By: Stephen McGill –
Chris Cresswell of The Flatliners. (Photo: Stephen McGill/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)
Toronto’s The Flatliners celebrated their 10th anniversary in style with a huge homecoming show at The Opera House last night. In what seems like an impossible feat for a small four piece punk band out of Richmond Hill, they’ve managed to endure pretty much everything to get where they are. While their music has evolved and grown, it’s still the same group of guys that I saw for the very first time seven and a half years ago at the Newmarket Youth Centre. While it all began with some of the fastest, most hard hitting ska inflected punk, they’ve begun to slow things down on recent albums. Their entire catalogue was represented at this show though.
They wasted no time as they took the stage, launching into one of their biggest pre-radio hits, “Fred’s Got Slacks” from 2005’s Destroy To Create, which was immediately followed by the next two songs on that album that energized the older fans, while newer fans were thrilled to hear tracks like “Count Your Bruises” from 2010’s Cavalcade. The rest of the set burst through a strong mix of tracks both old and new, with the older stuff getting some of the best reception. Singer Chris Cresswell stated midway through their set “We used to come see all our favorite bands here,” playing off the incredible show history of the venue. The band was in great spirits, joking and talking between songs, extremely grateful to the audience that allowed them to get where they are today. Throughout their set, they rarely missed a beat, keeping the energy high. Their set clocked in at just over an hour, and with the sweat pouring off the audience, they couldn’t have handled a longer set.
Opening the show were Toronto locals The Victim Party, a band cobbled together from the remnants of some of the best punk bands that graced Toronto in the early 2000s. Playing songs from their recent LP The Worst Party On Earth and fronted by former Hostage Life lead singer Colin Lichti, they scorched through a half hour set of big punk rock anthems. Heavily relying on gang vocals and five part group choruses they made a great impression on the audience that turned out early enough to see them.
Following them were Scranton, Pennsylvania punk band The Menzingers who clearly had a big crowd of people here to see them by the surge to the front of the stage when they came on. With a short set to work with they made the most of it, rarely speaking between songs, and with singer and guitarist Tom May bouncing back and forth around the stage, the crowd shouted back the vocals thus creating an amazing atmosphere. The highlight came halfway through the set with big sing along for “The Obituaries.”
Jimmy Stadt of Polar Bear Club (Photo: Stephen McGill/Aesthetic Magazine Toronto)
Up next was Polar Bear Club out of upstate New York, who have quickly established themselves as one of the best live bands in the scene. With a set spanning their entire career they had an already devoted crowd eating right out of their hands. Singer Jimmy Stadt is a sight to see on stage, bounding about with limitless energy and with a wicked shout to match. Still touring off of last year’s excellent Clash Battle Guilt Pride, they barreled straight through an awesome set of aggressive rock. The crowd went absolutely insane for this, and while there were stage dives before, it went to a whole other level as they played, the air filled with bodies.
The Flatliners have been at it for ten years and show absolutely no signs of stopping. With new material hopefully surfacing in the spring, they’ll have another chance to show the world just how much a couple of scrappy kids from the York Region, with a lot of perseverance, can achieve.
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