Mad Caddies – Live From Toronto: Songs In The Key Of Eh

Most people know the name of the Mad Caddies. They have been a powerful force in the ska-punk scene for almost a decade. They’ve released numerous albums on Fat Wreck Chords/ Honest Dons, and have always been known to wow an audience. Fat Wreck Chords decided to capture their live performance on tape and release it onto the world, but surprisingly not in their Live In A Dive series but instead just as a regular live CD called Live From Toronto: Songs In The Key Of Eh. Recorded on St. Patrick’s Day (March 17th) of this year (2004) at Toronto’s popular Opera House, The Caddies were able to wow the thousand or so fans who showed up to be a part of history.

The Californian natives played songs from most of their catalogue during the show. Songs from Quality Soft Core, Rock The Plank, Duck & Cover, and Just One More all made an appearance the set, and what a set it was. They open with Macho Nachos, and they don’t hold anything back. The horns are strong, the vocals are clear, and the guitars roar. The rarely stop to talk, but just rip through song after song. Sometimes it seems as if the producing toned down the crowd, as you rarely hear them while the band is playing. In fact, its so quiet you sometimes even forget that it is live. But when they talk, the crowd can be heard vividly. Weird Beard, Monkeys, and Drinking For 11 (which was dedicated to someone I know, which is always cool to hear recorded), definitely received the biggest cheer as they started playing. The band does get the crowd to sing along with them for the final song, All American Badass too, this can be heard, but like before, it does seem to be abnormally soft.

A lot of bands tend to mess with their songs when they are live, and Mad Caddies are no exception. After they finish playing Monkeys they play 3 older songs, Days Away, The Bell Tower and Popcorn; but merge them all together. Starting with Days Away and ending with it too. This is done surprisingly well and flows really nicely with small musical pieces in between the songs.

Live From Toronto: Songs In The Key Of Eh is a great album for any Mad Caddies fan. The songs are loud and clear, and sound pretty close to the recording; although at times it does sound as if they’ve speed up a bit, its barely noticeable. It is a fun CD to listen to if you are a Mad Caddies fan, but not surprisingly, if you don’t like the Caddies, you won’t like this.