The Weakerthans / Trailers / The Paperbacks

live in Montreal (2004)

Punkass83

The first band, which was completely new to me, was called The Paperbacks, from Winnipeg I believe. They played about a half hour of decent indie-rockish type music. Not really my cup of tea but I guess they got the mood going and quite a few people seemed to be appreciating them. The singer had this funny way of moving around on stage which I thought was kind of weird and repetitive but then again, I don't really care how the damn guy moves around if he knows how to play music right? So basically, I didn't really know what to expect and even though I haven't bought their music, I still think they put on a pretty good performance.

Next up : Trailers. Ok, once again really not my cup of tea. I think it's fairly clear by now that I was there for The Weakerthans. Therefore I didn't really think much of their set except that the female singer had a really nice voice and her violin playing was a change from what I usually listen to. There were a bunch of people yelling out I love you every time she finished singing which was kind of amusing. My girlfriend liked their show and I must admit she usually has good taste in music so I guess for the people who are into that genre it must have been pretty decent. I think it could be classified as something including blues and rock. I won't start trying to label into a certain genre that I know nothing about.

And now, for the moment I was so impatiently waiting for. The Weakerthans put on a really amazing show from start to finish. They sounded exactly like on CD except much more energetic. I'll admit right now, I'm not the type to memorize their whole set list and the order in which the songs were played. However, to give you a good idea, they played almost all of the songs on Reconstruction Site, slipping in songs from their other albums in between. Halfway through the show, the singer told us a funny anecdote about a statue and a mother with her child when they were touring in Providence which was quite amusing. There's something about the way he told the story and the way he used the end of the story to introduce the next song which really got to me. I've been thinking about it ever since. After the set, the singer came back on solo for the encore and sang "One Great City" which was awesome. To my great delight the whole band came back afterwards and played 3 or 4 more songs before leaving the stage again. What was even more amazing is that the crowd just kept cheering and cheering and the band came back once again and sang two more songs and seemed really surprised that people were so passionate about their music in a very French town like Montreal.

In total, the Weakerthans' set lasted nearly an hour and a half, probably among the longest sets I've witnessed and I think everyone in the room that night could have stayed the whole night to listen to them play out song after song of pure genius. Thanks to the Weakerthans for a show I will not forget anytime soon. Please come back to Montreal in the near future. Now the Weakerthans need to get together for a tour with Against Me! and I will die a happy man.