MARIANAS TRENCH WINS OVER CROWD WITH POP TUNEAGE
If you weren’t aware of Marianas Trench’s current obsession with all things ’80s then the pre-show music was a dead giveaway.
Michael Jackson, Cyndi Lauper, Wham, all eventually twisted and churned into the band’s own bright, unabashedly pop pastiche electro sound. The band themselves dress like an ’80s low-budget Hollywood idea of what a punk band should look like, looking not unlike the extras in Class of 1984 or Death Wish 3. It wouldn’t have been all that surprising for the drummer to give off a highpitched, villainous giggle. That said, while they might be easy to mock, truthfully they kind of pull it off.
That might be because of front man Josh Ramsay’s confident, multi-octave yelp, working both glam rock and Michael Jackson angles, or the band’s occasional out-of-nowhere prog tendencies. It crops up in the title track to their most recent album, Astoria, adding Queen-like moments to otherwise standard pop tuneage.
The standard pop tuneage won out for the evening among fans, however, with Yesterday, Burning Up, All to Myself and Pop 101 early on provoking the most strident screams in what looked to be a packed-out Rexall Place. Shut Up and Kiss Me let Ramsay give rein to his most obvious bubblegum Jackson 5 (or maybe, more accurately, Osmonds) impulses; he sashayed, even pranced, through the crowd shirtless in leather pants as he sang, causing major disturbances as fans ran down the aisles in an attempt to get closer.
That was a high point the band couldn’t quickly top. Instead, Ramsay moved to a piano at the other end of the coliseum for some pure, melodramatic cheese, moving into recent mid-tempo single One Love, which was kind of a bore in comparison.
After a short break Ramsay reappeared looking as if he’d been hurriedly dressed by Tim Burton to sing Fallout, after which the band launched into the three-part harmonies announcing Who Do You Love, which unfortunately was not the Ronnie Hawkins’ classic. Thankfully, Stutter picked up the pace, while Wildfire brought them back into plodding “serious” territory, an area the band’s fans seem to really enjoy.
Opener Kieran Mercer led a trio through some expertly played, pleasant pop-soul, adding a dollop of rock to current single Bang Bang. Nothing really special, but there were moments that pointed to something a little bit different than the usual arena opener.
Burlington, Ont.’s Walk off the Earth crammed just about every trick in the book into their 45-minute set. As much a spectacle as a musical act, the eightpiece were a hot, bouncing mess of choreographed goofiness, moving briskly through a set of ska, rock, reggae inflected pop musical, swapping out ukuleles, floor toms, jaw harp, swirling tubes, just about everything, really, where guitars just wouldn’t do. The only thing missing was didgeridoo, and sure enough the scourge of folk fests made an appearance mid-set, as if to remind us that we will never be safe from its drone.
The YouTube veterans, who practically radiated the vibe of being like a supercharged, nextgeneration Barenaked Ladies, gave everyone a taste of what made them internet popular throughout the set, offering corny, if inventive takes on Adele’s Hello and Miley Cyrus’s Wrecking Ball. Their own anthemic songs couldn’t get far past the onstage hijinks, but they were well constructed little ditties, patched together from numerous sources, eminently danceable, at times sounding like an unholy alliance between Blue Man Group and Mumford & Son.
Did it work? If the fervent applause from an audience primed for the Trench was any indication, then yes.