Words: Miljan Milekić
Monday shows just hit differently. The work week just started, and everyone is back into their work or school routine, with four more days to go. It’s almost a given that the attendance would be smaller, but there is also a mutual understanding, an unspoken agreement between bands and the crowd that those who showed up really wanted to be there, and they had to make the night count. This evening was no exception, and while I’ve seen bigger crowds at the Black Cat Tavern, the show for sure didn’t lack energy.
The first band to hit the stage was Straightline, bringing their fast, technical skate punk sound all the way from Germany. They started off the only way they know – fast and energetic, slowly chasing away the Montag blues among the fans who showed up early. There is a certain way European bands approach skate punk, from Satanic Surfers to Atlas Losing Grip or Antillectual and Forus, leaning heavily on lightning speed and metal influences, and the Munich four-piece fall perfectly into that category, with a slightly more modern approach. Musically, they are not reinventing the wheel, but they know exactly who they are and what they are doing. By the end of their set, they got the crowd fully on their side, and I’m sure they gained a couple of new fans.
Vancouver’s The Corps came in next, somehow becoming the first band I’ve seen three times since moving to Canada in 2022. And honestly, I’m all for it. I still have their 2024 record, ‘Fractured Protocol,’ in a regular rotation, and every chance to catch them live is a welcome one. They kicked things off with a pair of older tracks – ‘Dear Detective’ and ‘On The Brink,’ before sliding into the new record with ‘Ionized,’ ‘Red Horizon,’ and ‘Jonah Hex.’ The Corps are well acquainted with the Saskatoon crowd, so their set didn’t lack friendly banter or inside jokes, and I probably wouldn’t be too far off calling the city their second home. However, considering how much they tour, that can be true for any place in Western Canada.
The band is currently working on new music and even offered a taste of it in the form of two unreleased tracks, ‘Imposter Syndrome’ and ‘Another World.’ Ever since hearing them for the first time, I’ve felt like The Corps have a thread of songwriting influence from bands such as No Use For a Name or S.N.F.U., adding another layer of depth to their fast and aggressive sound. And after hearing ‘Another World,’ I’m even more convinced that it is the case. To close the set, the band delivered two of the biggest fan-favorites – ‘Bourgeoui-Zed’ and ‘Dog of War,’ before leaving the stage to the headliners.
Enter Ignite. Back in my late teen years, I couldn’t count many bands that were as impactful and influential on me as the Orange County band, and especially their album ‘Our Darkest Days.’ The speed, the energy, and the incredible melodies, combined with powerful lyrics, instantly blew my mind and kept doing it for the next two decades. Yes, it’s been two decades, as the record just turned 20 less than a month ago, which did make me wonder whether this tour would include some sort of an anniversary or a throwback set. On paper, it didn’t, but the vast majority of their set came from this album.
It took approximately seven seconds for everyone to go crazy once the band stepped on the stage and kicked things off with ‘Veteran,’ going straight to the heavy hitters. The crowd was immediately sucked into their heavy and anthemic blend of punk rock and melodic hardcore, while the band was storming through songs like ‘Poverty for All,’ ‘Let It Burn,’ ‘Bleeding,’ or ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday.’ The band was constantly shifting gears, mixing and matching tracks like ‘Anti‐Complicity Anthem’ and ‘The Butcher in Me,’ from their most recent album, the only one so far with the new singer Eli Santana, with some older songs like ‘Run,’ ‘Who Sold Out Now?’ or ‘A Place Called Home.’ As they were cruising towards the end of the show, they had a special treat for old school fans in the form of ‘Embrace,‘ before finally finishing off with ‘Fear Is Our Tradition’ and ‘Live For Better Days.’
There is, however, another conversation I find worth having, and that is the new singer, Eli Santana. Stepping in for a long-time vocalist of a band is always hard, but I feel like Eli had the odds especially stacked against him, replacing one of the most recognizable voices in punk and hardcore. It would be easy to fall into a trap by trying to copy or emulate Zoli Téglás, basically turning Ignite into a glorified tribute band, but with Eli, that was never the case. Just like on the band’s latest record, he brought in his own signature style and energy, while giving old songs the justice and respect they deserve.
The questions I had revolved around a very specific corner of Ignite’s catalogue, songs with lyrics directly influenced by Zoli’s Hungarian origins and immigrant experience. How can someone from a different part of the world connect and identify with songs about the Hungarian Revolution, Eastern Germany’s secret police, or leaving home and starting a new life far away? And then it all dawned on me. As a person of Indigenous and Mexican heritage in America under Donald Trump’s presidency, how can he not?
Replace Cheka and Stasi with ICE and the Department of Homeland Security, and ‘Poverty For All’ suddenly becomes a dissection of the United States in 2026. And with centuries of injustice and forced relocations Native Americans experienced across the whole continent, songs like ‘A Place Called Home’ hit just as hard. After all, wasn’t it the same shared experience of oppression and injustice that made Ignite’s cover of ‘Sunday Bloody Sunday’ such a powerful piece of music, and one of the staples in the band’s discography?
