Brampton's own Moneen took on Winnipeg for the first time since 2009 with a stellar support lineup: New Mexico's Sparta (who were celebrating 20 years of their debut, Wiretap Scars), and Chastity from Whitby, Ontario. This is a Dine Alone Records fans' wet dream.
Moneen are out on tour performing 'Are We Really Happy With Who Are Right Now?' in it's entirety for it's 20th anniversary, and a handful of fan favorites from Red Tree and The Theory of Harmonial Value (which just appeared on streaming for fans to enjoy, alongside their debut EP 'Smaller Chairs...')
Canada's emo-grunge prince Chastity went on at 7:30, and performed a great 30 minute set. I have unfortunately missed every time Brandon has came here but I will not make that mistake again, as I've fallen in love with his music over the course of the year; it was a welcome surprise to see Chastity announced as support on this tour. Performing a selection of his well known songs which include 'Sun Poisoning' and 'When You Go Home I Withdrawal', as well as a handful of early songs such as 'Manning Hill'. In talking with him and his current touring bassist (who performs dream pop music under the name 'ellis'), they mentioned that they will be coming back in the spring to perform a longer set, please pay attention to that!
After that was Sparta, who performed the entirety of Wiretap Scars from 2002. Sparta's Jim Ward was one of the co-founders of At The Drive-In, and appeared on 3 of their albums until they called it quits in 2001. Jim co-founded Sparta soon after with other former members of ATDI (with Cedric and Omar forming The Mars Volta), and rejoined ATDI for a reunion in 2012, leaving permanently after this. Sparta's current lineup consists of Ward on guitar and vocals, Matt Miller on bass and vocals, and Neil Hennessy (of Joyce Manor/Lawrence Arms/The Falcon...) on drums. Jim is one of my guitar heroes, so seeing their energy, with how they crafted their ambient guitar transitions in between songs and more, was fascinating to watch. It was nearly an hour of watching a great group of people play great music, no stopping and talking.
The headliner was of course, Moneen. They played the entirety of Are We Really Happy With Who We Are Right Now? along with an encore that included The Passing of America, Locke and Tonight, I'm Gone. Kenny Bridges, Chris Hughes and Erik Hughes stage presence remains energetic as it was in the old Moneen music videos for "Are We Really Happy..." and "Start Angry", and Peter Krpan never misses a beat, whether it's a fast, more progressive song or one of the "slower", more dynamic songs ("Tonight, I'm Gone"). A huge highlight of the show included Kenny sliding up and down the Park Theatre's beer-drenched wooden floor and (jokingly) failing to do a somersault/frontflip - but being crowd surfed back to the stage in good condition to get to his guitar. It brings me back to watching Moneen's Jubilee Hall show from 2003 (the show they played with Alexisonfire in New Brunswick with Jersey opening), which can be found on YouTube. It was an emo-core show in the purest form - finger pointing, body shoving and great feeling from the boys in Moneen. Big love to Moneen, Sparta and Chastity for showing Winnipeg how it's done, and great job to everyone on selling out the venue on a TUESDAY night.
-Fish
Go check out the Moneen webstore, where you can buy cassettes, vinyl, shirts and much more (pay attention, because they might put up the 20th anniversary vinyl too)
https://www.moneenlovesyou.com/
