IllScarlett, Stand By Me, On The Brink – Live (Nov. 14th, 2007)

Over the past few months, Mississauga’s IllScarlett have become a household name across Canada. Thanks to some successful radio singles and countless trips back and forth the Great White North (I believe this was their fourth show in Edmonton since May), the reggae/dub/punk quartet has carved a name for themselves in both the mainstream and underground markets. Choosing to head out on their final Western Canadian trek of 2007 by themselves, they picked up local openers at every stop of the tour which saw them sharing the stage with On The Brink and Stand By Me, two bands which are vastly different fromIllScarlett and even further apart from one another, during their stop in Edmonton.

First up came On The Brink, a recent member of our local spotlight section. With a straight forward street punk style somewhere between The Briggs and Street Dogs, On The Brink received a mix reaction from the crowd. While some tore the pit apart during every song, others used every gap of silence to taunt them. The band shook it off and focused on the ones tearing it all up, energizing them with fast paced songs built on steayd drumming, sing along choruses and fist pumping anthems.

Using the entire stage to their benefit, the band held nothing back which resulted in the loss of a guitar more than a few times as the strap continually fell off. But even that failed to deter them as they either dropped to a knee to play the section before they fixed the strap or threw it to the ground and took a hold of the mic to sing the song with even more force as they did during the cover of Rancid‘s St. Mary.

Stand By Me followed the street punk quartet and received an even more polarizing reaction from the crowd. While no one tore up the pit for this set, you could see a fair few heads energetically jumping up and down and screaming “I love you! Your gorgeous!” to the pop group and just like they did for On The Brink, certain fans used every opportunity possible to boo them. While I didn’t have it in my heart to boo them so openly, I silently agreed with the hecklers. It’s not that they were absolutely horrible, it’s just that it was mindless pop songs built for the fourteen year old radio fans which was made even worse by the simple fact that I’ve heard it all too many times before with acts like Valencia, All Time Low, Boys Like Girls, Farewell, Mayday Parade and Every Avenue. So I couldn’t help but agree with the fan who caught the drum stick from the band and proceeded to throw it back on the stage, an action that may have been a tad harsh but seemed appropriate nonetheless.

Finally the band that everyone paid to see came on after an extended sound check; and this time there was no polarizing reaction to the performing band, instead, everyone loved every moment that IllScarlett were on the stage. Opening with Who’s Got It?, the quartet ripped through almost every song off All Day With It along with a select few older tracks and had the crowd eating out of their hands the entire time. Alex Norman’s vocals sounded great and Will constantly blew everyone away with his solid guitar work, the banter was limited to thank yous and participation encouragement and unlike many acts, IllScarlettnever stalled to tube their guitars but instead nonchalantly switched tunes while singing.

It was definitely more enjoyable when the band stuck with their higher intensity songs like One-A, Nothing Special, Heaters, Life Of A Soldier, The Fashion and Mary Jane, as both the band and the crowd was able to put more into the performance but that didn’t stop NTF from being high light of the night despite it’s mellower tone.

Even though they only played for sixty minutes, IllScarlett successfully proved that they are deserving of the praise they’ve been getting of late. Tons of energy, a great stage presence and near perfect sound, it was clear why people continually come back to see the reggae/dub group and I’m sure there will be even more people in line to see them in January when they take the stage in Edmonton again.