in no time. They've admittedly been touring non-stop. Check out their MySpace here, and their CBC Radio 3 page here.