It was another night at Underworld, my second home. It was a warm spring day, and the crowd was young and came dressed for the occasion. Garish tattoos, fishnet stockings, excessive makeup and piercings were the norm for the girls, while the guys sported black band t-shirts and exhibited the teenage deficiency in the ability to wear a belt around the waist, as opposed to the thighs. They fit in perfectly with Underworld’s decidedly young and rebellious backdrop. The band posters, vendors and the dark ambiance give you the feeling that you really are in an underground venue, and the young non-conformist clientele completed the picture.
The evening’s featured bands were Dead and Divine and The Architects UK. Dead and Divine are from Burlington, Ontario, and their members are Matt Tobin (vocals), Chris LeMasters (guitar), Sebastain Lueth (guitar), Kelly Bilan (drums) and Kellan Lindsay (bass). The Architects UK hail from Brighton, UK, and crossed an ocean to be here. Their lineup is Sam Carter (vocals), Dan Searle (drums), Tom Searle (guitar), Tim HB (guitar) and Ali Dean (bass).
This was a packed evening, with the crowd being treated to an extensive and long warm-up until the final acts. The openers were Cherish the Foreigner, Mediums, Fall City Fall and the Counterparts. With each successive act the crowd swelled, the heat of so many bodies pressed together was sweltering close to the stage. The spectators were wild, almost rabid in their ferocity.
Dead and Divine took the stage, a tattooed group of rebels who took the stage with a roar. Their acrid guitar riffs gave off a raw, aggressive sound. The guttural vocals and pounding drums completed the metalcore sound and punished the concertgoers with relentless, heavy beats. Matt Tobin called out to the crowd: “Montreal, are you alive out there?” the audience cheered in reply, to which he screamed “Bullshit!” with the force only a metal singer can conjure.
Then the Architects UK took the stage. The crowd drew in, and formed a churning sea of moshers and head bangers, loving the intense, aural onslaught of their relentless sound. Sam Carter’s sweaty blonde hair whipped around his face, and he breathlessly addressed the crowd after the first song. “So great to be here tonight, how many people have seen us before?” he asked in a crisp English accent, answered by roaring cheers. They continued with their heavy domineering beat, and the mosh pit quickly turned into a gladiator ring. Punches and kicks were thrown, turning it into an all-out brawl. One man was injured in the frenzy, he was pulled out by his friends, and he spent the rest of the show icing his knee in the back. The crowd continued, egged on by Carter. “I fucking love you lot,” he exclaimed mid-song.
Their sound was interesting, because it would break from intense beats and growling vocals to a sad, almost ethereal sound. It still had the heavy element present, but they were able to change their sound seamlessly to add an extra touch of depth to their music.
At the end of the night, I was tired and excited, pumped up by the youthful atmosphere and amazing energy put out by the evening’s marathon of music and mayhem.
