So last Tuesday was when the Legacy Tour arrived on the scene in Montreal and me and the boys humped it, 5 dudes cramped in a tiny Toyota, for what was to be quite the interesting evening.Prior to this trip, I'd never seen a show down at La Tulipe. The venue itself isn't bad, average size, average acoustics - hell, pretty plain average, but decent. The one problem is with their advertisement of upcoming shows and a bit of a SNAFU on the part of the tour organizers.
The Legacy Tour was comprised of Darkest Hour celebrating their 15th anniversary as a band, Veil of Maya, Periphery and Revocation. This lineup in itself justified the quick drive down to get our faces melted and heads Djented off.
Remember I mentioned advertising? There's a reason. Apparently the Legacy Tour was, for one day only (I'm assuming) merging with another tour passing through the city and instead became Extensive Fest. This fact brought in some pleasant surprises and some disappointments.
The other tour which merged with the Legacy tour ended up featuring The Acacia Strain, Terror, The Red Chord, Gaza and The Contortionist. Altogether a pretty diverse and strong lineup, with some good performances from all of the headliners and co-headliners.The problem is when you put this many bands together, you get short sets - and when transitions sometimes don't go as planned, even shorter sets.
This was probably my biggest gripe, as my friends and myself included came down to see four bands and not nine. While that might not sound like a let down (dude, you get MOAR!), the fact remained that the majority of my friends were primarily focused on getting in some quality performances from those four groups.
Prime focus however, were some sick Djentings from Periphery. While we did get some, their set was cut to an abysmally short 20 to 25 minutes, which was probably the low point of the night. Periphery ended up getting yanked from the stage before they could really get a great groove on - and before they could let loose the new version of Frak The Gods which should be appearing on their forthcoming EP.
The trade-off however was that we got to hang out and talk with Misha Mansoor and the other band members in between sets and outside the venue. And got to confirm his lineage and place of origin - grats to me and Luc on totally calling that.
Second gripe? Hardcore Dancers. People can argue it's part of the experience, but only to an extent. When 8-12 guys are occupying 75% of the show floor so they can grab for falling coins and flail around like someone with epilepsy on speed, there's a problem.
I've got no problem with getting a little banged up when you mosh or do a circle pit, that's part of the experience. Getting kicked in the shins, elbowed in the ribs and kidney punched by douchebags who need to take the stickers off of their NY Yankee caps, that's not what I call collateral damage - it's what I would call a death wish if I see you lolly-gagging during some gnarly pit movements.
Worst moment goes to Wannabe Dallas Green who dove from above the show floor, into the back of the crowd - yeah, from behind - and knocked over a few people and kicked me in the back of the head. I hope you trip and fall into a vat of piranhas.
Douchebags aside, the rest show was pretty decent, and the rest of the bands we intended to see did not disappoint.
Revocation played a short set early into the evening and despite my prior lack of knowledge of most of their material, still managed to provide a good tone for the rest of the evening.
Once again, Veil of Maya brought on the hurt with their brutal breakdowns and powerful presence. I've said it before that these guys are an easy show stealer on almost any tour, but I would easily place them near the top of my list as being one of the best bands to see live.Show-stealers or not, the night belonged to Darkest Hour.
It was somewhat sad that nearly half of the venue cleared out when they hit the stage - 90% of the hardcore dancers and scene kids left, leaving a somewhat vacant show floor. But it was all for the better, as you didn't have to constantly keep your eye out for any potential bullshit and focus on enjoying the show.
Darkest Hour played through songs from their entire catalog in celebration of their 15 years as a band and it provided a fair bit of nostalgia, as they're a band I've been pretty familiar with for the past decade.
The highest point of their set was when they pulled out and setup the two acoustic guitars for Veritas Aequitas and played a magnificent extended version of their instrumental classic. They also played my personal favorite track, Demon(s) near the end of their set, which definitely made the prior disappointments of the evening just disappear.
At least until the next morning when I woke up pretty sore, to go into a 12 hour day of class after only four hours of sleep. But as always, no rest for the wicked.
And now for a public service announcement:
Remember, if you see a Hardcore Dancer, show him proper venue and moshing etiquette. If he doesn't listen, kick him into a circle pit - he'll learn eventually.
- J
