Concert Review: No Joy, Beliefs, December 6, The Garrison

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To open the show on what was the coldest night since last Winter was local band Beliefs. They played a half hour set that was in the vein of Sonic Youth but without the drawn out middles and solos that you would hear on Daydream Nation. Songs were short and sweet with fuzzed out melodies enhanced by the shared vocals of Josh Korody and his female counterpart Jesse Crowe. Their new material sounds like Nirvana on happy pills. Look for a new album in the near future. Trust me, it will be good.

Next was HSY but they were skipped to go meet some friends at Opera Bob’s down the street and returned for midnight right when No Joy took the stage. The Garrison was pretty packed but despite this, I didn’t have any issue getting to the front of the stage. I had a good view of the band as well as the crowd. One issue I’ve been noticing more so at shows as of late is the fact that Toronto crowds are slowly turning into zombies. I’m sure it’s partly the type of music that’s being played at these particular shows but I stand by this and this is just an observation not an attack. Let’s stare straight through the band, have my left hand in my pocket while clutching my iphone with my right. Tap your foot to the bass drum, bop your head, breathe every now and again, but geez, do something. Show some semblance of enjoyment for those entertaining you. I’m going to be positive and suggest that some concertgoers may be standing there mesmerized as to what they’re witnessing on stage or maybe it was because it was Friday night and everyone was tired from a long week.

Regardless, the Garrison is not known for their sound but this ended up working in No Joy’s favour as their crunchy, distortion-filled set was accompanied with enough feedback to wake some people up. They played a straight 45-minute set without any between song banter or even any pauses between songs. As well, both Laura Lloyd and Jasamine White-Gluz do a pretty good job of hiding themselves behind their hair. Aggressively heavy guitars were accompanied by muted vocals. It was easy to enjoy through all the feedback but difficult if you turned around to watch out for the undead that lurked behind you.

Posted on by Brent in Concerts