Words: Miljan Milekić
Strung Out are no strangers to Canadian crowds, so it’s no surprise they decided to bring their ‘Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues’ 30th anniversary tour across the country. For this run, they joined forces with Canadian skate punks Belvedere, who they’ve toured with extensively across Europe in recent years, delivering a combo that’s proven to work.
The first band of the night, however, were Saskatoon’s own skate punks, Swayze. Unfortunately, I missed their set, which was a shame for at least two reasons. Firstly, they are a great band, and I love to see them whenever I get the opportunity, but I’m also super curious which comic they used to hide their setlist in this time – a funny bit I hope they will never abandon. I’m invested!
Belvedere kicked in next, doing the thing we all know and love them for – delivering fast, melodic, technical skate punk. Thirty years into their career, the Alberta four-piece is one of those “what you see is what you get” bands – they offer little to no surprises but never disappoint. Tight, energetic set – check! Jokes about being old and stories from the extensive touring history – check! Little dance to the intro of ‘Elephant March’ – check! The band has a brand-new album, ‘Seven Years of Bad Luck,’ coming up on June 19th, so hopefully they will be back soon – why not in a headline role?
From the moment they stepped on stage, Strung Out didn’t waste any time. They kicked things off with ‘Firecracker’ and ‘Better Days,’ the first two songs from ‘Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues,’ and it was more than enough to get the crowd moving. With no sign of slowing down, they kept stringing together songs from the record, while the fans followed, returning the energy back to the stage. It was well into the set that a thought occurred to me – this did not feel like an anniversary tour at all.
Yes, all the songs were from the same record, played in the order they appeared on it, but this wasn’t an anniversary show in the classic sense. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I might have expected more interaction in between the songs – reflecting on the record after three decades, a story or two behind the meaning of the songs, or an anecdote from the recording. We didn’t really get much of that, but then again, Strung Out were never that kind of band either. They talk through their songs.
While ‘Suburban Teenage Wasteland Blues’ took the majority of the set, the very end of it touched on some other releases as well, bringing in a few more classics, of which ‘Velvet Alley’ and ‘Matchbook’ sounded especially great. Strung Out are always a great time – their technical, yet melodic sound still strikes hard, and the band still sounds amazing. And The Venomous Pinks T-shirt guitarist Chris Aiken was wearing did not go unnoticed. R.I.P. Cassie, you will be missed!
