*** PILE / ANIMAL FACES / LIFE IN VACUUM / WORST GIFT show review ***

On May 16th, 2015 I packed my distro stuff into a tiny car with my friend and drove to Toronto to watch a very anticipated show for many reasons. It was the first Animal Faces show of 2015. It was Pile's first time in Canada. It was Worst Gift's one-year showiversary. And Life In Vacuum topped it all off to make the bill one of the strongest I've seen in some time.

*** Go HERE to watch all 19 videos from the show ***

WORST GIFT
The band began by informing us that it was the first anniversary of their first show which you can watch in full here. This was easily the best show I've seen them play and by the amount of people in the room I think the vibe helped influence that. Darryl himself told me how amazing it felt to be at that show because everyone was just so damn excited. Worst Gift has crafted a truly unique sound that touches on a few obscure bands but direct comparisons are futile. I try to imagine North Of America meets No Tongue and Sonic Youth (not obscure, I know). Hmmm, that's not a half bad comparison. I've always enjoyed watching each band member and tonight was no exception, but Darryl in particular displayed some amazing drumming skills which can be watched in all four videos from Worst Gift's full set, especially the first video. The slowdown halfway through the second song, "Immoral Inventory (Life as We Blow it)" is spectacular and truly entrancing. You can see myself and the rest of the visible crowd get fucking down with that shit. I will be helping release their debut 12"LP on my label Zegema Beach Records and a few others including (but not limited to) Gary/Good Post Day Records and Bobby/The Ghost Is Clear Records. You can currently stream the record in its entirety here.
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LIFE IN VACUUM

These three fellas are on the cusp of being a well-known indie/punk/sass band in many parts of North America and not too far away from blowing the fuck up. They played amazing as per usual and there's a lot of camera shaking going on because these guys kill it every fucking time. They dropped some of my faves from '5' such as "The Edge of Boredom", "1984", "You Do It to Yourself" and "Van Life" along with the three new songs that will appear on the Joliette split and will be released later this year. The titles for those are "Intro", "Black Snow" and "New Blood" and all three are fan-freaking-tastic live. I've also heard the demos for "Intro" and "Black Snow" and those floored me. My favourite part of the set was when they played "Van Life" and I sang along so loud that you can see Sasha turn to see who's belting out such out of tune warbling at the 1:53-mark. When I got home and watched it I almost cried. Damn I love this band and the guys so much it's downright silly.
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ANIMAL FACES
The first time I saw Animal Faces all the songs they played were of the heavier variety. The last time I saw them they played one heavy song amidst a nearly full set of soft material. On May 16th the band played a perfect mix of hard and soft, old and new as well as a long set because the drummer, Aaron, flew back from England just to play this show! The new song was about six minutes long and is crazy anthemic in terms of the huge crescendo just after a third of the way through. They also played a few of my favourites including "Half Asleep", "Hold On", "Breathe Lightly" and "Forward Through". Excellent set that had the crowd going apeshit.
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PILE
The show was running rather late by the end as I had to head out before 2am beacuse I had to work at 8:30 the next morning and I had an hour drive ahead of me after packing all of my ZBR distro shit back in the car. I was able to watch about six songs, record three and hear another two or so on my way out and I was impressed but didn't get nearly as into the band as most of the crowd. Apparently these guys are really hot shit because all of my friends at the concert kept raving about them while I had never heard them nor heard of them before. Regardless it was cool to see a spastic and punk rock version of Queens Of The Stone Age, which was the most obvious impression that I got. You may notice in the videos how stoked everyone is to see Pile for the first time in Toronto and how smashed many are, to boot.
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One of the best shows I've been to in a long time. Toronto you are kicking my ass right now.