Early on in The Vaselines‘ Monday night set at Lee’s Palace, Frances McKee mentioned to the audience that the Montreal crowd from the night before was livelier. This led, of course, to a few fans cheering a bit harder, to which McKee responded, “Don’t force it. It never works … does it, ladies?” Her response was typical of her stage banter for the night – brash and a little bawdy – and further evidence of this was seen in her bizarre running joke about her sitting on bandmate Eugene Kelly’s face. Kelly, for his part, mostly played the part of wry straight man to McKee, though he did get in a few good lines of his own when bantering back and forth with her. When McKee made a comment about Rush fans, asking, “Do you know what we do to Rush fans?”, Kelly’s response was a deadpan, “We make them listen to Rush. Forever.”
While I may question whether an eternity of listening to Rush would be the worst punishment, I will concede that listening to The Vaselines is a good way to spend an evening. The band ran through songs from throughout their career, from their early material to their 2010 comeback Sex With an X and on to the newest stuff from their latest, Ramones-inspired album V For Vaselines. While the new album sounds fantastic (“High Tide Low Tide” was a highlight), the biggest response of the evening may have come for the early stuff, and really, it’s hard to deny the power of a song like “Son Of A Gun.” And while the crowd may not have been as lively as the band may have wanted, they were certainly enjoying themselves.
Also enjoying themselves were openers Amanda X, whose punk sound fit in nicely with the headliners and set the tone for the night. Singer/guitarist Cat Park announced that it was an honour to open for The Vaselines and the band did indeed seem to be pretty stoked about the tour. All three members were spotted taking in The Vaslines’ set and the whole band would later join them to sing along and, most importantly, to play the bike horn during “Molly’s Lips.” Aside from simply appreciating and bonding with the headliners, it seems that some may have thought Amanda X had some deeper connection with Kelly and McKee. One concertgoer apparently approached Park and asked what their link to The Vaselines was, which inspired her to compose this tweet:
Some guy thought we were playing with the vaselines bc we have a nirvana connection. Told him i was the baby on nevermind.
— amanda x (@amandaxband) January 20, 2015
Unless that guy missed the many, many “this will make you feel old” articles about the Nevermind baby, it’s hard to believe he’d buy that story, but then again, who’s to say we aren’t all the Nevermind baby in some way or another?