Moneen/Sparta 20th Anniversary Shows w/ Chastity Show Review - November 7th, 2023 (Winnipeg, MB @ The Park Theatre)

 

Photo courtesy of Riley Taylor/@larvalungs/www.moneenlovesyou.com

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/

 

 

 

 

Co Komono

Photo credit: Mikey Jablonski Photography

Co Komono

Co Komono is another band that is local to me, in the Winnipeg, Canada area. They are a 5-piece pop punk group who are influenced by a varied range of genres, including easycore, deathcore, indie rock and math rock. They have seemingly coined the subgenre term, called 'bummercore'. Active members are Jordan Skelly on vocals, Zach Skelly (also in Steady Glow and A Grizzly Fate) and Caitlin Brakel (formerly Epirus/Crisis Averted, currently also in Lowlife) on guitars, Nick Paluck (also in Jupiter Meltdown/Guilty Sleep) on bass and Liam Sewell (also in Jupiter Meltdown/Seweller/Guilty Sleep) on drums.

Co Komono was formed in late 2017 as a project between Zach, Liam (who went to the same high school) and Nick, under the name 'Memorial Brigade'. Derek Westra would join on guitar in early 2018, followed by Zach's 14-year-old sister Jordan, in the summer of 2018. Zach and Jordan come from a musical family, with their father Paul Skelly being the lead vocalist and guitarist of hard rock band X-Engine-X, who have notably opened for Godsmack on a Winnipeg date.

 

Memorial Brigade would play their first show in late 2018 and released multiple singles such as 'Kasper' in 2019. They would later release an EP called 'Fall of The Marginal' in 2020. 

Despite the world as we know it changing around this time, they persevered and started writing more music for a possible full-length, which will be released this year. They played a few more shows under the Memorial Brigade moniker when live music returned in 2021, notably the Manitoba Loud Music Awards and Cowboys Emo Night, but announced that they would be changing their name to Co Komono in January of 2022.

In June of 2022 they announced that they would be parting ways with Derek Westra. Caitlin Brakel, who had been playing in Epirus and Lowlife at this time was announced as their new member.

Over their short career, they have played many stages big and small, including Bankside Music Festival (alongside previously mentioned X-Engine-X) and The Burton Cummings Theatre (TJ’s Gift Foundation’s Rockin’ for Choices concert). They are a local music scene staple and have been one of the tightest bands in the community - especially as of current.

Co Komono is simply put, a talent powerhouse. The experience they have between all their former and current bands - e.g. Epirus, Jupiter Meltdown, A Grizzly Fate - makes the band super tight, very unique to the scene and is a pleasure to watch live. They have big things including a full length coming in 2023. I would like to thank Jordan Skelly, lead singer of Co Komono, for helping me write this.

Below are a few links in which you can use to support them, and follow their consistent posting schedule where they will be announcing new shows and music very soon.

Instagram

Website 

Facebook

Spotify

YouTube

Apple Music

Bandcamp

Last.FM

Here is one of their awesome merch designs designed by Tengkorak Kucing.