Billy Talent, Rise Against, Anti-Flag, Moneen – Live (Jan. 24th, 2007)

Live at the Calgary Pengrowth Saddledome (the same massive arena the Calgary Flames play at) a small band from Ontario, Canada took the stage by the name of Moneen. Moneen had the tough job of opening for Anti-Flag, Rise Against and the main headliner Billy Talent on this epic arena tour with stops throughout most of Canada. They decided to open with the fast paced “If Tragedy’s Appealing, Then Disaster’s An Addiction”, and right from the start you could tell that they had their work cut out for them. Nobody in the crowd was moving, the floor only about 1/4 full and the stands filled with empty seats.

Not too many people show up for openers, especially smaller bands nobody has heard of before and unfortunately Moneen are one of those bands. For those few Moneen fans and Billy Talent fans who decided to show up at 7 were treated to a spectacular albeit short opening act. Pausing after their incredible opening song, Kenny Bridges stopped to welcome the crowd shouting out to Calgary while leading into the fan favourite “Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now”. While it is usually a loud sing along at Moneen shows, at this concert it was the song that would catch peoples ears and turn heads toward the stage as interest in the softest band on the trek gathered. Now holding the crowds attention, the lights dimmed to a pale blue color setting the mood for the delicate “This Is All Bigger Than Me” which came to life during the bridge with some awesome strobe lighting effects. After about 20 minutes the set had to end and closed with the energetic “Passing Of America” and “Don’t Ever Tell Locke What He Can’t Do”. While only playing 5 songs in front of a very small crowd, Moneen acted like the headliner and managed to make sure they wouldn’t be forgotten amongst the rest of the nights acts. Besides amazing live versions of their songs, highlights included Kenny’s non stop bouncing and movement across the stage, a Moneen led audience stretch and of course Hippy’s dreads.

Shortly after a brief stage set up and the arrival of more fans, Anti-Flag walked on stage to the familiar tune of the American anthem being played on guitar. They started their night with an upbeat and lively song that I didn’t recognize but it was obvious many in the crowd did as they sang along to each word in the chorus. Not expecting much from Anti-Flag I was pleasantly surprised as they put on a decent show are were able to involve the crowd in various chants and rallying speeches about power. Drilling through songs like “Turncoat”, “Underground Network”, and the catchy “This Is The End”, Anti-Flag’s melodic punk dual vocal attack was at the forefront of every song. Playing in front of a large banner of the American flag upside down in black and white seemed to help carry the bands political message banter and preaching that took place in-between each song. I was only able to watch the first half of Anti-Flag’s set which went for roughly 30 minutes as I was chatting with the members of Moneen outside of the stadium. From what I did see Anti-Flag didn’t let down any punk fans and put on a performance that might have even won over the ears of people who went to the show just for the headliners. Highlights were halfway through the set, when singer/bass player Number 2 thrilled the audience as he jumped off stage to join in with the crowd surfing and also watching the floor when the 2 words “circle pit” were spoken.

Returning for the mighty Rise Against just as they started to play (which unfortunately I missed the beginning), I walked into the arena to see not only the floor three quarters full but also the seats nearly filled and a majority of the them on their feet. Members Tim McIlrath, Joe Principe, Brandon Barnes and Chris Chasse were able to bring the crowd to life all shouting along while pumping their fists to every beat of “Prayer Of The Refugee”, “Chamber The Cartridge”, “The Good Left Undone” and “Ready To Fall”. The set was long but somehow Rise Against carried the crowd away with their stage presence that made them seem like they had played to crowds of this size numerous amounts of times before. Performing against a simple backdrop of their “fist in a heart” logo, Tim Mcllrath revealed to the audience how grateful and privileged Rise Against were to be playing in front of an audience as big as us. What they may not have realized was we were the ones in the arena gushing at how lucky we were to experience a show this good. In my opinion Rise Against took the most advantage of playing in front of thousands and would have left nearly everyone happy if they were the last band to play that night. Everything about their performance was dead on with the lighting adding to each song the band passionately played nearly all their songs off “The Sufferer And The Witness” and “Siren Song Of The Counter-Culture”. The whole set was absolutely amazing and a highlight in itself, but one thing that stood out was the crowd erupting when Ben Kowalewicz, lead singer of Billy Talent surprised us running across the stage to grab a mic and sing along with Tim.

Finally the moment 99% of the people at the Saddledome were waiting for, Billy Talent. They took to the stage behind a white sheet as spot lights slowly revealed the silhouette of each member of the band as they played their respective parts to the opening track “This Is How It Goes”. With a slow building intro it was the perfect opener that held everyone in anticipation until singer Ben Kowalewicz came out of nowhere in front of the sheet grabbing his mic and screaming a roar that was drowned out by the screams of the crowd. It was enough to send shivers down your spine and got the crowd the loudest they were all night as they sang along to every single word to every song Billy Talent played. A perfect blend of crowd interaction with all the right things to say about the Flames and about the beautiful women of Calgary in-between each song with an intro to “The Ex”, in which Ben referred the hate he felt towards this ex equal to the amount of hate Calgary has towards the Edmonton Oilers. It was Billy Talent’s show and they don’t disapoint showing us why with flawless live versions of songs like, “Devil In A Midnight Mass”, “Line And Sinker”, “Standing In The Rain”, “Worker Bee”, “Surrender”, “Prisoners Of Today”, and just about every other Billy Talent song you know. The crowd kept up with the vein popping screams of Ben and backup vocals of guitarist Ian D’sa and bassist Jon Gallant. Drummer Aaron Solowoniuk had already won the crowd over just by wearing a Flames jersey but he pounded away on the drums driving each song to sound that much tighter. As good as Billy Talent was, they were the only band that I found myself slightly bored during their set. A stretch of 3 or 4 songs that I wasn’t too familiar with in a row seemed to blend in with everything else and stood out by sounding too similar to what we had already heard. Live Billy Talent are like a monster unleashing after being locked in a cage for years and while they slowed down a little bit towards the end of the set with the slight period of boredom, the encore was phenomenal. Returning for an emotional heartfelt rendition of “Nothing To Lose”, a scream until your lungs are sore “River Below” and ending with “Red Flag” featuring Number 2 of Anti-Flag. Billy Talent are one of Canada’s biggest rock bands and their live show was so powerful you didn’t want it to end, and even though it had to finish, it ended in a blaze of glory.