Show Review: The New Cities @ Maison Des Arts 03-12-11

Review by Anne-Marie

Photography: Vanessa Leclair

For their first Quebec tour following their new CD “Kill The Lights”, The New Cities decided to make a stop in Laval. They were not alone as Take the Night and Kamakazi joined them as openers.  The smaller seated venue was packed and everyone was eager to see the new set of from the popular Trois-Rivières band.

The first band to play was Take the Night; a group composed of two members from The Mission District which disbanded earlier this year.  Keeping the melodic, pop-ish side of TMD, they are now embracing their electro side as well.  Maybe it wasn’t the best opening part for a show with such young fans, but they’ll surely get more attention from older crowds, mainly the ones who go out in bar.  Their music is composed from all the types of music, from dubstep to electro, including keyboards and mixing, all this right on the stage.

Second on stage was Kamakazi.  For the record, Kamakazi are a Quebec punk band à la Blink182 who sing in French.  Since their first CD a few years ago, the band has evolved a lot: a part of the audience was surprised to see, just like me, how their sound has changed and was clearer now. Their style was a big change from Take the Night and The New Cities and it was interesting to see their set placed in between the two. Even with this problem, the band gave an overall excellent performance with a lot of energy and caught the attention of everyone.

Finally it was time for The New Cities; a friend was in Sherbrooke a few days ago for the first show of the tour and she had told us the intro was different from what we were used to.  When the lights dimmed, the familiar intro of The Godfather started playing, before mixing in the intro of Murder Me.  The show didn’t slow down until Looks Minus Substance.  Almost as a routine, it’s David Desrosiers from Simple Plan who took Francis’ place at drums for that song.  Visibly excited, a girl from the crowd jumped on stage to go see David and give him a hug; everyone was so shocked that no one moved or tried to stop her.  The show kept it’s fast pace until the end, going from one CD to another, with a lot more cohesion than before.  I’d also like to point out the amazing guitar solo between Mugshot and Far Beyond; it’s really a great addition to the show to play the songs from the new album in a more rock manner while the album is more electro.

The band came back for the encore with 2 songs, cutting the usual acoustic part and played instead the very upbeat Sorry But I’m Single and Dead End Countdown.  The show ended but the night continued as the band met fans at their merch table for pictures and autographs.