Ed Video reached capacity Tuesday as four bands including Sandman Viper Command and Guelph’s Humanzees performed live

 

“The Thrill is Back is just keeping with the momentum and following the lead of all those great local organizations.” Andrew Banter

Josh Doyle

The amps were blaring and the speakers pounding through the hardwood floors of Ed Video, pouring out into the hallway and lobby like so many rock fans. In a packed room was a band playing to their hearts content. They were called Teenage Kicks, and they were one of four groups performing Tuesday, March 8.

Tuesday’s concert went on for the purpose of fundraising, but not for any high-minded cause or to save lives. The funds to be raised were instead going towards the headlining band, Burlington group Sandman Viper Command. After releasing their album Everyone See This late last year the group set off on an East Coast tour that drained a lot of funds. With their music taking off and their album meeting with successful review, it seemed a tour West was in order, and the only answer would be more money. Luckily they found themselves in the hands of three music lovers, concert promoters and radio hosts in the city that knew how to throw a show together.

“We’ve known them for a while and they’re starting to do bigger things, they want to tour out West,” said Andrew Banter, one of three parts comprising a CFRU radio show gone concert series known fittingly as The Thrill is Back. The rest of his team consists of local partners Andy Minnes and Jeremiah Giuliano, the latter also a member of local group Humanzees, who opened the show. Giuliano’s voice, rich with character, makes this group a valuable local act and has also attracted attention from most unexpected sources.

“We had them on the station Monday, and some older guy called in who said he was driving, pulled over his truck, called his wife to get the phone number for CFRU, and called us to say how stoked he was about Jeremiah’s voice,” said Banter.

The night also featured the likes of Waterloo garage/folk group The Music Box, and Kitchener-Waterloo pop/surf group Teen Violence, who manage to sound eerily close to Oasis one minute and follow up with a stroll through downtown, Postelles vibe the next. Brad Higham was there too, and they all came out in support of the Viper Command, who stood on the shoulders of excellent local groups to deliver what was likely seen as the group with the most immediate promise.

Everyone See This is a thoroughly solid album, to say the least. It comes through like a strung out version of Tom Petty meshed with early Sloan material, but is completely original from any of its possible influences. The Viper Command perhaps sing a bit ahead of their years at times, offering life experience on songs like “Midwest Moses” that you wouldn’t always expect from a group whose age hangs around the college student mark. Overall though we’re thankful for the music on Everyone See This, which delivers the feeling of something gained, both as a step in the right direction for new music and as an offering of the odd life lesson.

Coupling live performances were a string of hilarious and random videos cast behind the stage, all compiled and edited by Ian Carleton and covering ground from a woman pouring milk in her nose to the timely Charlie Sheen cracking a shaken beer open in slow motion on the popular television show he was recently fired from. Apart from a few fans who enjoyed themselves enough to start falling into equipment, it was a night without setback, encouraging The Thrill is Back to launch similar shows in the future.

“We’re just keeping with the momentum and following the lead of all those great local organizations [like Kazoo],” said Banter.

Your anonymous comment may be printed in The Ontarion's print publication.